Chain mail for an apple tree. How to protect trees from rodents in winter? How to protect an apple tree from rodents in winter on your site How to protect young trees from hares
Agree, it’s rather insulting to run around the markets and garden shops all spring, looking for a pretty apple tree of a variety that suits you in an endless sea of crooked, deformed seedlings. Then plant it, water it, feed it and spray it, collect harmful caterpillars and aphids in the summer ... And all just to make sure in the spring that not only you and your friends appreciated the planted apple tree with such love, but also hares from the nearest forest.
Which trees do hares gnaw and which ones do not touch?
These irrepressible rodents in a hungry year are able to completely destroy young plantings of apple trees and other fruit trees. The main object of desire for every decent hare is an apple tree and an apricot. The following, in terms of attractiveness, can be considered cherry, plum, sweet cherry. They can try on the tooth and ornamental trees and shrubs. And the pear is touched very rarely, almost never.
But besides hares, which gnaw on buds and bark, they harm apple trees (and other trees) and mice. At the same time, mice can eat the bark around the ring at ground level, which leads to the inevitable death of the tree.
From hares and mice, the following methods help:
1. Wrap the barrel with mesh, preferably metal, with a small cell. it is better that the size of the cell is in the region of 1-2 centimeters, then in addition to hares, we will also protect ourselves from mice. The disadvantage of this method is that the grid is not cheap. It is quite inconvenient and long to cut a fine-mesh mesh without special scissors. BUT plastic mesh mice can gnaw through. Hares, with a strong desire, can also, but this is already unlikely.
2. Wrap the boles of apple trees with nylon tights, stockings, etc. Pretty good and reliable way. Gnawing kapron is not to the taste of hares, mice too. Capron is easy to fix with adhesive tape. Under a kapron shelter, the tree trunk will not become damp and will not drip.
3. Wrap the trunk with roofing material. This method will protect against hares, but the conditions under the roofing material are not the most favorable for the tree. The bark can become damp, the roofing material can get very hot in the sun, which is fraught with frost cracks.
4. Stinky-odorous mixtures are also used to repel. I haven’t tried it myself, I won’t lie, but I read this recipe. Take naphthalene 300 grams, laundry soap - 3 kg, vegetable oil - 2 liters, and half a liter of turpentine. All this infernal mixture is dissolved, or more correctly, kneaded, in 10 liters of water and then coated this tree stems.
5. Hares are known for their skittishness, therefore they use the method of scaring hares by hanging sheets of black paper on threads. Such paper moves in the wind and hares shy away until they have a heart attack. (Sometimes in the spring you can find under an apple tree a whole wheelbarrow of hares slaughtered to death?) ...
Well, jokes are jokes, but the method actually helps, but only from hares. From mice - it does not work, mice run under the snow, and they also gnaw at the bark below the snow level, so they simply do not see the hanging papers.
6. Method - only from mice. Can be combined with method 5, which is only from hares. If you live near your plantings in winter, then as the snow falls, it is necessary to carefully trample the snow around the trunk so that the mice cannot easily dig a mink. also, under the apple tree, odorous scarers are laid out, which the mice strongly dislike. These are black root, coriander, elderberry, mint.
In addition to rodents, wintering apple trees have other problems. This, oddly enough, is frost and sun, a wonderful day ... It is on such a wonderful windless day, especially in the second half of winter, when the sun is already warming noticeably, dark trunks apple trees can get very hot. And in the evening, when the sun sets and the frosts are bitter, such apple trees get damaged trunks from a sharp temperature drop - frost cracks. In such places, the bark cracks, lags behind. In severe cases, the tree dies.
Garden whitewashing will help protect trees from frost. Old trees can be whitewashed with any ready-made whitewash, since they are sold in abundance in stores. But with young apple trees you need to be careful, some compounds can be toxic to young bark. On the one hand, they are good for whitewashing water-based paints, but again, they should not contain potentially harmful components. Which colors do not have them, which ones do? I don't know, and I doubt that anyone can accurately answer this question.
