New approach to achieve self-sustainability for urban trees and soil through proactive measures

How to help trees in urban areas, hot to save them, how to save the soil, how to restore the vitality of the trees, how to restore the microbiome of the soil? But also, how to save water on irrigation and how to act in prevention of problems?

This is why we developed HERBAFERTIL® and Mouth of the tree® and DIRLL&FILL method; to restore the roots, restore the vitality, restore the microbiome, save water and make our cities more comfortable and more sustainable.

The problem which is going to be solved by HERBAFERTIL® is problem of drying up and dying urban trees which are the lungs of the city. Drying and dying of trees happen due to climate changes, acid rains, soil compaction, lack of humus due to removing of organic matter (fallen leaves and cut grass) from the top of the soil.

By HERBAFAERTIL we annulate above mentioned adverse impacts to trees.  
In our home city, Zagreb, Croatia, with 800.000 inhabitants, every year 7% of trees dry up and dy. This means that every year we lose 7% of leaf mass which products oxygen, protect against noise, dust, warming, wind. We lose as well the whole microecosystem which is part of this 7% of trees. Means that birds, butterflies, bees, squirrels, worms, bumble bees and ladybugs … are dying as well. And quality of living for the citizens is declining down. 
What is happening to our kids’ healthy because of 7% of trees yearly disappearing?

Our solution is to prevent urban trees in cities to dry up and die. 
We invented and patented: HERBAFERTIL®.
HERBAFERTIL consists of three separable parts that makes it unique:
1. Substrate composition
• Mixture of nutrients, fertilizers and other substances nourishes the root of the plant, stimulates the growth and rooting, enables gas exchange and evaporation of excess water in the soil of root system of the treated plant and provides exuberant growth.
 2. Substrate packaging
• Enables unique method of application- mixture is packed in biodegradable bags of cylindrical shape which, when filled with the substrate, is tied up with biodegradable string. The bag height is 30 cm, diameter is 14 cm, so that it can be easily tuck in the hole in the ground
3. Place and method of application
• Cylindrical bags are embedded in soil in a way that one or more hole is drilled with auger of 15 cm in diameter, in the root zone of the treated tree.
Our goal is also to educate and engage people to invest in health of urban trees instead of taking them for granted, so they could grow young again and “serve” the community

Healthy and long-lived trees as the consequences of using HERBAFERTIL®, will serve the citizens in worldwide cities, especially those with high pollution, with great impact to their lives. 

Common benefits of the healthy and long-lived trees:

Public Health and Social Benefits

Clean air: Trees produce oxygen, intercept airborne particulates, and reduce smog, enhancing a community’s respiratory health. The urban canopy directly contributes to meeting a city’s regulatory clean air requirements.

Access to trees, green spaces, and parks promotes greater physical activity, and reduces stress, while improving the quality of life in our cities and towns.

• Urban landscaping, including trees, helps lower crime rates.
• Studies show that urban vegetation slows heartbeats, lowers blood pressure, and relaxes brain wave patterns.
• Girls with a view of nature and trees at home score higher on tests of self-discipline.

Environmental Benefits

Climate change: Trees sequester carbon (CO2), reducing the overall concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. 

Energy conservation:

• A tree is a natural air conditioner. The evaporation from a single tree can produce the cooling effect of ten room-size, residential air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.
• Acting as a natural air-conditioner, Palo Alto’s lush canopy ensures that summer temperatures are at least 6 to 8 degrees lower than in comparable neighborhoods without trees.
• Tree windbreaks can reduce residential heating costs 10-15%; while shading and evaporative cooling from trees can cut residential air-conditioning costs 20-50%.

Water filtration and retention: Urban forests promote beneficial water quality and reduce storm water management costs.

• Palo Alto street and park trees can intercept 135 million gallons of rainwater. Trees capture and slow rainfall and their roots filter water and recharge the aquifer. Trees reduce storm water runoff, which reduces flooding, saves city storm water management costs, decreases the flow of polluted water into the Bay, and protects the banks of the San Francisquito Creek.

Wildlife habitat: Trees provide important habitats for numerous bird, insect and animal species.

Economic Benefits

Communities and business districts with healthy tree-cover attract new residents, industry, and commercial activity.

• Homes landscaped with trees sell more quickly and are worth 5% to 15% more than homes without trees.
• Where the entire street is tree-lined, homes may be worth 25% more.
• Trees enhance economic stability by attracting businesses; people linger and shop longer when trees are present.
• Where a canopy of trees exists, apartments and offices rent more quickly and have a higher occupancy rate; workers report more productivity and less absenteeism.

