tree-health
Tree health encompasses the diagnosis, monitoring, and management of physiological and structural conditions that affect a tree's vitality, from disease and pest damage to stress caused by environmental or human factors. Understanding tree health is essential for plant science because it enables early detection of decline, guiding interventions like pruning or targeted treatment that can prevent disease spread and preserve valuable timber and amenity trees. This field also informs how construction and land-use practices can be adapted to minimize avoidable damage to tree populations.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-06-29
Combining soil-drench and foliar spray applications of beneficial Bacillus bacteria cut poplar leaf blight disease severity by 86.7% in field trials. The two methods work through distinct but complementary routes: soil application restructures the root-zone microbial community for lasting protection, while foliar spray triggers rapid immune responses in leaves.
Combined root-drench plus foliar spray reduced the leaf blight disease index by 86.7% compared to untreated controls.
Root-drenching enriched beneficial rhizosphere genera including Rhodanobacter and Apiotrichum, whose abundance correlated positively with leaf defense parameters.
The combined treatment strongly activated both salicylic acid and jasmonic acid immune signaling pathways, with significant upregulation of the pathogenesis-related gene PR-1 and elevated antioxidant enzyme activities.
