Freezing of trees
Freezing of trees is caused by a number of reasons.
First, a severe, little snowy winter. Fortunately, it happens infrequently in the Northwest, but if it does, the gardens are almost completely frozen. By the way, it should be said that young trees manage this situation better than old, 20-year-old plants.
Secondly, a cold, cloudy, rainy summer. Bad weather promotes the outbreak of fungal diseases on the leaves, colonization of the bark with lichens, which leads to early dropping of the leaves. With poor photosynthesis, plants do not have time to make a supply of nutrients and prepare for wintering, which causes their freezing even in mild winters. This is exactly the phenomenon quite often in the North-West.
Thirdly, winter long thaws lead to freezing and even death of fruit buds, so there is no harvest, although the tree did not die. It's a familiar picture, is not it?
Fourth, sharp fluctuations in temperature, which can vary within a day by 15 degrees or more. This is also a pervasive phenomenon.
Fifth, strong winds in winter, blowing funnels in the snow near the trunk, cause the stem to freeze. Many gardeners do not notice this narrow brown strip. And then they wonder why the bark fell off almost at the very ground.
Sixth, the early autumn frosts are fatal, and it is for the bast. The fact is that the preparation of trees for the winter starts from the top and gradually the
goes down. The upper tiers are already ready for frost, and the stem is not, then early frosts broke out, and only degrees 6-8, good for one night, and then for 3-5 days. Stamb has frozen, which in the future will lead to flaking of the bark, and we do not even suspect about it.
How to avoid the death of a stem? It is necessary to do the grafting at a height of 1 to 1.2 m, and not at altitude, as is customary, 30-40 cm. There is one nuance. The temperature at a height of 2 m( the height of meteobudges) is usually 5-7 degrees higher than the temperature at the level of the snow cover, and 5-7 lower than at the top of the tree. So, for a garden, a weather report is a kind of conditionally average temperature that varies significantly from the stem to the top of the tree. If the weather reports say that at night the frost is expected to be - 20 degrees, for trees in general is not fatal, you should know that at the level of the snow cover the temperature will be about 25-30 degrees below zero. And if the winter is snowless and the snow cover is only 40-50 cm, and even the wind blew out the funnel at the trunk itself, the death of the bark is ensured, and the sucking root system can freeze. The root system of trees in the North-West region is superficial and lies at a depth of only about 40 cm. A 10 cm thick cover gives only 1 degree of heat. So the freezing not only of the stem, but also of the sucking root system, is quite frequent, although the winters are not too harsh, either.
Usually after severe frost gardeners hurry to the site to check if the trees are frozen. Cut off the end of the branch and look at the cut. In apple trees, the living tissue is white, and the degree of freezing of the wood is determined by the degree of its darkening. Light brown or dark beige indicates that the wood is dead. The pear is generally beige in color, and the dark brown color on the cut indicates its death.
The death of the ends of the branches does not yet confirm the death of the tree. The ends at all could not ripen or the tree went under the winter dehydrated( with prolonged autumn dry weather), here is the frost and dried up the ends of the branches. So the cut must be done on the bark of the stem. And the wound immediately cover with greenery and a liquid garden paint or natural oil paint. If the cambium( a narrow, green, conductive layer between the wood and the bark) is alive, then it is green, and if it is killed, it is brown. In this case, the tree really died.
If, after a snow drift, when you carefully examined the stem, you found a brown, very narrow, striped, then do not wait for the crust to exfoliate, immediately re-braid the bridge.
For this, first plant the cuttings under the frost-bitten bottom. Then, every shank immediately inoculate above the frost, placing cuttings 3-5 cm apart from each other along the entire circumference of the trunk. They will easily join together, and you will save the tree. Cuttings, of course, must be taken from their tree. But, as they say, there is no thin without good. If the tree is young, then you can limit its further growth by planting cuttings from Paradise, a very winter-resistant small-berry apple tree, which is used for a dwarf rootstock. In fact, you will make a dwarf inset on your tree.
This can also be done on the old tree. First, increase the frost resistance of the bole, secondly, by cutting off a part of the tree's top, limit its further growth upwards.
How to protect wood from frostbite
The easiest way is whitewashing. But it is used when trees are more than three years old. Young sapling is better wrapped with synthetic material( kapron tights, synthetic sacking from under sugar or cereals, lutrasil or spunbond).However, lutrasil and spunbond do not protect against rodents. Do not wrap the trunks with ruberoid or other dark material. In the spring, it quickly heats up in the sun, and the cambium wakes up during the day, and at night a strong cooling stops this process. Cambium from these changes in day and night temperatures can die, and this will lead to flaking of the bark.
To help plants to transfer frosts and other weather woes more easily, use "Ecopherin", or "Epin-extrus" or "Novosil"( "Silk"),
"Ecoberin" protects plants from various weather troubles( droughts, frosts, a sharp change in temperature during the day and night, prolonged cooling).In addition, it helps plants adapt to strong ultraviolet radiation.
