Happy Spring!

Baca's Trees • 6 May 2024

I left a cold and unpredictable April to go on vacation in Italy. I came home to welcoming warmth, flowers, and leaves on most of the trees. Traveling is fun, but there’s no place like home! As I write this today, it is small business day, the day identified to remind us that small businesses run the world. This special day is near and dear to my heart. We are a business of less than 30 employees. We have been in business for more than 40 years. We are proud New Mexicans and we proudly serve New Mexicans. Thank you for supporting our small business!


What’s happening in my world?


Pinon Needle Scale turns inner needles on Piñon trees brown. It actively attaches to the needles and sucks the moisture out in February and March, and again in October and November. It is not always noticed until April when the needles have finally turned as brown as they are going to get and needle drop is more than normal. Treating now is futile since they are not damaging your tree now. While they are not actively damaging the tree, they are actively laying around watching cable television and making babies. 😉 This time of year the only thing you can do to help your tree is to hose off the nest. The nest is white and found in the undergrowth and on the crotches of the tree. It looks like dryer lint. Spray it off with a hard stream of water. It will come back. Spray it off again. Try to make sure your tree is cleaned off, especially in February and again in October.


Aphids are in abundance!

Since they are close to the bottom of the food chain, let’s try not to poison them. They don’t kill anything except cactus and flowers. Use the recipe to suffocate them and the environment will stay in tact. In a 32 oz spray bottle, put 1/4 teaspoon dish soap, 1 shot glass of cooking oil, and fill the rest with water. If you don’t have a shot glass, that’s another issue entirely. 😂

Weeds have popped up everywhere.

Spraying your weeds with a vinegar solution can control them if you spray when they are small. if you use chemical treatment, the only safe one I know to use in your landscape is the original, white bottle Roundup. I’m not suggesting you use roundup. I’m just saying that if you use chemical control, this is the only one that does not harm your trees. I am speaking on behalf of the trees. About 25% percent of my appointments so far this season have been trees damaged by weed killer. I expect this number to grow.

To say that the weather this spring was wonky is an understatement. We went from warm to cold to warm and cold again so fast that my head was spinning. This weather took a toll on the trees. I have not seen any apricot trees with fruit. Many trees did not produce leaves at all. I’m still waiting for my Chinese Pistache to fully leaf out. Even the trees in the nursery took a hit period. I don’t think we’ve seen the full damage of the wonky weather yet.

The weather has turned very warm now, and we are close to the end of planting season. The tree selection is good right now. Always when you plant a tree you have to ask yourself what you want your tree to do for you. I have been to several houses this season where they planted a deciduous tree to block the view of the nosy neighbor. That only works while the tree has leaves. Since they did not put an Evergreen, they can run around naked in their backyard in the summer, but not in the winter. 🫣 Oh well. Score one for the nosy neighbor! 

There is a perfect tree or shrub for your landscape. If you want spring flowers or fall color or shade or privacy or bee friendly or bird food or you need something to plant on your property line so you don’t have to look at your neighbor’s mess, you can find the right tree. You just have to determine what characteristics are most important to you. The perfect tree does exist!

Thank you again for reading.

Call our office if you need an appointment with one of us or if you would like a returned call. Please be patient. This is our busy season. 😅


Gracias … Camille the Arborista

Wild flowers

It’s HOT outside!

by Baca's Trees • 30 July 2024
If your leaves droop or curl, add water. If the tree is not growing, add water. I go to homes and find that their irrigation systems are set up to water for “20 minutes every day” or “40 minutes 3 times per week” or any of many combinations. Few people know how much water their trees are getting. If your trees are struggling, do the math. A 2-gallon emitter run for 30 minutes gives your tree 1 gallon of water. If you have 3 emitters, they will get 3 gallons of water. THIS IS NEVER ENOUGH WATER . Most trees have roots that start around 6” below the surface. Three gallons of water will never get to that 6” level. Watering this way 7 days a week means that you are not giving your tree enough water 7 days a week . The water you are giving is completely wasted. Here are some common issues: • Emitters too close to the trunk. Trees get water at the outer perimeter of the tree, the drip line. • Emitter volume is too low. Trees need large volumes less frequently rather than a small volume frequently. • Emitters do not put out the volume as indicated. This is often due to calcium buildup or low water pressure.

What’s bugging you?

by Baca's Trees • 27 June 2024
There are so many various infestations of bugs throughout the city. Elm beetles, Cottonwood beetles, Chinche bugs, Bagworm, Boxelder beetles! All these things have one thing in common. They cause little to no damage to your trees. They are leaf-eaters and leaves come back, but they are nuisances! They try getting in the house, on the picnic table, in the pool, everywhere! Treating the Elm and Cottonwood trees can be expensive and while treatment will kill the bugs that try to eat the trees, they will not kill the bugs that are trying to get in your house or lay around on your chaise lounge. You will still have a problem. Keep the doors and windows closed. Call your pest control company to protect your house or use over-the-counter household bug spray . They have a short season and soon they will be nothing more than a bad memory. Weed killer is by far the number one thing that is hurting and killing trees in our communities. I took this picture at a house a few weeks ago.

