Sewer Root Killer

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appalachianarbo

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I have a consultation with a homeowner in a few minutes. He thinks that the city sewer guys may have killed his oak with root dissolving chemicals. He says they repaired the sewer line, which runs inside the root zone. He's not sure but he thinks they poured root dissolving chemicals through the line. I called them to see what they use, and they use two products - RedHot and BurnOut. Anyone heard of them? Will they get taken up in to the root system systemically? I haven't seen the tree yet, so I don't know if it's a "sudden death" like he said. It may have died before they did the work. I'll let you know. Has anyone had experience with these chemicals doing damage?
 
I looked at the tree, a 28" dbh white oak, and it's not dead. There are live buds all over, it just hasn't broken bud (although most of the other oaks around have). There are epicormic sprouts along the trunk that are a few years old, indicating some sort of damage history. The homeowner says the house was built in 2001, so the root zone must have been damaged during construction.

I googled the chemicals, and only found their MSDS sheets, not their labels. I can't tell whether the chemicals would be systemic. Do you think these chemicals could have delayed bud break?

I advised the homeowner to wait and see what happens later in the season, and we'll go from there.
 
Thanks for all the info.

That pdf was great boa. Ray, the redhot link was the right stuff, but the burnout link was for an herbicide (which may be the right stuff, too - i don't know what they used.) Either way, that stuff is pretty nasty to be dumping into the system.

I'll keep you posted on the health of the tree and any other info I find out about the situation.
 
I have a consultation with a homeowner in a few minutes. He thinks that the city sewer guys may have killed his oak with root dissolving chemicals. He says they repaired the sewer line, which runs inside the root zone. He's not sure but he thinks they poured root dissolving chemicals through the line. I called them to see what they use, and they use two products - RedHot and BurnOut. Anyone heard of them? Will they get taken up in to the root system systemically? I haven't seen the tree yet, so I don't know if it's a "sudden death" like he said. It may have died before they did the work. I'll let you know. Has anyone had experience with these chemicals doing damage?

Beside the chemical damage what method did they use to get underground to repair the line? A backhoe could do significant damage to the root system, with damage and instability.
 
There is a manhole cover in my client's backyard. No mechanical damage was done recently, just when they built the house in 2001. I've got to go back to some other work I bid on, so I'll check on the oak then to see if the buds have popped yet.
 
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