What kind of herbicide did they use?

be nice to know where you are... and what the ambient weather was ... as well as your watering protocol ....

they would have had to coat all the leaves at the 8 to 10 foot height ... it would have probably had to been intentional ....

stuff like round up goes inert on contact with the soil .... so is not fed up the the roots ...

and i cant believe that they would have used anything soil based... as the new sod would probably have failed ...

need to know what they used ...

might be well worth hiring an isa arborist to form an onsite opinion ...

the second link : https://www.google.com/search?q=asa+tree+surgeo&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=isa+arborist

finally ... even though they are supposed to be evergreen... loss of leaves does not necessarily mean they are dead ... how have you determined they are dead??

have you checked with the tree nursery...

ken

When the trees died we asked them for the list of the ingredients in the herbicide they used. This is what we received from them: Specticle Flo(Indaziflam), EPA#432-1518 Rate: 0.1840 Floz/1000 SQFT Applied Amt: 1.1038 FLOZ 11-37-0, AMM polyphos (urea nitrogen, ammonium polyphosphate) Rate: 0.0625 GAL/1000 SQFT Applied Amt: 0.3749 GAL Products: Manor (Metsulfuron-Methyl), EPA# 228-373 0.0110 OZ/1000 SQFT Applied Amt: 0.0660 OZ We are not sure if they ccidentally sprayed the leaves or if sprayed around the trees it could have affected them or what. The trees were beautiful the day they sprayed and 10 days later they looked dead.

We live in the Fort Worth area. When we planted the trees we were told to keep the roots moist not saturated, the first 3 weeks. We were to spry the leaves to moisten them and then to water at a slow rate so as not to just water the top of the tree. We did have a lot of rain in May and June. When the ground was saturated with rain water we did not water, as the ground dried out and the temperatures began to climb we put the hose about 8-10 inches from the trunk (we were told not to water right at the base of the tree) and watered at a slow rate. We also were to make sure that the soil would be watered as wide as the leaf span on the tree. We really babied the trees. When we thot back we do recall the wind was blowing somewhat that day, we were not sure if that might be a factor. We have spoke to a Master Gardener in our area and took a sample to them, they did not see that they were affected by any disease. He also said had it been drought the trees would have been showing some signs of distress. I do not think it would have been intentional if they killed the trees, but something happened to them in the course of 10 days. We did have another company come out and look at the trees without telling them the name of the other company, He said it looked like chemical burn to him. As to weather the trees are dead the Master Gardener told us if the limbs were still flexible they were not dead. Some of the limbs did bend the majority of them snapped. the leaves did not fall off, they have remained brown on the tree just as full as it was when they were green. We were told when we purchased the trees that, although the tree was evergreen, it would still lose it's leaves as new ones came in. One of the trees had very sparse leaves when we picked it up but was filling out well by the end of May with new leaves. We have continued to water them even tho we believe they are dead in the hopes they were just stunted or shocked when the treatment was applied.

Without pictures, of course, impossible to tell. But I'm quite sure a possibility is herbicide drift.

I will upload the pictures I have. We built and just moved in, bought the trees and was getting ready to sod, hence the spray. The picture with the deer is two weeks before we sprayed, the deer was standing in the neighbors yard, in taking the picture of the deer I got a partial picture of two of the trees. The two other pictures are of the trees 10 days after spraying. It seemed the more we watered the browner they became.

I do have more pictures of the trees, and branches

It is a little conspicuous that it happens to three trees more or less simultaneously seven days after herbicide treatment but large trees like that will need a fair amount of poison to be affected. I wonder what the company really did out there.

Do a google search on metsulfuron methyl and live oaks. The symptomology is spot on. They dry up 10-30 days after application. Just spraying sod in the root zone is enough.

