Growing Together: A Gardening Podcast · Forum Communications Co.

Why you might want to hire an arborist to help care for your trees

·55 min·3 clips

Quincy says Fargo should either treat ash trees or plan removal and replacement now.

1. Growing Together: A Gardening Podcast focuses on why you might want to hire an arborist to care for trees. 2. John Lamb hosts with Don Kinzler, who is the North Dakota State University Extension horticulturist for Cass County, and guest Quincy Serko manages the Fargo-Moorhead area for Carr’s Tree Service. 3. The episode asks when tree owners need professional help, from storm damage to ash borer, risk assessment, pruning, and soil problems. 4. Don answers a reader question from Roger about a plant in a carrot patch that looked like Queen Anne’s lace, then explains that Queen Anne’s lace is the European heritage plant of the cultivated carrot. 5. Don says both Queen Anne’s lace and carrot are biennials, and he thinks Roger’s plant was probably a carrot that “decided to blossom a year early.” 6. Quincy says Carr’s Tree Service has been around for a little over 50 years, is headquartered in Otter Tail, Minnesota, and has satellite locations in Minnesota and North Dakota. 7. He says the company has three main divisions: private residential work, utility vegetation management, and government work for DNR land, cities, and counties. 8. Quincy describes starting tree care as a summer job, learning by doing, and staying because he enjoyed working outdoors with chainsaws, chippers, and boom trucks. 9. He says Carr’s trains people internally, handles utility crews and private residential work, and now employs about 20 to 25 people in Fargo depending on the season. 10. Quincy says the summer storm required six or seven additional crews from other areas, and emergency work displaced regularly scheduled jobs. 11. He explains that storm response is triaged by priority, starting with trees on houses or structures, then downed trees blocking roads and driveways, and then shelter-belt damage. 12. Quincy says Carr’s is accredited through the TCIA, uses online modules and project-based advancement, and still hires people with tree experience when available. 13. He notes that bucket trucks and tracked lifts have reduced the need for climbing, including a tracked unit that fits through a 36-inch gate and reaches 70 feet. 14. Quincy says certified arborists need education or experience, an exam, and continuing education through ISA, conferences, or internal training. 15. He says certified arborists matter especially for pruning and plant health care, comparing the credential to hiring a certified electrician. 16. The discussion turns to emerald ash borer, which Quincy says was found in Moorhead in 2023 and has Fargo planning for treatment or removal. 17. Quincy explains ash-tree trunk injection at the root flare, says it protects a tree for two years, and says Carr’s treated about 500 trees for the City of Fargo over the last two years. 18. He says emerald ash borer signs include top dieback, D-shaped exit holes, serpentine galleries under the bark, and woodpecker blonding. 19. Don and Quincy also discuss iron deficiency chlorosis in maples, overwatering, poor drainage, mulch, and trunk injection of iron and manganese using a product called verdure. 20. Quincy closes with tree risk assessment, saying he looks at likelihood of failure and consequences of failure, which helps decide whether a tree near a house needs action or can be left alone.

As heard by us

A calm, practical guide to knowing when a tree needs treatment, pruning, or removal.

An easy, practical conversation about tree care opens with fall cleanup and settles into a clear question: when does a tree need help, and when is leaving it alone the better call? The discussion gets most useful once it turns to ash trees, decline, and emerald ash borer.

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Why you'd press play

You want to know when an ash tree needs more than pruning.

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