When we think of what defines a healthy tree in our landscapes, we tend to visualize features that we see above ground. Perhaps we envision a solid trunk and graceful arching branches, a vibrant canopy flourishing with green leaves, and maybe even colorful flowers. While growth and vigor above ground are important features to tree health, what happens to a tree’s roots underground, in the unseen world of soil, is equally important. But in the world of tree care roots and soil are unfortunately often overlooked, if not taken for granted!
Tree roots have many functions for tree health.
A tree’s roots serve many functions to promote its overall health. Underground they anchor the above ground portions, which can be extremely heavy and subject to high stresses of stormy winds, snow, ice and other events. Tree roots absorb and distribute water and life-giving nutrients that nourish the rest of the tree. In the winter they store nutrients so that the tree may have a healthy flush of growth in the spring. Tree roots also produce hormones that direct growth in other parts of the tree, including the production of leaves, flowers and even fruit!
Roots are vital but vulnerable!
Did you know that the roots of a tree can span three times the diameter of its canopy, but for the most part only grow to a depth of a few feet? In fact, the majority of the water and nutrient absorbing roots of a tree only reach depths of about eight to twelve inches and are as fine as a human hair. They are delicate and vulnerable, even with the tallest and strongest of trees!
It’s important then to understand that tree roots are not only vital to tree health, but that they require special care. Especially in urban and residential soils, tree roots can face many challenges with a large range of soil issues such as soil compaction, poor fertility, lack of soil biodiversity, and ever-increasing extremes between flooding and drought. These factors may cause or contribute to root diseases and disorders that can slow tree growth, predispose trees to pest and disease attacks, decay wood, kill trees and even cause them to structurally fail or fall over.
Discover the world of soil and work with the lessons of Mother Nature.
How can we address all of these problems? The issues may seem complicated, if not overwhelming, but there is a solution! The answer involves going back to the lessons of Mother Nature and understanding that dark hidden world where tree roots live, in the living world of soil. In the natural world trees live in a forest environment that includes a vibrant subterranean ecological community where tree roots live and interact with an incredibly numerous and diverse population of biological organisms. Some are visible to the naked eye, such as earthworms, and many others, such as soil microbes, are microscopically small. Together they form a community that is so biologically rich that if you were to scoop just a single handful of soil from the forest floor you would hold more lifeforms than there are people living on Planet Earth!
These organisms are incredibly efficient recyclers that break down fallen leaves and organic matter on or near the soil’s surface and gradually convert it into natural soil nutrients that trees can absorb whenever they need nourishment. In this process a tree receives all the nutrients it needs on a continual cycle and nothing is wasted or washed away. Biological activity in soil also creates a vast architecture of air spaces and micropores that allow water and air to filtrate into soil and remain for longer periods as needed.
Call your local Monster Tree Service to start a Soil Health Care plan tailored to the specific need of your trees.
Though you may not live in a forest, you can put the lessons of Mother Nature to work to meet the specific needs of your tree by caring for your soil in such a way that mimics the forest floor environment. To get started, call your Monster Tree Service Professional Arborist to schedule a soil test performed by one of our Soil Health Care Specialists. Based on test results, your Arborist will meet with you to work up a seasonal application schedule of holistic products made of natural materials designed to restore lacking nutrients and organic matter as well as stimulate microbial activity. These products break down slowly in pace with nature’s rhythms so that you can create a healthy vibrant soil in your own backyard. Think of this as working with the building materials and cycles of nature to build an underground neighborhood of friends and allies that work together to nurture your tree on a continual and on-demand basis!
Put your trust in Monster Tree Service soil solutions backed by science and research.
While we view the best answer for soil care is going back to the lessons of Mother Nature, Monster Tree Service takes a perspective that is based on modern science-backed research in the fields of agronomy, forestry and soil ecology. With this comprehensive approach, Monster Tree Service has the knowledge, understanding and solutions that can restore a biologically viable and vibrant soil community that works with your tree to give it everything that it needs to be healthy, strong and beautiful for many years, if not generations, to come.