Kat r H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome to kat r H Garden Line with Skip Richter.
It's so crazy just watch him as Welcome back to garden Line. I'm
your host, Skip Richter, and we are here to talk all kinds of
things gardening. Now, you know, we love our feed stores on garden
Line and down in the League City area. League City Feed is your hometown
feed store. The Thunderbergs began that store over forty years ago. Wes and
Madison still take care of the store and it is it is just as good
as it ever was. In fact, when you go in there, you
know you're going to get quality feed. But you also can find all the
fertilizers that we've recommended for a long time on garden Line. You're going to
find things to deal with pests, weeds, fungicides, certain quality pet food.
If you got backyard chickens, they can take care of you. They
still carry the bags out for you. I mean, this is the old
time feed store. Feel for all of you out there in San Leon and
Baycliff and Webster, Santa fe el kaminarea, League City that whole region League
City Feed is your hometown feed store. Give them a call at two eight
one three three two sixteen twelve. Two eight one three three two sixteen twelve.
They're closed today, but they're open Monday through Saturday, nine am to
six pm. Seeking to swing by right after work and pick up whatever you
need. And you're gonna find what you can need there too. By the
way, we are fortunate this morning to be able to have Martin Spoon Moore
from Affordable Tree Care. Uh. And he's in the studio or actually he's
in my phone with me right now. Welcome Martin. Watch up Skip.
How are you, buddy, I'm I'm well. Some people say I'm barely
tolerable, but I think I'm doing better than that. How are you doing?
I'm good. I'm sorry I couldn't make you down to the radio station,
but this is my weekend to set up at church. So okay,
I put all the chairs and tables and well that kind of stuff. I'd
say, you got your priorities right, So we're gonna We're gonna let that
one go. Hold on skip home. My ladies at church want to say
Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry, Christmas, Dollie, you too.
How many of you does it take to keep Martin in line? Over there?
Are they already gone? Hold on, Jackie? How many keep me
in line? What it takes the village? Right? Well, the crazy
Jackie? Yeah? Yeah, okay, all right, Well, hey,
I appreciate I appreciate you being on. I've been promising listeners today that you're
going to come in here and we're going to talk about all kinds of things
about keeping a tree healthy, uh, proper pruning, proper planning, just
just kind of the whole nine yards. Martin, what are what are some
of the things the mistakes you see made as you drive around town, as
you service people trees, people's trees across the Houston area. What are some
of the most common mistakes you see made? What you wish you could go
back in time and fix. You know, the biggest thing for me,
skip is the treatments of the trees, the deep rout feeding that's important to
trees, especially here in our southern climate. The more you feed the tree,
the healthy the root system is going to be, the better the tree
is going to cycle. And when you drive around see some of these big,
beautiful live oaks and water oaks and something that is just going under so
much stress because of the weapon we have, and people just don't do anything
to it. Just watch it die and watch it just slowly go into decline.
Right, Yeah, that's that's a good point. What I've seen is
just it'll blow your mind when some of these people trim trees around here.
It's range every time I see it. But yeah, you know, keeper
is not always better. Skip what is not always better. Cheaper is not
always better. Oh my gosh, is that not the truth or another way
to put as you get what you pay for, you get. Yeah,
yeah, but I tell you driving around and looking at pruning job there's a
website I can't remember the name of it, but it basically is horticulture pruning
disasters. You look at it and people that just create these crazy looking things.
There's a I saw a tree one time and it looked like a pac
Man with the power lines going through it. So they like cut a C
shaped hole out of the side of a tree so that the power lines could
go through it. I always tell people that, you know, if you
don't plant the right tree under a power line, the power line company will
take care of a tree for you, but you won't like what they do.
Yeah, we we dealt with that just Friday, to be exact,
big beautiful eyeboat and been there for years and here, of course here comes
the power line people and they take the whole backside of it all for you,
and there's not anything you can do about it. You know, holler,
but they don't listen. Yeah, yeah, there's all there's all kinds
of trees. When people top trees, it's like top crate myrtles. Yes,
it's just bad. You don't do that. Well, call that No,
I was gonna say when and that's for for life. When you screw
up a tree bad enough. I mean, you can try to help it,
but it's never going to be the same. No, it'll never be
the same. If you've got to, if you've got to cut the top
off of it, you might as well take you down. Same with the
crate myrtles. And I you know, the crate myrtle massacres what we call
it. Yeah, And when they when they do those some of those trees
that way, it's just it's just horrible. There's no fixing it. There's
nothing you can do to fix the pace yep. Well, it's one of
the one of the plants, one of the tree type plants in our landscape
that is beautiful in the winter time because of that structure. And it could
be a beautiful candelabra of branches, or it could just be you know,
chopped off. That's another one. You know, you got a landscape crew
nothing to do in the winter. Here's some printers go cut everything about head
high. And then that's how that gets started. Along with the little volcano
cones of maults that we see everywhere. Oh my god, that's another thing.
These people build these big mounds of malts and again these guys trying to
give it away because they buy in bolt. But it's actually bad for your
trees. And you're crazy. You keep pounding all that maltz around it like
that you could act uppocate the tree. But you know, try to tell
people, but they just sometimes it goes in one ear and out the other.
Brother, Yes, sir, I understand that. Go ahead. When
you host a radio show, I know, I know you should, Randy
crazy. You answer a question and the very next question is the same question.
But that's part of the deal. That's part of the deal. That's
Okay. The only time on that radio, Yeah, the only time it
bothers me is when someone tells me what I said that I never said because
they didn't quite hear it right, So maybe I need to make more sense.
Well, we'll see people hear what they want to hear. There you
go, well down that road. Yeah, I got about a minute left
here. So any other thing that you know, driving around, you go,
man, I wish you hadn't done that. Here's one thing, skip
You've got these people. You see them pruning these trees the wrong time of
the year. And if you're going to prune the tree, oak trees,
elm trees, maple trees up a cons you got to just make sure they
do it at the correct time of the year. And you know yourself,
we don't kick off our trune until after October fifteenth through the February. You
know. Now, the other scrub trees, ash and talas, we can
turn them a little bit later, but we want to make sure that we
prove them and deep root feed them at the right time of the year to
get the better canopies. The nicer canopies, the healthier the tree. We
want to make sure that you're doing it correctly when the tree is in the
state of dormancy. Yes, and that's come October fifteenth to the end of
February, and we just start. That's our window, me and Randy,
now you that's we live by that rule, right, Okay? Good?
Well, Hey, I got to run. I got to run to a
commercial. When we come back, I want to continue that. But we
got Becky with a maple tree question. We're going to come to her first.
Anyone else wants to call and pick Martin's brain. Seven to one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four. Welcome back to Garden Line. I'm
your host, Skip Richter. We're here talking with Martin Spoon Moore today.
We're talking all kinds of trees and apparently it has raised some interest. We've
got a few calls coming in here that are kind of loading up the boards.
We're going to get to. I just want to mention something before we
do that, and that is a Star of Hope mission. I know that
the folks listening to me today have a compassion. They want to be able
to help people in ways that really helped. They don't want to just give
out a handout that does no good. They don't want to throw money away,
but they want to provide not money, but in many cases your own
time and being able to volunteer and to make a difference in lives. And
that's what Star Hope does. You know, for two dollars and eighty cents,
you can feed a person a meal. Star Hope gives housing for folks,
They give job training, they give substance abuse help to overcome that.
They help someone take a life that really is at the bottom and turn it
around and become self sustaining. And think about the benefit of that to children
and a family. When you do something that turns a family around with little
kids, you have made a lifetime change. It's going to last for years.
