Various professions exist in society, some less conventional than others. Oded Yaffe is a tree disease diagnostic and soil analyst and has been treating trees throughout Israel.
   
But how does one get into this profession?

[Oded Yaffe, Tree Disease Diagnostic and Soil Analyst]:
“Since I was a child I’d run around in the fields, and when my mom watered the fields I would bathe in the water. That is where I saw how my mother and father took care of the trees and from then on I’m on that path 65 years already and all my family is associated with this type of work.”

When a tree is sick, Oded is the first one to call. In Israel many trees have been imported from other countries and face problems in this climate. However, Oded is not only demanded by agriculturalists but also by individual families.

[Oded Yaffe, Tree Disease Diagnostic and Soil Analyst]:
 “A tree is something very important. A tree means a connection to the earth. A tree is a shadow, a tree is life, a tree is happiness and a tree is green.”

“There are stories of families, families that plant a tree in the name of a child for example, a family that planted a tree on the day their son passed away and after a few years the tree got sick, and they invited me and I treated the tree and rehabilitated it, and I continue to be in touch with the tree and the family. In another family, a grandfather planted a tree when his grandson was born and now the son is in the military and the tree doesn’t look good anymore and the mom says come quick treat the tree, the tree is the boy and the grandfather.”
     
Treating a tree is not an easy job and is seen to require a lifetime of experience. Oded has been a studying trees for 65 years, many times experimenting through trial and error.
   
[Oded Yaffe, Tree Disease Diagnostic and Soil Analyst]:
“Treatment of trees or medicine for trees is a profession that in Israel at least is not learnt, maybe in the world it is, I don’t know. What does a person that treats trees needs? He needs a lot of patience, and around that he needs a lot of tools. He needs to be like a general doctor of the passed, not a specified doctor, not a doctor of the shoulder or ear, but a doctor that can look at the external and internal system of the tree. I’m passing down this knowledge to my son, that has been learning from me for five years now, he is studying the profession and in this way the profession will continue down.”

Trees face different problems that are addressed individually. Some need a specific infusion, others cream, in others the soil has to be treated.

[Oded Yaffe, Tree Disease Diagnostic and Soil Analyst]:
“In order to treat trees, soil or a flower, one has to look at the big picture. I have to see the place, the tree and the person and then I can decide what I have to take back to the lab for check ups.”

Some problems cannot be tested in the lab chemically but are determined by analyzing the soil around the roots of the tree. Samples of soil can be placed in plants in a greenhouse and by looking at the state of the roots of sprouted seeds one can determine the problems in the soil.

Linoy Markram, NTD News, Israel