Frequently Asked Questions

Proper Care Will Help Keep Your Trees Healthy and Beautiful

Q: When should oak trees be worked on?

A: If you want to do some extensive pruning (more than just removing a limb or two) then the safest time would be late June all the way through the first week or two of February. Avoid pruning your oaks from February to early June. During these months, oak wilt spores can be released.

Q: Will ball moss kill a tree?

A: Researchers at A&M insist that ball moss will not harm your trees and I tend to believe them. If you notice, ball moss does not need a living organism to grow on. You may have seen it grow on insulated wires or on the edge of roofs, etc. Ball moss is not a parasite, it simply “perches” itself on trees. It is however very unsightly and can add more surface area for wind, rain, ice and snow and therefore become a factor for weather-related damage.

Q: How can I control ball moss?

A: Thorough cleaning of the tree by removing dead wood, water shoots and lower limbs would be the first step to rid the tree of most ball moss present. After the trees have been cleaned, it is very important to follow up with an annual spraying for the remaining moss and any new moss that has developed over the course of a year. This is done in the fall and winter.
- Mike Kriewaldt

Mark Your Calendars! Have Your Oak Trees Pruned from Late June Through Early February

Throughout the spring and summer months we invariably take calls for downed trees and limbs. It takes an unusually high wind event to cause perfectly healthy trees to fall over and limbs to snap. More often than not, a tree fails during a storm because of preexisting weak spots caused by fungal infections in roots, trunks and limbs. Once the rotting process begins, little to nothing can prevent the spread and eventual decline of the tree and limb. However, there are ways to help prevent fungal rot from invading your trees and there are also symptoms to look for in a tree that is infected.

Avoid damage to tree trunks and root systems. Damage can occur in many different ways but the following are most common:

1. Construction damage such as machinery scrapping over root zones, hitting trunks and ripping off limbs, cutting into anchor roots for foundations, walkways or parking lots, and overfill for leveling and raising lawn and landscapes.
2. Lawn trimmers have girdled many a young tree.
3. Mowers banging up against the trunk to get as close as possible and scrapping the anchor roots will eventually take its toll on the healthiest of trees.
4. Excessive mulch near the trunk of any tree tends to hold water unnaturally adjacent to the bark, allowing a fungal infection to gain entry into the flare roots and trunk.

Detecting rot in the trunk and roots is much easier than in the canopy of a tree. The following are signs to look for:

1. Areas in the flare roots and trunk that appear blackened and that chip or peel away. Also, a glazing, whitish substance, sometimes slick and rubbery, will appear.
2. Toadstools or conks along the trunk or a branch.
3. Mushrooms growing from the soil along anchor roots and / or trunk of the tree.
4. Cavities on branches are often areas where breakage will eventually occur.
5. Pecan trees will endure squirrel damage, wind damage or improper pruning cuts that heal over only to become weak spots resulting in breakage even
decades later.
- Mike Kriewaldt
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