That 5 year old oak I treated for blight looks like a different tree now

I did a deep soil injection of phosphite on this big red oak in a client's yard back in April 2021. It had maybe 40 percent canopy dieback and looked rough. Fast forward to last week and that tree is full and green with only a couple dead spots near the top. Has anyone else seen that kind of turnaround from phosphite on oaks in the Chicago area or did I just get lucky?

2 comments

2 Comments

fiona1301mo ago

Only 40 percent dieback" sounds like a clean bill of health compared to some of my experiments with houseplants! I'm honestly a little jealous of that turnaround.

lee.casey1mo ago

Fiona130, I gotta push back a little. 40% dieback on a tree that costs several hundred dollars to replace (and I mean the big old ones, not a little sapling) is pretty rough. I've had Japanese maples drop a few branches after a storm, but losing almost half the canopy means the root system is probably messed up too. Makes me worry the next big wind is going to take the whole thing down, which is a real hazard near a house. You might get lucky with a quick recovery, but I'd be planning for removal in a year or two.