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Dormant Season & Early Spring Tips: What Will the Groundhog Decide? · Talking Trees with Davey Tree

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Deby Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Doug Oester.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much, much more.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees Podcast, we know trees are the answer.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm joined again by arborist Mike Cassidy from Columbus, and we've got an interesting uh subject to talk about today, Mike.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: Last minute dormant season tasks, early spring tips, right before Groundhog Day.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: How are you?
0:38
SPEAKER_01: Doing fabulous, Doug.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: How are you today?
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Can't complain.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so I gotta be careful about what I say about Groundhog Day.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: My best buddy here in Pittsburgh is a groundhog ambassador from Punxita, so we gotta keep it nice.
0:51
SPEAKER_01: Now, is he one of the guys that wears the suits and the top hats?
0:55
SPEAKER_00: No, no, he's just from there, and he I don't know what that means to be an official ambassador, but uh I do have to watch what I say about Groundhog Day uh because it really doesn't matter what the groundhog says.
1:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, see, now it seems like you just you know contradicted yourself there in the first statement.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: I know.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: I'm here to say that we're all waiting with bated breath, counting on this groundhog to give us good news.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: So Okay, okay, all right.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: Uh yes, let's hope let's hope it's good news.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: How has the winter been in Columbus?
1:27
SPEAKER_01: Not too, you know, it got real cold, then it warmed up to about springtime, and and now we get a little bit more cold weather.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I'm I got some work I'm trying to get out where I need the ground to be frozen.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: So I'm kind of hoping for uh uh a little bit more winter, but we'll see what happens.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: You can't really predict it anymore.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, during this period, what are we doing with our trees during the dormant season?
1:50
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, pests are less active in the cold.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: So anything we can do to uh, you know, for things like oaks or elms, you know, risk species that could potentially get oak wheeled or or Dutch elm disease, stuff like this, uh, you know, we we save all that pruning for dormancy uh just to reduce the risk of contraction of the disease.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: Um like I just mentioned, you know, if the ground freezes, it's a great time to get to maybe uh a dangerous climb that's that's somewhere that's inaccessible when the ground is warm, you know, so we don't get trucks stuck.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: Um that's kind of stuff we're looking at.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: We do a little bit of plant health care with dormant oils, you know, um scale is uh effectively treated in the in the winter, uh, where we can kind of suffocate those overwintering adults.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: Um have you had a have you had a problem with your magnolias with scale?
2:40
SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you what, last year was gangbuster scale year.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we were doing a ton of new treatments.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: Um I you know you never can't predict what the pest is gonna be that takes off that year, but but last year it was a it was a big scale year.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, people were being shocked because we're coming out to properties where their sidewalks black and we're getting rained on stand under the trees.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, that was big last year.
3:03
SPEAKER_01: I didn't see as much of it this year.
3:04
SPEAKER_01: We got good control with all of the uh treatments we did last year, so it must have just been an off-year this year.
3:10
SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah.
3:12
SPEAKER_01: So there's that.
3:13
SPEAKER_01: Um dormant, you know, fire blight is another one that um we can kind of reduce the spread or a black knot fungus, we can reduce the spread, pruning that in the winter um when we're not as concerned about those uh spores being active.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was out the other day uh in a park and I was looking at some cherry trees and I just saw little evidence of uh something black on the tips.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: Is that black knot or fire blight?
3:43
SPEAKER_00: Or how do you or or do you have to see it to know for sure?
3:45
SPEAKER_01: Are they doing any kind of shepherd's crooking?
3:48
SPEAKER_01: You know, any kind of rolling over at the tips.
3:50
SPEAKER_01: That's a good indicator, too, at the tips that you got some kind of that you could potentially have a fireblight uh disease.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, I hope it's not fire blight because these are part of a project where they put cherry trees all through the park and uh they're they're beautiful when they bloom.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh but I did notice, I didn't take a close look, but I just like actually dragging my kayak past them, and I was like, uh-oh, that doesn't look good.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Anything black and kind of fungal looking on a uh fruit tree is always worrisome.
4:18
SPEAKER_01: Well, take some samples, send it up to Kent, care of Mike Cassidy, and we'll have him test it and see what they got.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: That sounds good.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about this uh when the ground freezes.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: I'd never thought of that.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: How that I thought that was always a negative, but for you it's a positive in areas where you might not be able to get where it's soft ground.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, it seems like some years we don't even really get good ground freeze um to get vehicles back, but it can be a real boon when we do.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: Even just in, you know, we can go back to people and say, you know, I could do this for half the price or or whatever the reduction is, because now I could drive everything back there and have the whole shop in your backyard.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, we we like those conditions.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: Um my favorite time, my favorite temperature to work was always 20 degrees back when I had to actually work, you know.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: Because it doesn't rain, the snow brushes right off you.
5:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, you wear layers, you warm up, you're down to a hoodie probably by the by afternoon.
5:16
SPEAKER_01: But you get in a 35 degree temperature, all of a sudden you're getting soaked to the bone, but you still feel like it should be freezing.
5:22
SPEAKER_01: You know, 15 degrees makes a big difference.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, I was wondering about that, and that's an interesting point.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: I thought working at 20 degrees would be really difficult, but that's a great point that you bring up.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: Like you said, 35 and rain is probably the worst thing that could happen.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, can you can you schedule around the weather?
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Do you have to schedule around the weather?
5:45
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can't work out when it's like I mean, way below zero or something like that.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to be up in a tree like that, or or can you?
5:54
SPEAKER_01: Well, the boys gotta eat, you know, the the crew's gotta eat.
5:57
SPEAKER_01: So at some point, the work's gotta go out.
6:00
SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, that was sometimes when I was in the field, we get the decision like, do you want to come work today?
6:06
SPEAKER_01: I know it's gonna be terrible, but you know, if you if you're trying to get that checked, then you can come in and work.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, I think tomorrow on a two-hour delay, just for instance, to try to, you know, combat some of those coldest temperatures.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: But work's gotta work's gotta keep working.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: So at some point, just get on an extra pair of gloves and and get it figured out.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: You know, the hands are were always the worst for me.
6:27
SPEAKER_01: You're not paying attention until they're actually frozen, and then you're just up in a tree crying about it.
6:32
SPEAKER_01: I was anyhow.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I guess for me it'd probably be my feet.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh just you know, your circulation doesn't get out there, and the older you get, the older you get the circulation doesn't get out there.
6:44
SPEAKER_01: So um I wouldn't I wouldn't recommend you get into a tree this winter, Doug.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: Based on your circulation.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I know.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: I trust me, you wouldn't see me in a tree uh 20 years ago.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: What is the best time of the year to be working in trees, you think?
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Is it before they leaf out and before it gets super hot?
7:05
SPEAKER_00: Just wondering, since we're talking about climate.
7:08
SPEAKER_01: Well, some of that depends on customers' expectations of the prune.
7:13
SPEAKER_01: Some people want to aesthetically prune every dead limb out of the tree.
7:18
SPEAKER_01: That's difficult when there's no leaves on it.
7:21
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we could tell what limbs are dead, but if you're searching after half-inch limbs at all the tips, you know, half-inch little branches, we're gonna struggle to get each and every one.
7:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, in the wintertime, maybe it budded out and then that branch died or whatever.
7:34
SPEAKER_01: It's a big indicator in the winter for what we're looking for in dead is you know, no, no swelling buds, even in the winter.
7:40
SPEAKER_01: But so stuff like that's done better when it leaves out.
7:43
SPEAKER_01: Um, stuff that must be done in dormancy, right?
7:46
SPEAKER_01: Like we talked about the oaks and the elms, those obviously are our best in the winter.
7:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it depends a lot on customer goals.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: We can prune uh the majority of the trees I look at, we prune all year long.
7:57
SPEAKER_01: Um, maples will cry in the summer, you know, they they drip a lot of sap.
8:01
SPEAKER_01: So if we get people that are super stressed out about that or maybe over a target area that we don't want to have anything dripping, then obviously those have to be moved.
8:09
SPEAKER_01: Um not a lot of hard and fast rules, except for specific, you know, the oak whale and the the Dutch Elm disease.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: So tell me about your uh reaction every year to Groundhog Day.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: Do you do you believe in that groundhog?
8:23
SPEAKER_01: I just like that we have a uh a local myth that's being or uh you know, folklore, let's say.
8:28
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna call it a myth.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: You that was your words.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: That uh, you know, I I kind of I kind of I like that that's kept alive.
8:36
SPEAKER_01: You know, it reminds me of uh when you'd have all these tiny little amusement parks in little towns everywhere.
