Plant Health Care and the Diagnostic Process

This 8 step process identifies the proper approach when assessing trees on a clients land.

John Ball and John E. Lloyd describe the best ways to identify and remedy issues in tree care rather than attempting to “picture book” a problem. The topics for each of the 8 steps include: Identify the Tree, Describe the Abnormality, Site History and Analysis, Analyzing the Symptoms, Looking for a Pattern to the Symptoms, Identify the Stressor(s), Understand the Client’s Needs and Expectations, and Evaluation. Although this process is the key subject in the article, the authors also explains that “diagnostics is an art” and proper diagnosis has a linear correlation with experience in the field.