Good afternoon, my reader. To make the trees better endure the winter, do not suffer from sunburn and diseases, they are whitewashed. Let's figure out the details of this procedure.
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Why is it needed
Whitewashing is used for the following purposes:
- Frost protection. For this, the plants are whitened in autumn.
- Sunburn protection. The bright summer sun and the sun's rays reflected from the snow in winter can burn the bark pretty badly.
- Protection from pests. It is more difficult for them to get into cracks in the bark through the whitewash layer. In addition, the lime and copper sulfate included in the composition also destroy pathogens and fungi.
Do all plants need to be whitened
If possible, whitewash all trees. But it is better to treat young seedlings with a diluted solution of lime, chalk emulsion, water-based or acrylic paint.
How to whiten
Two main components are used for whitewashing: ground chalk and slaked lime. But chalk is suitable only for spring whitewashing: it is easily washed off, and you can use it only when there is an opportunity to resume whitewashing. For the winter they whiten only with lime.
To prepare the solution, lime must be extinguished - to carry out its reaction with water. To do this, put lime in a deep container and fill it with the same amount of water to get the base - fluff. During extinguishing, the composition is very hot, hisses and splashes, so be careful not to touch the bucket until the process is complete. After that, gently stir the composition with a wooden stirrer - that's it, the lime is ready, you can whitewash.
How to prepare whitewash
There are many lime-based formulations, but the best of them includes:
- 2.5 kg of lime;
- flour or starch paste - 3-4 tablespoons;
- 10 liters of clean water.
The paste is needed so that the lime composition sticks to the bark, does not run down to the ground and is not washed off by rains. Instead, you can use:
- white or yellow clay (brown is undesirable - protection from sunburn disappears) - 1 kg;
- shavings from laundry soap or liquid soap - 10 tablespoons;
- fresh cow dung - 1 kg.
It is best to extinguish lime no earlier than 2 hours before preparing the mixture and whitewashing - the composition with freshly slaked lime better destroys fungi and colonies of harmful microorganisms.
If during the summer season there were outbreaks of fungal diseases in the garden, a whitewash of a different composition should be prepared. In this case, only 2 kg are taken for a 10-liter bucket of fresh fluff water, but another 300 g of powdered copper sulfate is poured into the whitewash.
When using any recipe, all components must be thoroughly mixed until a homogeneous mass is obtained. It should be sticky and have a density about thick sour cream.
When to whitewash
It is necessary to whitewash the trunks and skeletal branches of trees twice a year, in autumn and spring. The main one is considered to be autumn, in the spring it is only necessary to restore the layer, which has probably been erased under the autumn rains and snow.
Autumn whitewash
In autumn, trees are whitewashed in the interval between the end of the leaf fall and the snowfall. It is necessary to whitewash while the temperature is + 4-5 ° C, and this should be done on a dry day: the whitewash does not fit well on wet bark. Therefore, it is best to do this:
- after the rain, clean the bark from lichen and parasites;
- wait for a dry day and whitewash the trees.
Spring whitewashing
In the spring they whitewash when the snowmelt is over. As in the fall, it is best to choose a dry day with the same temperature. The main thing is to be in time before the ground warms up and the leaves begin to bloom. Then pests wake up from hibernation - and the whitewash will protect only from sunburn.
Do you know why and how to whitewash trees?
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