Slow uptake

matdand

matdand

Participating member
Location
Montreal, Qc
I just started using Mauget Stemix on stressed trees and find that the uptake is slow. Am I doing something wrong? What do you guys do in these situations?

Yesterday I had a couple of small trees to prune and a blue spruce to fertilise that is infected with cytospora. I plugged the Mauget, did the pruning and the capsules still had half of the liquid. At the price I quoted, I couldn't just chill there the rest of the morning waiting for uptake.

The job was pretty far away so i just called the client and told them to pull them out at the end of the day and put them in a plastic bag. Not the best service but what do you guys do?
 
When I did elm injections, I would water the root zone area. This seemed to stimulate the trees and reduced uptake time.
 
I've never used that product, but have done a bit of injecting myself. Both macro and micro. Are you using the helix drill bit that is fairly new? if you don't use a super sharp bit it can cause issues with the phloem and xylem. I'm not sure of the exact science behind it but it might be clogging or destroying those cells you really need for up take.

Also drilling to the proper depth is another big factor. you don't want to be too shallow or the liquid will spit out the bark but you don't want to be too deep or your passing the zone you need.

Now I'm thinking about it I might have used a similar product but for elms. We installed them and then had to leave them on the tree for the entire day. Caution taped the root flare and moved on to the next tree.

Have you looked into Arborjet? That system is the fastest I've used but probably the most expensive to get going in terms of start up costs.
 
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... At the price I quoted, I couldn't just chill there the rest of the morning waiting for uptake...

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This is the most important part of your post. You underbid yourself out of providing GREAT service. Lesson learned for next time. When I bid injections, I don't bid for how great it should go down, I bid for a less-than-ideal scenario.

Heavy prewatering gets the trees moving internally and should speed up the take. Get the clients involved and tell them you want two HEAVY waterings the 2 weeks prior to you showing up. You'll be there for a few hours to do the injections and if it all doesn't take, they share part of the blame if they never did the watering.

Plan to be there for a while. I think I read in the directions (and I should go back in and look at them again) that you shouldn't leave the capsules in for more than 3-4 hours. So just plan for that time. I think the idea is that if it hasn't taken in that time, it's not going to. So plan for a half day and pull them before you go.

love
nick
 
arbor jet is the way to go, i treated 66 ash trees that were an average of 13 DBH in 9 hours by my self, they were on 3 different streets so i had mabey 20 minutes of drive time. up take was good but even when its slow its way faster than the Mauget system
 
Good to know for the watering, will keep it in mind. This was the second time I ever used the product, the first was a job about 5 minutes from my house, so I just went back at the end of the day.

I don't see how charging someone for 3-4 hours of my time to do something that takes a few minutes makes sense. I mean, if I have other work to do on the proprety or close by than it's a no brainer. If I don't than it's gonna make the cost skyrocket just for waiting around.

Arborjet looks cool but most of the products arent available in Canada, so Ill wait and see if it's worth the investment just for fertilizing.
 
Check your state laws regarding leaving the caps unattended. However I've been using Mauget for over 20 years and in Michigan the only product that REQUIRES your attendence during injection is Bidrin (RUP). I inject the tree, then stop by the next day to pick up caps.
 
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