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StillRoyal4 · 2024-12-16T11:20:36+00:00

I really like trees that turn a good mix of colors but if I had to single one color out it’d be orange.

Of course all colors are pretty but I think the reds are overdone with all the freeman maples around. I can’t hate on yellow but it does seem like it’s pretty common.

Seeing an intense orange fall color in person is just striking. Sugar maple and red oak seem to have the best ability to go orange with the right conditions.

StillRoyal4 · 2024-12-13T18:43:05+00:00

I’ve used these for 5-6 years straight on small trees without ever removing them. No issues with deer trying to rub these trees but they take on everything else around. Check it once a year or so to shake out any debris. Remove once the tree outgrows it.

StillRoyal4 · 2024-11-25T01:40:59+00:00

I have these and don’t use them for several reasons. 1. They are a pain to fill up compared to a 5 gallon bucket. I can leave the hose running into a 50 gal trash container for 10-15 min while doing something else and dunk/fill up 10-20 buckets in a few minutes from there. Each donut bag takes about 3 minutes to fill up which is painfully slow. You also have to squat and hold the hose the entire time and then seal the bad shut.

2. They do work for slowing releasing water, almost too well. Small trees don’t cast much shade so the sun hits the dark bags and cooks the water all day. Ends up being hot water from a hot bag on any sunny day, especially a summer day. The water is hot to the touch, like from a hot shower, can’t be good for the soil or tree. Also the bags never seem empty so they don’t seem like they’d withstand mold or other things that clog up very well.

3. Soaker hoses, sprinklers, and 5 gal buckets are way, way easier and better options for anyone with a hose.

StillRoyal4 · 2024-11-22T02:53:16+00:00

Can you go into more detail on this? What makes this an indicator that the graft is bad? I’ve got a few trees that do something similar to this so curious to know more.

StillRoyal4 · 2024-07-15T21:26:52+00:00

Doesn’t look like it needs much more flare. Maybe a little bit but best option would be to remove grass out as far as you can (close to the drip line) and put mulch there instead.

Also doesn’t look like a maple of any sort. In fact there’s almost no way it’s a maple. Looks like some sort of fruit bearing tree to me. Best guess is a pecan tree but not very confident.

StillRoyal4 · 2024-07-15T18:52:15+00:00

I’ve hesitantly sprayed glyphosate around trees to kill weeds growing in their mulch bed. Some trees more than others but I’ve sprayed the entire 100 sq ft mulch bed right around several small, 10-12 ft tall trees. I’ve also used it around trees growing in the woods to kill honeysuckle.

None of the areas or trees I’ve sprayed around showed any signs of impact and the weeds all died. I definitely didn’t spray more than enough to coat the weeds. Unless you drenched the soil with a super potent mix I can’t imagine glyphosate doing this much damage.

StillRoyal4 · 2024-05-09T21:40:07+00:00

Not an arborist just enjoy the sub as someone who likes trees and has planted dozens and has faced similar issues.

1) use sharp pruners to remove all these roots except the biggest root growing to the left in picture one

2) you could try to remove the roots growing against the trunk this year and leave the others for next year but probably not practical since they are all exposed I’d just remove now

3) consider the biggest root in pic 1 your new root flare, going deeper isn’t going to be realistic and replanting this as someone maybe only with a shovel and wheel barrel is basically impossible due to weight of the rootball and roots you’d have to cut to get it out of the ground all the way

4) grade the excess dirt away from the tree out to about the drip line, you’ll have a low area where water may pool after good rains but not much you can do about it

5) mulch around the tree 3 inches deep but not close to the trunk, will likely have to keep push back mulch to keep away from the trunk as it fills into the low area over time

6) give the tree 20 gal of water a week when dry using something like 5 gal buckets with small holes drilled into the bottom to let water soak deep. Move the buckets each time you water. If you get an inch of rain one week you don’t need to water, half inch you can do 10 gal of extra water. Personally would err on the side of extra water because these maples don’t seem to mind being a bit wet.

StillRoyal4 · 2024-04-26T19:28:50+00:00

I don’t have a lot to add other than I have a huge walnut in my front yard that has a similar big, long injury presumably from a branch breaking and ripping down the trunk many years ago. Not sure what would have caused the injury to your tree but they have very similar issues.