"Epin-extra" practically does the same, besides, it promotes self-protection of plants against diseases.
"Novosil" also enhances the self-protection of plants against pests and diseases, but also stresses caused by unfavorable weather conditions, also removes, which allows plants, in particular, to easily carry freezes.
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If after a severe winter you have withered the apple tree, do not rush to root the dead from the frost of the apple tree. They can come to life in the second year. But the cortex appears very small red "pimples" - these are the kidneys. From them will develop branches. But if this did not happen in the second year, you must cut the tree under the root. This will give impetus to the appearance of root offspring, leave the strongest out of them, the rest fall out. The next spring, the abandoned shoot should be planted with a good variety, as it is a misfire. Since the root system is strong, it will quickly grow and grow fruitful. But you can not wait more than two years, then the root system will die.
Causes of death of the bark
Why does the tree bursts with bark? Sometimes from a sharp fluctuation of moisture in the soil. Long was the dew, and then you took and made at once copious watering. But more often this phenomenon is associated with a sharp fluctuation in air temperature in the early spring, when after a long warm weather suddenly came severe frosts. This is a fairly common phenomenon in the Northwest. Cracks should be washed with a light pink solution of potassium permanganate, and preferably hydrogen peroxide or zelenka, and cover with liquid var. You can smear clay with mullein( at worst, one clay).The bark will grow together. The main thing is not to postpone this work in a long box, because pathogens of diseases penetrate into the crack, settle on the wood, and then do not avoid the peeling of the crust and its death.
What causes barking? First of all, as mentioned above, in the freezing of the tree trunk. In addition, the death of the cortex often begins with a sunny spring burn. This damage first manifests itself in the form of pinkish spots on the bark. Then the damaged bark begins to die, the pathogens of fungal diseases of the cortex settle on it, and it begins to exfoliate. Both can be avoided if the trunks of trees are whitewashed in time, namely, in late autumn, whitewashing should be such that it can not be washed away by prolonged autumn and winter rains in wet regions( for example, water-based paint).And it is even better to bind tree trunks with polypropylene fiber in the autumn, from which they sew bags for sugar and other products. Simply tear off these bags, then sew pieces of the right size from pieces and tightly wrap the barrel around them, tie them with twine made from the same material. The bottom edge of the wrapper should be sprinkled with earth so that no pests can get inside. Mice and rabbits do not touch this canvas, it perfectly protects the bark from frostbites and spring burns. Cambium does not awaken prematurely, since the white strapping does not heat up in the sun during the daytime.
Incorrect pruning and ignorant treatment of wounds can also lead to the death of the bark, followed by the death of the tree. There is also a lichen parasitizing on the bark, and mushrooms growing on wood, which also cause bark and tree to die.
Lichens suck out the juice from the bark, which strongly depresses the apple tree and can cause death of the bark. It is very easy to get rid of lichens. But you can do this only during the rest period, that is, at the end of October or November or in March. Make a 7-10% solution of ferrous sulfate( 1 - 1.5 teaspoons for 100 ml of water!) And sprinkle lichens or apply a solution with a flat brush. In a few days, the lichens themselves will fall off the trunks. But there may be other causes of crustal death caused by black cancer, or anthracnose, but they also appear only on the damaged bark. Take care of the tree, and the bark of peo will not exfoliate! There is also a pest - bark beetle. His traces you will find in the form of sawdust, poured from the holes. And when you remove the exfoliated bark, you will see him or his larvae. It should be all the same as mentioned above. If the bark beetle has damaged the bark too much, or the mice or rabbits have swallowed it, then it should be vaccinated with a bridge, that is, the cuttings from the same tree should be instilled below the damage and planted above the damage, after having cleaned and treated the injury site, as was said above.
Mushrooms that settled on the tree should be cut off, slightly touching the wood itself, wipe the wounds with a 3% solution( 1 tablespoon per 1 liter of water) of copper sulfate or copper oxychloride( Hom) and cover with liquid garden sauce, andIt should be done from June to August, before the fungus spores begin to ripen. The tree, populated with mushrooms, is doomed to destruction. We can only prolong his life a little. Nevertheless, the fungi should be removed and destroyed, rather than thrown into the compost, because the spores of the fungus can colonize the remaining trees.(For example, an autumnal spill sometimes populates a plantation of strawberries, in which case it must be destroyed by spreading a small fire on this site, otherwise the mycelium of the fungus will spread all over the soil.)
What if the crust has peeled off or started to rot? The bark needs to be removed, having cleaned up to healthy wood. To keep the cambium around the edges of the stripping, the wound should be treated with either greenery or hydrogen peroxide, allow to dry and immediately cover with oil paint on natural linseed oil. Then the wound will again overgrow with bark. You can pour a wound after treatment with a liquid garden bar.
Warm up the liquid to the liquid state, not on an open fire( it will light up), but on a water bath.