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Vent: I thought tree growth regulators were a total waste of money for years | Arborists - Discusd

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Vent: I thought tree growth regulators were a total waste of money for years

A client in Phoenix insisted we use Cambistat on a row of oaks that kept hitting power lines, and I told him it was just expensive snake oil. We applied it anyway because he paid, and I checked the growth rings myself after two seasons. Those trees put on less than half an inch of new wood compared to the untreated ones next door, a huge difference. I had to eat my words because the science actually worked in this brutal heat. Has anyone else had a TGR application change their mind, or was this just a lucky one-off?

3 comments

3 Comments

shanewells6mo ago

Classic case of being wrong until you see the proof.

ryan_nelson4mo ago

Oh absolutely, you can see it plain as day. The growth rings on those treated oaks were barely thicker than a couple of credit cards stacked together, while the untreated ones had rings as fat as your thumb. The visible difference was enough to make you feel stupid for ever doubting it. And the heat thing, yeah, I figured the same thing you did - that Phoenix sun would just bake the chemical into worthless dust. But Cambistat works by slowing down root and shoot growth from the inside, not by coating the leaves or something. That's the part that changed my mind, the science of how it actually messes with the tree's internal growth hormones rather than just sitting on the surface waiting to evaporate. Makes you wonder how many other "snake oils" out there are actually solid science we just haven't bothered to test properly.

gavincampbell6mo ago

What kind of growth ring difference are we talking about, like super obvious to the naked eye? That's wild it worked so well in Phoenix, I figured the heat would just cook the stuff off. Makes you wonder what else we're all brushing off as junk science without giving it a real shot.