Talking Trees with Davey Tree
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Talking Trees with Davey Tree
How Allergy Season is Impacted by Drought, Pollen and Tree Selection
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Matt Betz from Davey’s Charlotte office breaks down allergy season in North Carolina, explaining how drought conditions, tree pollen and planting choices can influence allergy symptoms.
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To learn more about trees during springtime and allergy season, please read our blogs Smart Planting for the Best & Worst Trees for Allergies and Most Common Questions about Tree Care in Spring.
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Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oester. Each week, our expert arborists will 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 today by Matt Betts. He's a district manager for the Davy Tree Expert Company in Charlotte, North Carolina. Welcome back to the show, Matt. How are you?
SPEAKER_00Very well. Thanks for having us, giving us the opportunity to talk some sniffles, I guess.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're talking all about allergies. But before we get there, what's your spring been like
Spring in North Carolina
SPEAKER_01in North Carolina?
SPEAKER_00It's been uh unique, unique roller coaster ride. Um, really through probably October, November of last year through through right now, we've experienced everything you could experience. Um we are currently labeled as being in an extreme drought. Uh with I believe it's the driest first quarter in the last 130 years or so. Um, so dealing with that, we've most recently had water restrictions put into place by the city. They're voluntary at the moment, but I'm sure they're gonna get tightened up if we don't see some more rainfall here pretty soon. Um you know, that kind of all started last year, and then we were, you know, hit with some couple snowstorms where I mean the second one we got you know 10 to 13 inches of snow in some areas, which is very rare and not something we see here too often. Uh had ice after that. We had ice in other parts of our kind of service area when we went and helped out, and then in the last two to three weeks, we've had 90 plus degrees and low humidity, but no rain. So grass is drying out already, new plantings are struggling already. So it's we've we've done it all so far.
SPEAKER_01Boy, there's nothing worse than a drought, and especially in the spring. I
Water restrictions
SPEAKER_01I mean that's when we hope to get you know a little bit of spring rains, or for you guys late winter. So with volunte with voluntary water restrictions, what does that mean for you guys in your new plantings? That's new plantings are gonna need water.
SPEAKER_00It makes it tricky. Um, I mean, we try we've tried to get ahead of it even before the restrictions went into place, and just you know, we've for some clients we've provided watering bags that are that are fairly inexpensive. Um for others, we've been urging them to water since you know last October, November. Fortunately for us, we we keep our planting window pretty narrow. Um, we plant from like Thanksgiving through end of February or so, just because we kind of game plan for this. That way, if it all goes sideways, we're ready. Um, but even those, you know, whether it's plantings, I've I've planted hydrangeas at my house that are needing some extra care, or at clients' houses, we've already had some calls where they're concerned about, you know, expedited transplant shock, I would call it. They're already starting to turn and show some stress. So we've been just urging people, if they're gonna water, do it the right way. Don't waste water. I mean, all it really takes, especially if you've got, you know, a one-off tree or a handful of shrubs, all you need to do is put the hose at the base of that tree, turn it on to where it's just barely dripping out, and you can let it run for hours at that point. You may only put 10 to 20 gallons of water down, but it's gonna go right where it needs to with limited runoff. So been been preaching that, and then we we do some uh like micronutrient injections and use some organic stuff out there that allows, you know, in theory, it's supposed to make trees and shrubs a bit more drought tolerant. So we're exploring that where we need to and just trying to give everything its best chance of survival.
SPEAKER_01Well, as we've all talked about before, anybody that deals
North Carolina's drought
SPEAKER_01with plants in any way, a drought is the worst thing, you know. I I I said it be already today once that that as us as homeowners, it's depressing. You've got new plantings and you don't want to waste water, but you've got to keep these things alive, and you just you're you're hoping for rain. Do they have a long-term uh look at the weather with any w rain coming, or do you do you hope for rain? You know, when you're looking at those fronts coming through, like, oh man, I hope that front hits me, because that's what we're doing. You know, we're looking at the front, and always it splits right around me and then comes together and keeps raining.
