Tips & Tricks for Plant Health

Some health care tips for plants growing in Berkeley Heights, New Providence, Summit, NJ and the surrounding towns.

Horticultural Oil 

Help protect your plants from insect and mite damage without using a pesticide. Horticulture Oil -or- Dormant oil is applied in late winter to early spring. This oil covers and reduces populations of insects, mites, adelgids, scales, galls and their eggs living and feeding on your plants. In many cases, one annual application in the early spring may keep you plants insect free all season. 

Get in the habit of making inspections a few times a year and if you see discolored plants give us a call.

Insect & Disease Control

Unfortunately, Horticultural Oil does not solve all insect problems. If your plants have anything serious or get infected during the season they will need one or more insect control treatments to stop the problem. Insects love to live on your plants, they prefer a sunny location where they can stay warm, sleep, eat and raise a big family. So chances are sooner or later you will need to spray to keep things in check. 

Diseases are also a widespread problem, if you want healthy plants it is only a matter of time before you will need to spray.

Again, inspect and spray when needed or you will be replacing your plants in the future.   

Deep Root Feeding

Improve your plant's overall health, growth, color, and strength with annual Deep Root Injection Feeding. An annual treatment will help increase the value of your landscape. If you were going to do one thing to help your Trees & Shrubs this would be it.

Landscape Pruning

Our second most important tip is proper landscape pruning. if your plants are not pruned correctly it will result in damaged, weakened, and unhealthy plants. Annual pruning of your shrubs and ornamental trees is essential for healthy plant growth. Sorry, we do provide pruning services to our customers. 

Landscape Mulching

Laying mulch in your landscaping beds around your plants, trees, and shrubs comes with many benefits. If mulch is laid incorrectly it can also be damaging to your plants. For example, if you lay mulch very thick around the base of a tree, creating a “volcano” like mound, this causes excessive moisture retention that can lead to insect invasion, girdling of the tree, and even rotting. Correct mulching offers many benefits to your plants, such as helping to retain soil moisture, preventing soil erosion, reducing the amount of weed growth and the best benefit is, it looks GREAT! Check out a few of our mulching tips:

• The total depth of the mulch should be 1 ½” to 3”.
• If your landscaping beds already have a layer of mulch, don’t add a heavy mulch layer on top of that. Just enough new mulch to refresh the look.
• Over-mulching can create plant problems and an overall decline in plant health.
• Only lay a light layer of mulch against the trunk of trees, shrubs, and around the base of your house.
• If the mulch becomes too compact you need to break it up, this usually happens in late summer and early fall. When mulch becomes this hard, water and air cannot penetrate the mulch, leading to plant health issues.
• Once a year we recommend a light mulching with a high-quality mulch. You could also choose to mulch every other year with a heavier application of good quality mulch.

Deer Repellent Spraying

Deer can destroy your landscape plants in a matter of moments and they also can infest your property with other serious problems. Deer ticks carry Lyme and other dangerous diseases. If you have deer on your property you will have ticks. Deer dropping in your yard are a serious health hazard, especially to your pets, and it is not a fun job to clean it up.

Good news, deer are creatures of habit, deer repellent treatments will remove the desirable food source on your property and will retrain deer to look for food elsewhere.

Winter Wilt Protection

Winter wilt proofing, also known as an anti-desiccant or antitranspirant spray protects transpiration loss and damage from evergreen plants.

Check out our Blog on this important winter application.

Check out Plant Health Care Services and if you're located in Berkeley Heights, New Providence, Summit, contact us today.

Click or call us at TOLL FREE 1-888-LAWNTEC and let us develop a customized plan of care to preserve, protect and increase the value of your landscape investment.

Required NJ Licenses: NJ Certified Pesticide License #94858A & NJ Certified Fertilizer Applicators #C004782