Therefore, for now I will whitewash apple trees with a regular one, either slaked lime. well, maybe I’ll try on some, not the most valuable, composition from the store? .
In addition to apple trees, middle lane and to the north, cherry trees need obligatory whitewashing. They are more likely than other trees in our gardens to suffer from frost damage to the trunk bark.
Now a few words about sheltering the roots. It is desirable to insulate the root zone, which is approximately equal to the diameter of the tree crown. At least in frozen apple varieties. It is not advisable to use grass, hay, leaf litter to cover the roots. The fact is that such material quickly begins to rot with the release of heat, which contributes to the early awakening of the roots. it is better to use peat or sawdust. Although these measures should be taken if enough snow did not fall before the onset of frost ... But we don’t know whether snow will fall before frost or after.
Thus, having protected the apple trees from rodents, from the sun and from frost, we can be almost sure that in spring the tree will delight us with a white flower cloud, and in autumn with red ruddy apples?
Of course, hares are charm itself, especially in your favorite cartoon.
But his visit to the garden may leave you next year without apples. These shy animals are rather gluttonous and exterminate everything that is poorly “hidden”.
Hares, as you know, are vegetarians, so any greens that grow in your garden are in their area of \u200b\u200binterest. Favorite plants are legumes, bulbs, young tree bark. In summer, shy hares are embarrassed to visit the garden, but in winter they are completely free. Moreover, there is no greenery and you have to switch to coarser food - the bark of trees and shrubs. Hares have preferences, this is the bark of an apple tree, plum, apricot, hawthorn, hazel. And they almost do not pay attention to the viburnum, currant, honeysuckle, wild rose.
Demolition Hare
Maybe we sin in vain on a cute fluffy creature, and another beast worked here? Let's get acquainted with the characteristic handwriting of a hare. So.
The hare stands on its hind legs and peels the bark of a tree in a circle. The trunk can be mangled up to a meter in height.
Young shoots are eaten as if someone cut them with scissors.
If you look closely, you will see small holes in the snow or on the ground, as if someone was digging.
Physical protection from hares
Highly old way, which is still used today: the trunk is tied with spruce branches in several layers from top to bottom, like a pyramid (needles down). Lapnik lets air through, but the procedure itself is quite troublesome.
Now spruce branches have been replaced by modern materials that allow air to pass through. For example, sugar burlap. But the roofing material or dark film is not suitable for this purpose, in the spring the black material will heat up and there will be too sharp a temperature drop: it is cold outside the roofing material, warm inside. The bark may crack.
An old trick: they wrap tree trunks with old nylon tights, to enhance the effect, they can be pre-sprayed with diesel fuel or kerosene.
Cut plastic bottles across and put a ring on the barrel.
But any strapping must be removed in the spring, immediately after the appearance of thawed patches, otherwise the bark will support.
Chemical protection of trees from hares
Now a special whitewash is being sold, which is not washed off by rain and contains copper sulphate.
On the branches I hang ribbons moistened with tar.
There is an opinion that hares cannot stand dog hair. She is tied to the lower ends of the branches of fruit trees, which the hare may like. The stinkier the wool, the better.
Some gardeners are sure that hares (and mice) are repelled by the smell of wormwood. Therefore, they wrap the trunk of a tree with the branches of this plant.
Hanging strips of shiny material on the branches is a controversial method. Some speak well of him, but most believe that after 3-4 weeks the hares get used to the tinsel and are already having dinner without being distracted by it.
If the hares have ALREADY eaten the trees
If in the spring it turned out that the bark was gnawed, carefully cover the wounds with garden pitch. If the damage is small, then it will quickly overgrow, and if there are large bites, then the sap flow will be disturbed and the tree will not be saved.
Two types of hares can visit our gardens: the white hare and the hare.
Belyak dresses in a white fur coat in winter. He is a forest dweller and rarely ventures outside his territory.