We love you so, New Mexico, but the winds forever blow!

by Baca's Trees • 26 May 2024
The lyrics to the childhood song I sang all the time have rung true this spring. Weather is always a huge factor for trees and shrubs in our environment. The last 10 years we have seen many drastic changes. This year, many trees died from freeze. Not freeze from winter. Freeze from spring. Our daytime temperatures warm up, welcoming new growth. Then nighttime temperatures zap the trees. It has always been a factor for fruit bearing trees, but now it has really affected many tree varieties.

The Power of Green Space

by Baca's Trees • 29 March 2024
Gardens around the world are favorite visiting spaces for travelers. There is something about being among the life that is within gardens that bring us peace. Studies show that healing from an illness or injury is accelerated when the patient can see a tree from their window and even more so if they can spend time in a garden. For this reason, gardens are incorporated in hospital and convalescent facilities. Some of our favorite places in Albuquerque are green spaces such as the UNM duck pond, the zoo, and the botanical gardens. Some may argue that we live in a desert and greenery comes at a premium. This is true. We may not be able to sustain lush grass or backyard streams and ponds but, we can bring life to our living space. There are several grasses that we can sustain and our desert plants can be beautiful and life giving. Lavender and potentilla, to name a few, flower all summer long. I love watching the bees dance over the Rosemary and the Texas sage as they bloom. Bird of Paradise, Vitex, and Desert Willow provide showy flowers all summer and take very little water. Some trees such as fruitless Mulberry and Bur Oak provide enough shade to drop the temperature 10 degrees! Their strong limbs can hold a back yard swing or even a zip line. COVID lockdown was our “Come to Jesus” moment. During this time, when people were forced to stay home, we started to create the green space in our yards that we wanted to come home to. Dining al fresco at home was fun and helped to make this difficult time tolerable and even enjoyable. Did I mention the peace that comes from working in the garden? Mindless tasks that give us a sense of pride and accomplishment help us to work through anything. Give us a hand pruner and an unruly shrub, and we can solve the problems of the world!

Ready or not, spring is Marching in!

by Baca’s Trees • 14 March 2024
Weather is always all over the place in March. It’s cold. It’s hot. It’s windy. It’s dry. Do I wear shorts? Light jacket? Trees feel the same way. I know because we talk. Warm days welcome the flowers and buds, and cold evenings can shock them into freezing. It is most visible on fruit trees but Pistache, Redbud, Raywood Ash, Vitex, Desert Willow, to mention a few, can really struggle. Whitewash can help the trees deflect the warm sun, so the cold is not so shocking. Whitewash is white latex paint mixed with water at a rate of 50/50. Now is the time to whitewash. If your fruit tree freezes, you can possibly lose your fruit. My Apricot is fully flowered. I plan to place a 100-watt lamp under my tree to keep my tree warm and cozy during the crisp mornings. • Old fashioned Christmas lights will keep your tree nice, and toasty as will placing a 100-watt beam lamp under your tree. • Soaking you tree the day before an expected freeze will help. The sun warms the soil, and the heat is dissipated at night. • If your tree is small enough, you can cover it with a sheet or tarp. Mulch was the big discussion at the most recent Tree Conference. A professor from WSU gave an interesting talk. Ground covers should, among other things, help to conserve soil moisture, reduce compaction, moderate soil temperature, enhance plant growth, enhance beneficial soil organisms, control pests to reduce pesticide use. • Layers of cardboard or plastic below the surface with soil on top is TERRIBLE. Besides suffocating trees, cardboard is treated with chemical to help them stay waterproof and plastic has been found to have toxic properties as well. I often see these in vegetable beds. • There is rubber mulch, cut and colored to look like wood chips or just pieces of tire that people are using, sometimes under a swing set or in other areas of the yard. While these last, God only knows what it is does not enrich the soil. In fact, I am leery of any synthetic. Further, these retain heat. We sometimes see the little rubber mats around trees. These synthetics allegedly hold moisture, but they also create a habitat for bugs that are not good. • Wood bark and pecan shells are also very popular. Bark and shells both had the same task in life; to keep moisture out. They are both hydrophobic meaning they do not help the landscape retain moisture. • The Professor deduced that WOOD CHIPS are the best mulch. As they decompose, they leave the environment richer than when they got there. They are available, inexpensive, retain moisture, provide nutrients, easy to replace as they decompose, and they smother weeds while allowing trees and shrubs to breathe and grow. Have I mentioned … Baca’s Trees provides free wood chips. We keep them in front of our yard for the taking or you can call the office if you want them dumped at your house. Take all you want. We’ll make more! Keep it green! Camille the Arborista
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