Shmission dot org, sohmission dot org. I hope you will enjoy that.
You will join my wife and I and being supporters on an ongoing basis
of Star Hope. You're not going to find a better cause than that.
Well, we got Martin here on the line with us today, and let's
see. I'm gonna also, Martin, we got a bunch of calls.
I think I better run do those with you. Let's start off in San
Leone talking to Becky Becky, how can we help today? Yes, I
have a baby maple tree that I got from a big maple tree, and
I wanted to know is it too early to planet now or shall I wait
till after the freeze? It's probably about three feet tall. Why don't you
take that one? Martin? Wait? Wait, I would probably wait till
the end of February. That way, if we do have a hard freeze,
you can still have in the container and keep it out of the kind
of weather. But I'd probably put it in the ground the first of March.
Okay, any hard freezes. What type of maple? Is it?
Red maple? But the leaves don't get read very often? Wrong, that's
a good tree. After it was a silver leaf, I would tell you
to throw it the garbage. But red maple, so yeah, it does
well here. So wait till March and then put it in the ground.
Okay. And then one quick question about my ugly pecan tree? How can
I stop it from producing broughten copont pacons? I don't want the pecans because
the squirrels make a mess on my patio. There you go. Well,
unfortunately, you can't stop the con from producing other than remove the tree.
Yeah, I know. It's like you can keep the tree with me and
skip we're talking about. You can deep feed the tree and try to put
minerals back in the ground. The tree needs to produce, and if you
do that, then you start seeing a healthier pecan. But with pecans,
it's one year you get a good batch, one year you don't, and
then you get what the squirrels don't want you to have. There you go,
okay, So the best way to solve the problem is remove the tree.
I wish I could. Okay, all right, y'all have a merry
Christmas, and thank you so much. All right, Hey, Becky,
thank you. I appreciate that that call very much. Boys, you're welcome.
Is that? Is that ever? Is that ever true? What's that?
I would I was just trying to get out of the column. For
some reason, I'm not able to disconnect that. Josh, maybe thank you
take care of that for me. Uh yeah, Martin, we we we
do get a lot of tree questions, and it just it's amazing how everyone
is I don't know, trees, turfing, tomatoes, the three t's,
that's what makes the phone ring. I know it did an extension office.
It does in the radio too, But everybody wants to take care of me
and for good reason and so and you know, Skip, I'll have to
set it up after the holidays, so I could come in there maybe on
a Saturday or something. And Fundays are hard for me because I do a
lot of this stuff for the church a brailer. So maybe after the holidays
one Saturday in January, we can come in just edit for all kinds of
three questions for you, buddy, Well we get we sure get them,
and that would be that would be very helpful. Well, I got I
want to when Randy I had me come in there on that show, then,
man, the board would just light up with tree questions. I know.
Any Okay, what's happening. It's happening right now. We're going to
head now out to Wendy and Northwest Houston. Hey, Wendy, welcome to
Gardline. Good morning, it's nice to talk to you. And Martin Welcome,
Bavius. My question is I have a Chinese pistachio tree that's about probably
twenty three years old, and in the very beginning my husband cut the top
off of it when it was just small, so it's pretty big and all
the branches are you know, Uh, it's kind of like an umbrella,
but underneath it there's not any green leaves. All the leaves are like on
the end of the branches. So I didn't know how that it was supposed
to be cut back now that it's so big and you know, bunched out
like an umbrella were. You're not supposed to cut the tops off posassio pistachios,
but some people do it because they do get tall. As far as
it underneath the canopy, you'd have to send us a picture so we can
look at it that way. But the main things at the pistasio is to
make sure you keep it fertilized every year, especially it does it produce no,
No, I don't think so. I just thought that that was the
name of it. I didn't know it would produce. Uh, some will,
some won't. I don't know that. Again, you just have to
send me a picture of the tree so I can tell you more about it.
You don't see a lot of pisastios here in the southern climate, use
they don't. They just don't do very well. I think I think Wendy
probably is talking about a Chinese pistache as opposed to like the nut tree pistachio.
Is that correct, Wendy, I believe. Okay, there's those are
separate male and female trees on the Chinese pistache and so uh you may have
one that produces the little clusters of berries, uh and then one that doesn't.
And uh those berries can be a little bit messy. Yeah, without
cedar berries. Okay, all right, but are are they supposed to be
like that? You know, the the branch is just like bear, and
then all the green greenery is on the ends. Is that the ones normal?
I've got one of my yard and it it just it does that.
It has a very unusual branch and angle pattern and stuff. Yeah, but
you'll see that. You'll see bear branch areas with the foliage out towards the
end. The more the more you feed it, the healthier it's going to
be. Okay, Yeah, it's healthy. It's just that I didn't know
if it was supposed to be like bear all underneath on the limbs and then
just at the ends was the greenery. Mike. My intends to shade out
the interior too. You know, you get a good canopy, it's kind
of like a live oak. In a sense, and that you get this
great canopy out there and the stuff inside without light starts to die out.
Okay, okay, well, I appreciate the call, and thank you for
giving me the information. All right, thank you, appreciate that you both.
Bye bye, yeah, Martin. There there's so many types of trees
around, and you're talking about the Chinese pistache and pecans and things that have
been called in today. What are some If someone walks up and says,
hey, I got a house out here in a new division, don't have
any trees in it? Or what would you recommend to some species you like
this area. I'm the big red oak guy. Okay, I love the
red oaks. I think they grow fast. The shoe mark not alls will
put on the big acorns, So I recommend the more than anything. But
if you want the probably the slowest growing best tree, you're not going to
be the live oat tree because one that takes root, it grows very fast,
very well, and it's love very low maintenance. So well, Houston
probably my favorite to the plant. Yeah, I don't I really don't mess
with maples and pecans and stuff like that. There's too much, you know,
the Mexican sycamore. It's very nice tree. The green ash is still
a nice tree if you want to plant something grows pretty fast. But I'm
a red oak, live oat guy. Okay, Well, and there's a
reason Houston is a live oak forest. I'm telling you it is just solid
live oaks. And there's a reason I call me plant pine tree because it
ain't gonna happen. Okay, no pines, no pines, no maples.
I just don't mess with that stuff. Okay, I'm big on the red
oaks. All right, very very good. Uh so. Uh. Our
phone number is seven one three two one two five eight seven four. If
you'd like to give us a call any kind of tree questions, We're happy
to take him here. I'm going to head out to Scott in Belleville.
Now, Scott, how can we help? Hey? Yeah, you kind
of sort of touched on what I'm calling about. I have two acres out
in Bellville, very very sandy soil and a wonderful neighbor that we have just
put up a little metal building that's uh, he won't allow us to paint
a mural on the back of it. So I need some trees that grow
ass kind of fluffy to be able to block that out. Okay, any
thoughts on how you looking? I'm sorry, we'll tree because all kinds of
things you can plant back there that you can get plants, trees, I
mean, what are you trying to Well, it's just right on our property
line. He put he put up his metal barn and which is fine.
We just want to put something up to kind of block that out. A
couple of wax myrtle. If you look at for privacy, you're not going
to get that on the privacy out of a tree. So stick along the
lines of uh oh wait, the Japanese blueberries they give you good coverage.
