Let There be Fruit! How to Grow Your Own Fruit Trees From Leftovers

Are you looking for a neat way to grow your own fruit trees? If so, there’s a good chance you can start in your kitchen. That’s right. You can use leftovers and scraps in your kitchen to grow fruit trees. Let’s take a closer look at how you can do this. 

How to Use Scraps in the Kitchen to Grow Fruit Trees

First, you will need to find any leftover fruit. The type of fruit you have will, of course, determine the type of fruit trees you are able to grow. For now, let’s take a look at what you will need to grow a pineapple tree, orange tree, and tomato plant. 

What you need:

  • Leftover pineapple
  • Leftover orange
  • Leftover tomato
  • Cups
  • Toothpicks
  • Seed-starting soil

Pineapple Tree

To grow a pineapple tree, you are first going to slice off the crown of the leftover pineapple (you want as little fruit attached to it as possible). Now, pluck off the leaves, making sure that five inches of the crown can be seen. Next, set​ the crown outside in a sunny spot for two to seven days to ensure it dries as much as possible. Once dry, place the crown in a glass of water, using toothpicks to hold it up so that only about a quarter of the bottom part of it is in the water (the pointy end should be facing upward, not touching the water). You will want to change the water once a week. After two to three weeks, roots should be visible and you will transfer the plant into the seed-starting soil once the roots have achieved two to three inches in length. 

Tomato Plant

  • Take a leftover tomato and slice it into three horizontal pieces.
  • Fill a cup three-fourths of the way with seed-starting soil and lay the pieces of tomato on top.
  • Cover the tomato pieces with more soil until the cup is almost full.
  • Leave in direct sunlight and moisten the soil frequently.
  • Watch your tomato plant grow.

Orange tree

Take the seeds out of a leftover orange and clean them with tepid water. Next, fill a plastic cup with seed-starting soil, but make sure you first create two to four drainage holes in it. Now, push your seeds about a half inch under the soil and add just a bit of water to ensure the soil is moistened but not soggy. Take plastic wrap and cover the cup and set it in a warm place. Once the seed has sprouted, you will need to remove the plastic and set in a sunny spot. Water the seedling often, but with only small amounts of water. If the tree becomes too large, you can plant it in the ground or move to a larger container. 

 

Here at Premier Tree Solutions, we love all trees. We’re experts at trimming, pruning, storm cleanup, tree removal, stump grinding, and many other services. Give us a call today at 404-252-6448 or contact us here.

Save Your Trees From Growing Pains: The Best and Worst Fertilizers for Your Trees

When it comes to taking good care of your residential or commercial property, it all starts with your landscaping. Fortunately, there are several tips you can follow to help ensure your trees and plants look their best at all times. Let’s take a quick look at the best and worst fertilizers to get for your trees. 

There are several nutrients that your trees will need in order for them to grow to their fullest potential. These nutrients are typically separated into three categories:

  • Macronutrients
  • Secondary nutrients
  • Micronutrients

The three main macronutrients that are needed are potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorous. You need to make sure the fertilizer you choose for your trees has large amounts of each of these macronutrients. Secondary nutrients that the fertilizer should be rich in include magnesium, calcium, carbon, oxygen, sulfur, and hydrogen. Most of these nutrients are acquired through air and soil, so a fertilizer does not need heavy amounts of them. The micronutrients that a fertilizer needs to provide are zinc, boron, copper, manganese, nickel, and chlorine. 

It is highly recommended that before you purchase a specific type of fertilizer for your trees that you first perform a soil test; this will help you pinpoint the exact nutrients that your soil is lacking. By pinpointing these nutrients, you can then know which type of fertilizer will be best for your trees. 

Types of Fertilizers: The Best and the Worst

The best type of fertilizer for your trees will depend on your needs and goals. Liquid fertilizers tend to be very fast-acting. Trees absorb them quickly, meaning they need to be applied once every two to three weeks. Most times, these fertilizers require that you mix them with water. A granular fertilizer will be applied in dry form and is easy to control because you can see how much you are applying as well as exactly where the fertilizer is landing on the ground. Available in two forms — quick-release and slow-release — granular fertilizer proves very advantageous for growing trees. Lastly, plant food spikes are another type of fertilizer that ​works well. You drive the spikes directly into the ground by the tree you are growing and nutrients are released over an extended period of time. 

Need an expert for tree services? Contact Premier Tree Solutions today! We’re experts at trimming, pruning, storm cleanup, tree removal, stump grinding, and many other services. Give us a call at 404-252-6448 or contact us here.

