The reasons for the appearance of a hollow on a young and old apple tree, how to close up and how to cover up
Damage to a tree with wound rot, which makes itself felt by the appearance of a depression in the trunk, causes a lot of trouble for both beginners and experienced gardeners. If it is not closed, healthy tissues become infected, the bark rots, and the tree gradually disappears. How to close up a hollow in an apple tree also depends on the cause of its formation, however, it is easier to carry out prevention than to stop the growth of the depression.
Content
- 1 Causes of occurrence
- 2 What time can you close up a tree trunk?
- 3 What tools will be needed
- 4 Preparing the affected area for treatment
- 5 The choice of material for filling
- 6 Hollow sealing methods
- 7 Filling a small hole
- 8 Large hollow
- 9 Correct wound healing
- 10 Barrel recovery time
- 11 What to do
- 12 Prevention
Causes of occurrence
A hollow can form due to the fault of the gardener himself. If the bark rips up during pruning, bacteria or fungi can enter the untreated stump. The trunk is cracking under the weight of the apples.
Deepening is formed:
- under the influence of wood diseases;
- with an invasion of rodents;
- as a result of freezing of the cut area.
The tree breaks during a storm or hurricane, after which a hole forms on it. Most often, the problem arises from neglect of the rules of pruning, improper care of the plant.
What time can a hollow be repaired?
After a frosty winter, sometimes cracks appear on the apple tree, from which juice flows. You need to close them immediately. Large depressions are filled in late autumn, when the tree is no longer growing and the material hardens quickly.
What tools will be needed
To cope with the hollow on your own, which even a novice gardener can do, you need to purchase a sharp knife and saw. When working with clay or cement, you need to stock up on a trowel, spatula and chisel.
If you have to close up a large recess, take a drill with a nozzle on which a metal brush is attached.
The hollow is cleaned from rot with a spoon and a file, illuminating with a flashlight. It is necessary to work in rubber gloves and a respirator.
Preparing the affected area for treatment
Do not think that grooves appear only in old apple trees, a hollow can also form on a young tree, but the wound heals faster.
Before sealing the hole:
- Cleanse dead bark.
- A small layer of living wood is scraped off.
- Inside and outside, they are disinfected with fungicides.
Destroy fungi or bacteria using ferrous sulfate or copper sulfate. Wood is treated with these substances.
The choice of material for filling
How to close the depression in the trunk depends on its size and the degree of damage to the bark.A wide hole is filled with brick chips or crushed stone, after which it is poured with cement mixed with lime.
A small cavity is clogged with a wooden cork so that it fits snugly, use oil paint or garden var, which can be prepared by heating the mixture:
- wax;
- resin;
- sunflower oil;
- rosin.
The recess is closed up and the wire is fixed in it with cement, and the top is covered with a varnish-based paint. Does not allow air to pass through, does not allow moisture to enter the hole, polyurethane foam, which is applied in 3-4 layers.
Hollow sealing methods
The depression in the apple tree trunk is closed in several ways, which option to choose depends on its size, on the time of formation.
Filling
With this method of sealing the hollow, a different material is used, which does not allow air to penetrate. Often, gardeners cut a cork from healthy wood, which is decontaminated and adjusted according to the size of the recess. Having installed it in the hole, the excess part is cut off and poured with a compound that is boiled by mixing resin and ash.
Cementing
When the cavity is of considerable size, the affected tissues are first cleaned out, the inner part is disinfected with vitriol and filled with gravel or broken brick, and filled with cement. When the solution hardens, oil paint is applied on top in several layers.
Filling a small hole
Many gardeners use polyurethane foam to seal a small depression. With this method, neither air nor moisture gets inside:
- The hollow is cleaned of the affected bark.
- Disinfected with copper sulfate.
- After 3 hours, the edges are smeared with garden var.
- Cover with polyurethane foam.
So that the polymer that makes up the substance is not damaged by the sun's rays, oil paint is applied. Large cavities can also be filled with such material.
Large hollow
If the hole has a significant diameter and appeared a long time ago, the dead wood is cleaned using a drill with a metal brush attachment. Deepening is disinfected several times with vitriol or carbolic acid solution.
The cavity is laid with brick chips in 3-4 stages, carefully compacted, filled with layers of a thick mixture of cement and lime. Apply paint or garden varnish on top.
