Central Florida Farms - Urban Forestry, a Need & Growing Concern - Rare Palms & Hard to Find Tropical Plants, Seedlings & Giant Elephant Ears, Aroids

Not everyone will need to know this but I thought I'd write it just the same for the reason that not a lot of people DO know this.

Over the last 2+ years, I have watched hundreds of homes be erected from once untouched Florida Land. The original idea from the side of the cities is to preserve as much of the existing vegetation as possible during construction process. This is not an easy task for any side. This forces the builder to take extra care not to damage tree roots. The builders would rather just go into a site, tear it completely down and start with an empty paying field. Makes everything easier and faster. I can see their side. My brother in law is a super for a large custom home company and we've discussed this process. The ISA has determined from years of tree research and study that the initial damage to a tree is done during the first stage of construction when the roots of any trees are ripped and popped out of the ground. The builders argue that since the tree is still green 2 years later that no harm was done. A hardwood tree lives off of a reserve that it stores up as carbohydrates so if and when there are any stressful years of drought or hurricane damage, it can recover from that reserve. When a tree is damaged from root raking, its reserve is being used from that moment on. If a main water intake root is severed, it doesn't matter the reserve, the tree will die. The builders do not care or do not understand this. They are supposed to place a barricade up around the drip line prior to any root raking to reduce damage to the tree's health. This is RARELY practiced and the end result is normally a large dead and hazard tree 5-10 years down the road leaving the home owner in wonder why the tree suddenly died.

There is a need to protect trees throughout the building process of any type of home, parking lot, large area like a Super Target or Super Wal-Mart etc. reality has shown that the landscape technicians of these sites are either very uneducated about their work, they don't care or their hands are tied by their employers.

The only way to protect a tree during construction is to begin at the beginning. First a certified Arborist SHOULD be employed by the contractors. This is rarely if ever accomplished. There are no current regulations imputed by the EPA and therefore, are no certified arborist on staff. There are Landscape technicians that SHOULD have similar (even the most basic) knowledge about trees and the contraction process, but again, it is not required and rarely seen if ever.

If heavy equipment or actually ANY steady traffic around a tree's root zone is used, this will compact the soil and kill the tree. It only takes 3 inches of compaction to make the soil too hard for roots to penetrate or be able to receive needed moisture and nutrients. This will kill the tree fast and a storage reserve will not matter at this point. The bad thing about soil compaction is that it is very difficult to reverse the damage. It is a long, expensive process that involves an air spade or some other method to loosen the top 2-3 feet of root zone in order to make the tree able to uptake moisture and nutrients. Believe it or not, even human traffic can kill a tree.

One documented example of this is a tragic favorite tourist spot I believe at mount Vernon when for years they had the park blocked off to people and once they opened that restriction, the very trees that people came to visit were dead in a matter of months from soil compaction.

First, erect a perfect barricade around the root zone before any root raking takes place. If this is not done, then the root raking has already caused the damage to any established tree. Sometimes they live through the process, most times they do not. They might appear as if they are just fine due to the reserves built up in the cambium layers of the tree that will sustain the tree for the next few years. This also depends on the size and type of tree that is being tampered with. Pine trees are the most efficient tree to our environment, yet the least stable when it comes to construction. Nine out of ten pine trees will die before a job is completed if not properly barricaded.

The next step to prevent tree damage is to keep that barricade up throughout the entire building process until the landscape work is ready, usually just before a C.O. (certificate of occupancy) is issued to the project. I have witnessed large bucket trucks for workers, rip off huge branches of large old oak trees by careless employees. If those damages are not cared for then the tree may suffer rot in that area and on some slip-ups I have seen irreversible damage to a tree. If you have to take off one half of one side of the tree, the tree becomes a potential hazard in the future.

The landscape specialists should always have a plan to save the trees that are decided to be saved for the project. Many times, this also goes undone and not noticed until a tree is in failure weeks or years later.

Below are a few Musa Banana Plants we Have Available

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Banana		Banana		Banana		Sunset banana		FHIA		Banana
Red Iholene Hawaiian Banana	Cold hardy	Musa Basjoo Banana	Cold hardy	Ice Cream Blue Java Banana		Musa Kru Sunset Banana		Musa Siam Ruby Red Leaf Banana		Musa Red Tiger Sikkimensis
red banana		cold hardy		Ice Cream		Sunset banana		Musa Red Leaf

Rare Stone Gate Palm (Trachycarpus princeps)

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