Your trees and shrubs probably seem just fine on their own, right?
You can leave them alone without worrying that they’ll set the house on fire or throw a party that prompts the neighbors to call the police.
Maybe you haven’t given a second thought to DIY tree and shrub care.
But your leafy green lovelies do need you. Or they need professional tree and shrub care services. The point is, they need somebody to feed them, protect them, and keep pesky aphids and spider mites from attacking them.
How to decide between DIY vs. professional tree and shrub care?
Let’s take a look.
DIY Tree and Shrub Care: What Do They Need?
More than you might think.
Your DIY tree and shrub care list should include:
Fertilizer
Fertilizer gives your Idaho trees and shrubs a nutrient boost that improves their health and appearance, from strong roots to glossy leaves to plentiful, pretty flowers.
When your trees and shrubs struggle to get the important nutrients they need, they get weak. That makes them more susceptible to damaging insects and diseases.
Struggling trees and shrubs won’t grow as tall or as full as they could, either. Fertilizer is a crucial part of DIY tree and shrub care.
Aphid Control
Yes, you have aphids. Everybody has aphids. The tiny pests are the most common insects found on trees, shrubs, and garden plants.
They’re super tiny, but when a whole bunch of them gather to feast, their big appetites can damage your trees and shrubs.
Aphids multiply quickly, so it’s important to get them under control before reproduction starts. Many generations can occur in one season.
What kind of control? Spray treatments three times a year to zap any aphids crawling on your trees and shrubs.
It’s a lot easier to prevent aphids than to treat them after they show up, so add it to your DIY tree and shrub care to-do list.
Miticide for Spider Mites
Here’s another itty bitty pest that’s a big pain. Spider mites are so tiny you can barely see them. They live in colonies, mostly on the underside of leaves.
The problem is, they’re hungry. They eat by piercing the leaves of your trees and shrubs and sucking up the plant fluids.
One tiny mite can’t cause much harm, right? But a big infestation causes visible spider mite damage.
First you’ll notice tiny spots on leaves. Then leaves may turn yellow, curl and dry up, and fall off.
Spider mites seem like insects, but they’re actually a type of arachnid, relatives of spiders, ticks, and scorpions.
So you need a miticide specifically designed to kill mites. Or at least a pesticide that says it also kills mites. Add it to your DIY tree and shrub care shopping list.
Horticultural Oil
Also called dormant oil, this handy stuff kills damaging insects that love to lay eggs in your trees and shrubs. It’s a great tool to have in your DIY tree and shrub care tool kit.
Horticultural oil spray is a highly refined petroleum product used as an insecticide to suffocate insects and insect eggs that have overwintered on trees and shrubs.
Instead of poisoning the bugs, you’re basically smothering them with the oil. The oil kills any lingering insects as well as their eggs, so they won’t hatch in the spring.
Applying dormant oil for trees at the right time can help save a tree from significant damage.
Got all that? You didn’t have any plans this year, right? Maybe it’s time to hire plant health care services in Idaho Falls and Boise, ID
Professional Tree and Shrub Care: What the Pros Do
Professionals can take all these DIY tree and shrub care chores off your hands so you don’t have to add it to your already jam-packed calendar. And they know exactly what time of year to tackle each of these tasks. It’s kind of complicated.
Plus, there’s a huge bonus to hiring professional tree and shrub care: these experts have pro-level products that treat your trees and shrubs with fast and powerful ingredients that get straight to the problem, from failing health to icky insect infestations.
We’re talking tools and ingredients you don’t have access to as a DIY gardener.
Here’s a look at a couple cool tools pros use:
Deep Root Tree Fertilization
How to get nurturing nutrients to your stressed tree ASAP? Go straight to its roots.
Deep root tree fertilization injects nutrients for your stressed tree directly deep into the soil, rather than spreading it over the top.
By injecting the fertilizer with high pressure, nutrients like phosphorus and iron can reach the deepest tree roots fast, feeding your tree from the roots up. Your hungry tree gets an immediate nutrition boost.
Then, over time, the nutrients make their way to the rest of your tree, making it healthier and more vibrant. It’s a great reason to hire professional tree and shrub care.
Tree Injections for a Shot of Healing
Tree injections are like shots for your trees. They deliver “medicine” to treat diseases and insects directly into your stressed tree.
It’s injected right into the tree trunk, then quickly taken up by the vascular system and distributed throughout the tree.
This professional tree care treatment works faster and is more effective than spray treatments, which can take weeks to work.
Here in Idaho, these injections are often used for maple trees, which often have “iron chlorosis,” a nutrient deficiency. They can’t absorb all the nutrients they need from the soil. Affected trees have yellowing leaves that never quite get green.
It can affect aspens, too.
Tree injections deliver micro-nutrients directly into the stressed tree and quickly work to replenish it.
If insects are killing your tree, these injections can treat infestations of borers, aphids, spider mites, and scale — fast.
While other types of treatment require three to four treatments, tree injections just require one, and lasts for a whole year. It’s a great reason to sign up for Plant Health Care Services in Idaho Falls and Boise, ID.
Are Your Trees and Shrubs Ready for a New Best Friend?
Don’t neglect those precious trees and shrubs. Make sure they get fertilizer. Keep your eye out for pests and diseases so you can catch them early.
Or, just relax and leave all that to us.
Rescue your Idaho trees and shrubs with restorative tree injections to banish bugs, treat diseases, or add nourishing nutrients to boost their health fast.
Expert plant health care like tree injections, deep root fertilization, and dormant oil treatments are available for our Idaho Falls and Boise customers who use our full-service lawn care program.
The first step is to sign up for our 6-step complete lawn care program.
You’ll be glad you did.
Choose an Idaho Falls or Boise professional lawn care service that makes it easy, bundling your yard’s most-needed treatments into one convenient, no-fuss plan.
Fertilizing, weed control, grub control. Done. Expert tree and shrub services: Double done.
We’ve got your back.
Got a few minutes? That’s all you need to get started.
Call us at (208) 656-9131 or fill out the form on this page. Then kick back and relax in your healthy, thriving trees and shrubs.
Image Source: Spider Mite
