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Burkholder Plant Health Care 2022 Year In Review

POSTED ON: BY: Burkholder PHC
2022 was the second full year in the field for Burkholder Plant Health Care. Having a year of local-property data and experience enabled us to measure our successes and adjust our program to address any shortcomings from 2021. As a certified arborist and the manager of Burkholder Plant Health Care, I am taking this opportunity to share with you our plant health care year in r…
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Mosquitoes

POSTED ON: BY: Burkholder PHC
Mosquitoes have long been considered summertime pests. You know that mosquitoes are annoying with their high-pitched buzzing on hot summer nights, and that their bites lead to itchy skin. Did you know that these insects pose health risks to animals and people? Mosquitoes are actually a major risk to human and animal health. Mosquito borne diseases are spread through the…
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What is Corrective Pruning?

POSTED ON: BY: Burkholder PHC
Corrective pruning is a technique meant to maintain or enhance a tree’s health by removing dead, diseased, weak, or otherwise unhealthy or unsafe branches. Corrective pruning can be beneficial to both the tree or shrub as well as the landscape as a whole. See Our Pruning Before and After Gallery Benefits of Corrective Pruning The main benefit of corrective pruni…
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What Are Growth Regulators?

POSTED ON: BY: Burkholder PHC
Growth regulators are a group of chemicals used to modify the various growth processes in plants. These chemicals help with many issues in a plant’s lifecycle, including suppressing vegetative growth and stimulating flowering, controlling plant height, enhancing plant branching, and enabling plants to flower during short-day conditions (during late fall and winter). The…
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What is Phytophthora Root Rot?

POSTED ON: BY: Burkholder PHC
Phytophthora root rot is a common fungal disease that afflicts many plants outdoors and indoors. The condition causes rotting within the plant stem and roots. Young plants are particularly prone to the adverse effects of the disease, but many plants, trees and shrubs can be affected. This article will focus on the causes, symptoms, and potential remedies that may help t…
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Crape Myrtle Bark Scale, a New Pest in Pennsylvania Landscapes

POSTED ON: BY: Burkholder PHC
In May of 2021, we began seeing darkened stems and black moldy growth on crape myrtles in Chester County, carrying over from an insect infestation in the fall of 2020. To recognize that these symptoms were not caused by crape myrtle aphids (common), samples were collected and submitted to the Insect Diagnostic Laboratory at Penn State. These samples revealed the first r…
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Scale Insects in Landscape Plants

POSTED ON: BY: Burkholder PHC
There is consensus among plant health care professionals that the complex of insect and disease pests in landscape plants is becoming more explosive, harder to predict, and more difficult to manage. As invasive pests like Asian longhorn beetle (1998), brown marmorated stink bug (1998), emerald ash borer (2002), and spotted lanternfly (2014) have been brought in through…
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FAQs About Plant Health Care

POSTED ON: BY: Burkholder PHC
Homeowners approach us about plant health care, wondering precisely what services are involved and how those services benefit them. While the name sounds simple at first, plant health care encapsulates a wide range of different landscape maintenance techniques and plant health maintenance methods. Homeowners benefit from plant health care services in numerous ways. We h…
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What Is Beneficial Insect Release?

POSTED ON: BY: Burkholder PHC
As homeowners continue to look for ways to keep their landscapes beautiful, one particular solution has been growing in recent years: beneficial insect release. Beneficial insect release is when plant health care experts use insects rather than chemicals to control and manage pest populations. Pests can cause significant damage to a landscape, and releasing certain inse…
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