The Rick’s Certified Arborists crew.

“But what are you going to do during the winter?” was the question that always followed the words of encouragement from friends in the industry after we first started Rick’s Certified Arborists. While many companies view plant health care (PHC) as a seasonal add-on for their customer base, we’ve been able to create year-round profitability by strategically planning our services over all 12 months.

I’ve always had a vision to break the typical mold of how a conventional PHC program would operate. Starting a company that exclusively offers PHC services – that’s right, no pruning or removals here – caused us to get laser-focused on managing our clients’ trees throughout all four seasons. It forced us to push the boundaries of an arborist’s role in the modern landscape. The rest of this article is an actionable PHC blueprint for joining in on year-round profits.

John Rogalsky, the owner of Rick’s Certified Arborists, inspecting a tree. All photos by Mike Stewart.

Winter: Foundation building
This is probably the most overlooked aspect of every PHC program when we talk to other companies, but it has been the single biggest revenue generator for us since our inception. Rather than laying off your staff until the following spring or sending your most knowledgeable arborists to punish themselves on a tree crew for the winter, there are plenty more productive and profitable ways for them to spend their “off-season.”

Inspections: Rather than sending the same, tired contract year after year, every winter we schedule a full property inspection for each of our active customers. We comb through their entire landscape and provide a detailed report highlighting the response of their tree or trees to our latest treatments. We also make recommendations for other issues they might not even know exist, such as root-collar excavation or developing scale infestations. It’s not uncommon for us to take a client from a $500 single treatment and convert them into a $2,000-plus program the following season. I think you might be shocked to see how much work you’re leaving on the table at each property.

As a foundational part of our company, we like informed customers. We’ve found that new customers aren’t used to this standard of care, but appreciate the dedication to serving their landscape. Our repeat clients now look forward to getting our reports each year, eager to see the direction we want to take things in the new season. Once we put together our recommendations, we work with the client based on their goals and focus on their priorities.

One of the biggest advantages of off-season inspections is that it allows us to optimize each treatment for proper timing and to communicate ahead of time what the customer should expect in the months ahead. You’ll be surprised at how much inspecting a property while things are in a dormant state increases your diagnostic skills, too. As an arborist, you’ll get much more in tune with each property, and it trains you to observe even the smallest changes. There’s even an added benefit of having some of your younger arborists go out for a day with you to increase their identification and scouting skills.

Deer protection: Here in the Northeast, we get a ton of pressure from deer in the winter, especially with the warming trend over the past few years. Technically, we start in the fall, fencing off high-value trees to protect against buck-rub damage, but the deer-repellent sprays have been a major revenue stream during our slower months. There’s nothing more demoralizing for a homeowner than hiring you to optimize the health of their privacy hedge throughout the entire growing season, only for the deer to strip the lower growth out within a couple of weeks during the colder months.

Most repellent materials can get expensive, so rather than spraying an entire property, we tend to focus on the hot spots like Schip laurels, holly, arborvitae and viburnum. Once a client enrolls in our deer-protection program, we’ll monitor the rest of the landscape, as each property has a few surprises that are easy to miss. Sometimes it’s heavenly bamboo, while on rarer occasions it’s a southern magnolia, but there isn’t too much scouting required once a property is dialed in.

Well-planned – and executed – fungal foliar sprays can become the backbone of regular spring services.

Spring services: Preventative applications
Fungal foliar sprays: Fungal foliar spray programs can be a blessing or a curse for a company; it always comes down to how they are executed. Most programs fail due to lack of overall management and poor timing, which is why we put such a big emphasis on making these treatments our top priority. Fungal foliar sprays also require some of the highest-level planning. We start scouting properties mid- to late March to assess bud stages, which allows us to spray right at leaf expansion before infection sets in. Knowing these sprays are required annually, fungal foliar sprays are the backbone of our spring services, creating income opportunities from these renewable services for years to come, while also setting the tone for your commitment to getting your clients the best results possible.

Soil insecticide applications: I don’t think there’s an arborist I’ve spoken to over the last several years who isn’t dealing with a crazy number of infestations from piercing and sucking insects such as adelgid, scale and aphid. Throw in some borer and leafminer activity, and you can get behind quickly if you don’t strategically schedule the work. We generally like to spray our way out of severe infestations with insect-growth regulators when the property allows. However, bigger trees tend to require a greater need for systemic insecticide applications. By scheduling these soil applications in the spring, you’re giving the material plenty of time to work into the trees before insect activity begins. Make sure you pay close attention to protecting our pollinators; when using neonicotinoids, always track the flowering periods. We generally start with wind-pollinator plants and move toward bee pollinators during the second half of spring, once the bloom is over.

Spring feeding: Proper soil care and fertility programs are some of the lowest-hanging fruit in the industry. Whether you have a client looking to help newly planted trees establish strong roots or are giving the old oak they admire in the backyard a pick-me-up before the stress of the summer, every client has a need for deep-root feeding. Rather than using “out-of-the-bottle” synthetic fertilizers, we prefer putting together our own combinations. Depending on the situation and tree variety, we like to use options like proper soil amendments, micronutrients and biostimulants. Of course, we couldn’t talk about soil applications without the use of phosphites, too. Early-season feeding applications are another great entry-level service to help newly hired technicians get their feet wet in your programs and learn your systems. They get an opportunity to slowly work into the position while building their confidence on mixing procedures and learning to use your equipment.

Deer-repellant sprays can be a reliable revenue stream during slower months.

