BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Tree care isn't always difficult, but the steps you need to take to keep trees healthy vary quite a bit over the course of the plant's life.
Kathy Robinson from Robby's Nursery says they have a program to follow to keep your tree happy and healthy from when it's first planted to when it's fully grown.
When you first plant a tree, you'll want to dig a large hole and fill it in with a mix of mulch and native soil, to help its roots take hold.
You'll also want to create a water well, or a small circle of dirt around the root ball, and fill it with water.
"I like to fill them up every morning three to four inches of standing water directly over that root ball" says Robinson.
After about a month the tree should take root, and you can get rid of the water well, and begin to fertilize the tree.
"We have a deep feeding program that we would give you at the time of purchase" says Robinson, "You can just ask us for the sheet and come in and get a combination of Grow Power Plus which has a penetrant in it, which helps open the ground and lets those roots go down, and FST which is all your trace minerals."
As the tree grows, continue to feed and water it out to the drip line, which is the distance the branches extend from the trunk of the tree.
"As a tree grows, the feeding and watering circumference increases" added Robinson "As that tree grows and it's 20 feet across, I want that whole area watered where my roots are."
