• Entirely organic source of all plant nutrients
• Balanced levels of N:P:K for ideal plant development
• Full spectrum of micro-nutrients for healthy plants
• Organic content improves your soil as well
• Use in conjunction with Probiotic Root Stimulant when planting

Every one of the components in Probiotic Root Stimulant are supported by horticultural science, and we crafted this hand-blended mix from multiple ingredients chosen with the help of the latest scientific breakthroughs, and decades of experience. Every component has been proven to accelerate the establishment and adaption of newly-planted trees, so together they are the complete mixture every new tree needs.

The beneficial components of Probiotic Root Stimulant are blended in exactly the right proportions to achieve success and work with you to make tree planting easy, enjoyable, and to give you the outcome we all want – better trees and better gardens.

The major components of Probiotic Root Stimulant are:

• Mycorrhizal fungi – professional growers and arborists know just how complex the relationship of roots and soil is. The symbiotic relationship of trees with fungi that coat their roots is at the heart of good tree health, but these organisms can be absent or in low levels when construction and development disturb the soil ecology. Urban areas typically lack them, but so do neglected gardens. Adding them when planting means not waiting years for them to naturally re-colonize the roots of your trees. Uptake of soil minerals and the production of complementary essential nutrients is assured when you add them directly to new roots.
• Beneficial bacteria – the unique blend of beneficial bacteria in this mix means that the organic materials in the soil are broken down completely, creating healthy soil right under your feet. We blended them with humic acid, a natural concentrated form of organic matter, that binds soil particles and creates the necessary nurturing environment new trees need. As well, it provides starter nutrients for the bacteria themselves, stimulating them to rapid action.
• Seaweed – the benefits of seaweed for soil has been known for centuries to subsistence farmers around the globe. We use kelp, a giant seaweed harvested from the ocean. Its gums and resins bind together tiny clay particles, opening up the soil structure to improve drainage. It releases trapped nutrients from the enormous but unavailable reserves in mineral particles, and it is one of the most reliable natural resources available for soil improvement.
• Trichoderma fungi – growing trees in containers was hampered at first by root diseases, until nursery researchers discovered the existence of antagonistic fungi, replacing pesticides used in nurseries with natural biological control. These beneficial organisms bind with the tree roots, and occupy the ecological niches in the soil, depriving harmful disease-causing organisms. Root damage during planting provides the perfect entry-point for harmful fungi, so we used Trichoderma fungi in our mix, to block their establishment, and allow the roots to repair naturally.
• Water-Holding Gel – sometimes Nature needs a helping hand from Hi-Tech, so we rounded out our Probiotic Root Stimulant with an amazing water-holding gel called Horta-Sorb®, which holds hundreds of times its own weight in water, releasing it gradually over several days. This remarkable product prevents root desiccation – the #1 killer of newly-planted trees. Used for over 20 years by professional growers and foresters, who plant millions of trees every year into hostile growing environments, this product is now available so gardeners can protect their own trees. It prevents transplant-shock and draws new roots out into the soil. Your tree establishes faster and achieves its own natural drought tolerance levels much sooner.

Our Probiotic Root Stimulant is easy to use. Just sprinkle the contents of one convenient 2-oz pack around the roots of the trees as you are planting. It is perfectly safe for direct root contact, and this gives the best results. You will see for yourself just how beneficial the components of this mix are, very soon. Your newly-planted tree will establish itself fast, without transplant shock and an abrupt check to its growth. Free of nutrient deficiency and disease problems it will give its best, right away, and never look back.

Not watering deeply means wilting and yellowing of the leaves. This can kill your new tree, and it’s why you need the Dew Right Tree Watering Bag.

The Dew Right Tree Watering Bag is a donut-shaped plastic bag that fits around any kind of tree. It takes less than 5 minutes to fill, so in just half-an-hour you can water six trees – equivalent to 50 hours of hand-watering.

Emitters on the underside slowly release water deeply into the ground for 5 to 9 hours. Nothing is lost to evaporation, and you use the minimum amount of water for the maximum benefit.

The Dew Right Tree Watering Bag is the perfect way to water new or established plants in the minimum time – install one around each new tree you plant.