The Texas wax myrtles, they give you good coverage. Something that grows fast
so you don't have to look at it. If you start putting trees in,
then that's going to be that's gonna get expensive real quick. Scott,
is this is this a country property where you have some land or is it
more of the typical residential lot size. No, We've got over two acres
out there and our house is smack in the middle of it. So this
will be about one hundred feet away from us. But it's a big bright
white metal building. So we just want to kind of yeah, you know,
another another idea and you would have to buy this, I tell you
what, you know what, I'm out of time here. Can you hang
on until we come back from break and Martin we'll be back. I'm all
right, good, Well, we'll put you on hold for now, Scott,
and we will be right back. Our phone number if you'd like to
give us a call and ask Martin a question seven one three two one two
five eight seven four. Welcome back to garden Line. We're glad you're listening
today. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're here today with Martin
Spoonmore from Affordable Tree Service talking all kinds of thing trees. If you live
up in the Montgomery area, your hometown garden center is A and A plants
and produce that whole region up there, Montgomery, Lake, Conroe. You
know the divisions on there. There's April Sound, and there's the Lago,
Bentwater, Grand Harbor, all of those. This is your local place and
they've got everything you need. If I talk about a fertilizer on guard Line,
they've got it. Do you need things like fungicides or pesticide herbicides.
They've got it right now. They've got their wire outdoor lighting. You know,
you see the little creatures with the white wires. It's bent wire and
there's lights on it to look like a Reindeers. They've got all of that
twenty five percent off on sale right now at A and A Plants and Produce
here on Highway one to five on the east side of Montgomery as you're heading
toward Conor on one oh five. And it's just easy to get there because,
first of all, seven days a week, nine to five. You
can give them a call at nine three, six five, nine seven fifty
seventy. And while you're there, you're going to find a lot of cool
plants as well. They stay they stay way stocked up all year long,
and it's always fun to go in and see the newest things that they've got.
We're going to head now, Martin, We're going to go out to
Belleville and talk to Scott. Hello, Scott, Hey, how you doing
good? How can we help? We were talking about you had me hold
over on the break. Oh that's wanting to get some because trees or something
to camouflage s chark white metal barn. That's right, thank you. I
just want to make a couple of comments about screens. The further you the
closer you get to a screen, however tall it is, the more it
blocks. You Know. It's like if you walk up to a ten foot
wall, I mean, you can't see anything, but if you back up
one hundred feet from a ten foot wall, you know, you can see
something that's twelve feet high sticking above it. So if you've got a building
like that, do you say it was two story now it's it's about fifty
foot long and it's about one hundred and fifty feet give or take from our
place. It's just we want to put something up there to kind of break
it up. Okay, Well, as you know, Martin ha mentioned the
Southern wax myrtles of Possibility. Something in the country that I often recommend to
people where they're trying to cover a long line that would require buying a whole
lot of container grown trees, is you can buy contrivation bundles. You usually
have to order that, maybe even in the summertime for a winter delivery.
But it's bear root plants that may be I don't know, three feet tall.
They come in a pretty long box, and they're very inexpensive. You're
talking about a few bucks for each plant, sometimes two dollars sometimes, you
know. And you can get Eastern red cedar, which grows native through your
area, you know, from Belleville up through all the way up into the
College Station area. It's a it's a country tree, and it's very tough.
It does well. They fast growing. They are pretty fast grown once
you get them established. But when you buy a bundle, you could plant
them, you know, six feet apart, which is way too close.
And then if some live or die, you're still okay. You just take
out the others and they're evergreen. They get quite tall in time. Uh.
And so that would be another consideration, especially again if you know,
if you're going to have to buy like one hundred container grown plants of some
size. But we kind of like bi techs. I know, they don't
have any leaves on them in the winter time, and so I don't know
about those. But again, we just need something that's going to keep the
leaves on it. Provide a canopy or a kind of like a Texas breaks
hit all this polage. Even through the winter, mine are still pretty much
in bloom. But they're not like they are due in the summer. They
grow very fast if you want something to really grows this things grow foot two
foot a year. But staying away from trees and you know, big established
trees because that's going to get real expensive for you. But yeah, the
theater skip just messioned that's used to be by that in bulk. Yeah,
somewhere I'm sure somebody has they just you know, come probably let you dig
them up or not a favorite tree, but you know they know they will
grow for you. Yeah, that's right now. I wouldn't recommend them to
That's why I ask if you were in a residential neighborhood, I wouldn't recommend
them for that. But in the countryside where you got this roadway and you
want to block it from view and the dust is coming off the dirt road
and stuff. But they're a great tree. If you want more information on
those, scott if you'll stay on hold, I'll have Josh pick up and
get your email. Give you an email and I will send you a list
of two or three wholesalers in the southeast US. But again, they are
typically sold out by now. On those trees and they're bare roots so you
only plan them in the very cold part of winter. Sounds good. I'll
do that, Thank you, you bet, thank you very much. I
appreciate that. Oh Man Martin, I ask you about some trees that you
like and species. What about when somebody's going to do some construction around maybe
they're going to put in a sidewalk or they have to do some trenching by
a tree, A lot of damage can get done. And how do you
help people with that kind of situation? Well, s get we do at
the consultation. If people got trees, the big fifty sixty year old live
oaks that they're trying to preserve, you have to put new sidewalks. It's
doing foundations they do. They need a contractors to come out and do a
consultation to tell them which way they can go, what they can cut,
and how much they can trim on it. You know, if it's worth
even investing. It might be cheaper just to get rid of the tree than
try and spend the money on preserving it. Yeah back times, Yeah that
expensive, can't it? Another related question is that I get as people say,
I've got these roots up above the surface, Now, how many can
I cut? You know or questions like that free per year. But the
trick is that they don't fertilize do the deep root feeding like we recommend,
Skip, that that root system would just keep coming to the surface. There's
nothing you don't do about it. But you can literally take one root per
tree per year. But you've got a deep root feed that tree to be
able to do that. Okay, but you know, and don't come in
here and try to cover it up with four or five, six, eight
inches of dirt because you'll suffocate the tree. The tree to out, yeah,
over it, especially a large area covering it up like that. Yeah,
the role of thumb is one root per tree per year. Deep root
feed the tree every year. You can't make the existing roots go down,
but you can start removing them, but you can keep more roots from coming
to the surface. All right, there you go. Hey, we're hitting
a hard break, Albert. I see you out there on the phones.
You will be first when we come back. Right now, I want to
give you our phone number one more time if you'd like to call in talk
to Martin seven one three two one two five eight seven four. Welcome back
to garden Line. I'm your host. Skip Richter. We're talking today with
Martin from the Affordable Tree Service. Martin Spoonmore has been doing this a long
time and he's helping answer tree questions today. So if you'd like to give
us a call seven to one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
For those of you who live in let's say central North central part of Houston,
Quality Feed and Garden Center is really your hometown feeds store there. I
used to go to Quality Feed when they were their other location, and now
they've moved to Luzon Street, which is near the intersection of Equipment and Alesion.
They're open Monday through Friday, nine to six, Saturday nine to four,
today eleven thirty to four pm. Now when you go into Quality Feed,
you're going into a Houston tradition. It's been around since nineteen twenty eight.
Ken and Chris have owned the place since it's been thirty two years now.
But in there, you're going to find all the fertilizers that I recommend,
all the pest disease and weed products that you might need. You're going
to find bulk seats. In fact, they have an antique seed rack from
nineteen twenty eight stocked with heirloom seeds, any kind of feed that you need,
and if you're all thinking about backyard chickens, you're not going to find
a better place in quality feed. They get shipments in all the time of
new chicks into the store and they have everything you need, all the things
you need to set up a backyard chicken, the feeders and the waters and
everything else in a day to the chicks. And then they even make their
own special Granny's laying mix for chicks. So it is a fun place to
visit. I always like going in there and visiting with Cken and Chris.
The website for more information qualityfeedcode dot com. Qualityfeedcode dot Com. Again.