8:41
SPEAKER_01: My family's from Dover, New Philly, and they still have Tuscora Park.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: And you know, it kind of I I like uh a little tradition.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I thought what we could do, since it's a Groundhog's Day podcast, is right now we just do the preceding five minutes again, just and then over and over to kind of homage to Bill Murray's Groundhog Day.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm welcoming this week uh Arborist Mike Cassidy.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: And today we have a very interesting topic.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we'll we'll do that, we'll do that over and over again.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
9:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a little um I actually learned that uh in Hungary they use a bear to to predict whether you know six weeks of winter or an early spring.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: And they tried that in Pennsylvania for a few years, but it kept mauling the presenter, so they had to move to a smaller.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh well, here's a little fact that uh Groundhog Day was not filmed in Punk Satani, was filmed in Indiana, and my buddy is in two scenes.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: So uh wow.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: That's a little groundhog day lore.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: Um so during this dormant season, anything else you're thinking about before we go move start moving about early spring things?
9:54
SPEAKER_01: I'm always gonna say deer protection.
9:56
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's a that's a big thing for us.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: Even when they're outside the rut, they can still scrape on trees.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: Um protect your trees.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: That's interesting.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: When when do you think that stops?
10:07
SPEAKER_00: Because I always thought, okay, rut's over, I don't have to worry about it, but they will continue, huh?
10:13
SPEAKER_01: I just got my I have a three-inch maple in my backyard that just got hit within the last week.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: Like I just looked out yesterday and ran out into the half inch of snow, shoeless, and my son was behind me, like, what's happening?
10:25
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, the tree.
10:27
SPEAKER_01: So it it I don't I can't give you a hard and fast answer when they won't.
10:31
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if a young buck screwing around just grinding on trees at any time of year.
10:36
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'd say keep them protected if they're under six inches.
10:39
SPEAKER_01: How do you like to protect them?
10:41
SPEAKER_01: Temporary construction fencing and zip ties.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: Comes in green, comes in black, comes in orange, you know.
10:46
SPEAKER_01: We use green or black usually, wrap it around there.
10:48
SPEAKER_01: It's super cheap, you know, goes on quick.
10:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, I like some people use like chicken wire or something, but it's just not as effective.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you have like a multi-stem dogwood or something, um, then we'll use stakes and construction fencing.
11:02
SPEAKER_01: So kind of build a little, build a whole little fence around it.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: And when that deer does rub, I've been told you just let it heal naturally.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: Is that is that what you do?
11:13
SPEAKER_01: Or how would you uh we can apply PP30, which is a pretty amazing product that can help with wound closure.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, going into the fertilization months, obviously your macronutrient fur in the spring or fall, and then uh like a PP30 humates mix can help with wound closure as well.
11:32
SPEAKER_01: So we do a little ground injection fertilizer that can help, and then applying PP30 directly to the trunk uh in three to four times across, you know, with about 30 days in between.
11:43
SPEAKER_01: Can really I mean it's kind of amazing how how effective that can be in uh wound closure.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: So how is it applied?
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Is it like a a liquid or a paste, or or what does it look like when you apply it on the onto the actual tree?
11:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's just a it's a water soluble mix that we just spray on.
12:02
SPEAKER_01: Um and then when we're fertilizing with humates and pp30, we that's a ground injection that's uptake through the roots.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: Um so kind of hit it, hit it from the inside and the outside in that way.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: And uh, we've seen some huge wounds close up uh doing that.
12:17
SPEAKER_01: Really, the the biggest limiting factor is how much of the tree was girdled total, right?
12:23
SPEAKER_01: If you lost 80%, we're not gonna be able to bring back 80% of a tree that's been had all the living, the phloem girdled.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: So uh that's that's what we're looking for when we're looking at trees that got destroyed by I I had uh I ran a call recently.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: This person had a little 15-pound shihtzu or something, just mauled their two front yard trees, man.
12:47
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't believe it.
12:48
SPEAKER_01: It was worse than any deer I ever saw.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: It must have been a squirrel up in it or something, but my goodness, shredded it.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: So, what does the groundhog have to do to get uh an early spring?
12:59
SPEAKER_00: Not see the shadow or see the shadow?
13:02
SPEAKER_01: Well, okay, it doesn't see its shadow, and then we have an early spring, right?
13:05
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
13:05
SPEAKER_01: I was digging into this a little bit, and I do have an issue.
13:08
SPEAKER_01: Maybe your friend could clear it up for him.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you can link us up.
13:11
SPEAKER_01: They said since 1890, and this I went through the sheet, he's only seen his shadow 20 times.
13:19
SPEAKER_01: I feel like this groundhog's looking for a payday and just getting back to the burrow.
13:24
SPEAKER_01: You know, they say it's the you know, it's been they say this groundhog's been used since 1887, making it 138 years old.
13:31
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's one old groundhog.
