Tree Injection Site Procedures: Manufacturer's Instructions and Labels

Summary: Shawn Bernick and E. Thomas Smiley of Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories link manufacturer's instructions and labels with tree injection site procedures.

Manufacturer instructions and any required labels are essential components of tree injection site procedures; tree injection control of oak wilt (Ceratocystis fagacearum): Joseph O'Brien/USDA Forest Service/Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images

Tree injection site procedures accommodate different devices, dilution and dosages by always adhering to manufacturer's instructions and labels, according to Tree Injection (Part 2) for the June 2016 issue of Arborist News.

Shawn Bernick and E. Thomas Smiley of Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories begin administering and maintaining injection sites by checking compatibility of pest, product and product placement. Decay or visible damage to lower trunks and root flares and dieback or visible stress to canopies can impede uptake and compromise uptake time and distribution. Device instructions and product labels dictate injection site number, respectively at 0.25 and two per inch (2.5 centimeters) of breast-height diameter, for macroinfusion applications and microinjections. They expect 4-plus-inch (10-plus-centimeter) inter-site set spacing to eliminate "coalescence of compartmentalization reaction zones" on buttresses, points midway between lateral roots and trunks, and root flares.

"[A]ccess to significantly more sapwood tissue" for uniform product distribution favors site placements at minimum 4- to 8-inch (10- to 20-centimeter) distances below root flare tops.

Air-excavation tools, hand trowels or shovels get buried root flares exposed for debris- and soil-removing, non-wire, stiff brushes and for debris- and soil-free injection site procedures. Wood vessels opened for rapid injections and uptakes happen with clean hole-drilling by brad-point or high-helix drill bits replaced or sharpened after every ten medium-to-large tree-drillings.

Device-specific manufacturer's instructions identify drill-hole angles from "perpendicular to slightly angled" while bark thickness, injection port length and "relative amount of active xylem" indicate drill-hole depths. Diffuse-porous hardwoods with two- to four-year-active xylem juggle 0.75- to 1.5-inch (1.9- to 3.8-centimeter) drill-hole depths whose current-year-active ring-porous hardwood equivalents slightly jostle injection port-mandated minimums.

Non-resinous conifers keep to 1.5- to 3-inch (3.8- to 7.6-centimeter) drill-hole depths whereas resinous conifers know no bark thickness, only cambium into wood, drill-hole depth measurements.

Drills left on lowest speed settings, for uninterrupted drilling and immediate removal, leave "clean injection holes" and "open wood vessels" that high-speed and spinning drills cauterize. Calibration before, and subsequent to "every three to four hours" of, operation means injecting desired rates into graduated cylinders to measure correct deliveries by microinjection devices. Tree injection site procedures need water freed of impurities and sediments before priming macroinjection systems of bubbles and leaks and also pH-compatible before diluting pesticide formulations.

Macroinjection systems sometimes offer metal or plastic, permeable, self-closing plugs, species- and treatment combination-tested for optimal depth and diameter, for multiple injections just below the cambium.

Treatments typically proceed at full square-inch doses of zero- to 3-pound (0- to 0.2-bar) infusion pressures and of 15- to 300-pound (1.0- to 20.7-bar) high pressures.

Too little pressure quantifies into too long application times whereas too much pressure qualifies areas around injection holes for decline from damaged bark, cambium and xylem. Product success and public safety require applicators to remain near injection sites to realize full-dose treatments and to remove injection devices for manufacturer-specified disposal or re-use. Manufacturer's instructions typically specify flushing reusable injection devices with specific solvents or with water, often for injection into trees or for mix into pesticide spray tanks.

Manufacturer-specified solvents sometimes turn reusable injectors into inventory for long-term storage or for long-term use in treatments consistent with instruction- and label-compatible tree injection site procedures.

original Mauget injectors on tree bole for control of spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana): Jerald E. Dewey/USDA Forest Service/Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to:
talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet;
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for superior on-campus and on-line resources.

Image credits:

Manufacturer instructions and any required labels are essential components of tree injection site procedures; tree injection control of oak wilt (Ceratocystis fagacearum): Joseph O'Brien/USDA Forest Service/Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images @ http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=5040023

original Mauget injectors on tree bole for control of spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana): Jerald E. Dewey/USDA Forest Service/Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images @ http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=2252024

For further information:

Bernick, Shawn; and Smiley, E. Thomas. June 2016. "Tree Injection (Part 2)." Arborist News 25(3): 12-18.

Gilman, Ed. 2011. An Illustrated Guide to Pruning. Third Edition. Boston MA: Cengage.

Hayes, Ed. 2001. Evaluating Tree Defects. Revised, Special Edition. Rochester MN: Safe Trees.

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