hi I'm John McMahon president McMahon brothers and today we're going to be talking about fertilizing trees this is a really extremely important part of home landscaping endeavor and especially in these light stands we have here in Oakland County we all have sandy soil here's a good news the good news is is that everything grows good in sand the reason is because sand particles are quite large and so air and Eric and there's space between the particles and when roots and air and moisture can Frollo freely through them as opposed to clay soils like they have over in Mike minotauk and Plymouth I put in irrigation systems in Plymouth and come back the year later after we put in the system and and sod has been laid now when you go to pull up the side the next spring it actually comes back up because the roots can't go through that really dense hard-packed clay we don't have a problem in Norfolk Oni it's all sand and the roots can flow and grow through this sandy ground really easily that's a good news the bad news is is all the moisture and nutrients leach through the soil really fast I've taken grass of water and poured on Anoka County sugar sand it hardly even slows on it just keeps right on going so you need to keep an adequate water supply on our trees and shrubs and lines and we also need to add nutrients to all the growing plants because otherwise they won't die but they won't thrive and we all want our landscapes to thrive and be as healthy and Hardy as possible everybody knows about weed and feed their lawns in the spring and almost everybody does it and lawns look great but not enough people fertilize their trees and shrubs and it's and it's really important and it's easy and fun to do so right here we have a big maple tree it's about a 25 foot tall tree and when we're judging how many spikes want to use on the tree it doesn't have anything to do with how tall a tree is has something to do with what the caliper is or the diameter of the trunk just above the soil level now this tree is it's about a seven-inch caliper tree and it's important we kind of know because judging based on the size of the tree that's how many trees effect you're going to put in the rule of thumb with tree spikes is every two inches of caliper we need one spike so this is you know six inches would be three seven inches B three and a half so we're going to put four spikes in this tree the place to put the spikes is at the edge of the drip line of the tree which is there the tree where the Crown has stopped and so right here they were at the edge of the crown and we're probably about five or six feet away from the truck many people think that the root system is directly underneath the tree in correct the root system of a tree looks like this picture of dinner plate with a wine glass on top of the center this dinner plate the the part that you put the wine in the wine glass pretend that's the crown of the tree the stem would be the trunk of the tree and the red system the tree is like the dinner plate underneath that tree so the roots go out they don't go down they go out and that's why on a tree like this we're paralyzed right at the edge of the drip line so we sell these tree spikes in the store there's three different types one for deciduous trees or shade trees one for evergreen trees and one for fruit trees and they're in three different boxes here in the garden center and right above those boxes there are these little caps that we use to pound the tree spikes into the soil so and they only cost $0.99 it's just for 99 cents it's the best thing you can do if your landscape honestly it's really a good value so I'm going to so now with these tree and shrub deciduous tree and shrub space right here I take one a spikes out they have a little bit sharper end and then our more of a blunt end and what I do is put this cap over the top so I can hammer on it without it falling apart go underneath the drip line here and usually what I do first is take my hammer and just kind of make an indent in the soil like this boy this line is really healthy and sick it's really nice anyway broken through the side and the ripped through its zone of the grass here the spike just go down like that take this up that's all there is to it so one here I'll go about we're going to put in four so I'll go about 25% of the distance around the tree put in one more and one more over here usually these caps lasts about three or four spikes this one is toasted so make sure you get these little caps when you buy the tree spikes and the last tree spike is right here as you have that drip line of the tree there so if underneath that is this tree is set for a whole year and it will make a huge difference in the growth of this tree it'll grow two to three times as fast in Anoka counting the sand if used tree spikes so let's go over look at an evergreen tree okay so here we have a really beautiful spruce tree Black Hills Bruce very healthy and this homeowner has been spiking his trees ever since he planted them and this tree is planted about seven years ago and when he planted it was this tall and you can see the difference in how big and beautiful and healthy this this evergreen tree is it made it through the winter great great color even oats real early spring it's just great now this tree being a spruce tree it's a little bit hard to get inside to see the calpro of it of what it is but I mentioned already it's about 10 to 12 inches so this tree will take five to six tree spikes there's a different type of tree spike for evergreen trees the the formula is a little bit different so when you do evergreen trees make sure you get the evergreen trees spikes for these and on spruce trees it's really easy to tell where the drip line is because here it is real easy same procedure to break the set up a little bit tap this tree spike down recover your cap and away we go five more to go okay here call this tree spike number six right there to the drip line put the cap on this cap is almost done here got to be a little bit careful tap tap put it just underneath where the roots stop in the grass and kind of fluff it over like this and that's it the best thing you can do 99 cents a tree spike you know for this this tree we spent twelve dollars and I guarantee you this Bruce tree will grow twelve to eighteen inches this year I've just been properly fertilized best thing you can do for your landscapes tree spikes and don't forget the same holds true for all your perennials and woody shrubs fertilize in sandy soil they won't die but they sure could use some nutrients so we also sell Hosmer Colton the store it's a time-release fertilizer that lasts about four months unfortunately in Minnesota that's all the growing season we get is about four months so in Minnesota we use one application per year if you had the pleasure of living in Southern Mississippi you'd probably do it twice but Minnesota if you'd save some money only do it once so that's it thanks for choosing meklin brothers and we'll see in the garden center thank you you