A: You may wonder why ball moss removal is not mentioned in my pruning specifications. The short answer is this: in practical terms, it is impossible to remove all the ball moss without unintentionally removing some live foliage. And nothing is more important than keeping the live foliage intact. I don't mean clipping a little twig here and a little tuft there. I mean large percentages of the tree's leaf population, 30%, 50% even 70% are removed from the tree during a "demossing" operation. Here's what I suggest: don't look up, look down. At the end of the day, when the "highly experienced" tree trimmers have finished "demossing" your trees, take a look at the carpet of dense foliage on the ground. Now look up and ask yourself, is the tree really better off with all that foliage removed?
Let's just say that we've established that ball moss does not hurt the trees. But we do get tired of looking at it. I agree: a big live oak, heavily laden with ball moss, looks awful. Well, allow me to direct your attention, not to the ball moss, but to the foliage. As we look at the tree we begin to see that the canopy is thin and sparse. It has an inordinate amount of dead wood. Then we begin to realize that the real reason the tree looks terrible is not because of the ball moss, but because the tree has a severely compromised leaf population. Let me repeat that. The real reason the tree looks poorly is not because of the ball moss, but because of the poor leaf population!
In fact, I have never seen a live oak that was at 80%, 90% or even 100% of its maximum leaf population potential, and said, boy, that tree sure has a lot of ball moss. In fact, it seems that the healthiest trees we see in our neighborhoods have thicker, denser, darker foliage, less dead wood, and we almost never even notice the moderate amounts of ball moss in them.
I often think that if we needed a hand lens or macroscope to see the ball moss, then we wouldn't be as inclined to blame it for our tree problems. But we can see it a block away, and therefore we blame our tree problems on it. What about oak mites? Eriophyid mites? Leaf diseases? Poor soil organic content? Fact is, there are a host of reasons your tree looks poorly, and ball moss isn't even on the list!
My job is to help you be a better steward to your trees and to your landscapes. Part of that job means making sure you don't waste your limited tree and landscape maintenance dollars on unnecessary work. So, rather than waste your money paying my highly-skilled tree climbers to pick out ball moss, let's prune the trees right, and move on to some commonsense plant health care measures that may actually serve to help improve the leaf population.
Please feel free to leave a comment or send an email. If you're looking for a TCIA Accredited Houston Tree Service or Certified Arborist, call the company I've worked for since 2002, Bartlett Tree Experts, at 713-692-6371. This is my personal blog--it is not affiliated with Bartlett Tree Experts.
Let's just say that we've established that ball moss does not hurt the trees. But we do get tired of looking at it. I agree: a big live oak, heavily laden with ball moss, looks awful. Well, allow me to direct your attention, not to the ball moss, but to the foliage. As we look at the tree we begin to see that the canopy is thin and sparse. It has an inordinate amount of dead wood. Then we begin to realize that the real reason the tree looks terrible is not because of the ball moss, but because the tree has a severely compromised leaf population. Let me repeat that. The real reason the tree looks poorly is not because of the ball moss, but because of the poor leaf population!
In fact, I have never seen a live oak that was at 80%, 90% or even 100% of its maximum leaf population potential, and said, boy, that tree sure has a lot of ball moss. In fact, it seems that the healthiest trees we see in our neighborhoods have thicker, denser, darker foliage, less dead wood, and we almost never even notice the moderate amounts of ball moss in them.
I often think that if we needed a hand lens or macroscope to see the ball moss, then we wouldn't be as inclined to blame it for our tree problems. But we can see it a block away, and therefore we blame our tree problems on it. What about oak mites? Eriophyid mites? Leaf diseases? Poor soil organic content? Fact is, there are a host of reasons your tree looks poorly, and ball moss isn't even on the list!
My job is to help you be a better steward to your trees and to your landscapes. Part of that job means making sure you don't waste your limited tree and landscape maintenance dollars on unnecessary work. So, rather than waste your money paying my highly-skilled tree climbers to pick out ball moss, let's prune the trees right, and move on to some commonsense plant health care measures that may actually serve to help improve the leaf population.
Please feel free to leave a comment or send an email. If you're looking for a TCIA Accredited Houston Tree Service or Certified Arborist, call the company I've worked for since 2002, Bartlett Tree Experts, at 713-692-6371. This is my personal blog--it is not affiliated with Bartlett Tree Experts.
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