Protecting your trees from the monsoons

The solution to monsoon survivability lies in the past, present and future

Past – You can’t do anything about the past except to not repeat any mistakes of the past.  If the nursery grew bad trees, the landscaper bought and planted bad trees, planted them incorrectly, or irrigated them incorrectly then you have a certain number of trees that are not worth standing up if they blow over. A good indicator of this would be any tree over two years in the ground with stakes still in use. Any tree that fails to establish a strong anchoring root system within two years will rarely be worth having in the landscape. If the emitters were not moved outward as the tree grew to encourage an ever expanding root zone, then the root establishment is compromised. Over pruning of young trees is also a hindrance to root establishment. Failure to perform proper initial training and structural corrections to young trees or have an ongoing professional pruning program is another factor in storm losses.  

Present – Use a certified arborist to evaluate and eliminate the trees that are not sustainable as assets within the landscape to stop further expenditures to water, prune and repeatedly stand up bad trees when that money is better invested in new high quality trees. Annual emergency pre-monsoon trimming is not the answer to the problem. It may keep the marginally rooted trees upright but the poorly rooted trees will still blow over.  If you are stuck with inferior trees going into the monsoons then use the storms as an indicator of the worthless trees and eliminate them as they go down. Budget to replace the failed trees and re-plant in the spring or fall without repeating any of the past bad installation or maintenance practices. If the arborist determines that improvements to tree maintenance need to be made then follow the recommendations. It is never too late to increase the health of your most valuable landscape assets.

 

Future – Verify that the trees are being maintained and irrigated properly, especially if you change your landscape vendors. Stay on the recommended pruning schedules and always be on the alert for any more weakly rooted trees that may become evident in the future.  Lastly, pray that the microbursts take a detour around your property!