Tree Care Articles
My articles page is the place where I have written about most aspects of arboriculture in Calgary. Everything in an arborists' trade, from tree care, trimming and pruning, arbor care, and even being a tree doctor. There are over 150 separate tree resource articles arranged alphabetically. Whether it's, "a mindset for healthy trees" all the way through to "yellow leaves", most of the important aspects of Calgary tree care are included. Have a look, prairie hardy fruit trees, selecting evergreens, tons on planting and pruning, please enjoy this free resource.
If you'd like to take a deeper dive into the internal workings of trees, check out my Botany Talks.
Quotes
- Details
- Written by Kevin R. Lee Kevin R. Lee
- Published: 23 April 2018 23 April 2018
I am not so much a commercial Arborist as an Artist who works with Trees and shrubs.
Phomopsis Canker of Russian Olive
- Details
- Written by Kevin R. Lee Kevin R. Lee
- Published: 22 April 2018 22 April 2018
Every Tree gets something; the Russian Olive's main pathogen here is Phomopsis, a fungal canker-forming disease.
Old Hacked Apple Trees -- Pruning a Tangle
- Details
- Written by Kevin R. Lee Kevin R. Lee
- Published: 20 April 2018 20 April 2018
This is a very different condition than I described in Toba Hawthorn, Pruning a Tangle. This is man-made, usually out of ignorance, and is a serious attack on its system. Thankfully less common than it used to be, it is still out there. It is a lack of thinking and knowledge, knowledge that I speak of in Botany 1, the Whole Tree.
What happens is that a decision to shorten, to top the Tree at a certain height is made. The lower you go, the more leaf mass you remove. On crab apples, if you go low enough, so that your cuts are 3 inches in diameter, you will effectively have removed most of the leaf-bearing branches. You will have removed most of the leaves. For a being that feeds itself with its leaves, this is an emergency. The Tree's reaction will be immediate, to grow as many new shoots as possible to replace the lost leaf mass. The other major damage is inside the trunks, unseen; a large percentage of healthy trunk tissue has been used up to defend the Tree's inner system from the air.
See An Arborist Thinks on Compartmentalization.
In the year following this attack, the cut ends of the trunks will begin to look like brooms, with dozens of new shoots working hard to feed the starving Tree. The best thing is to leave it alone for a few years. This will do two things: allow the Tree to stabilize after the emergency and allow the dominant shoots to assert themselves. Once the Tree has recovered and is showing major dominant shoot growth, we could now think of pruning, thinning the tangle.
I use a system where I keep as many of the dominant shoots as possible. Most times this requires selecting the strongest two or three and removing the others. I also thin most of the little guys, especially those who grow back into the Tree or into other sections of the Tree. When this thinning work is completed the Tree won't look much different from before the initial hard pruning, with one huge exception; its life span has been reduced, due to the loss of healthy interior trunk space. Fortunately this situation is in decline. As people educate themselves more about Trees, and wives take away dangerous toys from their husbands, Trees will be allowed to flourish.
Ash Leaf-Cone Roller
- Details
- Written by Kevin R. Lee Kevin R. Lee
- Published: 18 April 2018 18 April 2018
The Ash leaf-cone roller is one of many of our crawling and flying visitors who stop by, usually for lunch, and then move on, leaving little damage behind. These guys are newcomers here and have been around since the end of the 90s.
The adult females lay their eggs on the newly forming leaves. They hatch and the tiny larvae feed inside the leaves. Later they migrate to new leaves using long threads. It is in their last stage that they roll the leaf and prepare to pupate. Inside they spin a cocoon and after completing their last stage the adult moths emerge. They are small moths with a wing span of just over a centimetre in width.
The Ash leaf-cone roller causes no harm to the host Trees. The trace of their passing is cosmetic only and should not cause alarm.
Why not spray to control this insect? Insecticide spraying is just not good for the world. Many times other beneficial insects are destroyed along with the targeted species, which causes greater overall environmental harm than the slight Tree damage. Also, protected inside their cones the larvae are pretty much spray proof. Many times after the adult moth flies away, the cocoon will eventually blow away and the leaves unfurl.
There are rare cases when spraying still seems to be the right answer. A heavy outbreak of yellow-headed saw fly is one, when it comes down to either spray or lose the Tree.
Diplodia Gall of Poplar
- Details
- Written by Kevin R. Lee Kevin R. Lee
- Published: 16 April 2018 16 April 2018
The fungus that causes this disease is common throughout the west. Most native and hybrid poplars are susceptible, including the Aspen, Balsam poplar, Brooks hybrids and others. It is first seen as small knobby, bumpy growths on twigs and small branches. Infections on larger branches and trunks display rough bark and swollen areas with dark black fissures in the bark. The fungus can attack any size of branch or trunk. Watering to increase Tree vigor and pruning to reduce the population are the remedies.