Tree Benefit “Fun Facts”:

• Trees provide inviting and cool areas for recreation and relaxation such as playgrounds and parks.
• The color green is calming and relieves eye strain.
• Trees screen unattractive views and soften the harsh outline of masonry, metal, asphalt, steel and glass.
• People walk and jog more on shaded streets, which encourages interaction with neighbors and improves the sense of community.
• Trees absorb and block sound, reducing noise pollution by as much as 40 percent.”

(Source: The Benefits of Trees - Canopy : Canopy )

Competences needed for this solution are:

• Good knowledge of forest and urban forest ecosystems

• Pedology

• Phytocenology

• Tree physiology

• Experience in trees and nature care

• Process and product management skills

• Knowing of the soil conditioner market

• Product operation skills and retaining of machine design, development and maintaining

• Educational skills

• Presentational skills

We do have the above competences which are developed through many years of experience and training, but as far as human resources are concerned in order to achieve our goals we simply need more employees. Here we want to emphasize that our business will be given opportunities to involve /hiring people with disabilities, immigrants and former addicts.

Although we are small company, we do have values defined and written. Each new member of our team is going through specific onboarding, which includes talking, discussing and emphasizing our values. After onboarding, we are showing how to live our values and we even have monthly discussion among the team on our values in a sense do we really “walk the talk” every day.

Our core values are:

• integrity,
• honesty & trust,
• fairness,
• diversity and equity
• open mind (every idea is much welcomed),
• innovation,
• life-time learning and constant improvement,
• teamwork,  
• commitment to humans and nature goodness,
• quality of work,
• respect to each other in team, to customers, to vendors, to environment, to community,
• fun.

We are proud to say that our female co-workers use up to 12 months for paid maternity leave.  

Not only that we live our values at work, but we are truly trying to share that values though our employees families and whole community. Therefore, we organize different activities such as volunteering in kindergartens, schools and colleges, mentoring young people, educating community on preserving the nature through different workshops or lectures, family days, kids at work days, case competitions, together humanitarian work/ actions.

As we are small company, we still cannot talk about building leadership on these values, but we are building our team, by working and living our values. Hopefully, one day, we will be able to build the same kind of company leadership.

We are VSME (Very small and micro enterprise) from Zagreb, Croatia, EU. 

As our country is small one (4,2 M inhabitants, 56 k square kilometers) we cannot be compared to USA standards. 

So, we choose Growth stage of development. HERBAFERTIL is already tested and patented product with various diplomas, awards and acknowledgements for its use and benefits. We are selling HERBAFERTIL mostly in Croatia. Still, we managed to introduce it to Denmark, Slovenia and Serbia. Our goal is to offer this remarkable product worldwide. IT REALLY WORKS!

We really value the Solve work, accomplishments, and principles.

We are confident that Solve's assistance will enable us to engage with like-minded partners who share our vision and are willing to help us expand our educational initiatives to reach as many people as possible, raising awareness about the crucial role that existing trees play in our society.

There are methods for the revitalization of trees that work from the outside, i.e. through the crown of the trees. However, by acting only on the crown of the tree, in such a way that it grows, we make the tree susceptible to wind damage. Namely, the canopy grows, but has no foundation and support in the root of the tree itself. We have witnessed many times when trees fall in our cities due to strong winds or storms.

Our method:

Mouth of the tree® is a dense tangle of young roots in the form of an elongated ball, weighing 6-7 kg net, which are created as a result of HERBAFERTIL® substrate application into the root network of a tree, by DRILL&FILL method. Globular cluster of young roots is important, as it develops in root zone of urban and fruit trees most intense root growth, at a depth of 10 cm below ground level, up to 45 cm in depth.

When we bring water into it through micro-droppers with the irrigation system, each drop is sucked into the root system in almost 100% quantity. There is no evaporation of water at that depth because the temperature in the ground at that depth is stable.

In the research (run by Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, University of Zagreb), during summer, with high temperatures and without rain, we were able to revitalize half a dry tree of low vitality (with a chest diameter of 35 cm) with only 57 liters of water per week. The water discharge drippers were branched into the 𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐇 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐄®, instead by placing a circle of drips on the surface of the ground around the tree.

Otherwise, by classically watering the tree, on the surface of the soil, to achieve the revitalization result, we would use by recommendation of Arbor Day Foundation 10 gallons for every inch of chest diameter. That means 35 cm= 13,8’, and 10 gallons is 45,4 lit. In total: 13,8’ x 45,4 lit= 626,5 lit per tree on one week in summer time. With our method we can 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞 (626,5 lit – 57,0 lit =) -> 569,5 𝐥𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤.

Cylindrical bags of HERBAFERTIL® soil improver are placed by using the DRILL@FILL method, at a distance greater than 2/3 of the distance from the trunk of the treated tree to the projection of the crown. This guarantees that the root system will not be damaged by drilling with a motor drill during the Herbafertil bags instalation. This also guarantees that the root will develop properly in width and depth, which guarantees the tree's resistance to bending and wind damage.

