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My buddy told me to fertilize a sick oak in July, worst advice ever
So last summer I had this big red oak in my backyard in Columbus that was looking rough, leaves turning yellow and dropping early. My friend Mike who does landscaping part time said just hit it with some high nitrogen fertilizer and it'll bounce back. I figured he knew what he was talking about since he works with plants all day. Well I dumped a bag of 30-10-10 around the base like he said and within two weeks the tree looked even worse more leaves dropped and the bark started cracking. Turns out you never fertilize a stressed tree during a drought in July it just burns the roots even more. The arborist I called out said I basically shocked it into decline and it took two seasons to recover. Any of you guys ever had a well meaning friend give you tree care tips that backfired?
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kai_burns731mo ago
Haha "like giving coffee to someone who hasn't slept in three days" that is exactly what I did to my birch tree last year. My neighbor said hit it with some miracle grow and I ended up with a crispy skeleton by August.
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rileyprice1mo ago
Your buddy Mike probably meant well but that's classic part time landscaper advice right there. In my experience trees handle stress way different than lawns do and dumping nitrogen on a struggling oak is like giving coffee to someone who hasn't slept in three days. The arborist I talked to a few years back said the same thing about my maple that I nearly killed with a similar mistake. He told me that when a tree is stressed from heat or drought the roots are already struggling to take up water and piling on fertilizer just makes it worse. Best advice I ever got was to water deep and slow during dry spells and leave the fertilizer for fall when the tree is actually ready for it.
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