Summer services: Reactive services
Invasive pests & diseases: The world is turning into a wild place, and chances are your local landscape is no different. We are living in an era where every few years it seems we’re getting a generational pest or disease threatening to wipe out a portion of our canopy. Where there is a need, there always is a big opportunity. At Rick’s, we’ve been able to position ourselves and build our client list through each of these apocalyptic waves of tree issues. Like a lot of companies, emerald ash borer (EAB) first got us into PHC years ago. As long as you have the trained staff, trunk injections are a very affordable way to start a PHC program while creating lifelong relationships with clients you might not usually connect with.

Back in 2020, we got slammed with spotted lanternfly (SLF), which propelled the business a second time as we were on the cutting edge of controlling this pest with dinotefuran trunk injections. SLF was a flash in the pan – as quickly as it came, it was gone. However, beech leaf disease is spreading rapidly through our territory and became the next opportunity to save trees in the community. Luckily, all of the issues listed above have treatment windows in the summer months, which keeps our backlog full and predictable.

Early-season feeding applications offer a great way for new technicians to learn business programs and systems.

Scale sprays: Targeted scale sprays are consistently one of our highest revenue-producing services year after year. Similar to our fungal foliar sprays, executing these at a high level will require some leg work on the back end, but you’ll be seen as a landscape superhero to your clients when you are able to get quick and consistent control. Instead of offering blanket integrated-pest-management (IPM) spray programs, we choose to offer a more tailored approach and schedule the sprays based on targeted pests, not off a number of “pre-ordered” IPM visits. Each species of scale is tracked by growing degree days and the spray(s) scheduled shortly after crawler emergence for each generation. Targeting crawlers through oil-based sprays is a low-hazard environmental strategy that improves results, protects our pollinators and is generally more cost effective than systemics.

Summer feeding: We certainly have clients with high-value trees receiving deep-root-feeding applications to assist in recovery from the excess heat and drought-like conditions during summer, but most of our backlog is based on the emergency arborist calls from new clients. Once summer hits, symptoms start showing up, and so does visible decline in the canopy. Very rarely does a customer call before there is a problem. Early in the summer, the calls start rolling in for honeydew production and black sooty mold from unmanaged aphid and scale infestations. In July, we usually start to get more calls for severe fungal foliar infection, girdling-root issues, borer attacks and drought stress. Our first line of defense as arborists is keeping the tree as strong as possible to recover from the stress, while we work on scheduling the preventative treatments to manage future pest issues.

Beech leaf disease is spreading quickly, creating opportunities to save trees.

Fall services: Overlooked opportunities
Tree planting: I’m always surprised by how many tree companies and arborists alike don’t offer professional tree-planting services. For us, it’s the ultimate way to get new customers in the door and give them a taste of the many benefits of working with a Certified Arborist. Starting tomorrow, if you decide to start a tree-planting division based on choosing pest- and disease-resistant trees, and follow the basics like exposing the root collar prior to installation, you’ll instantly be ahead of 98% of the “competitors” in your local market.

We have a line we tell customers who might not see our value right off the bat: “Landscapers dig holes, arborists plant trees.”

Not only can you provide a unique experience offering tree planting, but the follow-up provides opportunities to turn a single job into a lifelong relationship. Think of the tree-planting job as your audition to the client’s property. If everything goes well (and with trained staff, why wouldn’t it?), you can recommend much-needed follow-up services like a deep-root-feeding program the following season to help their investment get established. Once you have the customer in your program, you can start to offer other suggestions for other issues in their landscape that they likely aren’t even aware of. A single job can turn into years of opportunities when done correctly.

Growth-regulator application: Advertised by many as the silver bullet for stressed trees, this is often your best resource for long-lasting protection against a variety of stressors. In fact, most of our treatments utilizing paclobutrazol are less about regulating the growth and more about managing the health. Once the heat of the summer passes and we get regular rainfall, we take advantage of the soil moisture and start scheduling these jobs. The treatments don’t need any expensive equipment, and in most cases we apply them through a backpack unit with an attached soil injector. This is part of our core fall services, focusing on everything from high-value mature trees showing their age to helping trees recover from root damage after spring and summer construction projects. We’re even starting to test out some disease-suppression strategies to promote healthier canopies without the need for labor-intensive spray programs.

Root-collar excavation: You’ve seen the seminars, oohed and aahed at the before-and-after pictures, but for some reason still haven’t pulled the trigger on offering root-collar excavation (RCX) to your customers. This should be your wake-up call. When most companies are moving their applicators onto tree crews and packing up their equipment, we start scheduling our RCX backlog. Mulch volcanoes with girdling roots are likely the number-one issue killing trees on every property that no one, including most arborists, is paying attention to.

Every year, like clockwork, we get calls throughout the summer of struggling trees continuing to decline despite, in some cases, years of management under the care of another company. New customers are often left silent in disbelief when I diagnose their tree issues in less than three minutes, moving some mulch and soil away with my hands and exposing the large roots strangling their favorite tree for the last 10 years.

There’s an endless supply of trees that need a proper RCX, with a limited number of arborists willing to get a little dirty. This year alone, we have a backlog exceeding eight weeks of RCX to close out the season into the holidays.

Grow your PHC division by planning one season at a time.

Conclusion
I’ve outlined the formula we’ve used to grow our business into running four full-time crews, 12 months out of the year. There are no tricks, no special marketing campaigns – and after reading this article, there are no excuses. “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Growing a PHC division isn’t any different. Plan your approach one season at a time using laser focus while taking deliberate action.

John Rogalsky is the owner of Rick’s Certified Arborists, an eight-year TCIA member company based in Southeastern, Pennsylvania. He has built Rick’s Certified Arborists into a trusted local authority known for science-based care, and helps homeowners –and arborists –understand the importance of year-round plant health care.