# Rainbow Q Connect



## crawfccb (Feb 4, 2019)

I run a couple parks and am looking at treating a fairly large number of trees (up to 100 or so) for EAB that was just recently found in my county. Soil drench will not work due to being near water and the amount of trees in some areas and I would prefer multi year treatment. I am looking at a Rainbow Q connect system so there are no plugs to buy or mess with. There doesn't seem to be many reviews on this system that I can find outside of the companies reviews. Does anyone have any experience with the q connect vs other injection systems?


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## ATH (Feb 4, 2019)

I demo-ed it. Maybe would consider it if I was buying new, but ArborJet has served me well. Plugs aren't a big deal...


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## Dbodave (Feb 7, 2019)

I have not used it but I used the macro infusion system that the design is based on for years with DED and iron infusions. My opinion on the macro infusion system is it was really poor technology from the 70's that put 99% of the product in the first few injection sites and pressure drops off to near zero after the 3rd t. I have videos that show this on an iron injection I did and also videos where I took measurements of the volume coming out of each line. I would not use any system based on that design and I prefer equal product distribution when the life of the tree is at stake.

There is a reason irrigation systems only run a few lines in different zones at a time, they do not work if you run all the sprinkler heads down a line in unison.


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## Dbodave (Feb 7, 2019)

PS good for you for considering options to save the trees in the park you run!


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## crawfccb (Feb 8, 2019)

Thanks for the info. The Q connect claims to have modified the design to allow for constant pressure to each open injection port. No clue how well it works, but I will probably give it a try. 

Anyone have a source for bulk arbormectin? Can't find many online sources, rainbow is the cheapest at $480 per quart. Anyone sell it by the gallon?


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## ATH (Feb 8, 2019)

TREE-age G4 is $465 per quart... I'm pretty sure it goes down in price when you buy in bulk. I get it through Midwest Arborist Supplies. No discount shows on the website, but call and ask... They do have early order programs with nice discounts - but those have passed for the year.

Since you are treating a large number of trees, you might look at staggering treatments. How close is the "main" infestation to you? I know you said they are in your county...but are there massive death of trees within 50 miles of you? If so, yeah...treat them all this year (actually, probably last year and 2017...). If it is just showing up and tons of trees aren't dying yet, you probably have a little time. Treat your best trees this year (or maybe the trees in half of the parks?) and then the other next year. The only reason I suggest that is to spread the cost to every other year (and this is an ongoing cost) and to spread out the time it takes to treat them. Depending on how many you are doing, you could have a couple of workers doing nothing but treating trees for 2-3 weeks. If you can make that 1-1.5 weeks per year there should be more flexibility. Final thought: DON'T treat every tree. There are probably ash trees in the parks that you wouldn't miss anyhow...if it is tucked in a grove of other trees and removal will be quick and easy, just remove it. There are likely other trees that just aren't healthy anyhow or have very poor form. Don't wast money keeping a tree that should be replaced anyhow.

Good luck!


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## crawfccb (Feb 20, 2019)

Contacted rainbow and they will do bulk discounts, but have not talked price. My staff and I have already started deciding which trees to treat, to leave until they die, or the ones we will start removing once we get time. We have between 180 and 200 ash trees in areas we mow in our park system. I am guessing we will end up treating 40% of them or so. My plan is to do a three year rotation after reading a study out of Michigan that showed excellent control for three years with EB injections. 

We have had one positive test that I know of in my county although I am sure there are many more infected trees out there. Any thoughts on the merit of waiting to start the treatment rotation because of extremely cold weather theoretically knocking the population down by 80% or more? Last year we had one night that hit about -24F (a few inches of snow cover) and a few weeks ago we hit -22F with no snow cover. I read that -20F kills around 79% of larva, -30F kills 98%. In an area that is just getting started with EAB (no dead ash trees from it that I have heard about yet) I would hate to spend a bunch on chemical if mother nature set them back for me.


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## ATH (Feb 21, 2019)

The bugs were not exposed to those temperatures under the bark. That study was out of MN a few years ago - last time there was a real bad cold snap. They tested bugs exposed to the elements...not in a tree. When they dug into the tree, the numbers were not nearly as promising.

Additionally, the population builds so fast...even if 80-90% were killed, that probably only sets them back by a year or two. If EAB is within 25-50 miles of you and you have determined that you are going to invest in treatment, I'd start this spring. Worse than treating a year earlier than you needed to because of the cold is treating a year later than you needed to.


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## Dbodave (Mar 18, 2019)

As I suspected there are several injection sites not receiving product when I watched a video on how to use the q-connect. The guy doing the video was more concerned about checking for leaks and made no mention of the empty lines.


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