Jason Gaskill from Davey's Wilmington, Delaware, office talks about how to carefully and safely install lights on your outdoor trees without harming them, pruning considerations to make this winter and fun story about one of the trees featured in Davey's 2024 Trees of Davey calendar, plus how you can WIN a copy!
In this episode we cover:
To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.
To learn more about how to tell if you should or shouldn't keep your holiday lights hung year round, read our blog, Is it okay to Keep Outdoor Tree Lights on Year Round?
To learn more about steps for how to hang light on tall trees, read our blog, How to Put Christmas Lights on Tall Outdoor Trees.
To learn more about the dos and don'ts of hanging outdoor lights, read our blog, Wrapping Trees with Christmas Lights: The Dos and Don’ts.
Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company
Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com.
Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!
Jason Gaskill from Davey's Wilmington, Delaware, office talks about how to carefully and safely install lights on your outdoor trees without harming them, pruning considerations to make this winter and fun story about one of the trees featured in Davey's 2024 Trees of Davey calendar, plus how you can WIN a copy!
In this episode we cover:
To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.
To learn more about how to tell if you should or shouldn't keep your holiday lights hung year round, read our blog, Is it okay to Keep Outdoor Tree Lights on Year Round?
To learn more about steps for how to hang light on tall trees, read our blog, How to Put Christmas Lights on Tall Outdoor Trees.
To learn more about the dos and don'ts of hanging outdoor lights, read our blog, Wrapping Trees with Christmas Lights: The Dos and Don’ts.
Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company
Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com.
Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!
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Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much, much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer.
I'm joined again this week by Jason Gaskill. He's an assistant district manager for the Davey Tree Expert Company in Wilmington, Delaware. Not only are we going to be talking about how to decorate your outdoor trees without harming them, we have a big giveaway, so stay tuned at the end. Jason has got a great story about- well, it just relates to the giveaway.
Jason, what are your first thoughts when you think about decorating an outdoor tree without messing it up?
Jason Gaskill: Well, first thing I think of is how to do it without messing yourself up. [chuckles] Because I decorated my dogwood on a snowy day and took a slip off the ladder, so I guess that'd be the first consideration is being careful there. My son and I are going to decorate. I have a 20, 25-foot Blue Spruce, and we're going to decorate that. He really wanted to do it on Sunday, but it was starting to drizzle, and I told him we'd better wait until daddy can get on the ladder when it's dry. He agreed, something that we're maybe going to do this evening.
The important thing that I would say is that when you're decorating an outdoor tree, if it's going to be a deciduous tree, which people love to do the branches and the trunks of trees, is to not wrap too tightly. Also, be aware of not leaving it on. All too often I've seen people say, well, we can leave these lights on indeterminately, or why take them off and leave them on for next year? That may be okay, but two, three years down the line, the tree is going to start to get girdled because the tree is going to- putting growth rings off every year and growing exponentially in girth. I've seen a lot of trees- I've seen trees get strangled or branches dieback and things like that from leaving wrapping and stuff like that on.
Doug: For a 25-foot tree, are you just going to circle the tree with lights like you would a Christmas tree inside?
Jason: Yes, that's my plan. I got a short step ladder, and I'm going to use a pole saw. I will stick it up in some of the parts at the top, and then I will just take the pole saw and I'll go around and circle it. Then we'll circle it around and around and around and put it on a outdoor timer and enjoy the show. This tree, I got about 900 lights along the street. That'll look really pretty.
Doug: All the same color or all sorts of different colors?
Jason: It'll be a warm light. I think that'll look nice with the blue in the Blue Spruce.
Doug: Nowadays, is it mostly all LED lights? Is that what we should be using on our tree or does it matter?
Jason: LEDs are the-- number one, it's going to be your cheapest electrical option, but also it's going to pull the least amount of volts so that you can connect more lights to one another. If you use something that's not LED, then you're going to come to a power point where the strands don't light up because you're not pulling enough electricity, especially if you're using like low voltage or something like that.
You definitely want to use LEDs because LEDs also don't get hot. The risk with the standard old-fashioned light bulbs is they do get warm. On an evergreen tree, is that warmth enough to create some bud break response and things like that or warm something up to a point of catching fire? I mean, that's not unheard of and that used to be something that used to happen with Christmas lights in people's homes even. LED is definitely the way to go.
It's also, if you're doing a wrap with, and you're wrapping your trees, it's a good time to also prune them too. My dogwood, gets water sprouts pruned out of it, deadwood and things like that are in the way, crossing limbs. It almost trains your pruning a little bit. You don't want to make pruning cuts just for the purpose of putting lights on, but you will find and say, well, this branch doesn't make sense and it's a opportunity to also do a little bit of pruning to your garden trees and so forth as well.
