Big Daddy, my honey locust is turning very yellow when other trees I see are dark green. What should I do?

Honey locust, along with others trees like silver maple, plums and even willows can show signs of problems in your soil long before other plants. Assuming the tree has not taken any damage from activity disturbing the roots or cutting of the trunk, the tree has not been flooded for a long period of time and that the yellowing is showing up across the entire tree, you may be showing signs of iron chlorosis. Our soils have plenty of iron naturally in them, however the high alkalinity of many areas bonds this iron to the soil particles, making it unusable to plant material. If you live in one of these areas, your trees may be lacking in available iron, the conduit for many of the most important nutrients for your tree. The chlorosis (yellowing) is a sign of stress in the tree. You’ll need to add iron regularly to the root zone to correct this problem. Pound in stakes, liquid feeds in the drip zone, granular tube feedings or high pressure root injection are just a few of the ways to get the iron into the root zone. Remember that tree roots can be very deep and that anything put at surface level will take time, depending on the soil type, to reach the zone and become available for uptake. In addition, surface feedings can often be tied up my the soil before fully reaching the roots, so keep that in mind when deciding how much or how little to use to feed.

Feeding trees and shrubs is one of the most overlooked areas of the landscape. We tend to focus on the fast growers, the turf and flowers, making sure that we meet their needs. Trees and shrubs are even more important, because the cost of replacement of an established plant is much higher each and every passing year. Only time makes big trees that increase property values every day they grow. Weak plants also attract more insects, grow slower, have thinner canopies and can even present drop hazards if the tree gets very weak. Get yourself into a yearly routine of feedings for the trees and shrubs and really reap the rewards! -BD