Tree Health | Tree Diseases

Tree Health & Tree Diseases

Need an ISA Certified Arborist in Pinellas County to look at your tree health and inspect your trees for diseases? Even for the highly trained specialist, understanding tree diseases and tree health is not a simple task. Not only are many of the causes of tree diseases particularly elusive, tree diseases are more often than not, the consequences of a variety of influences acting in synergism or succession. The impacts of tree diseases range from subtle (e.g., no visible evidence of symptoms, perhaps only a slight reduction in growth) to dramatic (e.g., highly visible growth aberrations or death of tree parts or entire trees) depending upon host species, associated environmental/cultural conditions, and specific causal agents involved.

Tree disease may be defined as the sustained or progressive impairment of the structure or function of a living tree. Therefore, tree disease is a process involving time, as opposed to tree injury which is damage inflicted by a passing agent or event. Often, tree disease is associated with tree injury, but the two are distinct. Understanding the distinction facilitates correct interpretation and diagnosis.

Insect damage, often referred to as injury is not the same as tree disease. As with other injuries, however, it is not at all uncommon to find tree disease associated with insect injury. Sometimes injury (insect or other) predisposes trees to disease infections, and sometimes the presence of disease weakens a tree to the point where is becomes vulnerable to injury by insects or other agents. Such associations and/or interactions are common and the subtleties and variations of same are legion.

Tree diseases are caused by a variety of factors often referred to causal agents. Causal agents may be living (biotic) or non-living (abiotic). Biotic causal agents are called pathogens (i.e., disease-producing organisms) and are not synonymous with disease; i.e., pathogens are not diseases, pathogens cause disease.

If you think you have any health problems with your trees give us a call or fill out then contact form. Contact us today for a FREE ESTIMATE with an ISA Certified Arborist.