Wachtel Tree Science

Predicting the potential insect and disease problems for the coming year is a helpful tool that guides us in what to watch for. We pool our collective experiences and take our best guess. Here is what we will be looking for:

Insects:

Japanese Beetles: Their numbers will continue to increase over time! With all of the attention on EAB, this one will catch many people by surprise. This insect builds rapidly to very high numbers and can be a nuisance to people. In addition, they defoliate a wide range of plants. See our fall ‘08 issue on line at www.healthytrees.com. Watch for lacey looking leaves appearing during the summer.

Emerald Ash Borer (EAB): Many more discoveries are sure to come this year. We still could be a year or two away from starting to see a lot of dying ash but it is coming.

Two-line Chestnut Borer (oaks) and Ips Bark Beetles (conifers): These pests continue to affect a wide variety of trees. If you have been plagued with these in the past, be sure to keep up treatments to keep your trees vigorous.

Bronze Birch Borer: (a relative of EAB) be sure your birch is well watered (by you or nature) and call us if you see thinning or dieback in the crown.

Gypsy Moth: Our egg mass counts in general say numbers will continue low for 2010. There are higher counts in some areas and a few hot spots will be aerial treated by the state this year. Keep watching for early summer leaf damage. The numbers could build for 2011.

Diseases:

Sphaeropsis/Diplodia Tip Blight of Pine: This is continuing to be high. Watch for dying tips from this fungal stem canker. This disease can ruin a valuable landscape plant.

Needlecast disease in spruce and pines: Watch for older, interior needles browning or going off color. This can leave trees looking bare and devastate nice screen or specimen trees.

Apple Scab: Levels continue to run high creating spotting on leaves. If your tree is susceptible, it needs to be protected before the leaf disease starts or you can have a bare ugly tree by mid-summer.

Do not forget about other creatures. The long winter season and deep snow cover in most areas has created ideal conditions for rabbits and voles to do damage on thin bark trees and shrubs. I know since I have lost several plants in my yard to the rabbits this year!

The heavy snow also damaged tree branches. These need to be addressed for safety, health and appearance. A broken branch can be an invitation to more damage or a disease problem.

There is nothing like monitoring for problems to head off serious damage to valuable plants. With the above clues, you can catch a problem in the early stages. Call your Wachtel Tree Science Certified Arborist to help you keep your landscape healthy and beautiful.

We just uploaded numerous newsletter articles that weren’t on the website from 2009 & 2010. There are also a couple new groups on the News & Resources page. You can now easily find EAB information, the 75th Anniversary winners, our plant health care calendars, and news updates.

Please go and check it out!

Reminder: All Wachtel Arborists are Certified!!!! 

We now have 22 Certified Arborists and 3 Board Certified Master Arborists on staff. That covers all of our production and sales staff!!!

Congratulations to Tom and Vicky Bonesho of Brookfield. They are the third of our year long monthly contest winners in our 75^th Anniversary celebration.  Our tree crew performed the removal of a Willow tree and pruning of a few other trees.  They also had a visit from a Plant Heath Care applicator that fertilized a number of their trees.  Tom and Vicky have been clients for many years and Tom was a guest at our Client Focus meeting in 2008.  

The prize for March is a $75 gift certificate to the Shady Lane Greenhouse in Menomonee Falls.  If you have never been to Shady Lane, take the time to visit with our staff at their annual open house on May 4^th.   

As a reminder; we enter your name in our monthly drawing each time we perform a service at your home during the month. The prize for our April drawing will be a $75 gift certificate for Johnson’s Nursery also in Menomonee Falls.

Wachtel Tree Science has a well-deserved
reputation for saving trees and solving complex
tree problems. Not every tree can or
even should be saved, given its condition,
age, prognosis, remaining expected lifespan, risk of failure,
or ability to fulfill its purpose in the landscape. However,
when it is reasonable to pursue a course of action,
utilizing the various treatment regimes at our disposal,
Wachtel has a proven track record that is well known.
Prospects and customers usually readily agree with
this assessment of Wachtel, as we are known to have the
most Certified Arborists in the State, most having
degrees in Arboriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Natural
Resources or related fields. They put their trust in us
to perform a wide variety of treatments to regain or
sustain their trees’ health.
I am surprised, however, how often pruning
is relegated to “less competent” arborists. The reasoning
given is that our expertise and “brain power” are not
needed for mundane pruning needs. This position needs
to be examined!
Pruning is important and involves the removal of
carefully selected parts of the tree: limbs, branches,
shoots, trunks. No selections are arbitrary. When removing
living parts, there must be recognition of numerous
disease development manifestations, or insect life cycles
as they relate to signs, symptoms or damage visible for
detection. There must be careful consideration of
branch biology: growth, form, and its relation to other
branches, now and in the future, to determine whether
or not it is removed, retained or altered. All of these
considerations will vary also with the species or cultivar
and age of the tree involved. (What is best for one tree
may be completely wrong for another.)
With all of these instances, as well as with dead
tree parts, the manner in which it is removed is
extremely important. This is surgery, after all. Cutting must preserve the living structures that deal with compartmentalization
(“healing”) within the tree. If these
are compromised, the tree will be injured and spend
years and a lot of wasted energy trying to overcome the
damage. Even dead parts interface with living tissue and
must be carefully excised so that infection and decay
does not start. All of our expertise, knowledge and technical
skills are brought to bear — after all, surgery is
potentially a bigger help or hindrance than many treatment
applications. Furthermore, the results from these
“operations” stay with the tree for the rest of its life!
We all have heard horror stories of how incompetent
human medical practitioners have removed the wrong
organ, limb or left tools or sponges within the body cavity!
Don’t let this happen to your tree! If you spend good
money for tree maintenance, and it is time for the tree’s
pruning treatment, don’t waste money paying some tree
cutter to harm it. That is far more costly and it would be
better to delay pruning until it can be done right.
by Anthony C. Arnoldi, Board Certified Master Arborist WI-0102B