Be a Georgia Tree Know-It-All: American Hornbeam

Get to know Georgia’s beautiful array of trees and how you can take care of your own! Each month, we feature some of the most popular trees in the state. In this blog, we are showcasing the American Hornbeam. At a mature state, The American Hornbeam can grow between 20-30 feet. Learn more information about the American Hornbeam below!

American Hornbeam

Strike a Pose: Learn About Six Famous Celebri-Trees

With roughly 3 trillion trees on Earth, it’s hard to single out just a handful for appreciation. Here are six of the world’s most remarkable trees, each for its own unique reasons.

1) Certainly one of the most picturesque and recognizable trees on the planet, Pebble Beach’s Lone Cypress, stands noble guard on a granite hillside overlooking the rocky shoreline of California’s northern coast. Located along the scenic 17-mile drive, this much-photographed Monterey Peninsula icon is thought to be approximately 250 years old. For many decades, half-hidden steel cables have secured this venerable symbol of the idyllic West Coast in place.

2) Named for the beloved Siberian husky that belonged to the professor who discovered it in 2004, Old Tjikko, at approximately 9,558 years young, is the world’s oldest known Norway spruce. Found growing on Fulufjället Mountain in Sweden’s Dalarna province, Old Tijikko is not one individual old tree but a clonal tree that has regenerated new trunks, branches, and roots over time.

3) Believed to be the world’s oldest known living non-clonal organism for many years, Methuselah is a 4,850-year-old Great Basin bristlecone pine tree. Growing in an undisclosed location somewhere between 9,500 to 9,800 feet above sea level in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in California’s Inyo County, Methuselah’s estimated germination date of 2833 BC was bested in 2013 by the discovery of another bristlecone pine in the same region with germination in 3050 BC.

4) Standing alone on a hill in the Arabian Desert surrounded by miles of sand, The Tree of Life is a miracle of nature. Bahrain’s solitary mesquite tree is believed to be at least 400 years old, and the only explanation for how it continues to grow without a clear source of water is attributable to deep root systems capable of reaching deep beds of underground water.

5) When you stand before the General Sherman Tree in California’s Sequoia National Park, you’re saluting the world’s largest tree, measured by volume. Standing 275 feet tall and coming in at over 36 feet in diameter at the base, this tourist favorite is approximately 2,000 years old.

6) Discovered in 2006 by a pair of amateur naturalists who named it, Hyperion claims the title of world’s tallest known living tree. The exact location of this nearly 380-feet-high coast redwood is not revealed in an effort to protect it, but it’s found somewhere deep in California’s Redwood National and State Parks.

Here at Premier Tree Solutions in Atlanta, we love all trees — famous and infamous. We’re experts at trimming, pruning, storm cleanup, tree removal, stump grinding, and many other services. Give us a call at 404-252-6448 or contact us here.

Timber! Four Dangers of Not Trimming Your Trees

Regular tree trimming serves many purposes. If this essential landscape practice is not performed regularly and correctly, homeowners often find themselves having to deal with some potentially dangerous and costly repercussions. Let’s review four.

1) Bodily Harm

Trimming and pruning help maintain a strong tree structure to ensure that massive pine in your front yard doesn’t drop a heavy branch on a jogger in a windstorm. Proper trimming helps keep the tree’s roots strong. This prevents the 50-year-old oak in your backyard from toppling when the next torrential downpour soaks the ground, posing a risk to your children and pets.

Proper trimming keeps low-growing branches away from sidewalks and driveways where they might come in contact with skin and eyes, and it helps keep slippery debris off the ground that could cause a pedestrian to lose footing.

2) Property Hazards

Trimming a tree eliminates weak wood and provides more nourishment and water for the healthy parts of the tree. Removing co-dominant leaders at the tree’s top helps prevent branches from splitting and breaking in bad storms, threatening to take down power lines along with wreaking havoc on your home’s roof, windows, skylights, and gutters.

Promoting a healthy tree by trimming back dead branches and shooters is also very important for protecting your family, pets, and home from fire damage.

3) Disease and Infection

It’s crucial to quickly remove damaged, diseased, and dead branches and limbs from trees to help prevent predatory, wood-boring insects from entering. These tiny creatures can harm not only the infected tree, but also pose a threat to the health of other nearby vegetation. You’ll have far fewer disease problems if you regularly thin a dense canopy on a tree, increasing exposure to air and sunlight.

4) Aesthetically Unappealing Landscape

A well-maintained landscape says a lot about the people who inhabit a house, and keeping trees neatly trimmed shows you take pride in your home. This is especially important when it’s time to sell. Potential homebuyers might never make it through your front door if they’re first greeted by an overgrown, unkempt front yard.