Articles Index
- A Mind Set for Healthy Trees
- A New Tree Care Philosophy
- A Practical Working Model of Your Tree, Part One: Mostly Roots
- A Practical Working Model of Your Tree, Part Three: Leaves
- A Practical Working Model of Your Tree, Part Two: Trunk and Stem
- A weeping apple, some deer, and an arborist
- A Year in the Life of Your Tree - 1
- A Year In the Life of Your Tree - 2
- A Year In the Life of Your Tree - 3
- A Year In the Life of Your Tree - 4
- A Year In the Life of Your Tree - 5
- A Year In the Life of Your Tree - 6
- A Year In the Life of Your Tree - 7
- A Year in the Life of Your Tree - 8
- An arborist thinks on compartmentalization
- An Arborist's Education
- Ash Leaf-Cone Roller
- Ash Trees
- Aspens
- Birch
- Botany 1: The whole tree
- Botany 2: What do trees eat?
- Bud Scars
- Burning Bush
- Calgary Soils
- Calgary weather, snow pack, and the drought
- Calgary, from a tree's perspective
- Calgary's Most Dangerous, Dutch Elm Disease
- Calgary's most dangerous: Pseudomonas syringae
- Calgary’s most dangerous: Black knot
- Calgary’s Most Dangerous: Fire blight
- Calgary’s Most Dangerous: The Yellow-Headed Sawfly
- Caragana
- Caring For Your Trees This Winter
- Cell Walls
- Cherry Shrubs
- Cherry Trees
- Conifer Introduction
- Conifer Shrubs
- Conifers
- Cotoneaster
- Cranberries
- Currants
- Debunking Old Tree Myths
- Demystifying Tree Pruning
- Diagnosing Tree Problems
- Diplodia Gall of Poplar
- Dogwoods
- Dr. Alex Shigo
- Eating Apples and Other Hardy Prairie Fruit
- Elders
- Elms
- Epidermis
- Fall Needle Drop of Conifers
- Fertilizer
- Fertilizer 1
- Fertilizer 2: Trees
- First post Feb 23 2018
- Flowering Crabs
- Forsythia
- Fungal afflictions
- Growing Trees in Calgary
- Growing trees in Calgary, hands-on
- Haiku for spring
- Hardiness Zones
- Hawthorns
- Honeysuckles
- How to Have a Successful Tree
- Hydrangea
- In Defence, the Bronze Birch Borer (BBB)
- Introduction to Botany Talks
- Kate's Mayday
- Lack of connection
- Leaves
- Lilacs: French
- Lilacs: Pruning
- Linden
- List of Best Calgary Tree Choices - Evergreens
- Maintaining your pruning tools
- Maples
- Meristems: SAM and RAM
- Mid-Season Gratitude Post
- Mock Orange
- Mountain Ash
- Mugo Pines 1
- Mugo Pines 2
- Mugo Pines 3: Pruning
- My readers, my reasons
- Native Shrubs
- Needle Casts of Spruce
- Ninebark
- Oaks
- Ohio Buckeye
- Old Hacked Apple Trees -- Pruning a Tangle
- Organic Tree Work, Empowering Trees and People.
- Oyster Shell Scale
- Phloem
- Phomopsis Canker of Russian Olive
- Planting 1: Species selection
- Planting 2: Site selection
- Planting 3: Buying your tree
- Planting 4: Root crown identification
- Planting 5, Digging the hole, planting the tree
- Planting 6: Staking
- Planting 7: Watering
- Planting a Tree - Selection
- Planting a Tree - Setting, Staking and Watering
- Polemic and straight talk: the Swedish Columnar Aspen
- Poplars
- Proper Tree Pruning
- Pruning - More Reasons Why
- Pruning in Calgary with Nature in Mind
- Pruning Theory - Tools
- Pruning Theory - Why?
- Pruning tools you need
- Quotes
- Random thoughts from a Calgary Arborist and Tree Surgeon
- Reference books for Arboriculture
- Roots
- Russian Olive
- Septoria Canker on Poplar
- Shrub Introduction
- Shrub Pruning 1 - Theory
- Shrub Pruning 2 - Size Control
- Shrub Pruning 3 - Final
- Shrub Pruning for Size Control
- Shrub Pruning for Size Control 2
- Shrub Pruning Theory
- Slime Flux
- Soils - 1
- Soils - 2
- Spring?
- Stems
- Symptoms of a dry tree
- Symptoms of a sick tree
- The Mountain Ash
- The Three Cell Types
- Thinking of becoming an arborist?
- Toba Hawthorn: Pruning a tangle
- Tree Poem
- Tree Pruning Theory
- Tree Repair
- Tree Repair - 1
- Tree Repair - 2
- Tree Repair - 3
- Tree Repair - 4
- Trees and Their Interactions with Other Organisms
- Two Failures, Griffin Poplar, Manchurian Ash
- Vascular Cambium
- Walnuts
- Watering
- Watering a Birch
- Watering Calgary Trees
- Western Gall Rust of Pines
- What is Tree Whispering?
- When Should a Tree Be Removed?
- White Fly
- White Spruce
- Why is My Tree Dying?
- Willow Redgall sawfly
- Willows
- Wolf Willow
- Woolly Elm Aphid
- Xylem
- Yellow leaves: Chlorosis