They're on Luzon Street, near the intersection of Equipment and Allsion. Well,
Martin, we're back here. I've got Albert out here in Montgomery. Let's
go see what Albert has to say. Welcome Albert, Welcome, Welcome,
Thanks for taking my call. Yes, sir, I got two questions about
some nut all oaks. I got several of them. They're young trees,
probably ten foot tall. And it hasn't been raining much out here in Montgomery.
How during the winter time? How hot often do I water those trees.
Well, with the rain we're getting, you should be okay. But
if we go into another drought period you probably want to water them every other
day then. But you just watering the grass is not getting the moisture down
into the root zone. So you need to take you a little drill bit
eighteen inches and make you some holes around the drip line or where the tree
was planted, ten fifteen holes so you know the moisture is getting down into
the root zone. Okay, if you get water in your grass, you're
not getting nothing down into the root ball at all. The waters the grass
and dirts getting most of it. So you god make sure you get water
into that root ball. If they're about ten years old, that root ball
is probably going to be about eighteen inches twenty inches down. Put you a
bunch of holes around each one of them. Start flying the water. Okay.
And my other question is, come everywhere in march. What's your good
fertilizer to you use to get them going pretty good? There's all go ahead,
No go ahead, I say, I know you do the injections,
but do you ever do just a top dressing of fertilizer. No, no,
no, no, we only do the injections, okay, And we
love the Lasco products, the eight eight sixteen and the man I can't think
of the numbers all in my head right now, but we just we stick
to a lot of the less Co stuff. It seems to be doing well
for us on the trees. Uh. But you can use anything as uh
uh man. Any nitro falls and pertal home, any of that stuff makes
good fertilized for trees. I don't know, you know you can try those
people like that. I'm a good roots stimulator. Any Medina products for us
works well, has to grow soil activators, stuff like that. That's a
good, good point, Albert. The good news is right now your tree
is going to go deciduous and you don't have to worry about much hardly at
all about water till we get back in Montgomery. That we you shouldn't have
to do a bunch of water at all. But if we go through a
period like we did last year and then get out there and me holes as
you can get down around that root ball there you go. You know we
want to keep it. That's a good point. And you know last year
that was so brutal that I mean, it was hard to keep up period.
Years ago. Years ago, I saw a study in Stephenville, Texas
where they took a peach tree and they planted it in a giant pot that
had a scale under it. So it's kind of like where you used to
drive a truck across things and weigh your truck when you were hauling in,
and weigh it again when you were going out. Well, imagine a pot
with a peach tree. A mature peach tree they found was pumping forty gallons
a day in the summer at its leaves. Now you multiply that times a
big landscape tree and it's one hundred degrees for days and days and days on
end no rain. I mean, that's a lot of water, and it's
easy to go into pretty significant stress. And I know, Martin, I'll
tell you that when a tree gets in that situation, you got to do
something for it. Yeah, dude. We kept all three of our machines
running throughout the summer just doing deep root water, not even deep retfeeding on
some major eyeboaks and water oaks and red oaks pecans. People wanted to keep
them healthy and throughout the year. We probably didn't lose but maybe one through
the whole summer, which is not bad. But yeah, we go into
those drought piers like that Skip. It's the more water, more mort you
can get it down to that root ball, the better off you're going to
be with them. That's a that's a good trying to keep alive. Yeap,
Hey, Albert, thank you, thank you. I appreciate that call
very much, Thank you, sir. Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah,
Martin was referring to the hash to grow, the Medina hash to grow
six twelve six. I recommend it for any kind of planting. I mean,
certainly you put in a tree watered in with hasht to grow. It's
got the six twelve six, which is a nutrient, the macro nutrient content.
It's got seaweed extract, it's got humic acid in it, it's got
Medina soil activator. I even use it when I'm planting like a tamato plant,
or a flower in a flower bed, or a shrub like a rose,
or putting in a perennial plant. Martin, what I always tell people
is you water it in when you plant it, and then about five days
later I'll water those plant kind of plants in again with it and about five
days later again. I guess with a tree you could just keep going for
a while. But generally for most small plants like tomatoes and flowers and perennials,
three times about a week apart is a good way to give them a
boost. Yeah, and I recommend that the soil activator to pretty much anybody
that has the clay gumbos soil in this southern climate. If you've got trees
and plants and you've got just hard clave yeah gumbo that you can't dig through
it, the soil activator is going to be your number one. Apply that
every sixty to ninety days, just being I tell people, spray it on
your sidewalk. It'll make that grow. You know. It's just to me
and Medina soil Activater is one of the best out there. I wonder if
you finally get trees to grow. Yeah, that's well, that's a good
one, well said, I appreciate that. Well, we're running up here
against another top of the hour break. Are you able to hang around talk
a little bit after that? All right? Yeah, I'm good to go.
Okay, do you need to do I need to wait a minute while
you go make sure in it and the ladies approve that. Oh no,
they are all they're they got cookies and doughnuts putting out now, so all
right, I don't need them mad at me. We're good. That sounds
fun. Well, we will come back, and we will we will definitely
do that. We're hitting our little break time here in just a sec our
phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Let
me say that again, seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
If you will give Joshua call, he will get you on the boards
and when we come back after the top of the hour break, you will
be the first up. In the meantime, I want to remind you that
if you're interested in tomato growing and you haven't signed up for the Texas Tomato
Lovers Conference that is coming up on January thirteenth. Now, this is quite
a shind It gets an ol day deal. You get breakfast, you get
lunch, and you get a lot of talks. I'll be there talking about
the Ten Commandments of tomatoes. A doctor ong from the State Disease lab as
a talk and I love this. Sounds like a pathologist the beauty of disease
tomatoes. So I guess we'll have to find out what that means. Patty
Leander, writer for Texas Gardener Magazine, Best Varieties for twenty twenty four plus
eight Steps to Tomato Grafting Success, Destinoak, the Texas Garden guys can be
talking about mastering container grown tomatoes. Rosanne Green growing tomatoes with and for the
young family. I mean, it's a big deal, a big shindig.
It's limited space. It's going to be out there at the Emporium Chapel at
the Anti gurosing Fororium. So sign up soon the phone number two five four
eight four eight ninety three ninety three, or you can just email Sally at
Texas Gardener dot com Sally at Texas Gardener dot com to sign up for the
Texas Tomato Lover's Conference. By the way, if you've got a gardener in
the list, that would be a wonderful gift for them to be able to
go out and just spend a whole day learning about tomatoes in the beautiful setting
of the anti crosing program out there in Independence, Texas. We'll be right
back, Katie r. H. Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of
the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to Katie r. H
Garden Line with Scipe Richt. It's so crazy just watch him as well.
Welcome back to Garden Line. We're glad you're listening and we're talking trees this
afternoon or this morning. I'm already to the afternoon. We're talking with Martin
Spoonboorf from Affordable Tree Service and a lot of the things that you need to
know about in terms of how do you care for your trees, the things
we typically see done wrong, some of the trees that do a little bit
better here than others. So it just kind of wide open if you've got
a tree question. Dolls seven one three, two, one two five eight
seven four seven one three two fifty eight seventy four. I actually have an
open board right now. It'd be a great time to get in and have
an opportunity to talk to Martin pick his brain yourself right there off the bet.
If you live down in the Richmond area, you need to know about
Enchanted Forest. If you've never been there before, you really ought to go
in. Chenned Forest is a wonderful place. I always love going out there.
