Training, Pruning, and Maitenance

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Nineteen thirteen Wi Bay and ask the experts brought to
you by Hamsarborcare online Hamsarborcare dot com. That's hams h
a m Msarborcare dot com. As on the great website
Game Offtrees dot com. Make sure you check that out.
Speaking of Game of Trees, if you are on the YouTube,
you've got one of those Internet connections, and who doesn't

(00:30):
these days it's hardly the nineties. We are well into
the twenty twenty vibes. I means you probably got an
Internet means you should probably watching Kevin and the folks
set to hams Arborcare the Game of Trees YouTube channel,
like subscribe it's good. It's a really good channel, a
lot of great content. And speaking of Kevin Ham, Kevin
Ham master Arbers from hamm is Arborcare. Kevin, how you
doing this morning?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah? Good, we're closing in on sixty thousand subs on it.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Really, that's all that is awesome. I was talking to
somebody about your about your YouTube channel earlier this week
and saying they've just got they got great content and
it's a good it's a good channel to subscribe to.
And as you mentioned, folks are definitely taking note of
that and seeing the work that you do. And I
know you post stuff as well on Instagram and some
of the other social media platforms as well, and uh,

(01:17):
you know there's there's always not just interesting video, but
great stories and h and you do a really good
job presenting what you're doing and speaking up presenting the
work that you do. At Hams Arborcare, you're gonna be doing, Uh,
there's gonna be a tree pruning workshop. And I see
on the flyer the word giveaway. What are we talking
about there, Kevin, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
We're gonna we're gonna give away one of our legacy
trees we have. Uh. Now, if you know, some communities
in in Madison would deem this a noxious tree. It's
a Norway maple variety. We have some royal red maples,
a few in stock and one of them needs a

(01:58):
little bit of of corrective pruning. And I'm doing a
pruning seminar at Edgewater Greenhouse up and Portage just on
the north end of town, right across from Walmart. And
you know, I thought, well, here's a good example of
a young tree where I can I can do a
demonstration of corrective pruning. And talking through with clients, like

(02:21):
every branch you see on this tree is temporary. You know.
I just ran into somebody the other day that thought
that branches move up away from the ground on their
position on the trunk. I said, no, this branch is
going to get big right here where it is. The
Only way you're not going to have a branch all

(02:42):
in your face is to cut this off ultimately. And
so talking through all those training pruning principles, and we'll
have a couple of young trees that are planted at
the nursery right there that we can make some demonstration
pruning on and kind of show our process of correcting

(03:02):
the tree that's already on its way. And I think
it'll be an informative thing where we're working on getting
I S a certification CEUs for that, so that any
of my you know, fellow arbors that want to come
out and see what's in my head for training pruning

(03:23):
and pruning in general, that would be an opportunity for
them to pick up a few continuing education credits.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Oh that is awesome. And how long have we been
doing this show together now, Kevin? Seven years?

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Oh yeah, something like that.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Because it's it's it's been about six seven years since
I realized and learned that the branches don't grow up
go up with the trees, because until I talked to you,
I had no idea that that, you know, if the
branch is four feet off the ground, that branch is
always going to be four feet off the ground. That's threes.
I just assume that they grew upward. And I think
a lot of folks I do that, and I think

(03:59):
the reinforces to the scheduling of the or the scheduling
the viewing of the the YouTube channel, and how important
that is. This is a great this is a great
opportunity for folks too, not just obviously some great information,
but doing a giveaway for the legacy trees they are
phenomenal trees. Is a great program that that you guys
offer at Hams Arbacare. Let's talk a little bit about

(04:20):
about those legacy trees and what makes them so fantastic.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Yeah, it's it's actually the blow ground part that that
is the real caveat of this platform. And it's literally
a platform that they're on. And and so we've got
a number of varieties of trees and and the way
the roots are are formed and positioned to continue growing

(04:47):
is the key benefit, uh to these trees. A lot
of uh, you know, container grown trees have circling roots.
The rootball type trees you get get prune and there's
you know, and there's various ways to improve those methods,
and nurseries are working on that, but they generally produced

(05:10):
a not ideal root structure that doesn't correct very well
in the landscape. You know, once you start these orientations
early on, they tend to kind of keep some of
those orientations and can run into girdling root issues and
different things. And and the Legacy tree platform is just

(05:32):
we've got gaffolding roots with thinker roots pointing down so
you get less of the surface roots off, you know,
situations that occur with a lot of trees. And and
then we provide a five year warranty with them. You
know who who does that? I mean, that's a great service.