Doug: Well, now you've sent us down the rabbit hole of pruning. Without seeing an illustration, can you guide us and help us as to when we are up, putting lights on that tree, like what should I be taking out? Because you have to have a reason, right?
Jason: That's right.
Doug: From doing this podcast and talking to arborists, I'm like, you got to have a reason to prune. Can you give us the basics?
Jason: Yes. In my opinion, you should never prune without a reason. The basics are deadwood, sanitation purposes, aesthetic purposes. Then you're looking for-- sprouts are response growth on epicormic tissue that grows straight up off of a branch. They're going to look a lot different than, say, normal branch habit. Some sprouts that are growing up into the crown in a straight upward fashion off of a branch, and if they're growing and they're rubbing against other limbs, then they could be a potential problem. Also, those water sprouts aren't well connected on the tree, and they can also sometimes be more attractive to insect and disease because how fast they grow, they got more energy. Those are good things to get removed.
Also, branches that are growing the wrong way. If you're looking at a tree and everything's going vertical and then horizontally and vertical, but then you got a limb that's going and then it decides that it's going inside the tree's canopy towards the trunk, that would be something good to remove. Then also where you get a cluster of limbs from growing off of parent branch, and then you get another, call it twig or a smaller limb that's growing right off with that or in between, you want to get that out of there so that it doesn't create an inclusion or block the way that another branch would naturally grow.
Doug: It's important, and I've learned this from, again, doing the podcast, that if you have a bigger branch, it's going to come off. It's not just one cut, it's a couple cuts, right, so that you're not tearing the bark away?
Jason: Oh, absolutely. Once you start getting into larger limbs, you really got to consider why and should you remove it. There's a lot of simple rules. One being if the branch is one-third the size of the diameter of the parent branch, that could be dangerous to remove because the parent branch might not compartmentalize and seal the wound correctly. There's a lot of research on different types of species. That's why it's always good to consult the arborist of how large can you even go, like an oak tree, for example. Livewood pruning over six inches could be a situation where the tree might not respond and compartmentalize that wound correctly.
Then you got to also be careful of what we call the bark branch ridge, which is making that proper cut, where a lot of people might cut the branch right against the trunk. However, the trunk is actually encircling that smaller limb and actually protrudes further out and is surrounding the tissue, so if you cut farther in, you're actually cutting the trunk itself as well. Yes, to your point of multiple cuts, yes, you want to cut it back in pieces so that way it doesn't tear and pull down and rip stem off.
Doug: Makes sense. We don't put any kind of goop or anything on there anymore, right? We just let it heal naturally, right?
Jason: That's right. Goop and tar and some of the stuff, what I always call like a civil war medicine where we chop limbs off and put leeches on the cells, or if I got a headache and I get migraines, they would have drilled my head open by now. That kind of stuff, the solvents and things, help delay or inhibit the response growth and the compartmentalization and the tissue growth.
We actually have been using something called PolyPhosphite 30. This product actually sprayed on the tissue, actually fertilizes even and helps the response growth and helps the compartmentalization of-- and so if you ever had a large, large branch removed, you could talk to us, or if removed a large branch like that, it might be a good idea to have some sort of help additive more like a wound closure, something that's going to help stimulate growth. Also, PolyPhosphite 30 is a little bit of a fungicide as well, so it'll help slow down some of the decay process and some of the fungal inoculates that might get into a tree.
Doug: We should, I guess, remind people too that in the case of a dogwood, when you are doing a little pruning, you might be taking off some flower buds along the way too, and you just have to know that that's happening. Certain plants already have their buds on there, but if it's a crossing branch or if it's rubbing on something or growing inside, it's got to go, right?
Jason: That's right, yes, and you're not losing a lot when you're talking about removing something like that. Chances are if it's a crossing limb and it's internally in the tree, it might not even have flowers anyway because of how it's going to get hit with the sun, or it might not be aesthetically pleasing as well when it is in flower. Because when you dream and you think about how a perfect flowering tree looks like, and American dogwood has got that classic look and almost topiary parts to it, you like to see those layers with the flowers. If you had a weird branch growing this way and it was flowering, then it might not look good anyway.
Doug: Okay to be hanging stuff on that tree? Let's say, okay, put some lights on, but I want to hang some ornaments outside. That's going to be okay for the tree?
