ArborThrive Plant Health Care

What is ArborThrive?

ArborThrive is a comprehensive plant health care program for trees and shrubs. The goal of the ArborThrive program is to keep your trees healthy and beautiful for years to come through preventive care and maintenance.

ArborThrive addresses potential problems on your property and offers proactive treatments. A proactive approach to managing trees is best, because a reactive approach can be too late.

Trees are susceptible to secondary infections or infestations if primary stressors are not addressed. Multiple, compounding issues kill most trees rather than one single issue. Each issue should be addressed as it arises. Timely diagnosis and treatment can prevent a downward spiral, ultimately resulting in death of the tree.

What Do We Do on Your Property?

Tree Inventory

The first step of any plant health care program is to identify the type of plants. Most plants have pests specific to them. To know what problems to look for, you must know your plant. Wellnitz Tree Care will identify your trees and the potential issues and pests they may experience during the initial inspection. During the initial visit, we will determine the plant history and diagnose any preexisting conditions. This includes biotic conditions like insects and disease and abiotic issues such as girdling roots, soil compaction, mechanical damage, etc.

Preventive treatments

Our plant health care technicians will identify potential pest issues and recommend preventive treatments based on the virulence of pathogens. Some tree diseases (Dutch elm, pine wilt) and insects (emerald ash borer) can disrupt flow of chemical treatments and therefore, should be prevented since damaged trees do not respond well to treatment. If the pest has affected the tree to the point of canopy die-back, the only option may be removal.

Prevention is more than chemical applications. We treat abiotic factors such as soil compaction and nutrient deficiencies for a holistic approach to plant vigor.

Soil Analysis

Many plant problems start underground. Trees like to live in a forest, not in manicured lawns. Sometimes they need help but usually not in the way you might think. We do minimal fertilization, but we can build soil health in other ways that help keep your yard looking nice without sacrificing tree health. Our plant health care technicians will take soil samples to determine nutrient imbalances, soil profile, and soil structure and then suggest corrective measures.

Scheduled checkups

We schedule visits at times when your trees’ pests are most likely to be active. We can catch issues early for rapid management and minimal tree impact.

As Part Of The ArborThrive Plant Health Care Program, You Can Expect

Regularly scheduled inspections

We inspect your property for issues on a regular, agreed upon schedule.

A prepared report with our findings

We provide a report with detailed findings and recommendations.

Communication from us before any additional treatments

If we discover a new pest or issue we will not treat it without prior consent you first.

Environmental stewardship

With preventive treatments and a holistic approach we can reduce pesticide use with natural biological controls. We offer organic treatments for many pest issues that occur.

ArborThrive Pricing

Each program is individually tailored to fit the desires of the homeowner, as well as the needs of the landscape. We can focus on one particular tree or care for the entire landscape. Programs are set as a per visit cost or an annual fee. Our commitment to you is to design a program that meets your goals and fits your budget.

Combination Of Factors Makes Oak Tree A Cautionary Example

A single condition rarely kills trees. They are usually killed over a period of time by multiple issues causing an irreversible spiral of decline (See Manion’s Tree Disease Concepts). Predisposing factors such as age, genetics, soil composition and volume, etc., plague trees in the urban environment. Predisposing factors alter the trees’ ability to respond to short-term issues called inciting factors. Inciting factors could include insect defoliation, weather events, construction damage (see photos), or other short-term issues that compound the stress on the tree. Inciting factors combined with predisposing factors often result in a tree’s inability to resist advantageous pests such as fungi and wood-boring beetles. When a homeowner notices beetles or fungus, it is usually too late to treat the tree. By having a monitoring program, Wellnitz Tree Care can address the predisposing and inciting factors breaking the spiral of decline before it is too late. When problems compound over time, trees don’t stand a chance. Let Wellnitz examine your trees before the first sign of issues with your trees.

The Value and Benefits of Trees

Trees have psychological, aesthetic, social, historical, environmental, and monetary value. Trees are an investment because of the values they bring, but each tree may have a different value to different people. Healthy, productive trees will always have more value than dying and diseased trees. These are tangible ways trees provide value:

Landscaping, especially with healthy trees, can increase property values as much as 20 percent. Management Information Services/ICMA
USDA Forest Service Trees improve water quality by reducing runoff and erosion.
They allow recharging of the groundwater supply.
The net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to ten room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day. U.S. Department of Agriculture
A mature well-maintained tree, can have an appraised value of between $1,000 and $10,000. Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers
Trees properly placed around buildings can reduce air conditioning needs by 30 percent and can save 20–50 percent in energy used for heating.
Trees can be a stimulus to economic development. Commercial retail areas are more attractive to shoppers, apartments rent more quickly, tenants stay longer, and space in a wooded setting is more valuable to sell or rent. USDA Forest Service
In laboratory research, visual exposure to settings with trees has produced significant recovery from stress within five minutes, as indicated by changes in blood pressure and muscle tension.