gain a better understanding
maintaining your own landscape
Posted below are links to industry relevant articles, books, websites, and videos that we recommend that our clients review before, during and after tree or plant health services. Whether you’re looking to gain a better understanding of a service or looking for more insight on maintaining your own landscape, check out our resources.
serving the greater Chicagoland area
keep your trees healthy
FJR Tree Inc. also provides a variety of plant health-related services. These are specific services that will impact the overall health and well-being of trees and plants. We offer fertilizing, insect and disease treatment, soil testing and soil care, tree cabling and bracing (static and dynamic tree support systems) and lightning protection.
Plant health care is an important, yet often neglected field. Maintaining tree health will lead to a prosperous tree with numerous benefits. A healthier tree means lower risk of structural failure, which can happen during a high wind event or even on a calm pleasant day. A healthier tree decreases the chances of insect and disease problems; most trees in good health are able to defend themselves with stored energy and the adaptive systems they have in place. If a tree is in a high state of stress, the tree will have difficulty protecting itself against insect and disease problems. The goal is to maintain a healthy environment for trees and plants to live in to minimize maintenance and treatment costs. Trees are an investment for the future. Consider us your tree doctor.
Plant health care is an important, yet often neglected field. Maintaining tree health will lead to a prosperous tree with numerous benefits. A healthier tree means lower risk of structural failure, which can happen during a high wind event or even on a calm pleasant day. A healthier tree decreases the chances of insect and disease problems; most trees in good health are able to defend themselves with stored energy and the adaptive systems they have in place. If a tree is in a high state of stress, the tree will have difficulty protecting itself against insect and disease problems. The goal is to maintain a healthy environment for trees and plants to live in to minimize maintenance and treatment costs. Trees are an investment for the future. Consider us your tree doctor.
maintain a healthy environment for trees and plants
There is a wide array of insects and diseases that could negatively impact the life of a tree. We provide treatment for a variety of insects and diseases that afflict trees such as:
Emerald Ash Borer:
Commonly known as EAB, it is an exotic, invasive insect that disrupts an ash tree’s vascular system. It is the biggest issue in the Chicagoland area that we are currently facing.
- Telltale Signs: While the insect itself is hard to spot, some early signs are loss of leaf density, small holes near the base of the tree, and patches of missing bark. This only affects Ash species.
- Treatment: The best method of handling the disease is a preventative insecticide but it can also be treated therapeutically if caught very early on. It can be treated during most of the growing season.
Apple Scab:
A fungal issue that causes dark lesions and yellowing on the leaves as well as leaf drop during late July and early August. While Apple Scab is not nearly as severe as EAB, it can be if it persists year after year.
- Telltale Signs: Some signs that a tree has apple scab include dark lesions, yellowing of leaves, and leaf drop during late July and early August.
- Treatment: The treatment is a spring time foliar spray with a fungicide. Affecting only Crab Apple and Apple trees, this is one of the most common treatments done annually in one or two hits.
Oak Wilt:
With a tendency to affect the red oak species more than white, it is a fungal issue that has similar symptoms to EAB.
- Telltale Signs: There will be a change in leaf color along the margins from green to brown, loss of leaf density, and flagging, or branch die-back. Unlike EAB, Oak Wilt can be spread through root grafting, which means the roots grow together and the fungus spreads through them. It can also be spread through a host beetle from tree to tree.
- Treatment: Should your tree have oak wilt, a treatment of fungicide macro infusion injection is typically done. It is best when done preventatively since the severity of this particular disease could be quite high and does not linger. It can be treated therapeutically up to a certain point in time.
Rhizosphaera Needle Cast:
Similar to Apple Scab, it is a foliar fungal disease that affects the needles of spruce trees, with blue spruce being the most susceptible. Since Spruce is not native to our area, it’s not adapted and disease can progress due to weather. During our cool, damp springs, the precipitation sits on the needles, allowing the fungi to thrive.
- Telltale Signs: Rhizosphaera Needle Cast causes needle die back, starting in the lower canopy closest to the ground and beginning in the anterior and progressing to the exterior of the tree. Severity can be high; in some trees it lingers and in others the tree can be dead in a year.
- Treatment: Treatment is an annual preventative fungicide spray during the springtime.
Dutch Elm Disease:
Very similar to Oak Wilt, Dutch Elm Disease is a fungus that attacks the vascular system and prevents nutrient flow. The most susceptible to this disease is the American Elm species. In the same way that we are seeing Emerald Ash Borer affect the Ash tree population today, Dutch Elm Disease fungus wiped out the American Elms in the 1970s.
- Telltale Signs: Symptoms are the same as Oak Wilt, with leaf color change in late July and early August, early leaf drop, loss of density, flagging, and it is transmitted via a host beetle.
- Treatment: As severity is high once the tree is affected, the best treatment is a macro infusion fungicide prevention.
Spruce Spider Mites:
Invasion of spruce spider mites tends to occur during periods of drought when the spruce tree is under heavy stress, allowing the spider mite to move in and do heavy damage.
- Telltale Signs: Flagging and random die-back are the most common signs of spruce spider mite infestation.
- Treatment: It can be treated preventatively and/or therapeutically with a foliar miticide spray. While treatment is mostly done in the spring, it can also be done during a latent phase in the spider mite life cycle, which is typically in August.