13:33
SPEAKER_01: I'd like to count the rings.
13:35
SPEAKER_01: I don't buy it.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: Well, in the next probably 100 years, you'll be able to count the rings on that groundhog.
13:42
SPEAKER_01: You don't think it's got another 138 left in it, huh?
13:45
SPEAKER_00: It's possible.
13:46
SPEAKER_01: It's it's the magical town of Punxitawney.
13:49
SPEAKER_01: All right.
13:49
SPEAKER_01: Last year, they estimated 40,000 people showed up to see this thing come out at 730.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: It's a crazy thing.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: It is a crazy thing, and something that I uh I don't want to be part of.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, people get there and they stay overnight, and it is it is nuts.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: It is it is absolutely nuts.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: And I have friends that have to cover it every year for a news organization, and they kind of feel the same way that Bill Murray did about going to cover it, I think.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's move on.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: Let's move on to our early spring.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get this uh weather breaking uh hopefully sooner rather than later.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: What are the first jobs that you're thinking about we have to do when it comes to trees once that ground thaws?
14:39
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
14:40
SPEAKER_01: Um the biggest thing we're doing, I mean, one big thing on my list, I guess, is just reviewing the trees as they come into bud.
14:49
SPEAKER_01: You know, what'd we lose last year?
14:50
SPEAKER_01: What is anything coming back looking looking strange?
14:54
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, especially before pests start hitting.
14:57
SPEAKER_01: We're just kind of reviewing the landscape and seeing do we lose any through the winter?
15:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, especially when we have these warm-ups and freezes and warm-ups and freezes through the winter, that can really negatively affect uh everything living, obviously, you know, to be pulled out of dormancy and then thrown back in.
15:13
SPEAKER_01: I know a few years ago that's what we attributed a lot of the boxwood, uh the volutella blight and the boxwood blight problems to is going from 50 degrees to two degrees just throws them into shock and leaves them very susceptible to spores that maybe they could fight, you know, if they were kept dormant throughout the year.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Um plus you get buds swelling when it warms up.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then when it gets super, super cold, you know, whether it's a hydrangea or a dogwood, wherever it is that has buds on it, they don't like it.
15:41
SPEAKER_01: Well, and I transplanted some hellebore last year, uh spring, summer, and they started coming up here in the last few weeks.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: I noticed they were growing, and I'm like, man, I don't that's gonna throw them into a tailspin, especially during an establishment period.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: So I'm expecting to lose most of that that that started to come back.
15:59
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that's that's a big issue.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, those early buds.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: Silver maples, I don't maybe I just know maybe the buds are just larger, but you know, they're pretty red too.
16:07
SPEAKER_01: But I really noticed them doing a lot of uh off-season budding and growth.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm always like, oh man, what's gonna happen to this girl next year?
16:16
SPEAKER_00: Um well, this is really going off the trail a little bit, but I want to go back to the hellabores because I am a uh obsessed with hellabores.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: So tell me about this hellabore, these hellabores, and when you planted them, and do you know what kind they are?
16:32
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't.
16:33
SPEAKER_01: I got them, they weren't flowering when I got them.
16:36
SPEAKER_01: I think they're the like light green ones, you know, that come out kind of light green.
16:41
SPEAKER_01: But I'm hopeful.
16:42
SPEAKER_01: I love hellabores because I feel like they look like antiques when they come out.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: Like the color of the flower is so unique, and like in even as they start to brown, right, and die, they keep this really unique look, almost like they were pressed, like Victorian-era flowers that were pressed, you know.
16:59
SPEAKER_01: They they really unique, stunning, I think.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: And they're one of those plants that can survive under a tree.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: And there aren't many that can.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, most of them are evergreen.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Now, the one that I'm talking about is blooming right now, believe it or not.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: It's called Helleborus Niger.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: And it's called the common name is Winter Rose or Christmas Rose.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: And they have something blooming at the end of November into January.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: Like, even we're gonna get some really cold temperatures here the next couple days while we're recording this.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Those flowers will sit there in kind of suspended animation, and then when things warm up again, when we get to the 30s, those flowers will still be there, deer resistant.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh there, I run off the rails and and made my pitch for hellabores, Mike.
17:47
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me ask you this since do you have a lot of you don't get a lot of deer damage, rabbit damage, this kind of thing?
