Tree Health: How Do You Know If a Tree is Healthy?

You feel fine, but you're not sure if you're really healthy. What do you do? You go in for a physical, of course. It's the same with tree health, only a house call will be necessary, since trees can't go in to the doctor. And guess who gets to play doctor?

Don't worry: checking on tree health is a heck of a lot more fun than going in to the doctor for a physical. Vanessa Richins tells us all the signs we need to look for to gauge tree health in this article. And you can concentrate fully on getting to the root of any problem, since bedside manner counts for little with tree patients.

Along the way, About's Guide to Trees and Shrubs also offers some maintenance tips to promote tree health, such as the desirability of pruning a tree so as to have only one central leader. "This will add strength and to stability to the tree structure," notes Vanessa.

Related resource: How to Prune Trees