At Davey’s SEED (Science, Employee Education and Development) Campus, 570 trees across a 13.5-acre research plot are generating practical insights that will help improve how trees are cared for, treated, and sustained. From mugo pines and spruces to honeylocusts and elms, there are 11 different species – ranging from about 30 to 55 of each.
Learning About Nature’s Calendar
Since they were planted about three years ago, Davey Institute researchers have been gaining insights into nature’s calendar and how trees’ biological cycles are influenced by seasonal factors (known as phenology). They’re doing this by collecting annual data about each tree’s growth: height, diameter at breast height (DBH), and twig elongation.
They’re also conducting a few research studies that may inform the services Davey offers clients.
Exploring New Treatments for Apple Scab
Apple scab is a common fungal disease that causes spots on apple trees’ leaves and fruit, often making the fruit unfit for eating. Most apple trees are infected at some point.
Treatment can be tricky. First, it needs to happen upon bud break in spring, but there’s usually no way to know if the tree is affected at that point. Second, it involves broad aerial spraying over the tree’s canopy – not the most desirable option in places like residential neighborhoods.
Within the crabapple tree plots at the SEED Campus, Davey Institute researchers are exploring different application methods and timings for treating apple scab, in hopes of reducing the chemical footprint and expanding the window when treatments can happen.
One method they’re testing is drenching – where treatments are poured directly onto the soil around a plant’s root zone.
“If successful, it could potentially reduce or eliminate the need to spray the entire tree canopy,” says Zane Raudenbush, Manager of Research Operations at the Davey Institute. “Imagine the difference between spraying a whole canopy in a neighborhood where children are playing, versus just drenching the material around the base of the tree.”
A New Way of Applying Arbor Green PRO
2026 will mark the 50th anniversary of Davey securing the patent for Arbor Green, a revolutionary tree fertilizer. Its current iteration, Arbor Green PRO is a powdered fertilizer that’s combined with water and injected into a pocket of soil.
In a second research study at the tree plots, Zane and his colleagues are exploring whether the fertilizer can be injected into the soil using only air – eliminating the need for water and the 1,000-gallon tanks that are needed to transport it to be applied to client properties.
If successful, Zane says, “It would mean less carbon footprint and open possibilities to inject other dried materials, such as biochar and other fertilizers.”