The staking of trees is often done for the wrong reasons, with poor methods, and with bad results. In fact, bad tree staking can be worse for the tree in the long-term than no staking at all, so it’s important to get it right. Up until a few years ago it was normal to place a single, heavy stake alongside a tree when planting, cut the stake off just below the place where the branches begin to create the crown of the tree, and then tie the tree with wire or rope tightly to the stake in several places. This method ignored the natural intelligence of trees, and encouraged breakage, despite good intentions.

About Our Tree Staking Kit

Our Tree Stake Kit gives you everything you need to use correct methods easily and quickly, knowing you have done the right thing. In the kit you will find a broad woven strap, colored black for low visibility. This strap wraps around the stem, supporting it broadly so as not to scar the bark of young trees. It has three brass no-rusting eyelets for easy attachment of the ropes, which are also black, making them almost invisible once installed. The ropes are very strong, and made of woven polypropylene, so they will never rot and break. These quickly thread through the pre-drilled holes in the black plastic stakes, which have solid ends for easy hammering, and sharp points to penetrate quickly into the ground.

Placing the Straps Around Your Tree

When placing the strap around your tree, the goal is to hold the lower part of the trunk firmly, so that the root ball will not rock around – movement that damages the roots and stops the tree establish quickly and effectively. It is not desirable to support the upper part, as it should flex in the wind, stimulating sturdy growth and keeping the crown balanced.

To find the correct height to attach the strap, start at the top of the trunk and slide your hand down to the place where the upper trunk starts to flex and bend naturally. Just above that point is the position where the strap should go. If the trunk never begins to bend, then attach the strap about 8 inches above the ground, so that the strings run horizontally or slightly downwards to the stakes. Make the strings taut enough to hold the strap firmly, but don’t over-tighten.

Why is This the Correct Staking Method?

First, the speed at which a tree develops a strong, sturdy trunk varies with its circumstances. Trees are smart enough to not waste their resources where they think they are not needed, and if the trunk of the tree does not move, it will not grow thicker. Instead, the energy of the tree will be diverted into growing a big crown. A tightly-staked tree has very little trunk movement, and this fools the tree into growing a large crown. When the stake is eventually removed, the crown is too big for the true strength of the trunk, and it can and will easily snap in a strong wind. Many trees break after the stake is removed – not because they need more staking, but because the staking itself has led to the breakage.

Secondly, if the trunk is held rigid all the way up to the crown, then all the stresses from wind are focused on the branches in the crown, rather than being absorbed by natural flexing of the trunk. Trees bend in the wind to protect themselves, so a tree held tightly will have branches breaking, and we create more damage, even though we are trying to reduce it.

Why You Should Stake A Tree

So what to do? We could of course not stake the tree at all, but that creates its own problems, chiefly for the good development of the roots. When we plant a tree we firm the soil down around the roots, as we should, but that doesn’t prevent the root-ball moving a little in the soil, as the trunk flexes in the wind. In an open, windy location this type of movement is going on all the time. The roots are sending out tiny new roots to explore the new soil around them, looking for water and nutrients. This is natural and necessary for the tree to establish itself properly. But those roots are thin and fragile. Once their tips anchor in the new ground, movement of the root ball – such as happens as the tree rocks in the wind – breaks that precious connection, and the process must start all over again and again.

This delay in rooting stunts the tree, reducing growth, making it dry and stressed during hot weather. It cannot access the nutrients it needs to grow. The result is a weak tree, with yellow leaves, constantly wilting and drooping. Growth is very slow, and you don’t get the results you expect.

Buying Tree Staking Kits at The Tree Center

Instead, with our Tree Stake Kit, you can easily attach the strap in just the right place, as described above, and keep the root-ball stable while allowing the trunk to thicken naturally – and do it without the risk of scarring the trunk. This top-selling system is discretely colored in black, and it is invisible from a short distance – you want to see your tree, not the staking system. For the best results and the best growth of your new tree, this is the staking system you need.

It’s couldn’t be easier to buy someone a Gift Card from the Tree Center. Just choose the denominations of cards you want, and the Gift is instantly delivered straight to the receiver. Nothing could be simpler, and you don’t have to spend time looking for a suitable plant and stressing if you have made the right choice. Since it is instantly delivered, it’s ideal too for that last-minute gift – no need to go shopping or wait for delivery. Woops! Forgot a birthday? Don’t worry, in seconds it’s in their hands.

