When I moved here three or four years ago, I thought the evergreen trees out back were saplings. Talking about them with my landlord and the other people living here I found out those trees were planted about ten to twelve years ago. On close inspection I found they were in really bad shape.
I did some research and identified them as black spruce trees, though I would consult a real expert before saying that with any certainty. Instructions on the internet said to prune the trees any time of year to remove anything that's dead, fertilize the trees and provide them with water during extended periods without rain.
I started in with pruning. I removed everything with a dry fungal growth on it, and all the branches and twigs that had no needles. I continue doing that. I have to be on the cautious side because I could easily prune so much that the trees would no longer be there. That's not my goal here. Then I fed them with the fertilizer that I had, which was Miracle Grow. It's not the best for this but when that's all I have it's better than nothing.
With more internet searches and visits to Canadian Tire I found a granular fertilizer for evergreen trees and woody shrubs.
I think I have enough of this stuff to feed the trees through next spring. I first got the stuff in the fall three years ago and fed them in October. They should be fed in early spring - March or April and again in mid to late July. They have been fed three times since then. Last year I started feeding this fertilizer to the crab apple tree out front. Although the fertilizer is probably not the ideal thing for the tree it appears to be doing very well. Check out how it flowered at its peak.
The bees had a field day. I counted seven different kinds. With the flowers all fertilized the tree has since dropped all its petals. Nevertheless it looks very healthy.
Since I started working on the evergreen trees they have each grown about a foot or so taller. It's hard to tell for sure but it looks like their trunks are slightly bigger. Almost all the fungal growth is gone now.
We haven't had any rain for about ten or twelve days. Today I checked on the evergreen trees. I watered them around their bases with the hose for about five minutes each and then photographed them. They have put out some pine cones and are showing signs of getting ready to extend their branches.
In the following pictures each tree starts with a full shot of the tree and ends with a photograph of its top.
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| Of the three trees this was definitely in the worst shape. |
