Tree service in Seguin, Texas

What I see in Seguin yards

Guadalupe County is one of the biggest pecan-producing counties in the state, and it's the river bottom soil that does it — deep and well-drained, exactly what a deep-rooted pecan wants. Old Seguin yard pecans are often enormous and carrying dangerous end-weight on limbs the owner stopped noticing years ago. Structural pruning to take that load off and clear the deadwood is the single most useful thing you can do for a big pecan.

Source: Texas Highways — Roadside Oddity: World's Largest Pecan.

The trees I get called about in Seguin

Pecan, in a county that is one of the biggest pecan producers in Texas, on deep well-drained river-bottom soil that is exactly what a deep-rooted pecan wants. Old Seguin yard pecans get enormous and carry dangerous end-weight on limbs the owner stopped noticing years ago. In a town this full of pecans, the thing you'll see every few summers is fall webworm — big greyish silk tents wrapped over the ends of branches, full of caterpillars. It looks like a disaster and it is almost entirely cosmetic. It arrives late enough in the season that the tree has already done most of its work for the year. Tearing open the webs so birds and wasps can get in does more than anything you'd spray, and burning them out of a tree is a genuinely bad idea that damages far more than the caterpillars would.

How to tell these species apart, and what goes wrong with each one.

The ground underneath: river bottom

Deep, well-drained alluvial soil along the river. Pecan and bald cypress country, and the trees get big. The usual problem isn't health, it's end-weight on long limbs nobody's reduced in decades.

Permits in Seguin

I haven't read Seguin's ordinance closely enough to summarize it here, and I'm not going to guess at a rule that could cost you a mitigation bill. Call the city's planning or development services department and ask two questions: what trunk diameter triggers a permit, and is there a protected species list.

I have verified the rules for Austin, Kyle, Buda and Dripping Springs — those are written up here, along with how to measure your trunk properly, which every one of these ordinances depends on.

Working on a Seguin property

Town lots with very large trees on them, plus rural acreage. Generally good access; the challenge is the sheer size of the trees. Forty minutes from Kyle. Forty minutes out on deep Guadalupe River bottom soil. Old town pecans get enormous, so the constraint is usually the size of the wood rather than the approach to the property.

Questions I get from Seguin

Getting me out to Seguin

Seguin is about a 40-minute run for me. At that distance it works best batched with other work out that way, so give me a little notice if it isn’t urgent. Call or text me a photo with something in frame for scale and I can usually give you a number without driving out. Estimates are free either way.

One rule that applies everywhere, including here: don't prune oaks between February 1 and June 30. Here's why.