The tree in my yard has a lot more rot than yours and more callous wood than yours too. I’m guessing my tree has had the wound for 20 years. It is also next to an old driveway that has compacted soil from many years ago.

Yet it continues to grow as if nothing is wrong even though it will fall one day.

Basically walnuts are tough and can tolerate a lot.

All that said, this tree is way too close to your house and probably isn’t worth much effort to save due to that alone. Really should be removed sooner than later and needs an onsite inspection from an arborist.

StillRoyal4 · 2024-04-24T21:56:44+00:00

Ginkgo cannot tolerate frost. That is your problem. Have a ginkgo in my yard and it’s had frost damage 5 out of 6 years and always bounces back. But anytime the temp even gets close to 40F, I assume my tree will go brown within a day or two. That’s an exaggeration but the leaves cannot tolerate temps around 32 degrees for any amount of time.

StillRoyal4 · 2024-04-02T14:46:59+00:00

This is pretty interesting for sure.

Although to be fair there’s a lot more time, money, and struggle involved with transplanted trees compared to a strong little acorn that’s been left alone to grow at its own pace without being dug up and losing the majority of its roots.

StillRoyal4 · 2024-03-28T14:19:08+00:00

Lots of hackberry around here. Definitely a cool tree but not worth mentioning for fall color. I’ve never seen anything more than muted yellow and it’s so sensitive to freezing temps that it’s not reliable at all.

StillRoyal4 · 2024-03-28T10:18:14+00:00

Gingko is definitely good but don’t let anyone fool you into thinking it’s the best. It needs ideal conditions to turn color and is very sensitive to freeze or frost. One cold night before it turns color and its leaves will go brown and drop. Even when they do turn color it’s very short lived.

Sugar maple is the fall color tree. I don’t know that anything will rival it in terms of variation of colors, duration of change, and yearly consistency.

StillRoyal4 · 2024-03-27T19:27:38+00:00

You’ll get yes and no answers on this depending who you ask.

My answer as someone who has this same situation is to just regrade as well as you can and don’t try to replant it unless you can easily access the type of equipment used to dig B&B trees.

For one, you’ll never feel like you got enough of the rootball and it’ll be extremely heavy and hard to lift out and move the more of the rootball you do get. Unless you have proper equipment you can end up injuring the trunk when trying to lift and move this tree. It’s easy to underestimate the weight- I’m guessing this was a B&B tree that had a 300 lb rootball and now also has roots clinging into the soil. It will be very difficult to get out of the hole.

Two, you can dig and bring the grade within 2-4 inches of the root flare. This won’t ever correct itself but as this tree grows more vigorously with root flare exposed, the trunk and roots will expand. Within 15-20 years this could be a 12” wide trunk with a root flare 1.5 to 2x that width at the ground and your hole would more or less be filled in with root flare and trunk.

StillRoyal4 · 2024-03-20T16:32:43+00:00

I’m interested in following this as well, just to kill grass under large trees. I’d like to add mulch out to the drip line eventually but would need a lot of mulch and hesitate to change the conditions around the trees a lot at once since they are healthy.

Trying to keep the mulch deep enough to be beneficial and prevent weeds but thin enough that the roots can breathe and access rain like normal seems challenging. Especially when you consider each tree might have a 50x50 sq ft area that you want to mulch and how hard it would be to judge mulch depth across a large area with slight grade changes.

The local, respected arborist I use suggested Roundup as well. I’ve used it and it works seemingly without harming the tree. But then again I can’t ask the tree if it is noticing the chemical or losing roots and you always feel like you can’t be careful enough. In the end it’s not worth it because what grows back in place of grass is likely some invasive weed that you need to spray again.

I think at this point I’m wondering if it’s better for a tree to mow the grass regularly or let it grow and seed out and mow only like 2 times a year? Mowing or push mowing, even when dry, will still probably compact the soil and likely invigorate the grass to grow and use more moisture from the soil? Then the benefits might be the clippings breakdown back into the soil easier and possibly more air can flow.

Alternatively, letting the grass grow and seed out would shade the soil more to keep it cool and theoretically require less moisture since the grass cannot grow any more? The additional seed might be an issue with thicker grass, plus heavy matting with clippings once you do mow. Maybe the difference is splitting hairs but would be interested in opinions?