They have everything you could possibly need. Right now, there's some incredible
holiday seals going on. They've got forty percent off all the house plants,
succulents and cacti and cool season. This is holiday season, I mean house
plant season. We are at our house we I mean they've just got house
plants all over the place, taking care of them, make moving things around,
making sure they have what they need. And it beautifies the indoor part
of the home. Well when you're kind of honkered up inside because the weather
gets a little cool, if you don't want to be out in the garden,
take your house busy off forty percent off holiday decor, or twenty five
percent off Christmas trees and wreaths and holiday imrillas, even some of the smaller
points that is on sale as well. Now when you go to Enchanted,
you're going to find everything. Their vegetable section is packed with cool seasoned vegetables.
Their herb section has a wonderful array, a wide array of herbs.
And this is a good season to plant herbs. Anything that's perennial, whether
it's flowers or grasses, whether it's a rose bush, whether it's a tree.
When you get it planted during this season, it has a lot of
time to get those roots spreading out and starting to establish so that when the
hot weather arrives, you got a little bit of a head start. So
don't don't delay, go ahead and take advantage of the sales that are going
on right now. Any Channing Forest is a great, great place you can
go out FM twenty seven fifty nine out of Richmond. So if you're heading
up toward sugar Land Way, it's off to the right FM twenty seven fifty
nine. Enchanted Forests are you you know what? You could just go straight
to the websites too, I I you know, Enchanted Forest is uh.
They redid their website recently, and I think I've talked about this before,
but it is outstanding. Go check it out. It's Enchanted Forest, Richmond,
TX dot com. Simple as that. All right, we're gonna go
back. We got Martin here. Still are you still there, Martin?
I'm still here. Okay, I've been. I was a little worried that
the ladies that put you to work again doing something else. You know what,
These women at these church they'll find a way to get me doing things
around here. Yes, no, I know, but yeah, see it's
our Sunday to pull the trailer. So okay, we're like to sit up
team for our church. That's good. Oh, that's that's very good.
Yeah. You know usually those kind of conversations start with here, make yourself
useful, and then give you something to do. That's good. Yeah,
yeah, go ahead. No, that's I just was saying hello to some
of the church members. All right, good, yeah, I'm ready when
you are all right, good, Well, I want to talk just talking
about trees again a little bit. You know about proper tree training. A
lot of folks and you see this all the time when you go to a
site, you see a tree that was not trained properly, and now you've
got these really narrow branch angles or something where the bark gets kind of included
and it's likely to split off during a storm and stuff. I think early
tree training is really important. Like you to comment on some of that as
well, Yeah, it does. It's a you know, if you get
trees where they're like you said on the construction site and that things are just
hanging down everywhere, you want to start training the tree to grow up and
you glad lives will snap off of it. You've got to be able to
straightened that up so the tree can heal itself up. But you really want
to start doing this underneath? Can't you work so you can't get the tree
to grow in the proper wayfore you skip. That's that's that's a good point
when they just don't want to go there to start cutting limbs off. Yeah,
one side the other. If you can't don't know what you're doing,
then you're going to really mess the tree up. So it's good to have
somebody like us who knows how to somebody has an eye like I do for
tree trimmy. Yep, all right, all right, we're good. Yeah.
They just give us a call whenever they needed They mentioned a guardline,
buddy, then we put them at the top of our list. All right.
Well, we tell them to do that all the time, and not
to delay because when you do a job right like you'll do, you tend
to stay busy. And so don't wait till the end of winter to give
them a call. Yeah, get on, I have to. I tell
people they want to know when to start calling me. I'll tell them already
in August to get on my schedule for October to February. Yeah, because
after that. But after the fifteenth of October, we just we get covered
up really really fast. And it's all due to the garden Line. Thank
you. Skip you know, but they are yearly just they know this time
to year to prove these trees out when that tree is formant light. Now,
okay, well we staying busy. All right? Well, good,
that's what you want to do. I'm a run take a call. I
don't think this is a tree related, but let me let me check on
this one. Steven from clear Lake. Welcome to garden Line, Thanks sir.
Actually, I do have a tree that needs a lot of help.
I think it's dead, but it's still green because all the weeds that are
growing up over it. So I'll probably send Martin the picture. But what
I called you about. I sent you a picture of a weed that's pervasive
in my yard and my significant other's yard had little, tiny white flowers,
and just wondered if it had a chance. You see that I got an
email from was that Mark? Yeah, okay, I use Stephen because I
don't want my friends to know how stupid I am when I'm on the air.
Well, don't worry about that. We won't worry about that what your
weed is. That's called slender ast Slender astra sprouts during the warm season and
it grows unnoticed in your lawn unless your lawn is drought stressed. A slender
astra has a bluish green leaf, and it really shows up in a lawn
that's dying from drought. But when people really notice it in when the little
dime size white, pink, lavenderish color daisy like flowers start to bloom.
At this point, it's too late to spray. It's already reproductive, it's
already got seeds viable on it. Your best bet is to pull it out
as much as you can get out, because every flower's got fifty seeds and
a plant one hundred flowers. So you pull one plant and you've done some
good. So maybe you can't put it all out, But the more you
get out the better. It's a taproot, so in moist soil, you
just grab it where it goes in the ground, kind of wiggle as you
pull, and it'll come right out. You can use a weeding fork if
you want. But I've got a patch next to a neighbor who doesn't take
care of their weeds ever, and their slender aster comes in and I just
go out there with a five gallon bucket on Saturday morning and spend a little
bit of time, fill the bucket up, and do it again next Saturday.
Well, I've not used a weaeding for it. Does that make it
easier than just grabbing it with your fingers, because it comes up pretty easy
if they can get a good grip on it. Yes, it does for
me too. Some people's hand strength isn't enough to really hang on, and
some people, if the soil is not moist enough, it'll just break off,
and so some people use a weeding fork to help out. But that's
the best bet. You can use a pre emergent next year to prevent the
seeds from getting established. But anyway, okay, all right, that's great,
thank you very much. And the reason I use an alias is because
I once heard that there's no stupid questions, there are only stupid people asking
them. No, I say, there's no stupid questions, there's stupid answers.
Although I have heard stupid questions, I pretend that they're not. Uh,
I'll worry about giving a stupid answer. You take care. Thank you
very much for that call. We're gonna take a break here, Ed and
Marvel will be the first about two up when we come back with Martin in
just a moment our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy
four. Than all right, welcome back to guarden Line. We're glad you
are here. We got Martin spoon Moore from Affordable Tree Service helping with some
tree related questions today. And Martin, I'm gonna have to run right back
to the phones. We got them lining up again here. We're going to
go to ed in cat Spring. Hello, Ed, how you doing?
I got a quick question on a red oak tree. All right, it's
been planted about ten years and I'm noticing the box splitting up pretty good around
the bottom area down there. I don't see any green wood, you know
when I peek in there to look at it. Uh, that's something about
find wise all right, Martin, Martin, what do you think here?
Have the questions? Kip? It was cutting out? Okay, we've got
a yah it was. But I think I believe that just Ed correct me
if I'm wrong. Was that he's got a red oak and at the base
the bark is splitting that that show is the tree still have foliage on it.
Yeah, I'm sorry. The song's breaking up. Yeah, y yes,
Uh, what it's turning from from? Uh the weather? Okay,
Well, that's showing signs of stress on the bark. So the deep root
feeling will help you with that. But you also would want to put a
Freeni sealer on it. Uh, you know, it's just to kind of
steal that wound. Uh. But definitely get the tree on a feeding program
where you're supplying with what it needs to cycle correctly. It's just showing signs
of stress. Okay. The drought weather this year, red oaks were one
of the hardest ones to keep alive throughout the year, uh, with this
drought. So the more you can deep root feed it, the better the
tree is going to be. Thank you, all right, Well you take
care. Yeah. A lot of times, you know, Martin, in
a yard, people will get the lawnmower and the weed eater too close to
the trunk and out in a pasture they got the brush hog banging up against
the trunk and you can do a lot of damage down there. Oh yeah,
you just got to be careful around expecting the red oaks. The bark
is very salt on it, and it don't take much. And without putting
a pair of eyes on his skip, you know yourself, it's kind of
hard to see what it is. But sure sounds like he's talking to stress.
