Raising a Tree from Birth

Planting a baby tree can be an exciting event. If you want to ensure that your tree grows to its full potential, then you need to learn how to take care of it. Not only is this crucial in its first few years of development, but throughout its life in full. Proper care and pruning will help you to grow a strong, durable, healthy, aesthetically pleasing tree.

When deciding what type of tree to plant, you need to consider what will grow well in your area. You may decide to hire an arborist to make sure your soil can support the types of trees you wish to consider.

The next consideration is size. Do not make the mistake of planting your tree too close to a tree, sidewalk or power lines. If you live on a street corner or near an intersection, check with your local transportation department about rules and regulations concerning how far away from the street or corner the tree must be planted. Make sure that when it is full grown, it will not obstruct the view of motorist pulling out from an intersection. The city may decide to cut it down if it poses a hazard to drivers.

Remember that a grown tree not only takes up a lot of space above ground, but below ground as well. Consider septic systems, cement slabs, water lines and buried cables that tree roots could interfere with. This is especially true in Texas where tree roots tend to stay shallower, but spread to cover an expansive area. Again, this is a great time to enlist the help of a local arborist that will be able to point out all of the considerations for your area.

Once the tree is selected and planted in a good location, you should water it weekly unless you have been getting a lot of rain. Water it more if the weather is hot. Trees planted in Texas need to be watered about two to three times a week during the summer months. Water in the afternoon or at night to ensure that the water is absorbed into the ground instead of evaporated immediately by the summer sun. Do not overwater your tree!

If you do hire an arborist, have them analyze the soil and determine if any special fertilizers are needed. You may decide to mulch around the base of the tree to hold in more moisture as well.

A professional tree service provider can be used to ensure that your tree is properly trimmed and cared for. Using an arborist for tree services and trimming can help ensure the heartiest, healthiest trees possible.

About the Author: Andrew Johnson is the owner of Central Texas Tree Care, a leading tree service provider in Central Texas (Travis County and surrounding areas) offering services such as pruning and removals, cabling and bracing as well as arborist reports, diagnostics, pest management, fertilization and tree trimming Austin trusts. For more information please visit http://www.centraltexastreecare.com.

Tree Trimming Austin: The Importance of Pruning

Proper tree pruning can help save your trees when the winds pick up. Texas weather can change on a dime and wind storms can be unpredictable. Downed limbs can pose road hazards. They can also be dangerous for people, power lines and property. Keeping your trees pruned will make them more wind resistant, beautiful, and less susceptible to disease.

Having a professional arborist inspect and treat your trees yearly can help you to catch many diseases and fungi that can affect Texas trees. Local arborists are familiar with the signs and symptoms that each of your trees may exhibit. Early detection of such infections and fungi can help to not only save the affected tree, but the other trees in your yard. Some fungi can be spread up to a mile from an infected tree. Protect your own trees as well as those of your neighbors by having that yearly inspection.

Tree trimming in Austin is very important. Due to the conditions of the soil and the climate, it can be rare to have mature native trees. Take care of them! A professional trimmer will help keep the canopy of the tree even and uniform. Many trees have the tendency to grow to one side. This can make for an unattractive and unbalanced canopy. Limbs on one side can become too heavy and snap, making the tree more exposed to certain diseases and fungi.

If you plant your own trees, have them pruned professionally every two to three years. Some may require annual pruning. A professional tree trimmer will look for unhealthy limbs to remove. They will look for insect infestations, fungi, infections and other signs of disease. Do not assume that you can spot these symptoms yourself, as many trees show very slight or undetectable signs of diseases or fungi that they may be harboring and spreading to other trees.

A professional tree trimmer will thin out the top of the tree to allow for maximum air flow. This will help your tree to withstand those wind storms and sudden gusts that are all too familiar in Texas. Pruning will also help your tree to concentrate water and nutrients in the strongest limbs strengthening the overall structure of the tree. If you allow the tree to take its natural course, it will shed limbs that do not produce well on its own. When this happens, the tree will usually have a large wound and splintery gash that will not seal on its own. When a professional trims the branches, they will know which limbs to prune and where on the branch the cut should be made. These types of cuts should heal quickly and protect the tree from diseases.

Deciding to hire a professional for tree trimming Austin trusts is a smart idea. You will protect the strength and beauty of your trees, your property and personal safety, ensure a long healthy life for your trees and protect the other precious natural resources in your neighborhood.

About the Author: Andrew Johnson is the owner of Central Texas Tree Care, a leading Austin tree service provider in Central Texas (Travis County and surrounding areas). Central Texas Tree Care offers services such as pruning and removals, cabling and bracing as well as arborist reports, diagnostics, pest management and fertilization. For more information please visit http://www.centraltexastreecare.com.

Oak Wilt – Symptoms, Transmission and What to Do

Oak wilt is a serious disease that has been found to affect oak trees in 21 states across the United States. Occurrences of oak wilt are abundant in Midwestern states, but the disease has also immensely affected areas of Central Texas including the Texas Hill Country.

Though members of the red oak family are most frequently and most quickly affected by oak wilt, all types of oaks as well as some other species of trees can be host to this disease. It is caused by a fungus called Ceratocystis fagacearum.

