Despite the weather having been slightly non-conductive to tree care, we’ve as usual been at it.
The Terravent has been out on both tree care projects and new build garden decompactions. Trying to make the grass grow and create a better infiltration rate when we eventually get some rain on the new builds and trying to help a very old sweet chestnut last a bit longer by fracturing the deep compaction and introducing a beneficial liquid mix to help the soil microbiome and provide more bio-available nutrients to the tree roots.
We’ve also been Spraying
We had a call to inspect some recently planted Oak trees, that had been heavily defoliated by caterpillars. Our first fear, and the clients, were Oak Processionary Moth or OPM for short.
This is a nasty little imported critter that not only defoliates oak trees when it’s a caterpillar but also has urticating hairs that cause an allergic reaction in humans and most other animals. As such these little so and so’s are also a public health risk.
After further inspection, thankfully it wasn’t the case, but an outbreak of Brown Tail Moth was recorded, with the most likely cause for the outbreak being the trees infected from the nursery. No plant passports were supplied with the trees and the nursery wanted to wash their hands of the situation. After discussion with the client given the level of damage being caused to such young trees in such a dry period, the decision was made for chemical control.
We’re in a fortunate position that we not only have the ability to identify the issue but also have a selection of different powered sprayers to suit the application, and in this case, the good old Stihl mist blower was the tool for the job.
We’ve also been investing in more Tree care kit.
Thanks in part to the addition of a new client we’ve made the decision to add to our Tree injection kit and include the BITE tree infusion equipment. This fantastic piece of kit is something we’ve been toying with for some time and with recent announcements regarding the use of substances, decided the time was right.
More on this once we’ve been out and about with it at the end of the month.