We have wondered if the Herbicide they used was accidentally mixed wrong, or if it was new people that sprayed...we don't know, the fact that all three trees did the same thing at the same time 7-10 days after the spray did not seemed very strange. We have tried working with them because we really want to know what happened to the trees as we are going to replace them. We were going to send samples into the Texas A&M agriculture place to determine if it was a disease or something else. They said they would take the sample and send it to Texas A & M for analysis. They took the sample...two weeks later they returned and said that the samples were accidentally thrown away, they needed more samples. I called them a month after they took the second sample and they came to the house saying that they sent the samples in but they needed larger samples to send...so now they have taken another sample (the 3rd) to send. That was a week ago. We are suspicious that possibly they do not want to send the samples or they think the longer they wait there is a better possibility that the herbicide will not show up. I dont know now if it willl benefit us to send samples in to see what happened.

That last sentence says it all, Salicaceae. Drift doesn't even have to be part of the equation.

Mike

I will definitely look up msm, thank you very much.

Manor is a known tree and shrub killer. Just CLICK HERE for a little bit of information.

Thank you rhizo_1 I have looked at the website you directed me to and it has been very helpful.

Sure looks like herbicide from here, and their actions tell me you need to send in the samples yourself and go from there because they are delaying. Go git 'em.

We have printed off the form to fill out and also talked to the representative at Texas A&M to send in our samples. Thank you to everyone who has given me advice!

Looks like poisoned, too obvious all three died

Hopefully, you will keep us informed on what you learn and the results. We all could learn something from this.

So, would appreciate an update when it becomes available.

It sounds like you'll be getting new trees courtesy of the lawn company's checking account.

Is applying an herbicide standard practice before sodding?

Hoseman, I will update as soon as we hear back from Texas A&M.

hairmetal4ever we were told it would be best to treat our yard before sodding. The reason is we built our home on almost two acres of very wooded land (along with wild grass there was a large variety of weeds, poison oak, virginia creeper, and briar) We had established a front yard and a back yard that we were going to sod and then leave the rest natural. We were told in order for the grass to grow well, we would need to treat the yard and then wait a month to lay sod. We cleared almost everything ourselves and then had them come into spray (as they said "to kill the seeds). After this first treatment we have decided we will not treat it anymore as we have numerous trees much older (40-50 ft tall trees) than our young trees that we had just purchased, all over our lot and we do not want to take any chance that it will harm them. So we will not be treating anything on our lot again. We are going to sod and what comes up we will take care of it.

"We are going to sod and what comes up we will take care of it."

If it makes you feel any better, this past Summer I visited a few mansions on Long Island. One lawn looked like it was several football fields in area. Guess what, there were WEEDS on this side of paradise. It made me feel TERRIFIC to know that weeds are inevitable even in the lives of multi millionaires (in a decade when money actually had value no less!)

Makes me feel good to!

For what its worth, make sure Texas A&M knows to look for MSM. This is a quite complicated process and requires quite a bot of foliage that isn't dead too long. APT Labs in Pennsylvania is who we worked with and who did analyses for us.

Thank you, salicaceae I will definitely make sure they are aware of that!

Update on our tree situation. We finally received the Diagnostic Report back from Texas A & M Agriculture from the 3rd sample the lawn company finally sent in. On the report it stated the sample received was " Desiccated (dry) sample, Poor Sample" Just as we assumed it would be by the time they had got around to sending it. It also stated in the report "that there was no pathogen found, observed twig damage resulting from egg-laying insects activity, likely wasp. Although the damage looks unsightly it actually results in little significant damage and does not generally warrant any specific control efforts." Meaning this would not result in the trees dying at the same time in a matter of 7-10 days. I spoke with the representative from Texas A&M and asked if a test for herbicide had been done. She said "no, there had not been one requested and had there been one requested they would have had to send the specimen somewhere else. But the poor sample they had received had shown no signs of fungus or disease that would have resulted in all the trees dying at the same time so quickly." When the Diagnostic Report did not verify that the trees died from a fungus or a disease they then had to admit that the herbicide spray resulted in the trees dying. They have agreed to replace our trees.

who rah ... ken

Also....we will have no herbicide sprayed again!

Now THAT deserves a ho-wah-yay-yippy.