Summer is a great season to be outside enjoying your yard and landscaping, but it can also pose some complicated problems for your trees. To make sure your trees are healthy enough to shade you this summer, learn more about five issues trees in Colorado can face during the summer months and how a tree service can help you.

1. Drought Complications

Summer means sunny days, but high temperatures, low moisture levels, and insufficient rainfall in the previous wet season can result in droughts in many parts of the country. Droughts can last just a few weeks or can extend over years, and sometimes governments will mandate restrictions on water use to ensure that there’s enough water for drinking and sewage.

If you face a drought this year, how can you make sure your trees survive it without regular watering? First, you can rest easy because many trees native to Colorado are hardy and accustomed to the arid climate, so they may outlast the drought. But if you’re worried, a tree service can inspect the tree for signs of drought and mulch around the tree to help it retain what moisture it can get.

A tree service can also help recommend other tactics that you might consider. For instance, if you decide to remove your lawn to reserve water for your trees, a professional can tell you what lawn you can remove without disrupting your trees’ root systems.

2. Iron Chlorosis

You might have seen trees with pale green or light yellow leaves where the veins are visible. This is a sign of iron chlorosis, which happens when your tree isn’t receiving enough iron to maintain the production of chlorophyll. It can be isolated to just a part of the tree, or it can affect the entire tree and even eventually cause tree death.

Iron chlorosis can affect many different kinds of trees, including pines, cottonwoods, elms, and maples, but luckily, it’s an easy condition to spot. If you notice a lightening of the leaves as your tree grows this summer, contact a tree service. They can inject a healthy dose of iron supplement into the tree and around the roots to ensure it has enough of the mineral to make its leaves healthy and green again.

3. Dead Limbs

Another condition that’s easy to spot is dead limbs or branches. As your trees sprout leaves this summer, you might notice that some isolated branches are bare. There are many causes for this condition, but one particularly difficult culprit is fire blight, a condition that affects common fruit trees like crabapples and pear trees.

A tree service can inspect the affected branches and determine the exact cause. They may scrape away the bark to see the interior of the branch. A green or white color means that despite the outward appearance, it’s still alive, whereas brown might indicate fire blight. Fire blight treatment is complex and is best left to the hands of professionals, but it can be treated.

4. Storm Damage

Thunderstorms are often welcome during hot months, but the worst storms can damage your trees. High winds, forceful rain, and hail can decimate leaf growth, remove branches, and even upend trees entirely. Some of this damage can be treated, and many trees are very resilient, even if the damage looks fatal.

If the tree is healthy other than the storm damage — for instance, the leaves might have been blown off during high winds, but the structure of the tree is intact — then the tree may recover. The loss of larger limbs, however, might prove fatal to the tree. A tree service can help you identify which trees can be saved and which ones might need to be removed before they become deadwood. In many cases, tree professionals will offer removal services, which can help clean up the aftermath of a storm.

5. Pest Problems

Pests are a year-round problem, but each season sees the introduction of different kinds of pests. In the summer, you might find that your trees have increased small animal presence like squirrels or bird nests. Hornet nests as well can be troublesome and often become an issue in early- to mid-summer. Other pests, like the poplar borer, come out in summer and can cause significant damage to your trees.

Borers bore through trees during their life cycle and affect poplars, aspens, and willow trees. The damage may not kill the trees entirely, but they can weaken branches and leave to breakage later on that might be fatal. A tree service can examine your trees for poplar borers and propose a treatment plan.

Protect Your Trees Today

Do you have trees in need of care this summer? Schulhoff Tree & Lawn Care provides care services for trees and shrubs, including fertilization, trimming, and removal. Contact us today to learn more about what we can do to help the health of your trees.