Chuck and Danny Lippi work as a team serving north and central Florida from our offices in St. Augustine and Gainesville helping customers care for broad-leaf trees, palms and citrus. Both have the International Society of Arboriculture's (ISA) highest credential — ISA Board Certified Master Arborist. To date there are only 20 Board Certified Master Arborists in the State of Florida. For comparison there are over 2,000 ISA Certified Arborists in Florida and unfortunately there are many more tree workers with no credentials and little if any training.
This site by professor Ed Gilman of the University of Florida Environmental Horticulture Department is a practical complilation of Gilman's research and that of others who study trees, tree structure, wind effects and tree stability. Less pruning is almost always better for the tree's health than more pruning. Don't let a tree service make you feel like you are getting your money's worth by removing more limbs and foliage. Less pruning is better. Florida Grades and Standards require that a Florida Number 1 grade tree has a single central leader like the tree on the left.
Although the Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) is a native tree in north and central Florida, sometimes severe nutrient deficiencies can occur in our urban soils. The magnolia nutrient deficiency symptoms are often seen as sparse, yellowing foliage. In extreme cases trees have continued to lose foliage until they finally die. The sequence of photos below was taken since 2008 in a yard in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The yard was receiving regular fertilizer applications from a reputable lawn service.
I often tell my customers the quickest way to know if a tree service really knows about trees and tree health is to see how they propose to help a sick tree. If they try to sell you a fertilizer program, then they very likely don't know what they are doing. Then they are looking out for their profit not your tree. Palm trees, especially the exotic (non-native) palms, have different fertilizer requirements. For more information on palm nutrition, go to the palm section of this website. On behalf of the community of Sea Colony, I would like to thank you for sharing your time and amazing knowledge of trees.
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