Promoting Tree Skirt Growth on an Evergreen

Joe in North Canton says, ‘I have a Baby blue spruce that I bought from Roar’s about three years ago, and it’s doing extremely well. Looks great. Question is, will that develop a skirt around the bottom over time, or are there things you can do to promote such growth?’

Yes. Fertilizing with that all-season fertilizer on a baby blue spruce, you can use about five scoops around the base of that. The other thing that you want to be careful of when you have a skirt there, or try to develop that skirt out a little bit, is make sure that you’re not mowing against it or accidentally broadcasting a weed killer.

I’ve seen that with a lot of evergreens where as their branches come down lower, closer to the ground, if they’re not in a bed dedicated to that plant or have a large mulch ring around it, I’ve seen damage happen that way. But yes, the blue spruce will kind of sway down a little bit and develop that skirt out as they age.

In other words, if you’ve got weed killer on your grass and the grass is close to that, you got to be a little bit careful because especially if you’re putting it down with a rotary spreader, which is how we normally apply it, we have to be very, very careful near the edges of flowerbeds. I actually use a liquid near the edge of mine.

Back when I was trying to get the yard under control, I used the granular in the yard, but always used the liquid near the beds because I could control the spray a little bit better, and there was no chance it got over into the flowerbeds, because that chemical doesn’t know the difference. If it’s not straight bladed grass, it’s going to try to kill it.

Questions? Email us at [email protected] or call one of our two locations: Portage (330-499-0101) or Everhard (330-492-1243).