SPEAKER_00Yep. And that's about what we experience here. You know, we're on the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains, so a lot of this stuff that may come through Georgia and Tennessee, it goes over the mountains and then kind of fizzles out. So we, you know, that tends to always be the trend here. And right now, I mean, there's some small chances forecast, but nothing major, and it's it's definitely made it tough. I mean, we do just in our operation alone, we do a little limited lawn care. So then you have homeowners freaking out about their fescue because it's already turning brown, and it's you know, nothing that we can do or control. So again, we're trying to explore some alternatives, but I don't know that there's a a turnkey solution for making something that likes water, not be reliant on water. That's just it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01No rain and fescue equals go to dormancy. That's just that's just the way it is. There's nothing you could do for there's nothing you can do for that.
SPEAKER_00No, sir. So what we're living and learning.
SPEAKER_01So let's
How does drought affect allergy season?
SPEAKER_01talk about uh pollen and allergies and that sort of thing. What does that kind of weather? No rain, how does that affect allergies or does it?
SPEAKER_00It it certainly does. Um, you know, this year it seems like everything was kind of on track. Uh the pollen spiked really high as everything was kind of leafing out, and then without the rain to kind of wash any of it away, uh it just it extends and prolongs the irritant, really. Um, I know this past Sunday it got really windy as a front was blowing in, and we had probably 20 to 30 mile per hour sustained winds, and it you looked outside and it looked like the world was on fire just because there was so much pollen in the air, and it just took literally walking you know across the driveway to just be smacked with you can't get away from it. It's in your eyes, it's in your nose. So if you're a an allergy sufferer, I'm sure it's been brutal here lately.
SPEAKER_01Are there certain trees that are producing more
Which trees produce the most pollen?
SPEAKER_01pollen this time of the year than other things, or is it coming from some kind of other plants?
SPEAKER_00Definitely. I mean, the pines are pretty bad right now. Um, you know, it's a lot of people blame pine trees because they they produce a lot and it's kind of the sticky stuff that gets all over your car. From what from what I know, it's it's maybe not the most problematic as far as allergies go. Um, that comes more from you know hardwood trees, which we have a lot of oaks, a lot of maples, um, quite a few elms. So I know that's where a lot of these irritants come from. And without being able to kind of dampen and wash any of that way away, it's having a negative impact. And it's also down here, a lot of these trees bloom at different times. So, you know, you've got oaks that bloomed, you know, five, six weeks ago, and then hickories followed, you know, three to four weeks ago. So it's kind of just keeps coming, right? When you get done with one species, something else starts.
SPEAKER_01So forgive my ignorance, but I was I didn't know anything
Pine pollen
SPEAKER_01about that about pines. I didn't think of them as like a flowering tree. Where is their pollen coming from? Is it little flowers or something? Or how does it work?
SPEAKER_00It is, yeah. They'll produce like, you know, I'd call them seed pods, but I I don't think that's necessarily what they are. But you know, they put on new growth, and that new growth has to come from something flowering, and that's where, like, if you go and cut a pine limb off, you know, this time of year, you'll see just little bundles that are yellow, and that's where a lot of that pollen sits. And especially if you're you know pruning a tree or removing something like that, I mean, it can make a giant dust cloud, and that's what gets all over your car as well.
SPEAKER_01Well, that was my next question. If you work on trees
How do arborists handle allergies?
SPEAKER_01and you are affected by allergies, I gotta think it's gonna be a lot worse to be right up on that tree or right up in in it while it's blooming. That can't be much fun.