Hare gray color. Inhabitant of fields, open spaces. He tries to stay closer to the villages. There is something to nibble here, especially in winter, when grass in the fields is covered with snow.
For a snack, hares come out at dusk and eat until dark.
Protecting trees from hares and even mice - note
In winter, the main enemies of apple trees and other fruit trees are hares and mice that eat the bark of trunks and skeletal branches, especially in young trees.
If you didn’t have time to protect the trees from rodents in the fall, it’s not too late to do it in December.
This is especially true for suburban areas located in forests, away from settlements. Already here our smaller brothers can roam to glory: the summer residents have left and for the whole winter it is they who become the real owners of the garden (they do what they want).
The easiest, but not always effective, way to deal with field mice is to trample down the snow around the trunks. It is believed that in a dense layer of snow, mice cannot break through minks, get close to trunks and surface roots.
The best means of protection fruit plants from hares is the fencing of the site itself with a grid of galvanized wire.
If not, try to protect every tree. It is best to overlay the trunks with reeds, spruce branches (spruce branches) to a height of at least 70 cm. Then you need to tie the spruce branches and reeds with ropes so that they do not crumble. You can wrap the trunks over the spruce branches with roofing paper or plastic wrap in several layers. In this case, the film will not prevent the tree from breathing, but will protect it from rodents. You can make a fence in the form of plastic or metal mesh. The grid for greater reliability can be buried in the ground.
But in general, it’s not pine that helps from mice anymore, but spruce. The needles of spruce are short, hard and prickly. If you overlay the trunk of a tree with spruce branches set upside down, and the bases spruce branches attach to the trunk, you get a very reliable protection.
Can be used modern material- wrap the trunks of apple trees with plastic mesh bags (from under potatoes, onions) with a thickness of a finger and a half and a height of more than a meter. It is difficult for mice to chew such a plastic “fur coat”. True, it takes a lot of bags to protect all fruit trees.
But mice, unlike hares, gnaw not only the bark at the trunk, but also from the root neck and from the roots. So the above methods, with the exception of a buried protective fence, may not help.
To combat these rodents, it is necessary to fill their burrows with zinc phosphide poisoning or other poisonous grains of wheat in the fall. It is also useful to put a drainage tube under each tree (cuttings of such a tube can be bought for a penny at any construction market). Pour a little poisoned bait into this tube with a spoon. Home or wild bird such a bait will not poison you simply because it will not get to it, but the mice will peck at the bait and ... finita la comedy.
To protect the trunks of young trees (and they are the most delicious food for thieves), use plastic bottles. Cut off their neck and bottom, cut lengthwise, clasp the stem of a young tree and secure with twine. Bury the base into the soil. Cover the trodden places with snow again. But here it is important that the trunk of a young tree is thin, that is, that the plastic bottle does not wrap around it tightly, as it will impede breathing. In addition, during thaws, moisture (perspiration) will accumulate around the barrel under the bottle, which will lead to decay.
Use any measures from hares!
It's no secret that in the fall, hares often visit gardens, even summer cottages. Many times I heard from neighbors that here and there the bark of the trees was gnawed, and the seedlings planted before winter were eaten clean! While the neighbors were grieving, indignant and hastily taking protective measures, I thought about how to protect my garden from the invasion of furry pests.
There was no question of killing hares - I am one of those who love and protect animals, not hunters. So I decided to drive out the hare with ingenuity.
We covered our area around the perimeter with a fine mesh netting so that the eared ones could not get inside. It was about a meter high, despite the fact that we dug it another 30 cm deep, because hares easily dig. It would seem that you can sleep peacefully, but I know that any measures are good in the complex.
Gardening stores sell special protection against hares, which looks like a tube with a cut. Such a tube is put on the trunk, cutting off the path to food for the hares. They are able to gnaw bark at a height of up to 1 meter, so I stocked up on a larger piece. If you don’t have such things at your disposal, it’s not scary, I wrapped the trunks with an ordinary plastic or metal mesh.
In addition, I tidied up the area well.
