# Merit and scale on Taxus



## John Paul Sanborn (May 19, 2001)

Has any one had good results with soil injection? We have a formal hedge that was neglected by the previouse administration and is looking rough in some places. Mealeybug and scale.


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## treeclimber165 (May 19, 2001)

I have worked for companies that did soil injection, and my personal opinion is that the investment in equipment was wasted. The trees are designed (by God) to absorb nutrients from the top 6" of soil. Deeper roots pick up moisture when the top of the ground is dry. If you inject nutrients 12" deep, it bypasses 90% of the roots that can pick it up! I have never seen substantial advantage from injecting vs top feeding. Just my 2 cents.


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## John Paul Sanborn (May 20, 2001)

Tree

I agree that 12 inch is way to deep, I use a 6in probe.

What I am talking about here is systemic insecticide for a scale/mealybug infestation, killing a yeaw hedge. I believe this was caused by the previouse administrations fert program with out any I&D management or inspection. If you shear and fert, you need to check for critters.

TCI has a greart article on this, it put defined and reinforced my gut feelings about tree fert programs. Synopsis- N supports rapid growth, has nothing to do with photosynthate production, and dilutes th phyto chems that protect against pests.


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## John Paul McMillin (May 20, 2001)

hey john im replying on this site also, if you do try merit , you could use it as a drench instead of injecting it into the soil. what does the label say for Taxus? I use Merit on a lot of things but i havent tried it on Taxus


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## Eric E. (May 26, 2001)

John Paul S.,
Soil injections of Merit will work on soft scales with proper timing. It will do little for control of hard/armored scale. I believe most of the scale that attack Taxus are soft scales. Make sure you identify the type of scale to make sure. 
You will also reduce the population to acceptable levels buy proper pruning to allow air and light penatration, in other words stop shearing. Thin the hedge and stop ferting. Once ithe thinning is done water pressure from a garden hose will remove most of the Mealys and some of the scale. Time the hosing for crawler stage of the scale and you will do even better.
With all that said it is usually hard to get someone to let a hedge go natural after it has been sheared for years. Of course you can keep shearing and keep dumping chemicals on them until they decline to the point of removal.



JP McMillin,
Our paths cross again. How are you doing? 

Eric Engstrom


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