If the diameter of the hollow reaches 60 cm, it is necessary to fix the metal mesh both inside the apple tree and outside.
The construction battle is poured with cement, and the barrel is wrapped in polyethylene. After hardening, they are covered with linseed oil, when it dries, garden var is applied and covered with oil paint.
Correct wound healing
To make the affected tissue tighten faster, a black polyethylene bandage is cut into strips about 50 mm wide. They are wound on a hollow, starting from the bottom. At the top, the tape is secured with twine. In the spring, the bandage is untied, the live cambium is opened and again wrapped with plastic wrap, which promotes the appearance of new tissue cells.
Barrel recovery time
The wound healing time depends on the size of the hollow, on when the treatment was started. If you do not immediately close up a small depression, fungi and bacteria will start in it, and then the trunk will recover for a long time. With a timely operation performed in the fall, the wound heals by the spring.
What to do
Unfortunately, the gardener does not always find a small cavity in the trunk immediately after its appearance, then it is already difficult to seal the hole.
When treating an old apple tree
The amount of damage on a tree of solid age can reach one and a half meters. With a drill with a brush, they clean the hollow, remove the debris, treat it with a disinfecting solution, fill the cavity with construction waste and close it up by mixing cement with lime. If the wound cannot be healed, the apple tree has to be dug up.
The hollow was formed at the seedling
Very rarely, holes are formed in the trunk of a tree that is only a year or two. It is covered with garden pitch, fixed with foil or electrical tape. The wound in the seedling heals quickly.
Basal
The cavity that forms at the bottom of the apple tree leads to its weakening. At any time, the plant can fall on a building or on a person. Sealing a large hollow on an old apple tree is ineffective. It needs to be cut down. You can try to save a young plant by installing a metal mesh and filling it with liquid cement.
Through
In a hollow, the diameter of which does not exceed 25 cm, they impose building chips from bricks or pebbles, fill them with cement mortar. If the hole is through, a board is installed, which is removed when the composition hardens.
To close up a hollow of large diameter, first, a mesh up to 3 mm thick is fixed in the cavity or a wire is pulled and nailed. The recess is filled with crumbs, poured first with liquid cement, and then with a solution of a thick consistency.
If affected by fungi
It happens that when cleaning out a depression in the trunk of a plant, mycelium spores are found. Not everyone understands what to do next. It is necessary to process wood infected with fungi:
- fungicides;
- copper preparations;
- colloidal sulfur.
With a slight infection of the apple tree, a sorrel broth is prepared. You need to spray the hollow not once, but at least 3 times, after which the cavity is closed and sealed.
Infected by ants
Sometimes insects grow in the damaged apple tree trunk, which do not spoil the bark, but carry mycelium spores. When cleaning the groove, ants are often pulled out along with the rot. Insecticides are injected into the cavity, the earth is dug up and treated with Diazonin.
Lots of rotten wood
When such a problem appears on an old apple tree, it is better to cut it down, cut off a stalk and graft it on the wild. It happens that a small section of the trunk is affected by a hollow, but there is a lot of rotten wood. In this case, the hole is thoroughly cleaned, sprayed with fungicide, filled with liquid cement.
There is a nest
Sometimes birds arrange a dwelling right in the hollow of a plant. You need to fill the hole in late autumn, when the birds leave it. You can simply pull out the nest, clean the recess, spray it with fungicide and cover it with garden varnish.
Juice flows
When on apple tree bark beetles, liquid begins to emerge from the damaged area, and the plant may disappear. They treat it by injecting the Actellik insecticide with a syringe. In the spring, after the flowers have fallen off, the plant is sprayed with Fufanon.
The sap flows when the wood rots, which often happens if the person does not know how to seal the cavity. To eliminate the problem, the trunk is cleaned of affected tissues, disinfected and a composition is applied, which is prepared by mixing garden var with Ranet paste.
Prevention
To prevent the appearance of a hollow, the shoots on the apple tree must be shortened until the sap flow begins. Sections should be immediately lubricated with garden varnish or zinc paint.
If wood decay is detected, the affected area is cleaned, the wound is dried, treated with iron vitriol or copper sulfate. In the fall, the dried bark is removed, if insects have settled under it, the apple tree is sprayed with fungicides.