But right again, we eat her a lot more too. They just
gotta be careful around the red oaks and the maples, that is true.
Something else, Martin that I've gotten a number of calls on in the past
year is what we call southwest injury. Where you've got the young like a
red oak that has very thin bark, it hadn't developed the thick bark yet,
and the sun shines late in the day, the warmest part of the
day about four PM, and the cool season, it's baking down on that
southwest side of the trunk, and the juices start to flow, and that
night the temper drops down and you get these splits on the southwest side.
We've had a number of pictures come in. Typically someone will call and I'll
say, is that on the southwest side, And you hear the silence while
they try to figure out which direction it is, and then they're like,
yeah, how would you what southwest? What? How how do you know
that? But you probably have seen that before. You know, it's get
a lot of these nurseries, except where you go buy them people planning their
self, they don't. They don't do a very good job at maintaining the
red oaks. And I mean said, whenever you apply one, you want
to make sure this it doesn't have the splits in it, It don't have
any decayed spots in the trunk of the tree. H You just got to
look for those kind of things when you're planting those red oaks. All right,
they are a beautiful tree and one of my favorites to plant do well.
We just got to make sure you get a good one. That's a
good point. Well, now we're going to go out to Marv in Richmond.
Hello, Marv, Howdy howdy, good show there. I have a
live oak that I a Southern live oak that I planned about two and a
half years ago, and I've been trying to four feet it to get it
going. It was probably i don't know, six feet tall something. I've
got it like a twenty feet now and it's about six feet a tree drip
line. Your customary lawn fertilizer is three one two during the growing year,
and then you usually put your lawn to sleep with a one two three fertilizer?
Now, is it okay if I take that one two three fertilizer and
fertilize that tree with it at this time of the year. And the way
I fertilize, I take a rod and I poke it down into the ground
about a tripe about twelve fourteen inches deep around the drip line with about twenty
holes, and I bet I put probably close to twelve to fifteen pounds of
fertilizer in those holes. Is it okay to do that again this time of
the year with one two three fertilizer force feed it. I don't understand that,
but yeah, I don't know. I'm not familiar with that fertilized I
would tell you a smart play would be go to if it's only two years
old, go to a Medina product which is all organic Medina has to grow
and feeds your tree with that for a few years. I don't think I'd
be using any type of grass fertilize on it. I'm not familiar what you're
using, but you gotta be careful with some of that grass products because you
start putting products down with that tresine in it and then trees that will wind
up dying on him. Oh no, I'll be careful with that. I
do use the nicrofos stuff then, you know, you know nineteen five nine
or the six twelve sixteen. Yeah, you never we're gonna hear me say
anything bad about nitrofals, Yeah, Marva, the nitroposs product that is used
typically on lawns in the fall as an eight twelve sixteen. Uh right,
And then that we'd lower the nitrogen because we're not trying to push the grass
to grow, would trying to get that potassium in it for cold heartiness and
preparing it for coming into out in the spring. And that is exactly the
one I'm using. That's why I'm asking if it's okay on the tree.
Yeah, just make sure you're getting the hold down about eighteen inches okay,
finally not that far, but it is. Yeah, the rootball on that
tree is gonna be about twelve to eighteen inches deep. Okay. I'm going
to make sure you get all the way around it. Okay, all right,
thank you, Okay, all right, Mark, thanks for call.
Appreciate that. I appreciate that very much. Uh. You know, we're
talking all kinds of things trees today here with Martin spoon Moore from Affordable Tree
Service, and uh, we've talked a little bit about some different aspects of
trees and whatnot. I was talking to someone a while back, Martin about
the cypress trees. And I've got a house up in College Station that has
three cypress trees in the yard and they're the old ball cypress. So those
darn darn knees are coming up everywhere, and that it's a clay soil stays
a little wet, and boy, that is a lawnmower target that I just
don't I could do without. But I don't know what you Is there anything
you do about that kind of problem. What we do for customers with them,
we show them that We tell them to get your little pick axe because
they're so soft. Skip you just wing that pick axe one time. It'll
take that whole right off for you. Yeah, that's what a lot of
customer customers, they love those trees. Falls Piper is a beautiful tree to
me, but once those ds start, they don't stop. But man,
it's such very soft. You could take your little grubbing hole or a little
chopping eggs and just man, they'll come right off. Nothing to them.
Yeah, well that way. Someone told me that a while back. And
you know what I found. If you picture a tree leaving the trunk and
going out into the yard and then there's this bump sticking up the not I'll
take my grubbing hoe and I'll hit it on the tree side, and then
I'll hit it on the other side, and that whole section pops right out
real easy. I was surprised at how easy that is. Yeah, we
have we have our little chopping picking axe is what we carry on our trucks.
We take when we take roots out for people and they'll ask us about
the knees and we'll show them, Hey, we can get one or two
for you, but you're gonna you'll have a million before you know. It's
a pekil grubbo and here's the way to do it. They come right off.
Yeah, but you're not gonna stop it once it starts. Yeah,
that's a good point. There are actually some types of cypress that don't do
that, like the manta zuma cypress. Isn't bad about that. Yeah,
I know a guy up at Steven F. Austin University. Uh, he's
a horticulture professor. He uh has gone to China and brought back germ plasm
from cypress trees there that don't have knees, and he's been selecting seeds from
all those to find the best ones to grow here. And I think that'd
be a good service to just have a cypress that doesn't do that people could
put in their yards, because it does get old chopping those knees out,
it does. But that cypress, I tell you they're good. You got
standing water in your yard or property somewhere that you just can't get rid of
the water. Put you a bald cypress or any cypress out there, give
it, give it a year, two years that water be gone. Well,
there you go. I got a friend that did that in sugar Land.
He's he put about eight of them in there. He tried his backyard
completely up. Okay, that's a that's a good approach, a good approach
to it. So when when you are out, you know, taking care
of folks trees and stuff, do y'all ever deal with insects and diseases and
things like that or is that a whole different area you don't mess with.
Now, we take care of anything that consistent tree works. If we sprayed
for the insects, the pine mark, beetle, the wooden board, we
treat for funguses, anything that consists the tree work. You know. Me,
I don't do grass and lawns and fences and all that stuff. I'm
strictly a tree. All right. We're good. Yeah, we treat every
every tree. If if it can be saved, we'll tell you. Let
us see if we can save it. If it can't, I'll tell you
that too. I will not waste the timer money on it. Well,
and that's what I tell people on the air, that you're not gonna sell
them something that they don't need. You know, one of the issues we're
having a lot lately is crape myrtle bark scale. You know that the sooty
mold just gets all over them, and that that's not an easy one to
get rid of. No now, but time they get it dust, they
done did the crap. They got tired of looking at it. They do
the crepe myrtle mascar on it. There you go, that's what people think
here, let's just cut it off. Yeah, Well, no, we're
good, all right. Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna have to take another
break. Can you hang around for the next time? All right, I'm
all everybody, all right, we'll keep talking. Hey, if you want
to ask Martin a question, give us a call. It's three seven to
one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two
kt r H. If you like to doll boy the letters and you can
pick Martin's brain and I'll jump in there and we will just see whatever kinds
of questions you have on trees, We'll we'll dive right into it. So
feel free to do that. We're going to take a break now and turn
it over to Nicky for the news. I can't go wrong with a sleep
at the wheel. There's that Western swing. Hey, you're listening to garden
Line and we're talking to Scott McGrath. Scott McGrath, I was just talking
to somebody about best control. A minute ago. We're talking to Martin Spoon
Moore. Martin, you don't you don't spray for roaches? Do you see
there? Hold on just a second, let me get more there we go,
get Martin up here. Martin, I did you hear that? What?
