Tree workshop set

Andrew D. Brosig
Posted 3/31/17

Getting the inside line on how to select and maintain a healthy arboriculture environment around your home is the topic of a free workshop set for April when Tom Wiens, an arborist and consultant from Bayard, Neb., will be talking trees in Torrington.

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Tree workshop set

Posted

TORRINGTON – Getting the inside line on how to select and maintain a healthy arboriculture environment around your home is the topic of a free workshop set for April when Tom Wiens, an arborist and consultant from Bayard, Neb., will be talking trees in Torrington.
“I’m going to focus on tree health,” Wiens said. “With everything going on in the world today, there won’t be trees here in the future, if we continue on the path we’re going
down now.”
There are two ways some nurseries and even discount outlets sell tree stock for planting, Wiens said. Trees are typically either grown in containers or they are started then the root ball is wrapped in burlap.

These methods, he said, can be responsible for the failure of trees to flourish once they’re transplanted to a home landscape. Tree condition at planting and the method of planting in the landscape are the top two determiners of tree health, Wiens said.
“People are being ripped off to the tune of billions of dollars per year by being sold garbage nursery stock,” Wiens said. “The public believes insects and disease are the main causes of trees being in poor health.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “If insects or disease are in the trees, the trees were in poor health before.”
Wiens said healthy trees can “defy disease and ward off insects.”
His presentation will focus on the top three things people need to know before they buy and plant trees in their home landscape. He will have a variety of root samples, collected from around Torrington and western Nebraska, on display to illustrate his concerns.
The workshop is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 8 in the Conestoga Room of the Lincoln Community Complex on East 22nd Street in Torrington. There is no charge for the workshop. Wiens urges people to bring pencil and paper to take notes and a camera if they wish to photograph the root samples on display. Literature on tree health, selection and planting methods will be available.