Common questions concerning fertilization are: What exactly is in fertilizer? What brands should we use? When to use it? Why it works? What are the proce-dures? In this article, you’ll find out why this process is incredibly beneficial to your trees.

What does going to the dentist every six months to clean your teeth accomplish? Keeps cavities away. What does visiting your doctor once a year accomplish? It keeps you attuned to your body’s strengths and weak-ness. What does eating an apple a day accomplish? I don’t know. But fertilizing your trees after November, when they begin dormancy, is extremely beneficial in preserving and main-taining the trees’ health and beauty. Tree roots are grow-ing any time the ground temperature is above forty de-grees, which is most of the time in the middle Tennessee area.

Truth is, fertilizer is not food for your trees. Trees make their own food independently, by absorbing sunlight and making starches and sugar from the car-bon dioxide, water and a combina-tion of nutrients from the soil. Trees are always eating something, and it’s called sunshine! Nutri-ents do play a very important role in this process, as sixteen nutrients are needed for a tree to grow and be healthy. If there is a lack in any of these nutrients, the tree falters and weakens. This imbalance is more common in urban areas where recent or past soil disturbance has occurred.

Deep root fertilization will promote a greater amount of foliage in the coming year. When it is injected into the root zone of the tree, it helps loosen soil and increase oxygen transfer. Fall fertilization is very good for the trees that have taken a toll throughout the year from insects and environmental damages (heavy turf, compacted roots, or construction). The basic life-altering motto we have to keep in mind for our property is the same as for our bodies: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”!

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