What’s Involved in a Soil Analysis and Drainage Review?

How Does Comprehensive Soil Analysis in San Diego Help Your Trees?

If you want healthy trees, it all starts with healthy soil. Why is soil so crucial for trees? The ground around your tree stores nitrogen, minerals, and water that your trees need to survive and thrive. Trees also rely on soil to provide a stable base as they grow. So, it makes sense to conduct a soil drainage review and analysis periodically for the welfare of your trees and the beauty of your property.

Coastal Tree Care provides soil analysis and comprehensive tree services in San Diego and the surrounding areas. Find out more about the importance of soil analysis and amendments!

What Is a Soil Analysis?

A soil analysis provides information about the nutrients and pH of the soil surrounding your trees. When pH levels are too high or too low, it’s difficult for the tree to uptake the nutrients it needs, even if they are present in the soil. Our team also conducts a soil drainage review as part of the soil analysis to assess the water-holding capacity of the ground near your trees. Too much or too little water can be problematic, depending on the tree species growing on your property. With the results of a soil analysis, our arborist can recommend the right nutrients and measures to address drainage issues, restoring balance to your soil.

Soil Type Impacts Tree Growth

Soil quality and type determine how well trees will grow on your commercial landscape. Here are the main types of soil and their typical drainage expectations:

• Clay soil: Typically, hard to the touch, nutrient-rich but slow draining.
• Sandy soil: Doesn’t retain nutrients well, light and gritty to the touch, and doesn’t retain moisture well.
• Loamy soil: Good drainage, retains both nutrients and moisture. Many trees and plants thrive in loamy soil.
• Compacted soil: In some urban areas, the soil becomes quite compacted, impeding drainage and nutrient penetration.

Soil testing is a great place to start when designing a tree care plan. If indicated in the soil analysis, it’s important to amend the soil or address drainage issues to ensure good health for existing trees and additional ones you wish to plant.

Soil Amendment for Healthy Trees

Whether you have clay, sandy, compacted, or loamy soil, your trees can thrive for many years with the right nutrients and care. Sometimes we recommend replacing trees with species that would do well in the soil on your property. In other cases, we might recommend moving or removing trees that fail to grow and develop to their true potential.

With information from a soil analysis, our arborists can take the guesswork out of fertilization and tree care. Once we know the soil’s pH level, we can make the necessary adjustments for your tree inventory. Additionally, it’s important to evaluate the presence of nutrient levels and organic matter since root systems rely on moisture retention and nutrient availability to grow. It might also be necessary to adjust the irrigation system to avoid overwatering. If your property has serious drainage problems, we can fix those with soil amendments, ditching, swales, or French drains as necessary.

Partner with Coastal Tree Care to add nutrients to the soil and improve drainage around your trees and plants.

Contact Coastal Tree Care online if you have questions regarding a soil analysis in the San Diego area. Book a soil analysis and drainage review so your tree care company can provide timely and necessary amendments.