Plant Health Care

[Rob Shauger]

Does anyone offer plant health care services to clients?

1. Plant Health Care Products
2. Mycorrizae
3. Root Collar excavation
4. Vertical Mulching
5. Monitoring
6. Soaps and Oils

Every board I go to I cant seem to find anyone doing this or even someone who knows someone.

 

[greenguy]

What would you like to know about fert specs. Aeration hole dept, pattern etc. What to look for when doing inspections. Soil testing? drain tubes, cables wood rod, pest control programs, chemical uses and disease treatments? If it involves treecare I have done it or have at least helped someone.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I've been doing some air excavation and organic fert using a seaweed product.

I've read that many of the myco products have a very low viability being dried out. That controled studies show that they have little noticable results on healthy trees. I think i would rather innoculate with truffles.

Vert mulch is second choice to raidial trenching and amendment of native soil with a sandy loam (heavy clay here.)

I've let my cert. lapse, so I dont do any pest control. I have taken Reed Holts tactic and used dish soap as a surfactant in my foliar fertilization on occation. Not sure how the regulattors would veiw this in WI though.

 

[Rob Shauger]

PHC

Thanks for the replies. I am looking to educate myself more, so as to better offer these services to my clients or new new ones. I had heard something about the products being dry and not having good resuls. I do know that Scotts is supposed to be buying product from PHC. Keep the info coming.

 

[seanlarkin]

Plant Health Care holds numerous free seminars throughout the year, all over the country. They may list a schedule on their website, but I'm not sure. Of course, these seminars do sing the praises of their product, but they do also provide a good deal of valuable information regarding usage of the product and how to add fert programs to your list of services.

 

[underwor]

From a previous posting on this and other sites, I have come to the conclusion that pure PHC is practiced most often by very small, high end companies. It is hard to adapt to a large work force due to the one on one contact that is necessary both with the customer and the landscape to make it work at its best level. I teach it, but have never really seen it in action. Often the PHC department is a renamed IPM department which used to the the spray department. This is as I said not due to lack of knowledge or desire, just mainly a logistics issue.


My thoughts on this subject.

Bob Underwood

 

[Nickrosis]

1. Plant Health Care Products
As in from the company PHC, Inc.? Never used their products...

2. Mycorrizae
Yes, we have used it, and we like the results. Mycorrhizae can be depleted in urban soils as a result of the extreme edaphic conditions. In response, one can take a wheelbarrow of soil from a neighboring forest and thus innoculate the soil. Otherwise, you can purchase the products.

3. Root Collar excavation
All the time! You have to with the nursery and planting practices these days. Usually we perform this in conjunction with girdling root inspections (GRI). Sometimes, though, you simply need to peel back soil or mulch and the situation is rectified.

4. Vertical Mulching
We used to do it frequently, but the technique is no longer in vogue. Like JPS mentioned, radial trenching is the hip thing these days because of its drastically improved results.

5. Monitoring
It's 50% of our Spray/Inspection Program! The first thing I do, long before starting the sprayer, is to walk around the property, looking at all the plant materials. I wish with all my heart that I knew more about insect and disease problems, but I realize it's a long process.

6. Soaps and Oils
We've tried with good success to use organic and natural products when possible. One example of this is our use of DeerScoot to repel deer. The stuff is amazing! It's made of encapsulated hot peppers that will last for up to a month. Ummm... Seaweed-based fertilizers are the only ones we use. The nitrogen source is food-grade actually, the same material used in your favorite carbonated beverage.

Like Bob mentioned, it takes a premium price tag to make a true, complete PHC program possible. I'm not claiming that we've reached that point, but it certainly is a goal I wish to attain.

www.crawfordtree.com/services/si

Nickrosis