How to Care for and Grow a Young Tree Into an Old Tree
October 6 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Instructor Chris Roddick on Zoom
Tuesday’s Oct. 6-13-20-27 from 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm EST
Registration opens September 10th
ABOUT THE COURSE
A typical landscape tree starts life in a plant nursery, most often not from a seed like a forest tree but from a cutting or graft that can have a lifelong effect on how long it will survive.
Trees have been around for a few hundred million years and are some of the oldest, tallest, and largest living things on the Earth. But the reasons behind their success are just starting to be understood.
This four-part class will look at the biology and growth of trees and the ways they’ve adapted and responded to environmental changes over time. We’ll look at how trees form fungal partners and interspecies networks even in our built environment, as well as the best ways to steward our arboreal friends.
Week 1: Tree Biology:
How trees grow, live, and die. The life cycles of trees from seed to senescence. We’ll also discuss tree relationships, as a fundamental part of being a tree is being connected to the organisms around them. Trees partner with and support fungi, insects, birds, microorganisms, and other trees and plants in order to stay healthy.
Week 2: Nursery Trees:
How to select a healthy tree that can best adapt to your landscape. Why planting a $50 tree in $500 hole will better ensure long-term high quality survival. We’ll talk soils, root pruning, training, and most importantly watering your new tree.
Week 3: Keeping Trees Healthy:
We’ll discuss the stewardship of established trees in the landscape. From creating a root friendly environment to appropriate pruning techniques for each of the tree’s life stages. Well also look at holistic approaches to insect and disease management.
Week 4: A Tree’s Afterlife
Trees are unique in nature that they have both living and nonliving parts that function. Deadwood from older, dying, and even dead trees contributes greatly to ecological systems, and more so than in young trees. We will discuss managing veteran trees, incorporating deadwood into the landscape for soil and plant health. And lastly, how to safely create wildlife habitat using dead and dying trees.
About the Instructor
Christopher Roddick is an Arborist who practices Ecological Arboriculture, a holistic approach to caring for trees and land that uses a modern understanding of tree and soil biology, ecology, and organic practices as a base for maintenance and cultivation decisions. For 30 years he was the Head Arborist and Foreman of Grounds at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. He is the author of the Tree Care Primer a guide to care for young, mature, and veteran trees. He now lives in the Litchfield Hills of CT where he runs Sweet Birch Land & Tree, providing ecological and tree preservation consulting, workshops, and training in the northeast.