How to price tree injections: per inch, minimum, product, time.

Start with the DBH

Everything downstream depends on one measurement: diameter at 4.5 feet, in inches, on the plant record. Measure it with a diameter tape, not by eye, and record it before the quote. A 2 inch error on a 20 inch tree is 10 percent of the price and 10 percent of the dose. The DBH guide covers slopes, leaners, and multi-stem trees.

The rate per inch

The rate carries labor, overhead, product, equipment, and margin. Most programs land between $15 and $25 per inch for insecticide and fungicide injections; the PHC Rx default is $25. Higher-priced markets and specialty work (macro-infusion on a 40 inch elm, a sensitive species that needs micro-ports) run above that. A company running mostly EAB on a dense route can run below it and still make money on volume.

What tree injection costs by DBH

Six trees, three delivery methods, the ranges most programs charge in 2026. Injection is per inch of DBH with a visit minimum. Soil drenches are also per inch but cheaper, because the product goes in the ground in a minute. Sprays are priced by the visit and by the height of the tree, since the cost is the rig and the time, not the inches.

The minimum

The minimum is what a visit costs you before the first port goes in: drive, setup, label check, the record, the invoice. Most operations set it between $150 and $250. At $18 per inch a $150 minimum kicks in below about 8 inches, which is most crabapples, young birches, and hedge conifers. Below the minimum, the small tree is priced at the minimum and the client is told why; above it, the per-inch rate takes over and the minimum disappears from the quote.

Product cost per inch

The label rate and the price per container give you the cost per inch. Emamectin benzoate is the clearest example: the app's table for TREE-äge G4 puts a 22 inch tree at 115 to 180 mL medium, 180 to 240 mL high (label band 22 to 24 in). Agrilicide, the same active and concentration, is $440 per liter in the PHC Rx shop. At the medium tier that is roughly $2 to $3 of product per inch, or about $50 on a 22 inch ash against a $396 price at $18 per inch.

Propiconazole for oak wilt runs higher volume: Propizol on a 26 inch oak is 250 to 270 mL low, 500 to 540 mL high (label band 25 to 27 in), which is more product per inch and a case for the $25 rate on fungicide work. Imidacloprid by injection is cheap per dose and annual, so its per-inch product cost is low but the client is paying for a visit every year. The rate calculator gives the dose; multiply by your price per mL.

Time on the tree

Ports at DBH divided by 2 on the Arborjet system, so 11 ports on a 22 inch tree, drilled and plugged in 10 to 15 minutes by someone who has done it before. Uptake is the variable: 20 minutes on a transpiring oak in May, an hour or more on a stressed tree in July, and a second visit if it will not take. Macro-infusion on a big elm is a half day. Budget 45 minutes to an hour for a mid-size injection including setup and cleanup, and price the rate so that hour pays.

The cheap way to lose the margin is to send two people to a one-person job or to schedule injections in the heat of the afternoon when uptake stalls. Morning injections, one tech, a route of trees within a few miles. The calendar is a pricing tool.

Putting it together

That margin is why injection programs carry a PHC division. It also depends on every line above it being on the record: the DBH, the dose, the product, the date, and the retreat. The prescription in PHC Rx holds all five and the label check runs before the client sees the price.

Multi-stem trees and clumps

Dose and price each stem that is large enough to inject, summed. A clump river birch with three 8 inch stems is 24 inches of DBH for the price and three sets of ports for the time; some labels direct you to the combined diameter instead. Say which method you used on the prescription so the next tech can repeat it.

Two-year products and the annual conversation

Emamectin benzoate is labeled for two years of control. Price it per visit, tell the client it is a two-year interval, and schedule the retreat. Some companies divide it into an annual program fee for cash flow; that is fine as long as the record says the tree was injected once. What you cannot do is inject a two-year product every year because the client asked; the label check flags the interval, and it should.