Oh? I was just saying. We're here with Scott McGrath, and
then I said, oh, I'm just talking to somebody about pest control a
minute ago. You don't spray for roaches, do you. Okay, you
got control work, You got plenty you can do. Hey, I want
to ask you. I want to ask you a little bit about tree removal.
In fact, I have several things I want to ask about, but
tell me a little bit about the tree removal process. I know that you
were talking about you don't plant pines. Boy, I tell you, when
a pine dies and that bark starts to come loose, that it's interesting to
climb, doesn't it. Yeah, it's very tricky. You really need to
know what you're doing. But as long as the tree is holding its needles,
even if the bark has come off, it's still you can still get
up it pretty safely. Just got to live it out and then block it
out slowly. Yeah, it says you don't want to leave a pine tree
standing too long after the bark and once the needles drop off of it,
it really gets dangerous. Okay, as soon as they die, the stapess
they do is get the pine out of there. Yeah. Well, somethings
with water ropes too, if they die, man, try to pull those
things out within a thirty or sixty days, because the longer you let it
stands, the mortals dry out, and the more dangerous it is to climb.
Okay, and you know, I know, I know that you guys
are insured. And I joke a lot about the what I call two jerks
on a chainsaw tree service. Basically, somebody owns a chainsaw and a pickup
and they drive around sticking business cards in people's doors. When you start looking
at somebody that doesn't have insurance, a lot can go wrong. Even to
a trained person, occasionally something can go wrong, and insurance is essential.
Yeah, you want to have that ability to cover their property, houses and
stuff. And you also want to have that workman's comp to cover if somebody
does fall out of one of those trees. Okay, you don't have those
two things, I would send them on down the road. Yes, we
don't really a tree company. Don't really need to be bonded. Everybody asked
us if we're bonded, but we don't. That's only good for like test
controls and somebody that's actually going inside the home. We have no business inside
your home or your garage. All of our works outside, so we we
care the general liability and the workings count. Well. I've watched uh,
let's just say, cheap tree companies. You know, people that come along
for some little bargain fee to fix the take things out, and I've watched
the horror stories that come from that. Number one, bad bad workmanship.
Number two leaving a mess when they drive off. Now you just have this
huge mess in your yard that didn't clean it up. And then the insurance
is another thing, and that's why it's so important to go with someone that
knows what they're doing and has taking the professional responsibility of things like insurance,
which I know you guys do. Yeah, it's just there's that chuck in
a truck is what we call them. Truck Yeah, chucking a truck.
It goes down to home depot, you get to a song. Next thing,
you know, he's a tree man. There you go. Don't there
anything about it? How hard can it be? I mean, you just
put the song. It's pretty rough sometimes, but I've been doing it for
fifty six years. Yeah, about fifty six years I've been doing treework,
so I've seen it all. Well, I believe it or not. I've
taken a few trees down in my time, not commercially, not you know,
right next to a six million dollar house or anything like that, and
just out in the field. And with pines, you know, they grow
and people probably don't realize this, but they grow twisting like a barber pole,
and so you've got grain that's kind of not just going up and down,
it's kind of spiraling and sometimes you cut and it goes a weird direction
you didn't see coming. Yeah, you really be careful. We're making cuts
on pines and even some of the bigger oaks. You just gotta know where
to not know how to cut it, because it can get away from me
quickly. There's a lot of fun stuff on YouTube that I love to watch,
Like somebody I saw one the other day. It must have been like
a Norfolk Cottumn pine down in the tropics, but it's a very tall,
skinny tree. The guy cut the top off of it and it made lean
to the side when the top fell, and luckily he was belted in because
that tree came whipping up and I mean it flung him around like I don't
know how I hang under that tree, but it was it was scary looking.
Yeah, I've seen the one on there there was a guy in the
palm tree and when it bent it Ben shot him like a sling shot.
Yeah, change that kind of stuff, But that happens here in Houston every
day. Oh my gosh. I have a collection of videos or photos that
are called why Women Live Longer Than Men? And there's one, Martin where
a guy has a forklift all the way up to the top and there are
two fifty five gallon drums on the forklift and a guy standing on the top
fifty five gallon drum to cut on a tree. So what could go wrong
with that? Yeah, it's like if I did that, my wife would
get on the phone and call the insurance company really quick to try to get
me insure it up as possible, because oh my god, that's not gonna
end. Well, hey, Martin, I've got to go ahead. Uh
yeah. We love the people that use the ladders. Those those get those
forty foot ladders out and go cut top the three off and next thing you
know, they're laying on the ground and so is the ladder. Oh boy,
every day, I tell you that's it's sad and scary, but it's
true. Hey, We're gonna go out to Dayton now and take a phone
call from Marshall. Hey, Marshall, how are you doing? Hey?
How are you doing? Skip good? Hey? I got a quick question.
I was looking to order from a nursery to Oklahoma red bud trees and
because they to me, they what I've seen, they cluster out more on
the flowers than Eastern red bud. H what do you think of going with
something like an Oklahoma red bud? Oklahoma's fine, It's it's kind of one
of the standard varieties that everybody knows, you know, been around a long
time. There are a lot of other good ones. There's there's some that
have a very interesting color, kind of a burgundy look to the foliage.
There's some that one that is called Sunrise or something like that that's kind of
got golden yellows and orange bronze the oranges to the foliage. And but I
tell you a lot, and it's it's hard to find. But the true
Texas red bud, not the Eastern red bud with the heart shaped leaf with
a point at the bottom, but the Texas it's got a more leathery leaf,
a little bit shiny, uh and it's more rounded without such a prominent
point. I've seen one of those growing outside a Lano, Texas, in
a pasture between the highway. It was right growing right in the fence line,
and I mean it was green and happy in the grass all around it.
It turned brown from the heat of summer, and that really impressed me.
And So if you're looking for something that's a little tougher for the tough,
hot, full sun of exposures, Texas red budd is also a good
one. I can't seem to find anything other than Eastern red bud around here.
Yeah, you're gonna have to think outside the box of red buds because
they're hard to find, and if you get some fine one, it's not
gonna be in that good a shape because of the freezes a couple of years
ago, the drought last year. A lot of nurseries and that's all they'll
have. But you're gonna have to go outside of the Houston area, like
Skiff was saying, and search that way for red buds, any de size
red bud, or any type of good red budd, because these nurseries nowadays
will tell you anything that's just chewed up, being beat up and broken and
that's not what you're looking for. Hey, I'm gonna have to jump in
here, Marshall. Can you hang on just a little bit. I gotta
go to a break and we can come back to your be happy to continue
this discussion. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight
to seventy four. We got fifty minutes left on the show today. If
you want to call in, now's the time to do it. Welcome back
to Garden Line. We're glad you're listening today. I wanted to tell you
about a couple of things we were talking about fertilizing trees and products and whatnot.
Microlife Fertilizer has what I refer to as their blue plus blue. Now
that means a bag, a dry, dry fertilizer bag of Microlife Ultimate eight
four six. It's an organic fertilizer. And then the liquid is Microlife Ocean
Harvest. That's a fish based fertilizer. Those are used a lot of people
use them when they're planting their trees. A lot of people use them on
all kinds of things that you mean, you use them anything from lawn to
vegetables and whatnot. But those two products can pack a really good punch.
