Cambistat Testimonials

[jibrahim]

Hello folks, I am trying to draw together information on a product called cambistat a product marketed by Rainbow scientific tree care advancements it contains the active ingredient Paclobutrazol a growth regulator. The company has made claims that it may help declining or mature trees, or ones that have been damaged, by biotic and abiotic factors. Has anybody used this product with any success? or anything you can share? I am also interested in Photos if any one out there would like to share any pertinent info it would be greatly appreciated thank you.


Joseph Ibrahim
Plant Protection and IPM Intern
The Morris Arboretum
The University of Pennsylvania
100 Northwestern Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19144

(215)247-5777 x 133
[email protected]

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Bartlett Labs and the Morton Arboretum have published results.

I'll have pictures--in a year or two.

 

[treeman82]

Contact this guy. I met up with him and Lync this past spring for a demo of the product. He sells it, plus he uses it with his own tree service. He gave us some material published by the company which sells the product, and some material he came up with himself from trials.

Good guy, knows his stuff.

Peter Felix-

[email protected]

 

[ProfessorPlum]

In the clayey, alkaline soils of the Front Range of Colorado, cambistat works miracles. Some species of non-native trees (Red Oaks, for example) are virtually impossible to get to establish here without a cambistat app, and so many CO residents come from elsewhere and insist upon trying to establish their favorite species, climate and soils be ????ed. We have some great pics around here somewhere; I'll try to post them when our PHC manager gets back.

We also use the product quite a bit for its side-effect (depending how you look at it, I suppose; most cambistat apps are to promote root development): crown growth reduction. I've done a large number of cambistat applications in, pardon the term, tight-ass, English garden style yards where the owner insists on planting species like spruce 4' from the house and demands that the trees be kept small and cute, like a puppy. The difference in candle length pre- and post- application is pretty startling, and an app gives 3 years of growth reduction.

 

[begleytree]

I too will let you know in a couple of years how I like it, how it works here. -Ralph

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by ProfessorPlum
We also use the product quite a bit for its side-effect (depending how you look at it, I suppose; most cambistat apps are to promote root development): crown growth reduction.

Cambi stands for cambium, stat for static. By stopping giberellin production callus growth is retarded, so I do NOT use it on trees with a lot of open wounds, despite the Morton study that shows it is also fungistatic. It's tempting for its other benefits, but decay's gonna happen; closure is still the best defense against decay.

Yo Plum, the Morton study showed that it took 3 years for effects to show on their red oaks (palustris I think)--what is your experience as far as relative effects on different sp.?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Originally posted by Guy Meilleur
Cambi stands for cambium, stat for static. By stopping giberellin production callus growth is retarded, so I do NOT use it on trees with a lot of open wounds, despite the Morton study that shows it is also fungistatic.

They say it is best to prune the season befor and not any large cuts.

 

[murphy4trees]

There's a local tree sparayer I went to high school with.... He says Cambistat is getting excellent results...... Funny though I Am sure he does fert. applications too... First he charges for pumping up a trees growth on steroids.... then when the tree gets sick.... he's got this other thing to sell that stops the tree from growing...
Seems kind of paradoxical, but I guess his accountant thinks he's doing a great job!

 

[jmchristopher]

I've been using the stuff for more than 5 years as a tgr, and can say with authority that I have not seen one tree die as a result. Beyond that, I have personally observed reasonable growth rate reductions.
At a certain point I have to trust the researchers, and make my recommendations. For situations where my goal is along the lines of the "side effects" or are not strictly according to the letter of the label, I do my best to put the case forward in terms of "taking a best shot." Neither I nor my client will ever dig up roots to measure effectiveness, nor will anyone ever be able to demonstrate a negative like reduced susceptability to anything.

 

[Dan F]

Does it work on shrubs? We've got several properties that have shrubs we pruned 2 or 3 times last season and are thinking about trying to use a growth regulator to slow the growth in an attempt to gain more time in the season...

How is applied? Foliar or soil drench or ???


Dan

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Soil drench or injection.

I know people who dig a shallow trench and then pour it in. No pumps needed, mix on site.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Originally posted by Guy Meilleur
By stopping giberellin production callus growth is retarded, so I do NOT use it on trees with a lot of open wounds, despite the Morton study that shows it is also fungistatic. It's tempting for its other benefits, but decay's gonna happen; closure is still the best defense against decay.

