He’s just like a doctor, says George M. Codding. “That’s the best way I can describe what a tree expert is.”
“His job, is mainly preventive medicine—to keep your trees as healthy and beautiful as possible. He takes care of shade and evergreen trees after they are planted. He does no landscaping or planting himself.”
“We call the tree man a dendrician—a word coined now in general use. Like the doctor, the dendrician deals with living growing things. The only difference between their methods of operation is that the dendrician can’t take his patient to a hospital.”
Tree Surgeon
“The tree expert is a surgeon, and he has been called a tree surgeon, as you know.
When he prunes away dead and diseased wood (with saws and chisels that are sometimes sterilized), he performs an operation—surgery.
All shade trees should be pruned. Elms, for instance, need pruning because dying and dead wood can harbor the elm bark beetle that carries the dreaded and still-spreading Dutch elm disease.
For this reason, elms should be pruned early in the spring before the beetles emerge.
Dogwood, hard maple, birch, yellowwood, and walnut—bleeders—are pruned after leafing out.
Pines are cut back, around Decoration Day. Other evergreens are pruned at different times.
“The tree expert does not recommend you do pruning yourself, except perhaps simple pruning on shrubs or low trees, any more than a doctor would recommend you do surgery.
There is a good deal to pruning properly and dressing the wounds that result. Besides, pruning a high tree is dangerous, and the tree man has had long training in climbing and ropes.”
Pro Tip: Is Pruning In November Too Late?
Pruning is listed in the Spring calendar. But, in November it is advisable to cut back other plants with tall stalks which might whip around in the wind. Take the time to clean out weak and dead wood. When their leaves have fallen, trees may be trimmed or pruned on through the Winter months.
The removal of old, weak, and diseased branches and parts is the first object. If pruning to lighten heavy growth or branches interfering with the garden or house, consider the tree’s natural shape as much as possible.
When pruning, however, such trees as maples, birches, and walnuts, which bleed when they are dormant, should be operated on during the Summer months.
Spraying As External Medicine
“As does a doctor, the tree man applies external medicine—when he sprays.
He has to be just as certain he uses the right medicine as does the M.D. and that he gives it at the right time.
There are hundreds of kinds of insects harmful to shade trees and ornamentals.
All insects have four stages:
- Adults
- Pupae
- Eggs
- Larvae
The tree expert knows which stage is most vulnerable for each insect. The time of year is most important in spraying. May is the big month.
The tree man knows what epidemics have occurred and what to watch out for.
This month, for instance, we’re spraying to prevent a severe gypsy moth year in parts of New England, and we’re expecting cankerworm outbreaks elsewhere.”
Tree Expert Assistance
“Like a doctor, a tree expert can call on a laboratory for assistance.
For example, he can cut off a twig and have a cross-section analyzed, as he does to spot Dutch elm disease.
Suppose he sees an insect he does not recognize? So he sends it to a laboratory.
If it is not identified, the lab will turn the bug loose on a tree branch, caged in by cellophane, and watch it until they know its life cycle. Then they will know how to attack it.”
Chemotherapy: Use Of Internal Medicine
“The tree expert must keep studying the latest developments in his field. One is chemotherapy—internal medicine for trees.
“Bleeding canker disease, caused by the fungus Phytophthora cactorum, affected many maples and beeches in Rhode Island years ago.
The trees sickened, their leaves turned to bronze, and their limbs died. Our labs tried to find a treatment.
“It had been the dream of scientific men for generations that internal tree diseases might be controlled by introducing chemicals into the sap stream.
“With chemotherapy, we can do it. With specially designed, disinfected tools, we inject chemicals into the tree.
We make close inspections of the tree for weeks and keep records like those a hospital keeps about a patient.
“Chemotherapy is still in its infancy. However, much is being done by continual study and research to broaden its applications.”
Proper Food Diet For Trees
“The tree expert prescribes and supervises the proper diet for his patients.
He applies tree food to the roots of trees, using a slow-acting food, so balanced and constituted that it becomes available as the tree needs it.
“As a patient sometimes goes on a liquid diet, so do trees.
Under the dendrician’s care, trees may be fed by liquid food injections after a drought.
This is an emergency treatment, or `shot in the arm,’ and a tree will respond quickly to it or not at all.”
Bracing And Cabling
“The doctor applies splints to broken arms or legs: the tree expert braces and cables trees or their limbs.
The most common type of bracing is holding together the V-crotch of a tree, where the trunk divides into two limbs.
Weakness at this point, rain, ice, and wind can break down a tree.”
Cavity “Wound” Treatment
“And like the doctor, the dendrician dresses wounds. He knows what to spread onto a pruning cut, for example.
He knows how to fill cavities, which are wounds.
We fill cavities with an antiseptic, flexible filler, a substance light in weight, slightly porous, like wood itself, that permits the tree to sway with the wind without damaging the filling.”
A Tree Expert’s Functions
These are the main functions of the tree expert:
- Pruning
- Spraying
- Chemotherapy
- Feeding
- Bracing and cabling
- Cavity treatment
“Everyone is paralleled by a function of the doctor.”
Where To Find Them
“Because a tree is about the only thing you can own that increases in value with age, we recommend you frequently call upon tree experts to keep your trees in good health.
“If you don’t know a tree man, you can find him in the yellow section of the phone book.
Look under ‘tree expert,’ `tree surgeon,’ or ‘tree service.’ Or write or phone your nearest agricultural experimental station for a list of qualified experts.
“A recommended tree man will have had a good, scientific, and practical college training.
In some states, he will be licensed. He is a professional in every sense.
“There’s another way we’re like doctors. Doctors know there is always a better chance to end an ailment if they get at it soon enough.
“We urge you not to wait until a tree is half-dead before calling us in. Instead, if you see anything wrong with one of your trees, let’s get it early.”