The fungus that causes oak wilt congests the systemic system of the tree. This translates into a tree that can not absorb water and nutrients. The tree wilts, hence the name, and eventually dies. The fungus can be easily spread between trees in one of two ways.

Transmission can occur through the roots of one tree to the roots of a neighboring tree. The spread of this fungus can cause devistation and tree loss over a large area if it is not contained properly. It can also be spread by insects. They are attracted to the sweet smell of the fungus. Spores from the fungus attach themselves to the body of the insect. The spores are then transported from tree to tree, infecting other trees in the area.

Oak wilt is a serious problem, especially in Texas where trees are sometimes in short supply. Because oak wilt stops a tree from getting water, it has the ability to kill certain species of oak trees in a very short time. Some oaks can only live about a month with oak wilt while others can survive up to a year, with very few living for a few years. The spread of oak wilt can have a devastating effect on an area’s tree supply.

It is important to be able to identify oak wilt, not only to try to save the tree, but other trees in the area. Oaks with oak wilt usually show the first signs in the leaves. The leaves will turn brown from the outer edge and have a distinct line between the green and brown areas. The leaf will sometimes curl inward on the line. The green leaves will start to look dull and the tree may shed a lot of leaves, including some green leaves.

The oak wilt symptoms can look a lot like drought symptoms, so it is very important to call a professional for your oak tree services in Texas. The Texas live oak and white oak can show very little to no symptoms and yet be a dangerous host to the disease. This is because the root systems of trees in Texas are shallow and far spread. The disease is easily spread from one tree to another because the roots are frequently in contact with other trees. Furthermore, these tree species produce nodules inside of their circulatory systems as they age to conserve water for more needy sections of the tree. This can help the tree to ward off the fungus and keep it from spreading to more than one or two areas of the tree. This is why the trees in Texas usually show fewer signs of oak wilt, can live longer with oak wilt than other species, and can be dangerous hosts of oak wilt when symptoms go undetected.

Austin and the surrounding area has more oak trees and more reported cases of oak wilt than any other section of Texas. If you suspect oak wilt, it is extremely important to call an Austin tree service provider and have a professional tackle the task of containing the fungus.

About the Author: Andrew Johnson is the owner of Central Texas Tree Care, a leading tree service provider in Central Texas (Travis County and surrounding areas) offering services such as pruning and removals, cabling and bracing as well as arborist reports, diagnostics, pest management, fertilization and tree trimming Austin trusts. For more information please visit http://www.centraltexastreecare.com.

From the Forest to your Desk: How is Paper Made?

A common practice today, the papermaking process was a revolutionary Chinese invention dating to about 105 AD and eventually spreading all over the world. Although highly technological equipment is now employed in papermaking, the underlying process continues to bear heavy resemblance to the primitive Chinese papermaking technique.

Papermaking, as you are probably aware, begins with trees. Often forests are grown specifically for the purpose of papermaking, and seedlings are replenished after trees are harvested. Large trees are usually made into lumber, with the remaining wood cut into small chips and used for papermaking. The cellulose fibers that make up wood are the fundamental raw material used to make paper.

Excess wood from the lumber industry makes up only a portion of the fiber used in papermaking. Also used as raw materials are recovered paper and roundwood. Since existing paper is comprised of the cellulose fibers found in the plant originally used to make it, paper is often mixed with new wood to create a mixture of new and reused fibers for papermaking. Roundwood is a term for wood from complete trees, though usually only smaller trees that cannot be used for lumber are used entirely in papermaking.

The mixture of wood chips and, in many cases, recovered paper must be broken down into individual fibers before it can be compacted and dried to form paper. During the process of pulping, cellulose fibers are separated as the chemical holding them together, called lignin, is removed in a digester. The method used to pulp paper is dependent upon the type and strength of paper being produced. There are several methods of pulping, with two common ones being mechanical pulping and chemical pulping. Mechanical pulping, in which wood is ground to separate the fibers, has suitable printing properties but results in weaker paper. Chemical pulping, which involves dissolving the lignin using a mixture of heat, pressure and chemicals, results in stronger paper that is less likely to discolor. Some applications call for the use of a combination of the two methods discussed here. Pulp is cleaned and refined, and bleached if necessary, and dyes and other additives are mixed in to give the paper the desired properties during this phase.

Once the pulping process is complete, water is added and the slushy substance is pumped onto a moving wire screen. On the screen, fibers become interlaced as the pulp is dried and pressed through rollers until all water has been removed. The large sheets of paper created through this process are wound into large rolls and cut into various sizes to create paper products.

Paper is produced for a wide variety of applications, and the papermaking process entails different techniques to produce the desired properties in the end product. Paper is carefully evaluated for uniformity of surface and color as well as how it takes ink. Though equipment and specific techniques inevitably vary throughout the industry, the underlying process of drying layers of pulp on a screen has flourished since its invention almost 2,000 years ago.

About the Author: Andrew Johnson is the owner of Central Texas Tree Care, a leading tree service provider in Central Texas (Travis County and surrounding areas) offering services such as pruning and removals, cabling and bracing as well as arborist reports, diagnostics, pest management, fertilization and tree trimming Austin trusts. For more information please visit http://www.centraltexastreecare.com.