SPEAKER_00No, no, you got you have to prepare. I mean, it's you know, I and I think some people, I know me personally, it's didn't used to have allergies, you know, this time of year, and they've kind of progressively gotten worse. So it's just taking, you know, allergy medication once a day or whatever it is, you know, whatever, whatever's available, and try to suppress it because you know, even though I may not be out there directly cutting the trees anymore, it's I'm still on people's properties every day and walking through it. And there is not much worse than you know, having itchy eyes and not being able to breathe. And I know the guys, the guys deal with it too. You know, they've got you know one of the I guess positive side effects of like the COVID era, they've got their their buffs that they can pull up over their face and kind of block some of that. So that that helps, and they've they've all got clean ones of those that they utilize quite often.
SPEAKER_01Is there a specific season for
When does North Carolina's allergy season end?
SPEAKER_01this for you guys where you're at in North Carolina? Does it end at some point? Or like you said, it's you got oaks, then hickories, then this, then that. Definitely.
SPEAKER_00I mean, it it definitely tapers off. I mean, it starts depending on the season, you know, March, early April, and then by the time like June rolls around, everything's kind of worked through it. And you know, typically we've had rain that's kind of washed some of those lingering, you know, flowering pods out. Um, this year could be a little different. You know, it could it time will tell, but it could extend the irritant period just because none of it may have gotten washed away. And if we have winds and it just kind of stirs stuff up, we could see that prolonged for sure. So hopefully down here at least we get some rain moving in and kind of suppress a lot of those pollen particles that are in the air.
SPEAKER_01When you're on a property,
Can allergies affect which tree you choose to plant?
SPEAKER_01do people ever not choose a tree because of allergies, or is that not a concern for most people that are planting?
SPEAKER_00I don't think it's really a concern. I mean, it's it's tough too. You know, you've got even if you're trying to be conscious of that, you know, ever you've got neighbors all around you, especially in an urban area, to where, you know, planting one low pollen tree, like a cedar or juniper or something like that, that's not going to produce as much. Well, you could have a neighbor right beside you that has a giant oak tree in their front yard. So it's not really gonna negate it. It doesn't come up too often with us. Um, you know, we will get questions at times about because I I believe like the male trees are the ones that produce the pollen. So we've gotten questions about that and about you know, some of the fruiting trees, you know, which ones produce fruit, which ones don't. And you know, it's kind of you can go to a nursery and try to figure out what the male trees are, but there's no way to tell. You you've gotta you you don't know until you know. So um, you know, you can try to work with the nursery to figure that out, but I think that's gonna be a tall task.
SPEAKER_01Sometimes the nursery might tell you, you know, the this one's female, this one's male, and yeah, I I uh I know what you're talking about. Is there I guess there you wouldn't it wouldn't make sense to avoid a tree because, like you said, your neighbors have an oak, the other ones have a hickory, whatever it might be, that the the pollen's going to be there. So I always like to pick the brain of an arborist,
Matt's favorite trees in clients' yards
SPEAKER_01especially from another area, like where you're from, North Carolina, about some favorite trees. We always preface that with right tree, right place. But are there some certain species that you enjoy getting into a property that might not be planted all the time when you find the right spot and it's during your planting window?