A sickly looking or misshapen tree can reduce your home’s value. An overgrown tree throws too much shade on your lawn and flower garden, depriving those vital parts of your landscape the sunlight needed to bloom and thrive. If your home overlooks a valley or has a clear view of the sunset, keeping your trees neatly trimmed showcases the beautiful vistas that surround your home.

Do your trees need an expert’s touch? Premier Tree Solutions, based in Atlanta, can help with trimming, pruning, storm cleanup, tree removal, stump grinding, and many other services needed to maintain a safe and beautiful yard. Give us a call at 404-252-6448 or contact us here.

How Trees Could be Pollen You Down: Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month

Allergies are a wide-sweeping problem that affect around 50 million people in the United States, representing 30 percent of adults and 40 percent of children, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Hundreds of species of plants release pollen to which people are allergic, and many of the culprits are trees.

Pollen and Your Nose (+ Other Parts of the Body)

An allergen is anything that causes a histamine response in the body, which is when your body attacks foreign pathogens. If your immune system recognizes pollen as a pathogen, then congratulations: You have an allergy!

Unfortunately, late winter and early spring are the high seasons for tree allergies. During these sneeziest of weeks and months – starting as early as January and continuing into April, or later – trees release tons of the stuff, which wafts easily on the breeze. The good news? Only about a hundred species of trees actually cause allergies.

The Allergy-est Trees

Some of the worst culprits include:

  • Alder
  • Ash
  • Aspen
  • Beech
  • Birch
  • Box elder
  • Cedar
  • Cottonwood
  • Date palm
  • Elm
  • Hickory
  • Juniper
  • Mountain elder
  • Mulberry
  • Oak
  • Pecan
  • Phoenix Palm
  • Red Maple
  • Silver Maple
  • Willow

This is by no means an exhaustive list, so when you go to purchase trees at the nursery, make sure to ask if they cause allergic reactions. If you can, avoid them.

Protect Yourself

If you want more pollen protection from trees causing allergies, you can take a few simple steps. Stay out of the yard during midday and afternoon, as these are the worst times for pollen. Try to get outside after rainstorms, which clear pollen from the air, and always wear gardening gloves, so that when you take them off and scratch your nose, fingers are pollen-free. Wear sunglasses to protect your eyes and, if you can stand it, a bandana to cover the nose.

Get Trees Under Control

If you’re hoping to avoid an allergy onslaught in coming years, you would do well to contact a tree removal business. They can help you trim and prune your trees to reduce the number of branches, and therefore the amount of pollen being released, as well as make your trees lovelier to look at.

Companies such as Premier Tree Solutions in Atlanta can also help remove brush and suckers, tree starts that may grow up into full-blown pollen producers. If you’re looking for storm cleanup, crane services, or stump removal, we can help you there too – just give us a call today at 404-252-6448 or contact us here.

Be a Georgia Tree Know-It-All: Sugar Maple

Get to know Georgia’s beautiful array of trees and how you can take care of your own! Each month, we feature some of the most popular trees in the state. For July, we are showcasing the Sugar Maple. The Sugar Maple is a strong tree that can grow between 60 to 75 feet tall and looks amazing during the fall months. Learn more information about the Sugar Maple below!

Sugar Maple

Fruit-Bearing and Flower-Blooming: Tree Care for All

While both are lovely options for your garden, fruit and flower trees have different needs if they’re to live long and healthy lives. The most important aspect of caring for fruit trees, obviously, is making sure they produce the maximum amount of large, fully ripe fruit. Flowering trees, on the other hand, are prized for their showy blooms in the spring, summer, or even fall. Perfect your care routine and you’ll get the most out of each for life.

Prune for Effect

Your pruning goals vary with the type of tree being pruned. Flowering trees are valued for the huge show they put on in spring or summer. If they bloom in spring, you should prune them directly after the blooms fade, whereas summer-flowering trees should be pruned in winter after the coldest weeks have passed. Remove branches that don’t add to the overall shape and beauty of the tree.

Fruit trees, however, should be pruned for the best production. That means removing all but a few of the upright limbs, leaving enough for photosynthesis and creating a light and bright canopy. Horizontal limbs, which are usually the ones that bear the most fruit, should be cleared out enough to create more light and airflow. Reducing crowding also ensures the tree has enough resources to offer toward each fruit, which will result in the tastiest fruit.

Water When Necessary

Fruit and flower trees have similar watering needs, with one exception: fruit trees need lots of water while they’re setting fruit, or else their goods will be small and dry. No bueno. Here’s a handy guide to watering, which you can follow for both types. In addition, ensure that fruits such as peaches, apricots, apples, and cherries get a thorough soaking whenever the top 10 inches of soil go dry.  

