When you have a sick tree, it’s time to call a professional for help
Like people, trees are susceptible to disease, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. You’ll need to know who to call for a sick tree if it demonstrates signs of illness, such as leaves falling prematurely, becoming discolored or blistering, or peeling or holed bark. While it may be evident that you need to call a doctor when you’re sick, you may wonder who to call for a sick tree.
When you see these symptoms, hire an arborist or a local tree maintenance pro so they can diagnose what’s wrong with your tree and recommend or administer the best course of action to treat the problem.
Tree maintenance professionals are experts in tree care who study and work with trees of all shapes and sizes, and they’ve dealt with trees that have a wide range of issues. If anyone can figure out what’s wrong with your tree, it will be a tree maintenance pro. They know the best solutions for their service area’s most common diseases, bacteria, and tree fungus types. Tree maintenance pros should also have access to the best fungicides and pesticides to correct these issues.
When trees are infected with a deadly, highly contagious pathogen, they can tell you how to kill a tree without spreading the disease further. Tree maintenance pros can also show you how to straighten a tree if it is growing crooked and when to stop watering new trees so they don’t suffer from root rot. Plus, not only can tree maintenance pros help to identify the tree’s issue, but they can immediately start working to implement the solution, thanks to having the skills, tools, and experience to do so.
Possibly —if you can correctly identify the problem and have the knowledge and products necessary to treat it. However, the sooner a tree maintenance pro can examine your tree, the sooner they can diagnose the problem and start to treat it. If your DIY efforts don’t work and you wait too long to call a professional, the tree may become so weakened by disease that you’ll need to remove it.
Going the DIY route could work if you immediately recognize common symptoms of a tree issue and implement the proper solution correctly. However, to avoid prolonging or furthering the problem, it’s best to hire a pro.
Hiring an arborist to evaluate and diagnose your tree is also a great option. While landscapers are knowledgeable about a wide variety of plants, only arborists specialize in trees. These pros are well-versed in many types of tree diseases and issues, helping you determine the exact cause of your tree’s sickness. Arborists can also recommend a treatment plan based on the tree’s problem, which is why it’s better to hire a specialist with the right tools and expertise. In contrast to tree maintenance pros, arborists may not have the tools and team size necessary to remove dead or sick trees if necessary.
The first thing a tree maintenance pro will do when they look at your sick tree will be to evaluate the situation, including the cause of the problem and your tree’s overall health. Using this information, they can determine the best course of action, which could include:
Pruning infected branches
Treating the soil with fungicide
Spraying the tree with insecticides
Introducing beneficial biological organisms
Addressing soil deficiencies with fertilizers
There are two types of arborists: certified and consulting. A certified arborist is licensed and equipped to provide tree pruning, planting, fertilizing, monitoring, transplanting, treatment, and removal services. A consulting arborist specializes in tree appraisals, diagnosing problems and recommending treatments for illnesses. However, they will not provide these services themselves. Most consulting arborists are certified arborists who can refer you to a tree service that can administer the correct treatments.
Pruning is an effective way to prevent a diseased branch from infecting the rest of the tree. If the infection isn’t caught early enough and the pathogen has spread to the trunk or the majority of the branches though, it is too late to prune off the affected areas and you’ll likely need to remove the tree.
It depends on the problem, the affected part of the tree, the risk of the pathogen spreading, and the overall health of your tree. Many diseases, fungal infections, and insect infestations can be successfully treated, especially if the issue is only in a few branches. However, if a disease is too widespread, too severe, too easily spread, or in the roots, the tree will likely need to be removed.
