Diagnostic PHC

The practice went diagnostic. The tools didn't.

Plant Health Care used to mean a series of treatments on a calendar. The trade has moved past that — toward something soil-first, root-cause, preservation-over-removal. The vanguard practicing it right now is running it on spreadsheets and homemade apps, because nobody built the tool for the discipline it's already become.

A removal should be a diagnosis — not a default.

What "diagnostic" requires

The whole patient history, not one visit's symptoms.

A real differential needs the whole record in front of you. ArbKeep's AI is scoped to one property, reasoning across every soil panel, every prior visit, every photo already on that tree's chart — ruling causes out the way a good mentor would, until the real one is the only one left standing.

Working a case

"Just add iron" — except it won't absorb.

ArbKeep AI · working a case
Presents as
Interveinal chlorosis on a young hardwood — reads as a straightforward iron deficiency.
Cross-referenced
The soil panel: iron is present, locked out by a pH near 8. Calcareous soil — sulfur won't rebound it, and broadcast iron just stains the sidewalk.
Landed on
Lockout, not absence — chelated iron (EDDHA) at the root zone is the fix, the opposite of the reflex treatment.
✓ Arborist-confirmed · written to the tree's chart a second opinion, not a verdict
Health · Diagnosis
Interveinal chlorosis
Nutrient · iron, pH-induced
Cosmetic
Monitor
Treat
Urgent
Young leaves yellowing between green veins — consistent with the soil panel's pH 7.8 and locked-up iron.
Action: EDDHA chelated iron, root-zone, early spring. Sulfur would rebound on calcareous soil — skip it.
cross-referenced · soil panelISA · ANSI A300
Written to the tree's chart

A second opinion, not a verdict

The discipline matters as much as the diagnosis.

ArbKeep's AI drafts; the credentialed arborist confirms. It never publishes a risk call on its own, never hands a homeowner a verdict you didn't sign. What it removes is the friction — the differential you'd have run anyway, the soil cross-reference you'd have meant to do, and the write-up that, honestly, usually never gets written.

Every diagnosis needs a chart

Diagnostic PHC without a record is just the same diagnosis, made from scratch, forever. ArbKeep's plant health care software is the health record every diagnosis writes to — soil, tissue, pest, disease, and treatment, in one chart, for the tree's entire life. It's also what makes the homeowner side possible — a chart real enough to hand to the person who owns the tree.

More on what this replaces in Plant Health Care Was Always the Real Job.

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