17:54
SPEAKER_01: They seem to leave them alone.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: In general, the deer and rabbit won't touch them, but like in the case of the hellabore, when the flowers are there, in times of desperation, the deer will try and nibble on the flowers, but they don't like them.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: And I've never had them touch the foliage.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh so when we're at this time of the year, as soon as we get this break in the weather and the flowers are still there, I'll give them one quick spray with uh deer repellent just to be absolutely sure because I don't want to lose those flowers.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: Those flowers, they have a creamy white which fades to pink.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: And it uh I could talk, I could talk for hours about that hellabore uh because it's it's my it's my favorite of all the hellabores out there.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: My favorite is having that winter rose blooming.
18:42
SPEAKER_01: Um one other thing for for lawn people, if people are looking at turf, um, there has been more more uh research gone into and popularity around dormant seeding, um, people seeding in the winter and then you know kind of letting that settle.
18:58
SPEAKER_01: You want to do it before the ground's completely frozen.
19:00
SPEAKER_01: It's it's hard to thread the needle, but people have had luck because then they germinate as soon as those spring temperatures come and you get more of that rainy season spring.
19:10
SPEAKER_01: You know, because you seed too late going into spring and then you just get summer drought and you all that grass dies.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: So you know, I've heard about this.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: What is the window for the throwing the seed down?
19:21
SPEAKER_01: Right.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: So it's not as perfect of a science as your fall or your spring.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: It seems like it's getting more popular and kind of people are testing things out.
19:31
SPEAKER_01: But um, you don't want the ground to be fully frozen.
19:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, you want to have it to be able to have that soil contact and it'll help reduce erosion as well.
19:39
SPEAKER_01: But you don't want last week we had 10 days of above freezing, those could have germinated and died um right in the middle of the winter.
19:49
SPEAKER_01: So I think that's the main difficulty is finding that I think April 6th is usually when I'm looking for the last freeze to happen.
19:58
SPEAKER_01: So in that preceding month, um, you know, March, if we're having freezing temperatures in March, even February, I think that is the that to me is when I'm going to try dormant seeding this year.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: And the seed is just kind of thrown down uh because you because you wouldn't you wouldn't cover it with anything because it it it does it it wouldn't need it, right?
20:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean you'd have moist soil, or what would you do?
20:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
20:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you throw it down.
20:25
SPEAKER_01: I try not to cover seed as much as I don't have to, like especially on a hill, like for erosion, we're covering seed.
20:32
SPEAKER_01: But typically I just try to get a scarified earth so we get good dirt contact and just put the seed down and let it grow.
20:39
SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm a little superstitious around grass seed.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: I feel like it's all it's all your mindset behind it.
20:46
SPEAKER_01: You know, whenever I do a big seeding job, I'm always just like driving past every couple days.
20:51
SPEAKER_01: Come on, grow.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: Like I never believe it's gonna grow until it grows.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: So until it finally germinates.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: That is nerve-wracking, I think, for anybody who plants grass seed because you're kind of like, Well, should I do it early?
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Should I wait till the soil warms up a little bit, but then I'm not gonna get the water I need.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: If it dries out, it's not gonna sprout.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm investing all this time and and you know, money in the seed.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it is nerve-wracking.
21:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and the larger the area, just I mean, staring at a big field of dirt when you promised grass is is a anxiety-inducing experience for me.
21:31
SPEAKER_01: It'll grow, it'll grow.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: I swear it'll grow.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: Anything else you can think of for early spring before we finish up today?
21:39
SPEAKER_01: I think that's it.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: You know, just pay attention, get out there when uh when everything starts to grow and get excited for for another good year.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: Um, good time to plan.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: If you got landscape planning you're doing, garden planning, this kind of stuff, you know, uh getting ahead of it so you can germinate those seeds you're planning on planting.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: If you if you don't buy starters, stuff like that.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: It's always better to start early with that.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: Well, Mike, every time we talk, we have so much fun.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, we've done scary trees and uh what was the other one?
22:06
SPEAKER_01: We how trees in movies, uh deer protection.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: You you got thrown into Groundhog Day, and I think that was a lot of fun.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: I think we have to finish this way.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm welcoming this week Mike, arborist from Columbus, and today's topic, because it's all about Groundhog Day.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: We've done it over and over.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Mike.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Mike.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk to you next time.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Doug.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: Have a good one.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, Mike is one funny guy.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: I love having him on the show.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: Now, tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees Podcast from the Davy Tree Expert Company.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Doug Oester, and as always, do me a big favor.
22:47
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22:51
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22:54
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22:58
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23:04
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23:09
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23:10
SPEAKER_00: And as always, we'd like to remind you on the Talking Trees podcast.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: Trees are the answer.