As a strong supporter and contributor to the TREE Fund, we want to share a recent newsletter about the type of research it supports. Check out the article on SIR (Systemic Reduced Resistance) in plants. It works like a vaccine does in humans. Wow!
Crowning Achievements
Research on Fighting Tree Diseases with Non-Chemical Compounds
Urban trees are susceptible to various pathogenic fungi and bacteria that, if uncontrolled, can result in high mortality rates. Agrochemicals are primarily used to control these diseases, but present their own problems. Systemic induced resistance (SIR) is a resistance mechanism in plants that is activated by exposure to a disease (same concept as a vaccine). SIR inducing compounds have been developed and shown promise as a non-chemical disease management strategy for trees. In the study READ MORE
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. This is a special Holiday Greeting and thank you for all the support and business that so many of you have provided this past year. You are helping us to meet our personal goal of providing the highest quality trees with year round employment for our talented and hard working crew. We could not do this without the continual efforts of Clark, Abel, Paulino, Heather, Stacey and Juan (left to right of Jim and Annie). We thank them and all of you this holiday season. We look forward to a terrific 2019.
Watering trees sounds simple enough. Surprisingly, it’s not that easy given that new trees die in the landscape from lack of water every year. It has been especially critical this year as the weather continues to get warmer. Here’s the secret: Find a way to get water slowly to the root ball. Use a trickling hose, drip irrigation, a TreeGator or a bucket with a small hole in it. Anything to ensure slow delivery so water can gradually soak into the root-ball. Forget sprinkler irrigation and especially rainfall. We cringe whenever we hear some say, “Oh, I think it’s going to rain soon”. Unless it’s a monsoon, forget any rainfall watering your newly planted tree effectively. Remember, newly planted trees must live entirely off the moisture in their root-ball until roots grow away to surrounding soils. Give them a chance.