It’s probably not clear (which is my fault, sorry) but these things are priced based on the diameter of the tree, because that’s what determines how much product/treatment time is necessary. Extremely large oaks might be 70 or 80 inches, but they’re very few and far between near me. Bigger oaks are 40-50 inches, generally, but most aren’t bigger than 32 inches.
I personally would only recommend the injection to a normal person if it’s been pruned at the wrong time of year (not sure how it works in areas where you don’t get freezing temps), or if there’s an infected oak close enough that the roots may have grafted. A super rich person, on the other hand... whatever.
But yeah, it’s definitely not cheap. It’s just not that astronomical. However, the product only last 2-3 years. So if there’s still a high risk of oak wilt, another treatment would be recommended.
It’s certainly not feasible to hit all the trees this way, absolutely not. And while there have been projects moderately successful at eradicating insect problems, I don’t really know of any for funguses (not saying they don’t exist, I just haven’t heard of them).
But most trees species have some kind of systemic pest problem, yet here they are. Every so often we lose the vast majority of a given species in a given area, though, so it’s really hard to say at this point whether oaks are gonna go the way of the chestnut, or whether they’re just having a couple extra problems at the moment.
It’s probably not clear (which is my fault, sorry) but these things are priced based on the diameter of the tree, because that’s what determines how much product/treatment time is necessary. Extremely large oaks might be 70 or 80 inches, but they’re very few and far between near me. Bigger oaks are 40-50 inches, generally, but most aren’t bigger than 32 inches.
I personally would only recommend the injection to a normal person if it’s been pruned at the wrong time of year (not sure how it works in areas where you don’t get freezing temps), or if there’s an infected oak close enough that the roots may have grafted. A super rich person, on the other hand... whatever.
But yeah, it’s definitely not cheap. It’s just not that astronomical. However, the product only last 2-3 years. So if there’s still a high risk of oak wilt, another treatment would be recommended.
Ah okay I see where I was confused, I googled DBH and assumed the height referred to the height of the tree.
So really, we're talking about a cost of $300 to vaccinate a single tree for about 3 years. Which still, I think indicates they're fucked right?
It’s certainly not feasible to hit all the trees this way, absolutely not. And while there have been projects moderately successful at eradicating insect problems, I don’t really know of any for funguses (not saying they don’t exist, I just haven’t heard of them).
But most trees species have some kind of systemic pest problem, yet here they are. Every so often we lose the vast majority of a given species in a given area, though, so it’s really hard to say at this point whether oaks are gonna go the way of the chestnut, or whether they’re just having a couple extra problems at the moment.
I appreciate your knowledge on this, thank you for sharing!