Last year we had to deal with unseasonably cool and wet weather. Mother Nature has another trick up her sleeve to keep applicators and homeowners on their toes– we have some seriously dry, hot weather coming up across the Midwest and Northeast. Here’s what it looks like and what you can do to be prepared.

Temperature and Rainfall Prediction: Next 11 Days

What can I do about it?

• Watering – Homeowners can help enormously with uptake time and ensure their trees receive proper protection by slow irrigation of their trees a couple of days before a scheduled treatment.  We’d recommend calling them and asking them to provide steady, slow watering of these trees in advance of your visit.
• Treatment Time – Schedule treatments earlier in the day and late in the day and avoid treating when temperatures are at their peak for the day.  We do not recommend treating when temperatures are over 90 degrees, especially when soil conditions are dry.  Always follow label recommendations.
• Treatment Date – Try to schedule applications just after the days shaded in blue above.
• Dilution Rates – If the label calls for dilution with water using the TREE I.V., we’d recommend a 1:1 dilution to reduce viscosity and to speed uptake delivery time. Do not mix IMA-jet with water!
• Injection Site – It may be helpful to drill a bit deeper, creating a reservoir behind the Arborplug®, which will allow the tree to absorb and move the product at its own pace, facilitating more rapid uptake.
• Injection Dose per Site – Where the label calls for more than a single trigger pull per injection site (using the QUIK-jet® or VIPER Hydraulic Devices, for example), it may be useful to make multiple passes around the trunk, injecting a portion each time, allowing the tree time to absorb the last dose before re-injecting that site.
• Drilling and Drill Bits – Sharp drill bits create a much cleaner injection site when combined with a “rapid in and out” drill method, increasing uptake speed. If you haven’t ordered new drill bits in a while, ask your distributor for the correct Arborjet double helix, brad-point bit.