SPEAKER_00Definitely. Um, you know, we've got a lot of we've got a governing body in in Charlotte. You know, Charlotte's a big tree city, and we've got a lot of restrictions. So we've got you know lists that that are provided to us for certain areas. Um, right tree, right place is always is always critical, and that can be a battle sometimes too. You know, I I can recall taking down a Bradford pear a couple years ago in a small front yard, and we wanted to replace it with a blood good Japanese maple of some size, so it would have been a really nice tree, but it wasn't it wasn't in the right category, so we had to plant something else, which in you know, from an arborist point of view was the wrong tree to plant there. But um, you know, we tend to we we have a lot of success with Japanese maples, so uh they just they seem to be pretty turnkey. They can be a little more expensive to get into initially just from a nursery stock price, but we've had a lot of good luck for kind of a medium maturing tree that if you take care of it well, um, it'll be a nice focal point for your yard. Uh we lean towards um like ale Chinese elms a lot just because they can they'll you know, people want it, they they want instant gratification. You know, if everybody could plant a large tree right out the gate, they would, but you know, once they hear the realistic budget for something like that, it's no, we're we're not doing that. Um, so those trees are good that they can grow fast. If you stay on top of their pruning cycle and keep them thin, they can be great trees. Um, so those are kind of unique to the area. And then, I mean, trees that are like super common that get a bad rap are crepe myrtles. You know, everybody prunes them improperly uh and tops them, and then you know, in my opinion, at that point, it's just cut them down and start over because you can't fix it. Um, we've been able to find some really unique varieties over the last few years where uh like single stem, so they you know they're more tree-form crepe myrtles, which are you don't see them that often. So if I can, you know, talk someone in to doing that. That way you have a nice tree that can provide some shade, has good flowers throughout the year, um, pretty much disease and insect resistant. We'll we'll lean towards that. Um we get a couple of live oaks every now and then, which are unique. We don't we don't tend to take care of too many around here. There's little pockets around.
SPEAKER_01Well, you mentioned something interesting there. Instant gratification. And it seems like
Planting smaller trees
SPEAKER_01every homeowner or gardener nowadays wants that instant gratification. But as you said, the budget is the first thing about putting a giant tree in. But in general, isn't it better to put in a smaller tree and let it catch on and do its thing?
SPEAKER_00Always, always, always. I mean, we have a lot of even if we're talking smaller species like hollies or something where people want a screen, they all want you know something that's already 10 feet tall. And we can get that stuff, and that's something that we can plant with traditional uh machines and you know, hand dig, but it's still, you know, I urge people like let us get the five to six foot tall trees and let us come in and you know make sure they're being watered properly and fertilized correctly and give it two years, and it's gonna be that 10-foot tall shrub, but it's gonna have time to kind of acclimate and get to that point instead of immediately just being thrown in a hole, even if you do it right. That's in essence what it is, and saying, you know, good luck. Hope hope you hope you can live. So we've kind of fortunately haven't had to learn the hard way too many times. We've been able to, you know, kind of convey to our clients that hey, this is the right way to go. Um, so you don't have to do it twice or three times. So definitely planting small, letting it catch up is is certainly the way to go.
SPEAKER_01Well, nothing drives me more crazy, and I would assume the same for you to see new construction and things planted with instant gratification in mind, and thinking, oh my gosh, two years down the road, five years down the road, like you said, we're gonna be replanting.
SPEAKER_00Yes, sir. Yeah, I mean, you see that I'm sure it's up there just like it is down here. A lot of new developments go in, and it's it's like, why would you even consider planting that species of tree in this front yard of this townhome? I mean, we've seen poplar trees planted in a you know 10 by 10 foot square, and within five years, they're gonna be all over the house. And it does. It it drives me crazy as well, because it's just we want trees planted, but you have to do you have to plant the right ones in the right place at the right time and kind of think long term, not just something that's whether it's cost effective or cheap or easy, it's it's put the right one in and give it its best chance of survival.
SPEAKER_01Well, man, I'm gonna leave it right there because that is a great way to finish up. That's the best advice you could give any homeowner. I want to thank you for your time. It was great to talk to you again. And boy, I hope you get some rain down there.
SPEAKER_00Me too.
SPEAKER_01We we'll we'll start doing a rain dance. We'll see how it goes. Thanks again. Thanks, Doug. Tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees Podcast from the Davy Tree Expert Company. I'm your host, Doug Oster. As always, I'd like you to do me a favor, subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss a show. And what should we be talking about? Let us know. There's two ways to do it. You can send an email to podcast at Davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S at D A V E Y dot com. You can also click the link at the end of our show notes to text us a fan mail message. Your ideas could be on a future show. We'd love to hear from you. And as always, we'd like to remind you on the Talking Trees podcast. Trees are the answer.