NEWS & VIEWS NORTHERN MICHIGAN TREE DOCTOR

Lawn mowers, compaction, herbicides, poor planting, poor species selection, over irrigation and under irrigation can all cause the demise of any well intentioned tree in the landscape. We see problems from all of these categories each year but the two we see the most are herbicide damage and poor planting practices. Herbicide Damage: (Left is a red oak with light herbicide damage) Most weed killers on the market today have some form of soil active broadleaf herbicide in them. Trees are broadleaf plants. Consumers want a nice lawn with low maintenance. However, any soil active broadleaf herbicide will hurt or even kill the trees under which the herbicide is applied. Trees roots in general grow outward at least as far as they are tall, easily absorbing the weed killer within that large circle. We are discouraging the use of any of these soil active herbicides, especially under the dripline of any tree. Insist lawn care services stay out of the drip line of your trees with weed killer applications. If you are in doubt about a product check with us, the local MSU extension office or ask your lawn care professional. Poor Planting Practices: (See recent spruce planting picture-bottom left) The scenario: Your neighbor just did something you no longer want to look at. No problem you say, “I’ll just invest in some large trees for natural screening.” You request quotes from several landscaping companies and hire the lowest bidder to plant your trees. Presto -- instant privacy! 13 months later you call Northern Michigan Tree Doctor upset because the trees are failing. The picture shown is from a very large planting job done by a landscape company that should know better. If a tree comes in burlap, all ties must be removed from the trunk and the burlap must be cut away off the top of the root ball, down at least 2-4” but preferably more. Second, any tree introduced into a landscape needs supplemental watering based on the soils and size of the tree. Poor planting practices will result in a tree that will likely die or at least under-perform after the one year planting guarantee. We are encouraging you to be diligent about holding tree planters to their own correct planting specifications. Proper planting will cost more in labor, but will pay off in the long run. The lowest bidder may not always be the best selection.

TREES’ MOST DEADLY PEST: MANKIND

Greetings to all those who value trees as much as we do! As we continue our mission to be the best in the industry, we are pleased to announce that Jack Polus

is now a Certified Arborist. Northern Michigan Tree Doctor is the only tree care company in the area with two Registered Foresters and two Certified Arborists on

staff! For those with larger tracts of land, Schillinger Forestry is also qualified and available to develop a forest management plan and/or administer a timber harvest. Healthy trees and working forests are better for the environment, providing clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and carbon storage. We take our commitment seriously to work with you for the health of your trees and hope that you find the advice and information in this newsletter helpful. At your request, we will conduct a “walk around” to assess any tree concerns you may have. Just let us know by making a note on your orange treatment authorization card. We will walk around your property while performing other services, and point out tree-related issues, if any, needing attention. There is an hourly charge for this service, but only the walk-around time and follow-up will be billed. We cannot schedule an exact date & time for the walk around as our application schedule is dependent on proper-timing/weather. We will never invade your property looking for problems and try to “sell” you additional services. However, if we notice a significant / catastrophic issue with your trees during a scheduled visit, we will contact you to discuss solutions.

Northern Michigan Tree Doctor will always make House Calls!

Daniel Schillinger, Certified Arborist - Registered Forester

PO BOX 6414

TRAVERSE CITY, MI 49696

PHONE: (231) 947-8921

Info@NorthernMichiganTreeDoctor.com

NEWSLETTER SPRING 2020

Tree Plan

Each year we will send a plan of what we feel should be done during the next treatment season to attain the agreed upon goal for your trees.

Orange Cards

Please return these post cards. This gives us permission to treat or not treat

Please mark YES or NO and add your email.

Billing

All billing will be sent from and to PO Box 6414, Traverse City, MI 49696. Checks should be made payable to “Northern Michigan Tree Doctor”.

Treatment Sheets

You will receive a treatment

sheet every time we complete

a pesticide treatment. Please

provide an email address or

fax for efficient notifications. If

you do not have an email or

fax we will continue to send

notification by mail.

Insects and Disease

Please do not be discouraged

about the health and vitality of

any species of tree. We

provide this newsletter as an

educational opportunity and

have a solution for any

problem that can befall your

trees.

BEECH BARK DISEASE

EMERALD ASH BORER

Emerald Ash Borer: (Agrilus planipennis) We continue to win the battle against this pest with trees that were injected early in the species population boom. In fact, on our treated trees we are seeing the trees heal from past EAB damage prior to treatment. Most of the untreated ash trees are dead or close to it. To keep your ash trees healthy, we recommend continuing our bi-annual injections. MSU’s research is showing fairly good success spacing out injections into an every 3 year cycle in areas where the population has crashed, like downstate Michigan.

Our area is getting closer to that population level each year. However, those who switched to the 3 year spacing did not have “perfect” results keeping EAB at bay. So the decision to change injection schedule is personal to the client and their risk tolerance and budget. We are recommending staying with the every other year injection program until we have a lot of field data showing effectiveness with larger injection spacing windows. See “Arborculture & Urban Forestry 2010. 36(5): 206-211 by Dr. David Smitley” for more details on injection spacing.

HEMLOCK WOOLY ADELGID

Hemlock Wooly Adelgid: (Adelges tsugae) This pest was found in SW Michigan 2 years ago and efforts are underway to contain this problem. Further, The Grand Traverse Conservation District in our region is spearheading a survey of folks who have recently planted hemlock trees, especially from an online/out of state source, or their neighbors have, looking for this pest. The main movement of this pest has been from infested nursery stock. If you fit this description feel free to give Audrey Menninga a call directly at 231-941-0960 x18 to see if they have room to fit your site in their survey schedule ending mid April. While this pest is several hundred miles away, current research is showing this pest is fairly easy to control with our standard insecticide treatments. We’ll keep you informed if there is an outbreak found closer to our area. If so, we’ll need to start protecting key hemlocks in your landscape.

“Wooly” secretions on the underside of

hemlock needles

Emerald Ash Borer Tree Injection

Equipment

Beech Bark Disease is a major problem in our region, however Northern Michigan Tree Doctor has invented our own successful Beech Bark Disease treatment. We are seeing 100% control of the scale insects (Cryptococcus fagisuga) which is the first stage of Beech Bark Disease, by power washing the scale off the trees first and following up with our pesticide spray later that same day. Often these scale insects are high in the tree which requires the use of a lift for power washing. Once the power washing and pesticide is applied in the first year, very little to no scale come back the following year. As long as we

continue with the pesticide sprays as needed in the future we are able to stay ahead of the scale. Usually these insects start on the lowest parts of the trunk and expand upward so call as soon as you see scale starting. Early detection yields higher success and lower cost. This year, our goal is to find a solution which does not require the lift component, even if the scale is high in the tree.

Beech Bark Disease Defined: The first stage of the disease is the infestation of a scale insect that pierces and wounds the tree making it more susceptible to a secondary family of fungi. The amount of scale present on each tree strongly influences how long it takes for the Nectria fungi to enter the vascular system. More scale means more wounds and more openings for the native fungi to enter. Stressed beech trees with sparse canopies or chlorotic looking leaves are usually next. Tarry spots on the beech trunk are a strong indicator that the Nectria fungi is in the vascular system already. If the scale is left untreated the fungi will end up killing the tree when it gets into the vascular system.