Important Product and Service Updates, 2019

As you may be aware, my plant health care philosophy is to use the very best in science based protocols and treatment options. I regularly attend conferences and consult with industry professionals to find the very best ways to care for your trees. Therefore, there are some changes to my treatment protocols, products offered, and chemicals for this upcoming season.

PURITEA

Due to several factors, I am discontinuing the application of Puritea to lawns as a liquid fertilizer. It was not meeting results as a fertilizer to green up lawns as well as other methods. The application times created challenges to my production schedule. Lastly, and most importantly, the good microbes in Puritea where not making it into the soil. I needed to find a better way to get Puritea into the soil all throughout a landscape while keeping the microbes alive until they were in the soil.

Adding Biochar to soils can boost soil health over time with many of benefits. Plus, I can use Biochar as a vector to bring the benefits of Puritea directly into the soil. How I apply Puritea is going to change, creating several benefits–increased results, easier and fewer applications, and overall increased health to your soils and plants. This new combined product of Puritea with Biochar will be known as Activated Organic Matter.

Activated Organic Matter

The major benefit with this change is fewer applications and shorter duration of treatment. You will be able to stop Activated Organic Matter applications once the percent organic matter is increased to 7-8%. Then your soil will have the correct makeup to maintain and build a healthy soil profile. Optimal microbes, pore spaces, and water managing properties in the soil will create conditions so plants require less watering and maintenance.

Benefits of Adding Puritea to Biochar

  • Biochar will act in 3 beneficial ways to boost Puritea performance and soil health while also reducing number of applications.
    • A natural soil enhancement product by itself (Biochar).
    • The created Activated Organic Matter can then deliver the benefits of Puriea without worry of drying out.
    • Addition of organic matter in soil profile.

I will release more details on pricing and timing later this summer.

What is Bio-Char?

Biochar is just a fancy word for charcoal, biological charcoal to be exact, made from woody plant material. It improves soil quality as a soil amendment. Many industries use charcoal for its ability to absorb odors and toxins. Additions of biochar to soils increases the water retention of sandy soils and improves porosity of clay soils. Biochar also serves as a vector and activator to biological life within the soil. It is almost pure carbon with a very high surface area. The biochar will remain in the soil for thousands of years with almost immeasurable benefits to soil health. Biochar also helps combat climate change as it converts urban wood waste to a stable form of soil carbon. By creating healthier trees, it helps gather and retain more carbon in the form of woody tree tissue.

To learn more about what biochar is and how it’s made, follow this link to our distributer out of Wyoming. High Plains BioChar

Available Application Methods for Puritea

  • Top dressing of Activated Organic Matter to lawns or mulched areas.
  • Soil injection to root zones of trees

Apple Scab Protocol

Recent research has shown that in some cases, Apple Scab fungi can build a resistance to the most common active ingredient used by professional applicators to control Apple scab fungi in trees. This is usually due to poor application practices. Because of this, I am adding in another fungicide into my apple scab spray. This addition will not affect pricing. It will provide several added benefits along with lesser risk of fungal resistance.

Pine Wilt

Pine wilt disease preventative injections will now be priority over other injections. I will perform the injections as early as possible in the season. Results of the preventative injections in high disease areas have been less than 80%. Due to this, I am recommending those who have had trees treated in high disease areas to re-evaluate their treatment plans with me. Treatments made to pine trees preventatively in lower pressure areas have shown expected results.

Spruce Spider Mites

For large numbers of trees where it is practical to foliar spray, I will now be using a new chemical. This product is very effective in controlling spruce spider mites, their larvae, and eggs. I recommend spraying trees once a season for 3 years depending on mite levels. For treating individual trees, I will still recommend and prefer Lepitect.