Fertilize Well

Fertilizing is roughly equivalent for fruit and flowering trees as well. Flowering trees should be fertilized in early spring, while fruit trees can be fertilized multiple times starting in spring and until midsummer.  

If you want to take the best care of your trees – fruit, flower, or other – you might want the help of an expert team. Just go ahead and call Premier Tree Solutions at 404-252-6448, a top-rated tree removal business in Atlanta. We assist with trimming, pruning, storm cleanup, stump and branch grinding, branch clearing, and tree and debris removal. No matter what you need, if it has to do with a tree, we’ve got you covered.

 

Trees That Just Want to Have Sun: Best Summertime Tree Choices

So summer has rolled around, and you’re wondering whether it’s too late to put a few saplings in the ground. Good news: it isn’t. In fact, summer is a great time to plant trees because it gives them plenty of time to adapt to their new surroundings before winter hits. However, that doesn’t mean all tree needs are the same.

A Species Surprise

Most people assume that only very heat-tolerant species can be planted in the summer. But guess what? ‘Tisn’t so! Any tree can technically be planted in summer, which is good news if you want to grow a privacy hedge or install that statement tree during this planting season. However, needs do vary a bit between deciduous and evergreen trees.

Deciduous Versus Evergreen Plantin’ Time

Both deciduous and evergreen trees can be planted in summer, as well as spring. However, while deciduous trees can be planted in fall, you should confine your evergreen planting to summer, or the first month of fall at the latest. This is because they need considerably more time to adjust to soil temperatures than deciduous trees do.

Protecting Branchy Babes

When you do plant trees in summer, however, you have to be extra careful. They need a lot of water to get established and can burn easily, especially the smaller saplings. Make sure to plant trees at the correct depth to prevent damage to the trunk and ensure an adequate root system. Water them once a day for two weeks after planting, then once weekly after that for a year. Thereafter, you can water them thoroughly whenever the top 10 inches of soil become dry.

No matter what time of year you plant, you should ensure the safety and longevity of your trees by spacing them appropriately. This should be based on their space requirements when they are full-grown as opposed to when they are small.

Arboreal Assistance

Not sure how to get your trees in the ground with the best chance of a healthy outcome? No problem! If you need help, call Premier Tree Solutions. We’re a growing tree removal business based in Atlanta, Georgia, and specializing in a number of areas, including:

  • Tree removal
  • Tree trimming
  • Tree pruning
  • Storm cleanup
  • Stump grinding
  • Branch clearing
  • Debris removal

… and more. Any time you need your trees cared for, we want to help you out. All you have to do is call 404-252-6448 or email us here to set up a consultation or service today.

Branch Out Your Trimming: The Best Ways to Trim Your Trees

Trees whose branches are thinned out and growing disease-free in the proper direction are much healthier than their crowded counterparts. They can’t do it themselves, however; trees count on you for their yearly haircuts. Here’s how to trim right.

Prune to Natural Shape

When pruning, you should have an overall vision in mind. Unless you’re going for the full-on Versailles effect – in which case, let’s get your topiary on! – you want to take your cue from the tree itself. Go with its natural shape, leaving the strongest, prettiest branches, and removing everything that grows downward or back in toward the crown. If you have to raise the crown, meaning remove lower branches over a sidewalk or building, that’s okay.

Remove Dead and Dying Branches

One of the most important jobs when pruning is to get dead and dying branches out of there. These not only suck up tree resources when they’re already doomed, but they may spread a disease to other parts of the tree or other plants. Dead branches also invite predatory insects to the feast. No Bueno.

Respect the Leader

According to the University of Minnesota Extension, topping trees – or trimming the tall, straight “leader” branch that comes from the trunk – is never a good idea. It promotes suckering (sapling growth from the ground) and destroys the form of the tree. Instead, leave the tallest, most upright branch in place and remove any competing leaders. If your only option to fit a tree in a certain space (say, under an eave) is topping, you’re better off transplanting it.

Say NO to Disease

While pruning is good for trees, it’s also one of the easiest times to spread disease (oops, now we’re rhyming). That’s why it’s important to disinfect your tools. Here’s a good primer, but basically it means soaking your shears in a cleansing solution before each use and, if you’re dealing with diseased wood, between each cut.

Of course, you don’t have to trim your trees yourself. Sometimes it’s best to leave things to the experts, such as when you’re busy or you have one of those King Kong oak trees on your hands. In that case, call in the pros and leave it to us. Premier Tree Solutions, based in Atlanta, can help with pruning as well as storm cleanup, tree removal, stump grinding, and more. All you have to do is give a shout at 404-252-6448 or contact us here.