Being an organic, they're not salt based, so you're not likely to burn
roots or you're not gonna burn roots with them. The Ocean harvest is even
good as a foliar spray. And you can find Microlife products everywhere. You
can go online to Microlife Fertilizer dot com find out locations, or you can
just go to a place like south Fertilizer. You know Bob Over at Southwest
Fertilizer. He carries every fertilizer you can imagine, and then some everything I
recommend here on guardline. And he's in Southwest Houston, the corner of Bissinette
and Runwick. You can go to his website is Southwest Fertilizer dot com.
You're going to find the best selection of herbicides and exercies and fungicides anywhere.
At Southwest Fertilizer dot com. There's an eighty foot wall of garden tools.
There's a Christmas gift idea for you. And also he's got that kneeling bench
I always talk about. It folds up and you can use it as a
sitting bench out when you're doing garden work. You can flip it over and
kneel down on it, and it's got those those legs that serve as handles
to get up and down. If you're nowhere north of forty, you know
how important that is. But Southwest Fertilizer is it's been around since nineteen fifty
five. It's an institution. And the way I like to put it is,
if they don't have it as Southwest Fertilizer, you don't need it,
because that's pretty much the way it is. We're going to go back out
now to Marshall and we were here with Martin Spoon, Moore and Marshall.
You were talking about that red bud, and I want to give you a
few places to try. You may strike out on this, but we've got
the RCW Nursery that has Williamson Tree Farm up in Plannersville, so they grow
a lot of different kinds of trees. You've got Verdant Tree Farms, got
three different locations here in the Houston area. They grow a lot of different
kinds of trees. And then Buchanans is a retail nursery done in the Heights.
It specializes in natives and they might be able to get that Texas red
bud in for you. They'll reach out to native nurseries over in the Austin
area and whatnot. And then Arburgate out in Tomball is another one that has
a wide variety. So any of those give them a call and see if
they have it or if they can get it, and I bet one of
those or more will be able to find that tree for you. Hey,
I sure appreciate that, thank you. Okay, all right, Well that
was a lot Martin. I didn't know if you had anything else you wanted
to add to the gate. Uh and Corney is probably be your best shots
if you're in town to order a red bud like that. All right.
I don't think for nant are those are going to have those type of red
buds. I'm not one hundred percent sure. Yeah, Uh, Arbrogate or
Cornelius to be able to get something a lot quicker. Yeah, good point.
Hey Marshall, thanks for the call. I appreciate that very much.
Sometimes you just got to call around. You know, a lot of times
those those plants that are really unique and special are hard to find because people
don't ask. They don't ask for Nobody goes around asking for a Texas Red
Bud or or there are a lot of other things that I wish we had
more of here, like those cypress that don't produce these, but people don't
ask for them, so you're not going to find them. Yeah, just
research to find it. Yeah, okay, Hey, let me ask you
some more questions about stuff you guys do that I know other people are interested
in. You do root barricading, and a lot of times people and you
go into older parts of huon these big beautiful trees and the sidewalks look like
the rocky mountains. I mean by kill yourself trying to ride a bike done
the sidewalk. Tell me about root barricading, what's done and what it will
and won't accomplish. Root barricading is expensive. It's just about cheaper to cut
the tree than it is to time you buy the right material to put it
in. But what we do is trench along the side of the home about
about a foot away from the home if it can be done. If it
can be you got room to get in their work about twenty four inches deep,
and then we'll fly to Plexi glass three eighths plexi glass, or if
you want to spend a little more money, they make an actual root barricade,
but we'd have to get it out of trail out of North Carolina.
Okay, but it's lifetime warrant to either one of those. I last a
lifetime. Then put it down twenty four inches and make sure we cut the
roots. Steal the roots up after you cut them, and then put the
froot bear came in the deep root feeds the tree. All right, it'll
beep that forever. Good. That's good. A little work to get fruit.
Berri is the Sometimes it's it's easier just to take the tree out.
It's cheaper just to take the tree out than it is because root berry about
about three grand every eight feet. Holy molyh Okay, that's why you say
take on the flightway. Yeah, just another example of how doing things right
to begin with can help avoid some major expense down the line. Yeah.
I think the last one it was right at three thousand, thirty five hundred
every eight feet. Okay, mark off eight feet and there's thirty five hundred
bucks. That's material, labor and to install it. Yeah. It's not
a simple thing, that's for sure. Hey. One other question is about
stump grinding. I know you guys do that too, Yes, sir,
well, tell us a little bit about what you do and what you know
what situations that's especially helpful. The Well, if you got stumps that you're
trying to get out of your yard, what we do is have you get
called the four one one, have them come out and market. If you've
got sprinklers and water lines and gas lines, electrical lines. Before we can
grind that stump, all of that has to be marked everything because that machine
will just tear it. It's designed to tear the stump out, grind it
completely out, and it all depends on how deep you want to go with
it. Where's the stump. Our machine has to have a thirty six inch
opening from the street to the stump to be able to grind it. Okay,
and we'll grind it down about eight or ten inches for you and then
watch your grass grow back over it. But yeah, we don't put that
grinder on anything unless everything is marked. Yes, you know, so we
know what's there. We don't dig around transformer boxes and stuff like that.
You don't know what's there. Yeah, And well you have to get that
number out again because there's gonna be people that are out there just doing some
other thing in the yard digging and it's free to have them come market right.
Yeah, I think it was a one one. That's what it is.
The call. Yeah, you come to market for you. There have
been several numbers I've seen over the years like that. But you, I
guess a little quick Google search would find exactly what you want. You're just
trying to market your water lines and electrical lines because you're gonna take a stump
out, Yeah, and they'll come out and market for free for you.
Well, when you grind the stump, you got a lot of wood chips
mixed in with the soil there. Uh, you want all of that haul
the way too? Yeah, every been that that needs to be. That's
not good for anything. A lot of people like to keep it. We
tell them it's your choice, but we haul a lot away because it's not
really it's not really good for flower beds or if you've mayby got a lot
of properly with the low spots, you can put it out there. But
for it to be any good, it had to break it up, and
like compost, let it set up for years and it's turned it into a
compost pile. Yeah, just cut grinding stump, throwing the flower beds.
It's not really good for that. Yeah. Well, and when you mix
all that wooden with soil, it's gonna sink as it decays over time.
So what was level will become a whole again. Yep, sure will do
you do you have any recommendations when someone has a stump from a former tree?
How close do you recommend planting another tree to that? Some people want
to put them in the exact same spot, or what do you say?
So a lot of people, when they let me take down a tree,
we'll tell them a lot of a lot of companies won't go back. You're
not supposed to go back in the same spot for like two years after the
stump's been grinded. But you can move it over a tree ten feet in
either direction if you got room to work with away from the stop and plants
a new tree. That's good. That is good information. I don't know
if you can hear it, go back on top of old stump, all
right, Martin. I don't know if you can hear the music, but
I can, and it's saying this show is coming to an end. I
so appreciate you being on today. Thank you, thank you. This is
Martin spoon more. Go ahead it with Missy and we'll set it up for
a January. We could come me in on a Saturday. Do the radio
show sounds like fun. The website is afftree service dot com and the phone
number seven one three six' nine nine twenty six sixty three. If you're
answered and having Martin do the work, don't delay. Get the call in
now because he's going to get booked up here, and that with thirty years
of experience and doing things right, that that's kind of how things go.
So please do that, Martin, Thank you, and please tell the ladies
there that I so appreciate them them allowing me to take away their worker today