Growing Shade Trees

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	Growing Shade Trees Learn how to help shade trees grow up to twice as fast.

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Transcript: Growing Shade Trees

Shade trees really add to the value of a home. And boy, in the heat of a Texas summer, it’s really nice to have a giant shade tree to sit under. However, when we buy them they’re too small and we’re in a hurry to get them to grow fast. You want to select quality trees that grow at a medium rate, not fast-growing trash trees. But you can speed up a whole lot by following a couple of simple tips.

First is fertilizer. You want to select a product that has about a 3-1-2 or a 4-1-2 ratio of nutrients--lots of nitrogen. That helps the tree get along. You want to apply this fertilizer about a pound per inch in diameter. Now, a pint’s a pound the world around. That’s easy to remember. So if you borrow your wife’s measuring cup--by the way, do that while she’s not looking; they don’t like that--it takes about a pint of fertilizer to equal about a pound. So a tree like this that’s about two and a half inches in diameter would get two and a half pounds of about two and a half pints of fertilizer. Spread it evenly from the trunk out to about twice as far as the branches reach. The roots of this tree are growing way beyond the branch spread so spread it in an even circle and water it in well.

You can also punch holes in the ground about six to eight inches deep and put a little fertilizer in each hole. That aerates and helps it get off to a good start.

The second tip is we want to remove the weeds and grass that are competing with the tree. Rather than allow them to grow up to the trunk, which just invites problems with weed eaters and lawn mowers scarring up the trunk and creates a lot of competition, it’s better to create a large mulch area underneath the tree to encourage that tree to grow. You’ll get twice the growth rate of the tree as this one that’s struggling along with the grass.

With your commonsense tip for a pint full of wisdom for faster growing shade trees, I’m Skip Richter.

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Last Updated: July 6, 2006