Horticulture Hotline 09/29/2020
By Bill Lamson-Scribner
Three weeks ago, was Labor Day. Two weeks ago, I wrote about a very few situations that landscapers face doing their job. Last week, some of the Pest Management Professionals (PMP) situations were told. If you missed either of these articles, you can go to possumsupply.com and look under the Horticulture Hotline tab, and it will be there for you. This week I will share some of the stories of the Arborist and the situations they find themselves.
With Arborist AKA Tree Guys what is often overlooked is what they bring to a site when they arrive. Bucket Truck ($120,000), Chipper Truck that hauls the chips ($85,000), Chipper ($50,000), Stump Grinder ($55,000), Boss’s Truck ($70,000), chain saws, rope, blowers, rakes and miscellaneous hand tools. They show up with over 400,000 dollars’ worth of equipment for starters (based on used equipment prices) and this does not even include a crane or a truck to put the trunks of the tree that the crane lifts. A lot of maintenance is required to keep this equipment running. Hydraulics, blades for the saws, chippers, and stump grinder all need to be spot on for a smooth day.
Do you remember the ropes hanging from the gym roof in high school? Could you climb the ropes then? Could you climb them now? Tree climbers do this all the time – 100 degrees or 40 degrees outside.
While climbing a rope they might stop to inspect a cavity in the tree. Looking in that hole there might be some other eyes looking back at you. Snakes like these holes. The beloved possum likes these holes. Raccoons like these holes. When you see the beloved possum dead in the middle of the road, they are not too intimidating. When a mama possum is getting ready to be evicted from her tree cavity and is hissing at you eye to eye while you are climbing a rope, things are a little different.
The ground guys that feed the limbs into the chipper are always busy. Talk about some hard-hot work. Lifting an average of ten to fifty-pound limbs and logs all day and carrying them to the chipper in the heat. The logs might get thrown into the back of the chipper truck for future firewood sales. Splitting and stacking firewood is another type of work.
Trees also support vines. English ivy on trees is a favorite for roaches, but poison ivy is the most feared. So, picture this – you are hot, sweaty, chain saw chips and saw dust all over you and you have that itchy poison ivy spreading with the sweat all over you.
Hats off to the Tree Guys, I hope you had a good Labor Day!
The recent rains, shorter daylight hours and cooler weather has really made the large patch explode. Moles are enjoying the grubs near the surface, army worms and sod webworms are munching, winter weeds are germinating - preemerge for winter weeds now, and winterize your lawn and shrubs. Mosquitoes love this fall weather!
