Part 3: A Second Look at Treatment Options
Story by Sam Calhoun
The first company to treat hemlocks in the High Country in 2003, Appalachian Tree Care found itself at the crest of the HWA wave over the Southeast. Treating the HWA quickly grew into the company’s specialty.
In the past three years, Appalachian Tree Care (www.appalachiantreecare.com) and its president, Ryan Franks, have treated more than 5,000 hemlocks and they’ve yet to lose one.
Appalachian Tree Care has achieved this record by treating hemlock trees in ways that do not impact the surrounding environment. The company’s tree care professionals analyze each situation carefully and choose the “100 percent most-reliable method,” said Franks.
“Our approach is aimed at being effective as we can be,” said Franks. “We want to save the trees most effectively and not cause harm to anything else in the environment.”
Appalachian Tree Care doesn’t put chemicals anywhere but inside the tree, and the firm uses organic soap with zero toxicity so it can be sprayed directly into water or on other wildlife without harm.
Last week’s installment focused on soil drenching and chemical spraying, but Franks and his team shy away from using chemicals in soil, near adjacent plants and trees, and near water, people and animals.
They use two options: one for larger trees and one for smaller trees. While these methods are effective, they are meant for homeowners or mid-size landowners. The forests, experts hope, will be balanced by beetles, and information on that plan of attack is detailed in last week’s issue.
Appalachian Tree Care’s Simple Plan of Attack
When Appalachian Tree Care teams look at treating a tree for HWA, they ask themselves one question: “How can we try and treat every single needle?” They believe that’s the only way to gain control.
If they can spray a tree and reach every needle, they do it. This is what they refer to as a topical treatment. If they can’t reach some of the branches with the sprayer, they use a tree IV. This is what they refer to as a systemic treatment.
For hemlock shrubs, bushes and trees under 20 feet tall, Franks usually uses topical treatments. For hemlock trees over 20 feet tall with distinct trunks, Franks recommends systemic treatments.
For trees above 20 feet tall, Franks recommends hiring an expert because “it’s too complicated to understand the intricacies of it.” But for trees under 20 feet tall, Franks thinks homeowners can take charge of their own trees’ destinies.
Using his tips, homeowners can effectively protect their trees by spraying with organic soap as long as they soak every needle and spray twice per year, roughly around the fall and spring.
“[Homeowners] just need to ask themselves, ‘Can I drench every needle effectively?’ If so, there you go,” said Franks.
Here are Franks’s two options: one for large trees and one for smaller trees.
Appalachian Tree Care’s Option For Larger Trees: Systemic
Last week, independent arborist Lear Powell explained the tree IV—an intravenous tool that works like a human IV but has multiple injection ports that feed chemicals from a reservoir into the infested tree at several locations along the trunk. The reservoir is filled with a concentrate of AborJet, a treatment with Imcloripad as its active ingredient. Imcloripad is available at Lowe’s Home Improvement and Southern States. For larger trees, Franks and his team solely use tree IVs because they are the “most reliable and most environmentally responsible.”
Imcloripad is a toxic and expensive chemical, so Franks feels it’s important that the chemical go into the tree and nowhere else—for the tree’s and the environment’s sake.
This is the reason he chooses not to soil soak, because he doesn’t want to harm the surrounding environment or want to waste the expensive chemical.
Installing the tree IV is a time-consuming process, but according to Franks, it provides three years of HWA control.
“We like to do
it right the first time,” added Franks.
With regard to the Mauget applicator—introduced last week as another intravenous systemic option—Franks believes it has spotty results.
“We can’t rely on it, so we don’t use it,” said Franks, who added that if the Mauget applicator works, then the longest relief it grants is one to two years.
Appalachian Tree Care’s Option For Smaller Trees: Topical
For smaller trees, Franks uses a sprayer to coat every needle of an infested hemlock with an organic soap to gain control of the HWA.
He uses Organic Life Plant Wash that is not available locally, but similar organic soaps are available at lawn and garden stores.
Organic soap is a lot like insecticidal soap and oils but is safer for the environment; it can be sprayed directly into water with no ill effect and is considered one step above Safer Soap in terms of safety. Safer Soap is sold at most hardware stores and is relatively safe for the environment, but can’t be sprayed directly into water.
The application of the organic soap is simple, Franks said. Do whatever you have to do to spray and coat all the needles of the tree, and the treatment will be effective.
Topical treatment with organic soap has another bonus. It doesn’t burn the new growth tissue of a hemlock, a common problem when the temperature and humidity are too high.
Franks offered an important tip for homeowners: When the temperature and humidity add up to over 150 degrees, shy away from using topical treatments so as not to burn the new growth tissue of your hemlock and damage it further. When topical treatment is applied, the chemical soap or oil acts like a prism and magnifies the sunlight, thus burning the needles.
Franks’s topical treatment option should be applied in the spring and fall to coincide with the HWA’s breeding habits.
For more information about Appalachian Tree Care’s treatments, call 828-733-1968 or click to www.appalachiantreecare.com.
TO PART 4
If you have comments or experiences that you think will help with this community education project, send them via email to sam@highcountrynews.info.
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