Jason: I'm okay with that. I guess it depends on weight. Trees compensate for their own growth, and they do overcompensate for weight because trees do live in the elements and there's wind pressure and there's ice and water, and so as the tree grows, it's compensating for extra forces against the tree. I don't know if you'd want to have Santa hang from the tree, or maybe [chuckles] Rudolph or some of the reindeers, but some ornaments, yes, that would look nice. A lot of the ornaments are pretty lightweight and they're balls and Styrofoam or whatever.
Doug: Get to the top of that step ladder and put my star on top.
[laughter]
Jason: If you can do it safely, sure. I'm going to attempt it. I'll let you know next time how that turns out. [chuckles]
Doug: Are you actually going to try put something at the top?
Jason: Yes, I have a star that goes with it. If I can do it and put it on-- because my Blue Spruce has a nice, perfect, top leader there. If I can get that star over the top of it and sit it down right and it looks okay and it doesn't droop over or fall off, then I want to see how it goes.
Doug: Is this tree something that everybody can see in the neighborhood or is it back in the woods?
Jason: Oh, yes. I'm the first house in the neighborhood of 13 homes and then it goes into two cul-de-sacs, and I'm on the corner, and so this tree is at the corner where everybody that drives in the neighborhood will get to see it.
Doug: Man, that's spectacular. That's really cool. I'm sure it's got to be a big deal for the neighborhood and for your family too. "Okay. He's going out again to do it."
[laughter]
Jason: That's right. We got a lot of young families, and people get into decorating their homes. We just did our outside. I did a homemade wreath with my son a couple of years ago, and we put it in the center on the top of our-- and it's about six, seven-foot wide wreath and it looks beautiful. It just adds to the cheer and happiness, and the whole neighborhood loves it.
Doug: That is absolutely great. Now let's talk a little bit about the giveaway. I have a good story, and I know Jason has, about a special tree, but Davey puts out this amazing calendar every year of specimen trees, and I photographed one here in Pittsburgh. It's a Southern Magnolia that was in last year's catalog. A Southern Magnolia in Pittsburgh is a rarity, that's for sure.
Jason: Sure.
Doug: You won't believe this, Jason, but I was at a trade show in Baltimore, and a guy came up to me and he goes, "I used to get the Davey calendar and I don't get it anymore. Can I get on the mailing list?" It was too late in the season. They didn't have any more calendars back at the main office. I had to get one from an arborist and send it to him, so now he's on the list.
Tell me about the tree that's going to be in the calendar this year that you shot a picture of.
Jason: It's a Japanese tree lilac, and it's got to go be one of the biggest I've ever seen. I've been working with the owners of the tree for about nine years. The first time I came on the property and I said, "Holy smokes, is that a Japanese tree lilac?" They were like, "Sure is." They told me the story about it. It was a sapling from a parent tree that also had some heritage in Pennsylvania, and the parent tree was a Tree of the Year in a garden tour, and it was in the PHS shows and garden tours.
It's got some great history to it. It's about 40-some years old. For a Japanese tree lilac to be 40-foot wide-- I think I measured at 40-foot wide, about 36, 37-foot tall and multiple stems. I think I measured four-- if you took all the DBHs together, I think it was around 40 inches almost, because I had maybe a 9, a 12, a 10, and like a 14, 15-inch caliper multi-stemmed tree. Just sitting perfectly in a backyard hill. In the background, from the 1800s, there's an old, stone-and-moss-covered old pump house, old springhouse. Just a gorgeous property, gorgeous tree, and just beautiful creamy-white flowers. If you've never smelled a lilac, everybody, being by that tree when it's in bloom, it just smells like lemons and beauty.
Doug: Wow, that's what I was going to say. I can't imagine the fragrance coming off a tree that big when it is blooming. If you would like to win one of these calendars, here's all you have to do. Send us an email at podcasts@davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S@D-A-V-E-Y.com. Say, "Hey, I want to win," and someone will get back to you and let you know if you won.
Jason, thanks again so much for coming on the show and telling us how to safely decorate those trees. The next time we talk, I want to see how things went with this big Blue Spruce. I'd love to see a picture of that too.
Jason: Yes, I'll send you a picture, Doug. Thanks. I always have fun hanging out with you. It's been about-- I think it was last year that I was on with you talking about winter pruning.
Doug: Yes. Thanks again, Jason. We will talk to you again soon, I'm sure.
Jason: Hey, thank you.
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Doug: Tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Do me a favor, subscribe to the podcast. You'll never miss a show. Remember, if you would like to win that big, beautiful Davey calendar with all these cool specimen trees, send us an email at podcasts@davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S@D-A-V-E-Y.com. As always, we'd like to remind you on the Talking Trees podcast, you know it, trees are the answer.
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