Your adult children are always stretched when moving into a new home, and the garden can fall to the bottom of the list. Now you can help out by giving a Gift Card to buy that first shade tree, or those screening trees for privacy. You can mark a special occasion like a wedding, birth or a retirement with a special tree – and the receiver gets to choose just exactly what they want.

Lots of people have friends who are gardeners, but don’t themselves garden. That makes choosing a plant as a gift for such a friend especially difficult. Not anymore. Now you just give them a Tree Center Gift Card and they choose exactly what they want. They get something they love that’s suitable for their location, without you having to spoil the surprise and ask them first what they want.

The Tree Center Gift Card is the perfect way to give the gift that keeps on growing and growing. Years from now other gifts will be lost and forgotten, but a tree is forever, and becomes better and better with every passing year. No need to hesitate, just choose the denominations you want and send that gift right away. Gift cards expire one year from date of purchase.

The secret to Bio-tone® Citrus Tone is its unique blend of organic ingredients. Each one has been carefully chosen so that the formulation adds up to the perfect balance of the 13 essential mineral nutrients, exactly as citrus trees need them. It gives your trees a moderate, non-burning boost of immediate access to nitrogen, and the natural slow-release from the blend of components and the carefully-chosen microbes delivers a steady flow in the long-term too. With regular use you will restore the natural cycles of healthy soil, build strong and diverse microbe populations, and create enhanced soil conditions for the best growth from your trees.

Citrus in pots are handicapped by a lack of access to natural soil minerals. The potting soils needed for pots deliver very little – they are a growing medium, not a source of nutrients. So feeding your plants is absolutely essential. Perhaps you have been using liquid chemical fertilizers. Besides the energy consumed in manufacturing these products, one mistake and you can badly burn both the roots and foliage of your trees. With Bio-tone® Citrus Tone you are taking the natural route, using beneficial soil microbes to break down natural sources of mineral nutrients. These sources don’t burn, and they feed a steady supply to your trees, not a sudden, weakening jolt of growth followed by nothing. Every time you water a balanced diet is delivered, and it shows. Rich green leaves, sturdy stems, prolific flowering and big, top-quality fruit. It all comes together to deliver the result you want, and all in a perfectly natural, 100% organic fashion, using natural cycles evolved over billions of years.

Bio-tone® Citrus Tone is a blend of finely-ground poultry feathers, poultry manure, alfalfa meal and other organic materials. These release some nutrients quickly, but then feed steadily. Potting soils may not have the necessary microbes to break down these materials, so they are added right into the mix. Feathers are an excellent long-term source of nutrients, but they need specific types of bacteria to release them These may not be present in your pots, or in outdoor soils, especially degraded ones. So they are added right in, and get down to work as soon as you water the soil.

Plants in pots are subject to root diseases, and outdoor citrus can also succumb to them. So Bio-tone® Citrus Tone has special, biological-control microbes too, that protect against root diseases, bringing new life to stunted plants and invigorating your trees. New root growth means better nutrient uptake, and protection against disease is the first step.

Using Bio-tone® Citrus Tone

This product is simple to use. It is perfect for all citrus, outdoors in your garden or in pots. Outdoors, feed in late winter, late spring and again in fall. The convenient 5-oz. packet makes it easy to use the correct amount for outdoor trees – just use five packs for every 3 feet tall your tree is. Citrus are shallow rooted, so sprinkle over the area beneath the foliage, avoiding the area near the trunk.

For pot grown trees, feed every 60 days, from late winter to mid-fall.

Follow this table and sprinkle the indicated amount evenly over the soil. a 5 oz pack contains 25 – 30 teaspoons of product. Water well after feeding.

Learn more about Bio-tone® Citrus Tone

Organic Materials

The 100% organic base of Bio-tone® Citrus Tone is a blend of materials that release the exact balance of nutrients for balanced growth in a measured and controlled way.

