Does anybody have seen that before ? Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, took them with my mobile phone.

Does anybody have seen that before ? Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, took them with my mobile phone.

Yes it’s exactly what you see, an “I.V.” for trees. Used to treat all kinds of viral/bacterial/fungus infections.

Where was the picture taken?, not long ago I was looking for this setup !!!

Is it a systemic pesticide or is it nutrient ?

The reason i ask is that with tree injection, and i am surprised that is still being done, that a small measured amount is normally enough where as nutrient would need a more sustained amount. It seems to be a very "showy" way of applying nutrient tho and application to the root zone would be easier.

I am very curious about this one and shall ask some of more learnered arbourist collegues what they think .

Is it a systemic pesticide or is it nutrient ?

The reason i ask is that with tree injection, and i am surprised that is still being done, that a small measured amount is normally enough where as nutrient would need a more sustained amount. It seems to be a very "showy" way of applying nutrient tho and application to the root zone would be easier.

I am very curious about this one and shall ask some of more learnered arbourist collegues what they think .

Tree injection is a common way to deliver chemicals into the conductive system of a tree in special situations; insecticides, fungicides, anti-biotics and nutrients.

You are right that root uptake is preferred, but sometimes the root system is unavailable for soil surface or sub-surface application. Pavement or the placement of trees in dense plantings or against buildings make root application difficult or impossible. And sometimes injection is preferred where strong pesticides are needed, but spray drift and chemical tresspass is an issue prohibiting the practical use of canopy sprays.

Due to new strict laws on chemical tresspass, canopy spraying of the old school pesticides is on the way out in California, so injection systems are more widely used.

One of the most popular and long standing companies providing this is Mauget, which I have been using since 1974. They produce a micro-injection capsule, as does TreeTech and others. Arborsystems has another type of injector tool and their own chemical formulations. Arborjet tree injection seems to be the leader in the macro-injection style, where a larger volume of solution can be injected in certain species for certain problems. Macro injection was pioneered by Rainbow Tree Care. Sidewinder is another system from Australia, which is popular for systemic fungicide treatments.

And then there are those who just drill and pour. But you really can't use just any chemical for this, and the drilling and tissue necrosis must be kept to a minimum. It has to be specifically formulated and able to translocate to the target tissue and pest or pathogen. It's necessary to know certain things about the tree species and how it moves water and nutrients in it's conductive tissue and to know the life-cycle of the pest and how it feeds, and how much volume is needed to get the results. Injection is not a universal answer, but one more tool in the arborist's bag of tricks. Don

I am very curious about this one and shall ask some of more learnered arbourist collegues what they think .

Xen, Do you have arborist collegues in Thailand or SEAsia? If so I would like to know them. Thanks, Don

I have asked the opinion of some of my arbourist collegues about this drip method . It is their opinion that it is totally useless as once a wound occurs in the cambian section ( basically the live bark) of a tree the tree's defence mechanisms begin to isolate the wound or the invasion by what is known as "compartmentalization" . This basically stops the foreign invasion from causing further travel in the tree particularily in the phloem and xylem in the cambian bark .

Consquently any tree injection must be done quickly before compartmentaliztion occurs if any success is to be achieved. Apparently there are a whole new generation of chemicals available for tree injection , one that was mentioned was "Silva shield " by Bayer and is much more effective as a systemic pesticide than the old school organo-phosphates such as Rogor .

We also discussed as why they could possibly be wanting to treat a tree such as those pictured , at a cursory guess , it is probable that any insect attack would be because of the poor health of the tree and that would be from having the tree growing in a concrete tub which would cause girdling of the tree's root systems ( the roots grow in circles resulting in strangulation or the tree itself ). Root pruning could be done but that is major work involving cranes etc and enormous expense.

I didn't know when I posted these weird pictures we would get such smart and educated answers.

Thank you very much drtreelove and Xen !

lbb

I have asked the opinion of some of my arbourist collegues about this drip method . It is their opinion that it is totally useless as once a wound occurs in the cambian section ( basically the live bark) of a tree the tree's defence mechanisms begin to isolate the wound or the invasion by what is known as "compartmentalization" . This basically stops the foreign invasion from causing further travel in the tree particularily in the phloem and xylem in the cambian bark .

Consquently any tree injection must be done quickly before compartmentaliztion occurs if any success is to be achieved. Apparently there are a whole new generation of chemicals available for tree injection , one that was mentioned was "Silva shield " by Bayer and is much more effective as a systemic pesticide than the old school organo-phosphates such as Rogor .

We also discussed as why they could possibly be wanting to treat a tree such as those pictured , at a cursory guess , it is probable that any insect attack would be because of the poor health of the tree and that would be from having the tree growing in a concrete tub which would cause girdling of the tree's root systems ( the roots grow in circles resulting in strangulation or the tree itself ). Root pruning could be done but that is major work involving cranes etc and enormous expense.

I do not agree with your collegues and I question their education and experience in the well established and useful tree injection science and modern arboriculture practices. To say that compartmentalization (biochemical barriers to the advance of fungal decay in the woody stem) directly affects and makes injection useless, shows me that they don't really understand the processes. Compartmentalization takes months and years, uptake of solutions from injection takes minutes and sometimes a few hours.

If proper injection technique is used, the delivery tube is inserted into the outer layers of xylem (conductive tissue that transports water and nutrient solution upward in the stem), the osmotic suction action pulls the pressurized injection solution into the xylem to be translocated throughout the foliar canopy; you can sometimes watch the injection capsule empty into the tree. Compartmentalization has nothing to do with it at this point. Compartmentalization would come into effect in retarding the advance of decay from the wound created by drilling and inserting the tube.

Trees in poor physiological health may are not good candidates for injection; injection requires good uptake, which requires a full and active foliar canopy that is actively transpiring and creating negative pressure and upward flow in the xylem. I have an instrument (manometer) that I drill and insert into the xylem to measure this pull; I use that to determine if there is enough pull to utilize injection technique; a tree in decline or with root damage would not qualify. Even the time of day and weather conditions affect the movement in the xylem, and injection should be timed with the best uptake conditions.

.

Insect pests do not only infest unhealthy trees, although poor health may predispose the tree to some infestations; there are aggressive pests that attack otherwise healthy trees. Injection can be used as treatment or better yet as pro-active prevention from a known pest in anticipation of inevitable advance geographically or seasonally. For example, where I'm from in northern California, almost all birch trees get heavy aphid infestations in the summer. These cause decline in health and appearance and nuisance disorders of heavy honeydew secretions and secondary sooty mold growth. Injecting imidacloprid or a neonicitinoid (systemic insecticides) can prevent the development of a heavy aphid infestation. Subsurface soil applicaiton would be preferred if uncovered soil root zone is available; if not then stem injection could be employed.

Stem injection is a highly developed practice and being used extensively in the arboriculture and pest control industries in the USA and elsewhere. Search some the the companies that I mentioned in my previous post to see the many applications that are possible for various tree problems. don