With the classic way of irrigating with pipes with drippers in a circle around the trunk of the tree, the root develops only next to the trunk, so such trees often bend and fall, and their vitality weakens over time because the root spreads and the water comes only in a narrow zone next to the trunk.
In countries with a reduced amount of water and precipitation, the Mouth of the tree® is a significant discovery.

We invite you to see the research results on HERBAFERTIL® and 𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐇 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐄®. 

The actual installation of HERBAFERTIL bags by DRILL@FILL method is shown in the short video: https://lnkd.in/dYfZiNZh

About the research on HERBAFERTIL and it's results, you can find here: 

PowerPoint prezentacija (herbafertil.com)

There is an increasing number of trees where, due to various factors, the drying has started, from the top branches.

We know that some of those trees where drying has started are extremely valuable to us, either because of their size, age, impact on the environment or simply because we fell in love for the first time under the canopy of one of those trees or our children walked. These trees are important for local communities. And it is impossible to replace them with newly planted ones, if for no other reason, then because the tree takes years to grow.
If something is not done about those already dried top branches on the trees that live with us, such diseased trees will rapidly dry out, more and more, and in the foreseeable future the tree will die.
Do we want to preserve such trees? If yes, then preventive action is a necessity. Immediately! Now!

Our technology is to stimulate root of the tree for healthy growing which results in improving the health condition of the whole tree.

Each cartridge of Herbafertil in a period of 6-12 months initiate the production and growth of 6-7kg of young roots formed in the shape of the big ball.

Everyone could imagine that after implementation, for example 7 Cartridges of Herbafertil in the root system of the tree, tree can produce 42-49 kg of new young roots. Bennefits of those new root balls for the tree are huge, visible and measurable.

About the scientific research on HERBAFERTIL and it's results: 

PowerPoint prezentacija (herbafertil.com)

Four FTE (Forestry engineer, product manager, and two employees in production)

Since 2013

Although we are small company, we do have values defined and written. Each new member of our team is going through specific onboarding, which includes talking, discussing and emphasizing our values. After onboarding, we are showing how to live our values and we even have monthly discussion among the team on our values in a sense do we really “walk the talk” every day.
Our core values are:
• integrity,
• honesty & trust,
• fairness,
• diversity and equity
• open mind (every idea is much welcomed),
• innovation,
• life-time learning and constant improvement,
• teamwork,  
• commitment to humans and nature goodness,
• quality of work,
• respect to each other in team, to customers, to vendors, to environment, to community,
• fun.
We are proud to say that our female co-workers use up to 12 months for paid maternity leave.  
Not only that we live our values at work, but we are truly trying to share that values though our employees families and whole community. Therefore, we organize different activities such as volunteering in kindergartens, schools and colleges, mentoring young people, educating community on preserving the nature through different workshops or lectures, family days, kids at work days, case competitions, together humanitarian work/ actions.
As we are small company, we still cannot talk about building leadership on these values, but we are building our team, by working and living our values. Hopefully, one day, we will be able to build the same kind of company leadership.
 

Our Business model:

Key Partners:

Our key partners are tree experts companies (as part of environmental services), arboriculture companies, scientific institutions, city administrations, horticulture, landscape, maintance and urban forestry companies. Resources are available world wide, no need for specific suppliers. Motivation for partnerships: Optimization and economy, environmental tree caring.

Key activities:

Innovation process, production, education, sales, customer relationship, environmental tree caring activities. Categories: Production, Innovation, Environment.

Key Resources: 

Types of resources: intellectual (Patents), Human, Financial, Devices.

Value proposition:

Preventive and curative caring for the trees and ecosystems. We deliver healthy and vitality trees, parks, surroundings for communities, oxygen and beauty. Characteristics: newness, Performance, Customization, "Getting the Job Done", Design, Brand, Pollution Reduction, Risk Reduction. 

Customer Segments:

Creating value for citizens and environmental through investments in trees. City administrations, park maintainers, Tree experts, Specific garden owners are the main customers. Customer base is all over the world.

Our values:

integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, diversity and equity open mind (every idea is much welcomed), innovation, life-tie learning and constant improvement, teamwork, commitment to humans and nature goodness, quality of work, respect to each other in team, to customers, to vendors, to environment, to community.

As mentioned earlier, we are a small company with limited funds. Thus, most of our activities are directed towards maintaining daily operations, while investing in new technologies.

For this reason, possible means/funds/support gathered from this challenge will be very valuable for our development.

If we wish to accomplish our goals in shape of delivering our solution to:

- all 27 European countries 

and 

- to the USA, 

we need 840.000 USD as a grant. 

Those funds are needed for maintaining innovation process, educating potential customers, developing customer relationships and organizing environmental caring activities. With this amount of funds we would really make a difference.