Save your Trees from Sudden Oak Death with DIY Tree Injection
Sudden Oak Death Prevention and Treatment. Take action to protect your trees from Sudden Oak Death (Phytophthora Ramorum) with “do it yourself” tree injection. SOD has been killing trees on the west coast including Tanoak, Coastal Oak, Live Oak, Shreve Oak, Black Oak, and Canyon Oak. Central and eastern USA trees in the Red Oak group are also at risk of infection by phytophthora ramorum, including Northern Red Oak, Pin Oak and Spanish Oak.
SOD is a tree affliction caused by phytophthora ramorum, a type of water mold that causes cankers which disrupt the circulation of sap, girdling and eventually killing the tree. The mold spores are spread from infected to healthy trees in the air by wind, and also by water. Good information on treating for SOD is included in this SOD Disease Management guideline from UC Berkeley.
If you have SOD killing trees on your property or in your neighborhood, you do not have to sit by and watch your oak trees die. You can easily treat against infection and death of trees by SOD using DIY trunk injection of the phosphonate fungicide Garden Phos (previously known as Agri-Phos) and reloadable Chemjet® Tree Injectors. The procedure is as follows for treating SOD:
- Identify trees that you want to protect. At greatest risk are healthy trees that are near trees that are already infected or dead.
- Acquire some Chemjet® Tree Injectors and Garden Phos liquid fungicide. Get a cordless drill and an 11/64 drill bit.
- Prepare the chemical injections per the instructions on the label from the chemical you are using. For Garden Phos (or otherwise known as Agri-Fos) the chemical use label identifies mixing 11 fluid oz Garden Phos with 21 fluid oz water. Drill the tree every six inches around the trunk and inject each hole with 20ml of the solution mix using the Chemjet® Tree Injectors.
- Inject twice the first year (fall and spring) and then once every other year thereafter.
- You may want to plug the holes after injecting to help keep insects, bacteria and fungus from getting in your tree.
- Here is a video
That’s it! Using this procedure you should be able to keep your favorite oak trees from being killed by sudden oak death indefinitely (as long as the trees are not sick before you start).
Make sure you follow personal protective equipment usage guidelines specified by the chemical manufacturer which would include wearing rubber gloves and eye protection while handling the chemicals. Also disinfect the Chemjets, drill bit, other equipment and your hands with a weak water solution of Lysol Disinfectant or bleach before moving on to the next tree to avoid carrying SOD spores or other tree pathogens with you.
With the relatively simple implementation of tree injection using the inexpensive Chemjet Tree Injectors, it is feasible to inject and protect many oak trees. This brings to reality an economical option of DIY injecting all of the healthy oak trees on your woodlot area to inhibit expansion of the disease to your trees.
It takes up to a few hours for the chemical to go in the tree. If you have one or two trees to treat you could get by with five Chemjets (re-use them as you drill around the tree) and a quart of Garden Phos. If you have many trees you will need 20 or more Chemjets and you can buy Garden Phos more economically by the gallon.
Get Chemjet Tree Injectors online here: chemjettreeinjector.com/products/
Get Garden Phos/(Agri-Phos) online here: domyownpestcontrol.com
Treating for Sudden Oak Death is easy and relatively cheap! The fungicide costs about four cents per injector dose and Chemjets cost about $12 each and can be reused for years.
Additional information
Buy Chemjet Tree Injectors Now
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