What are my recommendations about plants?

What are my recommendations about plants?

First, remember that sometimes “doing nothing” is the best recommendation. If the problem is trivial and the customer is not concerned about it, then simply letting the client know that the maple bladder gall mites are insignificant and nothing needs to be done is a good recommendation.

Second, sometimes nothing can be done to make the plant recover. In such cases, often the best recommendation relates to considerations for the timely removal and replacement of the plant.
Third, when action recommendations are given, always remember the crucial element of proper timing. If you diagnose Diplodia (Sphaeropsis) tip blight of pine in July, it is important to specify that any chemical to prevent new infections be applied the next spring since fungicides applied at any other time will be of no use for disease control.

Fourth, recommendations should be made within a range of proper expectations. A good example is of pin oak planted in highly alkaline soil at an institutional site. Years later, the root system has grown out beyond the original root ball and amended soil into the alkaline soil. The tree begins to show symptoms of iron chlorosis, starting with interveinal yellowing (chlorosis). After years of this, the problem becomes more severe, with leaf necrosis (browning) and stems dying back. Everyone begins to notice, and it is agreed that something must be done. Experts are called in and asked for diagnosis and recommendations. With reasonable certainty, buttressed with clear-cut symptoms, as well as soil and foliar analysis tests, iron deficiency is diagnosed.

However, recommendations that actually solve the problem are another matter. There are a lot of possible treatments, ranging from trunk implants of iron to the use of chelated iron fertilizers in the soil to injections of iron in the roots. All are problematical relative to a long-term cure of the problem, especially if the situation is severe. If you make it seem like your recommendations are absolute, then you put the grounds maintenance people who have to act on your recommendations in jeopardy of being deemed incompetent once treatments fail.

Finally, the art and science of professional plant diagnostics are often overlooked by those with instant answers to every problem. Beware of those easy answers, especially if the diagnostician did not even ask a question. Diagnostics requires good detective and communication skills, and plant diagnosticians need a thorough knowledge of horticulture, botany, entomology, and plant pathology. No one can ever be the perfect diagnostician, and there is always room to improve and grow, to make and correct mistakes.
Always remember that with plant diagnostics, as with human medicine, it is useful to cultivate humility. The first surefire rule of plant diagnostics is nothing is surefire.