...Measures to promote plant health
Plant Health Care
The plant environment is considered from soil drainage & moisture factors, sun – shade exposure, space available for growth, soil nutritional factors, pruning requirements, pest susceptibility, soil biological activity and more.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a way to manage and improve plant health by the prevention of pest activity, suppression of pests, and the preservation of beneficial insects. Pest problems on lawns or ornamental plants are managed by knowing what pests may be active at any certain time, their life cycles, how much plant damage may happen, and when those pests are most susceptible to controls.
PHC is used to aid in a plant’s defenses to withstand stresses. This allows the plant to reach a healthy and mature state, in which the plant can fight stresses on its own and handle multiple stresses at once.
Arboriculture is founded on the principles of Plant Health. PHC recognizes that trees and woody plants are part of a greater landscape ecosystem and proactively addresses all aspects of landscape stewardship.
...Why Plant Health Care,
Not Tree Health Care?
While trees are dominant features in landscaping, they share this area with turfgrass, shrubs, and ornamental plantings. All these plants have one resource in common: the soil. The roots of trees, shrubs, turfgrass, and ornamental plantings intermingle and compete for water and nutrients.
Every treatment applied to the lawn (fertilizer and herbicide, for example) can impact the appearance and vitality of a tree. Additionally, treatments applied to a tree, such as pruning and fertilizing, can influence the appearance and vitality of the underlying turfgrass. The care of each plant in a landscape can affect the health of the landscape as a whole.