• Hydrolyzed Feather Meal – this top-grade source of protein provides a long-term supply of material that releases nitrogen and other nutrients when broken down. It does not degrade quickly, so special bacteria are added to the mix, and these have the specific enzyme systems to tackle this product. The feather meal has also been hydrolyzed. This natural process uses water and enzymes to open up the molecular structure, allowing the bacteria to get inside and release those nutrients. This process also leaves the feather meal germ-free, protecting you and your family from all health risks, especially important when growing your trees indoors.
• Pasteurized Poultry Manure – contains all 13 essential mineral nutrients trees need for balanced growth. Its slow breakdown delivers them in in measured doses, never burning leaves or roots. It also contains the mineral calcium, a vital constituent of root tips and leaf buds too. Fully conscious of the health needs of your family indoors, the manure has been carefully pasteurized, to make it completely free of germs.
• Bone Meal – this natural product is the premium source of phosphates for organic growers, who have used it for centuries. This mineral, essential for root growth, is liberate slowly as the finely-ground material decomposes. Again, with the health of you and your family in mind, it has been sterilized with high-temperature steam, and without nasty chemicals that could leave harmful residues.
• Alfalfa Meal – this is a top-rated source of short to medium-term nitrogen, and it perfectly complements the slower release coming from the other ingredients. Combined together they deliver a steady flow of nitrogen, and other nutrients too, throughout the growing season.
• Potassium – this is where Citrus Tone really shines. Citrus trees have a high need for potassium, also called potash. There are high levels in the juice of citrus fruit, and without an abundant supply your fruits will be small and dry. By boosting the levels, you get top-grade juicy fruit, and a bumper harvest. It also stimulates flowering, as well as thickening cell walls, protecting your trees against disease and sucking insects.
• Magnesium –Without magnesium your leaves will be yellow, not green, because this mineral is an essential component of chlorophyll, the photosynthesis molecule that turns light into the energy food plants need. At the heart of every chlorophyll molecule is an atom of magnesium, so its presence in your plant foods is vital. Sulfate of potash magnesia is the natural mineral form used. Called langbeinite, this mineral contains 11% magnesium. As it slowly breaks down, magnesium is always there for your plant. The result is rich green foliage and maximum rates of photosynthesis for optimal growth and development.

Soil Conditioners

• Humates – When organic material decomposes it releases nutrients until just long-lasting end-products remain. But in nature nothing is wasted, and these are vital materials for building healthy soil. Full of natural acids and gums, they bind soil particles together into larger particles. In sandy soil these trap nutrients. In clay soil they improve drainage. The end result is a soil that functions like loam, the ideal soil type for growing plants. Even in pots, the humates in Bio-tone® Citrus Tone reduce compaction and improve drainage, a vital need for citrus, which can never grow well in wet conditions.
• Greensand – this natural material contains glauconite, a unique iron-potassium-silicate type of mica responsible for its natural green color, and its name. With a complex molecular structure, it lasts years in soil, improving drainage by opening spaces between dense particles. This allows both water and air to move more freely, stimulating root growth. Outdoors your soil will drain better, and in pots it will too, as the greensand opens channels that improve water flow. Greensand was created millennia ago at the bottom of long-dead ancient seas. The planet has left it for us to grow better crops today.

Beneficial Bacteria

For the materials in the organic blend of Bio-tone® Citrus Tone to function well, appropriate bacteria with the necessary enzyme systems are needed. This has been taken care of by adding 624 colony forming units of three species of bacteria to every gram of product. CFUs measure the concentration of living bacteria, ready to form active colonies. On contact with damp soil, they begin to multiply rapidly, as only bacteria can, and they immediately start to break down those organic components. They also encourage the development of natural microbes in your soil, restoring the ecological function to its correct levels.

The bacteria in Bio-tone® Citrus Tone are:

Bacillus licheniformis –this bacterium has all the enzyme systems needed to breakdown those tough proteins in poultry feather meal. They release nitrogen and other nutrients in a steady flow, without burning. Feathers break down too slowly to be effective as plant food when they are not present.

Bacillus megaterium – bacteria are not limited to nutrient breakdown, although this little guy knows the secret of turning the nitrogen in the air into soil nitrogen minerals. But its main function in Bio-tone® Citrus Tone is to cover the plant roots in a protective coat that prevents the germination of disease spores. Secondarily, it also works on the organic components in the mix, to keep that essential steady flow coming along.

Bacillus pumilus – another biological control agent, this bacterium protects against important soil-borne diseases caused by the harmful fungi Rhizoctonia and Fusarium. It too effectively tackles the organic materials in the blend, also keeping up that steady flow of nutrients your plants need for healthy, dynamic growth.