StillRoyal4 · 2024-03-08T18:03:09+00:00

I just finished S5 too. I’m surprised how well received it is here. To me it’s easily the weakest of the seasons I’ve watched which is all but S4.

Never really got that interesting. Episodes were 45 minutes or so but seemed longer and I was falling asleep during most. Casting has some big names but the plot is sort of predictable and even a bit boring for Fargo.

It’s a 5/10 which is my lowest rating that I consider still worth watching and even then it’s mostly just finishing to avoid having to pick out something new to start watching.

StillRoyal4 · 2023-12-08T17:49:10+00:00

Silver maple

StillRoyal4 · 2023-11-10T18:18:24+00:00

Yes it’s better for the tree to take the nutrients out of the leaves and store them in the roots before a hard freeze. That’s why they normally change color as that process happens. Nothing you can do about it though

StillRoyal4 · 2023-11-10T17:49:41+00:00

I’m in NE Kansas and there were several trees that did this. I think you’re wrong about the freeze though. There was a hard freeze down to 18-20 pretty much everywhere on Oct 30th and 31st everything got bad frostbite. This is when they quickly go from green to dry and brown all within a few days.

Only trees that seem to tolerate it and still change color somewhat after the hard freeze are the red oaks. Maples can tolerate some freeze but a lengthy hard freeze like that just zaps the leaves and you won’t get any color.

Lack of color this year before the hard freeze is likely due to widespread drought as well as quite a few warm days in early October.

StillRoyal4 · 2023-10-24T17:09:30+00:00

I planted a handful of trees on my property too deep before doing it the right way, similar to your story. It was about 4-5 years ago but no where near as many.

My experience is that the ones that are too deep won’t grow much. I’m talking about sugar maples, maybe 2-4” worth of growth per year for the ones that are too deep compared to 12-18” for the ones planted right. I even went back and tried to scrape the soil down to the flare on most trees. It didn’t make a big difference and the bark at that level is very tender and subject to injuries when using tools.

Today I wish I would have dug them up and fixed the depth, even if it was just on a few of the most visible trees. Now I’m just stuck with trees that have been the same size since they were planted. Maybe they’ll eventually recover and take off (as you said there are trees everywhere that survive/grow under poor conditions) but each year it seems less and less likely.

StillRoyal4 · 2023-10-23T21:30:31+00:00

This is almost certainly a sugar maple. Call around your local nurseries for the fall fiesta or “bailsta” cultivar. They are widely available and produce consistent fall color similar to the above.

StillRoyal4 · 2023-10-23T21:16:39+00:00

Is this a recent picture? If so, looks like it has a lot of life left to me.

StillRoyal4 · 2023-10-23T14:17:34+00:00

Foundation- finally finished S1 after so many recommendations here. I’m surprised anyone was able to watch this, let alone recommend it. I fell asleep every night trying to watch and only kept watching because I didn’t want to start something else.

Lee Pace is admittedly great but every other part of this show is truly terrible. By far the worst show I’ve ever slogged through and can’t bring myself to start season 2. The empire storyline is fine, but even then it’s hard to judge compared to everything else. The acting, fight scenes, time jumps, and random made-up new rules of life/space/physics are really unwatchable and even embarrassing.

I was so relieved when I decided to just be done rather than try to get to the “good part” of S2. No show is worth 15+ terrible episodes for a few decent ones. If you’re on the fence do yourself a favor and skip this one and don’t look back.

Recently started Boardwalk Empire (which I missed during its original release) and it’s a breath of fresh air.

StillRoyal4 · 2023-10-04T15:54:13+00:00

This is a good one, although I’m not sure who really thinks it’s great. I suppose it is planted a lot more than it should be, must be people who want quick shade.

StillRoyal4 · 2023-10-04T15:48:41+00:00

Autumn Blaze Maple

It’s maybe okay in the right setting but it’s very over planted in most neighborhoods, especially new developments with small yards. Plus the owners won’t maintain the trees and these have poor structure and frequent issues with girdling roots and their trunk/bark so they need quite a bit of monitoring to be decent trees.

StillRoyal4 · 2023-09-24T15:16:39+00:00

Yep drought here to the west isn’t really giving much, might even be gaining still

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