Tree Growth Retardants

Arborists discovering new uses for an old tool
By William R. Chaney

By the 1950's, a variety of growth retardants were available to the agriculture, ornamental horticulture and floriculture industry to enhance production and marketability. Utility arborists were the first among those caring for trees to peer over the fence at agricultural and horticultural fields and ponder the potential of growth regulators used in those cropping systems as a tool for free maintenance. Mechanical trimming, which was the sole means of combating the unrelenting growth of trees into overhead electrical wires, was a costly operation, and a chemical alternative was very attractive.

The first major breakthrough in the commercial feasibility of TGRs on a large scale was the formulation of the Type II compounds (cell elongation inhibitors) for trunk injection. Trunk injection offered a precise method for dose application with more uniform growth control.

Today, use of scientifically advanced TGRs (tree growth regulators) produce many beneficial results in trees, shrubs and evergreens. Among these are Shoot growth, Cambial growth, Root growth, and Reduced water stress - with protection from fungal diseases as a secondary benefit.

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