Monsoon Season Tree Care In Arizona

If you are searching for “Monsoon Season Tree Care In Arizona” you are most likely looking to preserve your trees before the storm, or are looking for information about helping care for trees after a monsoon has been through the Phoenix area.

• When Is Monsoon Season?
• What Is A Microburst?
• How Does It Damage My Trees?
• Basic Tips for avoiding storm damage.
• How To Stake Trees.
• Tree Care and Maintenance.

When Is Monsoon Season?

The period between June 15^th to September 30^th is considered the Monsoon season.  This is an estimated period of time and strong storms can and do occure before and after these dates.

The term monsoon comes from the Arabic word Mausim, which means wind shift or season. It is basically a shift in the wind direction that has caused a meteorological event. Depending on the size and duration, the downburst can be called a microburst. The time between June 15^th and September 30^th has been called the Monsoon season. This is a time during the summer that will normally bring extreme heat, which can be followed up by excessive amounts of moisture in the air which causes large thunderstorms that are caused by fast winds. These thunderstorms will give a lot of danger that will strike suddenly and with very violent forces.

What Is A Microburst?

The national weather service describes a microburst as a localized column of sinking air within a thunderstorm.  Generally they are equal to or less than 2.5 miles in diameter.  With the concentrated winds and potential for enormous sudden precipitation they can be extremely dangerous and life threatening.  There are 2 types of mircrobursts, a dry microburst and wet microburst.

When a sudden downdraft of wind is accompanied with significant and sudden rainfall it is a wet microburst.  A dry microburst is when the wind is not accompanied by rain. With winds that can reach up to 100 mph or higher there is no surprise that they can cause significant damage.  In fact that kind of wind is equal to a EF-1 Tornado!  This can damage homes and completely destroy trees in your landscape.

How Does It Damage My Trees?

Whenever it is followed up with heavy rain, the tree will become more vulnerable to the heavy winds. The heavy rain causes over saturation in the soil, so even if the tree has healthy roots it will have a weaker hold. In this type of case, most of the root system will be exposed if the tree happens to fall over. Your best efforts will not be able to prepare the tree to withstand extreme winds that come with monsoons. Although, there is a lot of preparation that you should and can do to help lower your storm damage potentials to the trees. The most important tip of all is to pay attention: be sure to monitor your trees whenever there is heavy wind or rain, and then take the right steps as needed. You may contact us if you have any issues.

Basic Tips for avoiding storm damage:

• Fertilize, water, and mulch your trees properly and regularly; healthy trees will be able to withstand the elements a lot better. Prevent the trees soil from becoming compacted.
• Be sure to prune annually even when the tree is still young. Having the trees trimmed by professionals who understand healthy tree structure is the best way to go for avoiding issues. A poorly pruned tree may lead to snapping trunks and limbs in high winds.
• Be sure to practice protective care; any cash that has been spent on preventative measures for your tree will be a lot less than having to replace them, especially if it has caused damages to roofs, structures, or cars when they come down.
• Clear the yard of landscape or leaf trash. This prevents more work whenever high winds begin to blow debris into the yard, and it also helps to keep pool filters from being clogged and then burning out.

Staking Trees

Staking helps to provide younger trees with the right support it needs until the trunk has become strong enough to hold its canopy upright. Many trees will not need to be staked longer than a year, but the stakes need to be left for at least one growing season. As soon as your tree can stand on its own, remove the stakes.

Follow these tips for staking your tree properly:

• Use an 8-foot lodge pole or stakes. These need to be at least 6 to 8 feet tall and around 3 inches wide.
• Find the direction of the winds and insert your stakes opposite of each other and about 2-feet from the stem, as well as being in line with the wind. For instance, if the wind is blowing west, place the stakes facing south and north.
• Be sure to drive the stakes at least 2-feet into the ground. Then try to bury the stakes so that they are the same size above ground. Whenever you are finished the stakes should be about 4 feet above ground.
• Cut 2 pieces of flexible wire that measure 5-foot long. Use rubber to create 18-inch lengths. Slip these over the wire and then wrap the hose around the trunk to protect the trunk of the tree. Pull wire that is parallel to the ground and then attach it to the stakes. Twist the wires together on the outside of the stake to ensure that the wire is tight and then cut off the excess.

Tree Care and Maintenance

Simple maintenance and care will make the trees grow stronger during bad weather, below are things that you should watch out for:

• Cracks are a clear indicator of branch failure, where there will be splitting, so prune to prevent further cracking.
• Dead trees are considered very unpredictable due to the fact that it’s brittle and isn’t able to give or bend under pressure such as a living branch does.
• Pests may cause health issues for your trees, these pests may target the sickly trees.
• Decay from hollow cavities or fungal growth is a sign of weakness.

Keeping the trees thin is an important thing to storm proof your tree. The thicker that a tree is, it will be more likely to be damaged during heavy winds. Even if the tree is perfectly healthy, having dense foliage will cause safety hazards during storms. Dense canopies won’t allow the wind to pass through, and the wind resistance can cause the branches to break or cause the tress to fall. This applies to the weighted ends of branches, which is why stripping the lower parts of the branches is not adequate enough. The leaves will return once it has survived the monsoon.

Phoenix Valley Tree Care & Tree Nurseries

A&P Nurseries have the right tools, fertilizers, tree care knowledge and new trees for you to plant in your landscape. We also have great relationships with highly rated professional landscaping companies that care for many Arizona resident’s trees. If you need advice about how to prevent damage to your trees during strong storms or how to care for damaged trees after the experts at A&P Nursery are just a phone call away. Stop by or call one of the convenient east valley locations.