Yet curiously, crown reduction in a decaying tree makes perfect sense to you. I'm suggesting, of course, that removing foliage from a tree would also slow closure, and poking at a mad dog with a stick.
Carry on.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Mike Maas
Yet curiously, crown reduction in a decaying tree makes perfect sense to you. removing foliage from a tree would also slow closure, and poking at a mad dog with a stick.

Bow wow, pokin back atcha baby.

You're right of course about the short-term effect of foliage loss, which is why reduction pruning involves case-by-case, branch-by-branch decisions that must keep your point in mind along with all other considerations. Overall reduction done on a routine basis makes no sense to me.

The difference is, the amount and activity of the foliage changes some functions of the tree here and there for a time until adaptive growth occurs, while cambistat as I understand it induces a systemwide shutdown of cambial growth and maintenance of an infection court for pathogens.

Two very different effects of two very different treatments.
OK poke away!

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Originally posted by Guy Meilleur
cambistat as I understand it induces a systemwide shutdown of cambial growth and maintenance of an infection court for pathogens.

It doesn't shut down growth, it changes the shape of the induvidual cells, as I understand it, less cell elongation. The leaves are smaller but more efficiant, in that they are darker green (more photosinthisis going on), possibly less wind sail effect, and lose less warter (increased dorought toerence).
Shorter, fat cells, improved drought toerence, disease resistance, and root to shoot balance, might mean faster callusing.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Mike Maas
Shorter, fat cells, improved drought toerence, disease resistance, and root to shoot balance, might mean faster callusing.

I agree that the other effects help the tree overall, except the point about shorter or smaller cells. How is the wound going to close in time if the callus doesn't grow at a normal rate?
I don't know, so I can't sell a product that is designed to slow growth for a tree that needs growth.

 

[tprosser]

Regarding Decay

In situations where you want the tree to grow, cambistat is a tool to avoid. Also -Research has shown that the closure of a wound is slower on treated versus untreated.

However research has also shown that more defense chemicals are produced in treated trees and more energy is available for putting up the compartmental type 2 and 3 walls that Shigo says forms around a wound.

Callus tissue does not protect the tree from decay - the tree defense response does. Most important of all is to not remove the collar when pruning as this removes the reactive tisue that forms the defense boundries when the branch is cut.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Re: Regarding Decay

Originally posted by tprosser
Callus tissue does not protect the tree from decay - the tree defense response does.
No Comprende. Isn't outside closure of the wound with callus tissue a critical part of the tree's defense response? Can the formation of interior chemical boundaries be more important than the formation of outside physical protection?
Most important of all is to not remove the collar when pruning as this removes the reactive tisue that forms the defense boundries when the branch is cut.

I agree; this applies to collar-like bundles of reactive tissue (am I wrong in calling it callus tissue?) that are part of the branch protection zone, at forks or at latent nodes.

 

[xtremetrees]

Great topic,
Love reading this stuff.
Georgia Tech was doing some expermental stuff with changing the cellular structures of trees to accpet mercuy from the ground.
The idea was to genetically alter the plants to draw from the ground toxic chemicals. Theyd plant the trees in chemicals dumps to clean the soil and years later remove the plants and dispose fo them.
This was going on say 4 years ago. I dont know if they were sucessful in altering the plants on a genetic level.

 

[tprosser]

Decay and Boundries

The older I get the dumber I realize I am. (Or the more I realize there is to know)

My thoughts are that both have an impact. However, internal reactions from the reactive tissue would probably have a greater impact since the outer protection takes years to form and the decay can get in and grow immediatly after the cut or wound.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Re: Re: Regarding Decay

Weather calus is undiferenciated meristematic tissue or wound wood will allow you to call it the wall four of the CODIT responce.

The structure of woundwood is different from standard xylem, in that it grows faster and is usually more lignified then a "normal" growth ring.

I've heard soem white coats argue that Shigo is wrong to define "callus" as just the initial resopnce to wounding.

I'll leave that to the plant pathologist and physiologists. I find the term "wound wood" easier to describe to the buying public.