Don't Forget to Fertilize Your Trees!

This year’s weather was strange, to say the least. Its effects linger for how you should prepare your lawn and plantings this fall in Brookfield, WI.

Here’s one you might not have heard before: Fertilize your trees.

Yes, even your trees need a helping hand this year. Similar to why fertilizing your lawn is so important, trees just didn’t grow much in Elm Grove and New Berlin.

Winter lasted into April, creating a shorter season. The summer’s many cloudy, rainy days provided less sunlight to spur photosynthesis, the process by which trees generate energy. Abundant rain and soil moisture kept trees’ roots from searching far for water, lessening their growth.

The fallout is that trees are less strong, and ready for the winter ahead. Given the high level of soil moisture, the ground should freeze earlier than normal, too.

The situation doesn’t vary much based on species. Both deciduous trees and evergreens are affected.

Age isn’t a factor, either. Young trees have less-developed roots. Older trees have more surface area (branches and leaves) to support. Both are vulnerable.

Here’s where you come in (or GMS, if you’d prefer us to do the work for you). Purchase a healthy supply of Jobe’s Tree Fertilizer Food Spikes at a garden store. Grab a hammer.

At each tree you plan to fertilize, pound the spikes into the ground along the drip line (the ends of the tree’s branches). Use two spikes for trees with trunks 1 to 2 inches in diameter. Add a spike for each additional inch of trunk diameter. You have officially “fertilized.” Pretty easy, huh?

Both young and old trees need a leg up this year. The concept of fertilizing trees might seem a bit foreign, but that’s OK. Unusual conditions have dictated new measures to keep plantings healthy and growing.

You never know, though. If your trees respond to this extra care with a new burst of growth and greenery next spring, maybe you’ll decide to make it an annual habit.