(05:53):
And we do the training pruning through those five years.
Usually in the winter months, we've kind of got them
on a calendar and we start going through all the
trees that we've planted and doing training pruning and then
we we kind of we'll stay on it on the
long term. You know, I've got a family business here.
The boys are playing on taking it over. Bill Hams

(06:15):
Arboriacare is going to be around for a while, and
we've got our training prunings on a two year rotation
where we send you out a notice, Hey, it'd be
good to continue this process and keep this tree going
in a good direction.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Talking this morning with Kevin Ham master Arbarus at Ham's
Arborcare the website Hamsarborcare dot com. That's h A m
MS Arborcare dot comtel for a number eight six six
five nine six five three nine six. We talked to
about about, you know, with legacy trees and and that warranty,
and of course the training pruning that goes on and
the maintenance of trees, and if you give trees love

(06:51):
and you give them that maintenance, they're they're likely going
to last a very long time. Obviously, storms and other
things going to have an effect, but taking the time
to take care of a tree really really increases the
odds pretty substantially to to a tree that that can
that that's gonna last many many generations. And you recently
shared a photo with me of a of a tree
that Unfortunately you were brought in a little late for

(07:15):
half of it. Now, had folks been proactive and given
you a call or had you come out and take
a look at the tree, Uh, part of this tree
could have been safe. Let's talk about about this tree
that's it's uh, it's and I see this a lot
where it's you know, there's there's two main trunks, one
going one direction, one going the other. And obviously as
they're developing a camp, but they kind of they start

(07:36):
to lean. Let's talk about this tree in particular.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, you know, this had a defect in it, and
you know, in truth, they called me before it failed,
and then it took me a couple of days to
you know, logistically worked them in. But it was already
fractured and going and they kind of heard it fall.
I think that crack with the tree l and sure enough,

(08:02):
and I wouldn't have recommended cabling, you know, at the
state it was in when they called me. But uh,
you know the part that's standing still, you know, there's defects,
there's decay there. But if we do some retrenchment runing,
which is kind of bringing those long extended branches back,

(08:24):
we could keep this tree. There's no target out there.
If it fell, it would just fall into a yard.
It's a big burrow. Still, even with half of it there,
we can kind of balance it out a little bit,
probably keep it there as a habitat tree. And then
on the backside where that big section fell down, we

(08:45):
can plant another we happen to have a burrow oak
in stock, we can plant another one that's going to
come up, and they can enjoy a tree that's going
to grow into that space that was occupied by that
falling down. It's kind of the best of both worlds.
You get to keep a long lived tree around. You know,
those trees with cavities in them, they serve a purpose.

(09:08):
You know, there's probably a flying squirrel in there, who
knows what else. And if it doesn't pose a risk
directly to you know, human activity or or the house,
then you know there's a way to keep it around.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Kevin too, and and I don't obviously this is this
is why you are definitely the expert here. And I
just asked some of these some of these questions. Was
this two separate trees that have grown from the same point,
Because I think of like a baroque as having just
like one trunk is this is this the case where
it was one tree that had two separate How did

(09:43):
that like? How did that work?

Speaker 2 (09:45):
It might have been you know, a stump in the
in the middle of the yard that grew a couple
of sprouts and they just let it grow, you know,
a number of years, you know, many years age. It's
an old farmhouse, so that the site's been there a
long time, so it could have and you know, maybe
a little tree got wrecked and they cut it down
and then it sprouted and they just let it grow
into three stems, and one of those stems out and

(10:09):
kind of created an open wound on the other two.
And then over about eighty years that wound has closed
over quite a bit, but there was a decay issue
between them, and it just you know, it became something
that fractured. In the end. Then it was kind of
a summer branch drop phenomenon where it was a hot

(10:31):
day and and that can create this phenomenon in branches
long over extended branches, or in this case, a weighted
trunk where it cracked and then ultimately failed.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
It really reinforces the importance of having trees inspected and
having them looked at is you know, we think about
about you know, problems that can arise and a lot
of stuff. One of the nice things is because trees
are slow growing, it gives you, it gives you time
to really really right wrongs and fix things. But you
really want to make sure that you're having your trees

(11:07):
inspected regularly. It's a great day to pick up phone
game a call at Ham's Barbacare tough number eight sixty
six five nine six five three nine six. If you
haven't had your your tree inspected, your trees inspected recently,
definitely want to do that also. Of course if you've
got some issues and don't forget about that tree pruning
workshop again, that's going to be taking place July twelfth
at ten am. There's also going to be a chance

(11:27):
for participants to win a fantastic legacy tree. All the
details available to you of course online. Make sure you're
following Kevin Ham and Hams Arborcare online. We'll talk more
about this event as well as we get closer. But
I definitely want to mark calendar July twelfth and up
in Portage right at the Edgewater Home and Garden in Portage,
so Kevin. So much stuff going on right now. I

(11:50):
know it's a busy time of year. Thank you so
much taking the time this morning, sharing some great information,
and we'll do it all again real soon.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
Thank you, Sean, take care.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
News comes your way next right here on thirteen n
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