SW injury

[Ben.MN/WI]

After losing my largest Rusk County WI apple tree this spring from SW injury, I decided to paint the trunks of all of my apple trees white up there last weekend. While painting the trees, I was really surprised to see the number of trees with some degree of SW injury - I would say half of the trees were damaged. Most of the trees didn't die, but they were obviously set back and I likely lost a year or two of growth at least.

Does everyone else paint their trees every year, and if so, how long do you need to keep doing that? If I want the apples to survive, I'll likely have to paint them every year for the near future at least.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I think the tree that died was one of my earlier plantings, which would have been from 2008. I left some lower branches and tall goldenrod weeds around the tree to try to reduce the SW injury, but that clearly didn't work. I did learn that from now on I need to put the opening in my tree cages on the S side of the trees to make the painting process easier.

I'm going to plan on painting the tree trunks for at least the first 10 years, maybe more. I wish I would have started painting the trunks several years ago, but better late than never I guess.

 

[chummer]

You shouldn't have to paint every year. I painted all mine last year and they still look good. I am hoping for every other year.

 

[CrazyEd]

Someone remind me of the best practice on the mixture? How much water, how much paint, what type of paint, how high up on the tree should one paint?

 

[sandbur]

I haven't painted mine yet, but I plan to. From the reading I've done, its sounds like you should only need to protect trunks for 5-6 years...but I have my doubts on that. My biggest concern with SW injury is that it creates a stressed tree which is then more susceptible to other diseases like FB.

My 25 plus year old trees on ant. have their first branches die on the SW side.

I see less problems if there are plenty of low limbs on the south and southwest sides. Some experienced horticulture people have recommended that for low maintenance wildlife trees. Years back, I read an article from a lady at University of Mn, Crookston who recommended the low limbs. Crookston is in NW Mn. Cold winters and open country up there.

 

[chummer]

No expert but I did 75% latex 25% water. I painted the entire trunk up to 5' and the first tier of branches if they were big enough. It worked, I didn't have any die back and the year before I didn't paint and 6 of 8 cracked the length of the trunk.

 

[CrazyEd]

Let's see some injury pics and pics of painted trees guys.

 

[chummer]

Here is one of my pears but they all looked the same.

 

[chummer]

Here are the only paint jobs I have. Hard to see with the snow

This was a young native tree that I saved and fit into my orchard perfect

This is my favorite tree. A $3 ayers pear rated for zone 5 that just keeps growing. No set backs in the worst 2 winters ever.

This one is buried in snow but my guess is I was painting in between leaves. Man I don't miss the snow.

 

[CrazyEd]

Great pics Chummer. Thanks for sharing.

 

[SmallChunk]

Here is a third leaf Liberty on B118 from Burnt Ridge Nursery. Winter of '13 was downright brutal and hit this one bad. You can see it almost looks as though I painted the trunk of the tree black! Not sure what to do with the sucker...

 

[sandbur]

They can get sunscaudl on anexposed south ro southeast side.

 

[sandbur]

Here is a third leaf Liberty on B118 from Burnt Ridge Nursery. Winter of '13 was downright brutal and hit this one bad. You can see it almost looks as though I painted the trunk of the tree black! Not sure what to do with the sucker...

I ahve that same black stuff on the trunk of a snowsweet.

 

[buckvelvet]

Spray paint white or what?

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Is that black stuff just SW injury? I saw cracking on my trunks, but also I have a few trees that look identical to that. I was just hoping it wasn't fire blight.

All of my trees were damaged on the S/SW sides of the trees - really no issues on the north side. I went with a 50/50 mix of latex paint and water and it seemed to cover pretty well.

I've decided to let nature take its course regarding tree pruning on my Rusk County apples and pears. I trimmed them a couple years ago to get the desired framework and then a bear snapped off the main leader and the tree has been a mess ever since - it got some type of disease from the injury and it really hasn't grown more than 6" in the past 2 years. I think if I left that tree in its original natural shape it would have been better able to recover from losing the main leader. There are a few random old apple trees growing by old farm sites up there that have managed to survive the bears and are still really productive even though they aren't pruned.

 

[CrazyEd]

I picked up a gallon of paint tonight, going to try and paint all my trees this weekend. What do you think dump a little sevin into the mixture with the water?