Spring Tree Care Checklist for Dallas Homeowners

Spring in Dallas is a narrow window — a few weeks of mild weather before the heat locks in for months. It is also the most important time of year to get your trees in order. What you do (or skip) in March and April sets the tone for how your trees handle the brutal North Texas summer.

Here is the checklist we walk through with our customers every spring.

Before you do anything else, walk your property and look at every tree. A mild Dallas winter can still cause damage — ice storms, freeze-thaw cycles, and high winds all leave marks.

Look for:

• Cracked or split branches — especially on the undersides where ice accumulates
• Bark that is peeling or splitting — can indicate frost cracking or sunscald
• Leaning that wasn't there before — may signal root damage from saturated soil
• Dead branches that didn't leaf out — common after a hard freeze

Any branch that is cracked, hanging, or dead should come down before summer storms turn it into a projectile.

This surprises a lot of homeowners: spring is not the best time to do major pruning on most trees. Wait until the tree has fully leafed out — usually late April to May in Dallas — before making significant cuts. This lets you clearly see which branches are dead versus just slow to wake up.

The exception is oak trees. Oak pruning should be done in winter (December through February) or avoided entirely in spring and early summer when oak wilt beetles are most active. If you missed the winter window, wait until late summer.

Spring is when insects and fungal diseases wake up. Early detection makes treatment far easier.

Watch for:

• Tent caterpillars — silky white nests in branch forks, mostly on pecans and wild cherries
• Aphids — sticky residue on leaves and sidewalks beneath the tree
• Oak wilt symptoms — veinal necrosis (yellowing along leaf veins) on live oaks, or rapid wilting on red oaks. If you see this, call an arborist immediately — oak wilt spreads fast in Dallas
• Powdery mildew — white coating on new leaves, common on crape myrtles

Spring is a good time to fertilize most trees, but more is not better. A slow-release granular fertilizer applied to the drip line (the outer edge of the canopy) is usually all a healthy tree needs. Avoid high-nitrogen fertilizers that push fast, weak growth.

Trees that are stressed, diseased, or recently transplanted should not be fertilized until they stabilize — fertilizing a struggling tree adds stress, not help.

If you mulched last fall, top it off now. A 3–4 inch layer of wood chip mulch around the base of each tree (keeping it away from the trunk) does three things that matter a lot in Dallas summers: it retains soil moisture, moderates soil temperature, and suppresses weeds that compete for water.

Do not pile mulch against the trunk — that traps moisture and invites rot and pests.

If you have large trees — anything over 20 feet — spring is the right time to have a certified arborist walk your property. They will catch structural issues, early disease signs, and root problems that are not visible from the ground.

This is especially important if your trees are near your house, over your driveway, or close to power lines. A $200 inspection can prevent a $5,000 emergency removal after a summer storm.

Tree Crew offers free estimates across Dallas and surrounding areas. Call us at (972) 999-3627 or request a quote online — we will tell you honestly what your trees need and what they don't.