Everyone knows that the hare does not like open spaces, but strives to hide somewhere. And since there is nowhere to hide, then the hares will not come.
In addition to the above measures, you can resort to one more. After all, winter is coming, and all living beings want to eat. I advise you to plant plants around the perimeter of the site that the hares can like. After all, if they find food outside the garden, then there will be no point in climbing into the fence.
The precautions work, and for several years not a single hare broke into my garden. I must say that these measures were much more effective than the use of traps, snares and weapons.
Tikhomirova L. A. Vladimir region
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As a result, I get the protection of trees from rodents, drafts, hares and frost. In mid-April, I remove the protection until next autumn. By years of experience I can say the following: none of the seedlings (and I have 25 of them) during the application of such protection did not freeze and did not suffer from uninvited guests.
Reply
Protection of apple trees from rodents in cold period year is an important and rather difficult task for every gardener. This is due to the fact that for effective protection young trees need to spend a lot of time and at the same time involve required amount resources. The most common rodents that cause the most harm to young seedlings are: mice, hares and wild rabbits. They love the young bark of apple trees because it is nutritious and readily available to them. Most often, rodents gnaw on the bark and roots of apple trees in late winter and early spring, when resistant low temperatures and they can't find food. Hares and rabbits gnaw at the bark around the root collar, and mice gnaw at the roots. Rodents can gnaw the bark on one side or along the entire diameter of the trunk, which is very dangerous for young trees. Moreover, if the bark is gnawed along the entire diameter of the trunk, then it is almost impossible to cure the trees. Therefore, it is very important to know how to properly protect apple trees from rodents in winter.
Prevention of damage to apple trees by rodents
Prevention of damage to the bark of apple trees is very important, because it allows you to keep the garden whole and healthy. To the main preventive measures relate:
- In autumn, be sure to collect all the leaves, weeds and debris. This must be done so that mice do not start.
- Before winter, you need to dig the entire garden or around the crown of each tree. Digging is done to the depth of a shovel, while the depth of digging at the trunk should be such as not to damage the roots.
- At the end of autumn or at the beginning of winter, when stable frosts have already been established, it is necessary to wrap the trunks of young apple trees with protective material. It is necessary to wrap in such a way that the entire trunk from the ground to the branches is reliably protected, while it is desirable that the main part of the lower branches is also protected. Any material can be used as a protective material, preferably light colors, this will reduce the heating of the barrel in sunny days. Often used as a protective material agrofibre, white burlap (polypropylene bags), nylon stockings. Such protection is quite effective, as it allows you to save important parts of a young tree from rodents. Do not wrap apple trees with black protective materials, as they heat up very quickly in the sun. It is also not necessary to wrap young trees with straw and other organic products that can encourage mice.
- good protection young garden a reliable fence can serve, although if a lot of snow falls, then hares can jump over it.
- Wild rodents are afraid of sounds they do not understand, so you can additionally use plastic bottles as tools to create noise. They need to be cut and hung on the branches of young trees, with the slightest breath of wind it will be created noise unbearable for rodents that will drive them away. But here you need to understand that unbearable hunger at the end of winter can overcome their fear.
- They are quite reliable chemicals repel rodents from seedlings. Such drugs can be purchased at any garden store. In addition, in the presence of creolin and sawdust, you can independently prepare a mixture to repel rodents. To do this, soak the sawdust with creolin and spread the mixture around the seedlings with a roller.
- To protect against mice, you need to trample the snow around each tree, as these rodents move under it. You need to trample down the snow within a radius of a meter, after each big snowfall.
Protecting young apple trees from rodents is a responsible business that needs to be done every year, even if rodents have not previously gnawed at the bark. In my garden, young apple trees have been growing safely for decades without any protection, but in one year so many young seedlings have been damaged. Therefore, it is very important to be always ready to prevent losses, even if there is no visible danger.
Both adults and children know that apples are a storehouse of vitamins and minerals that are useful to consume throughout the year, including winter period. But in order to maintain the quality of the fruits, you need to make some efforts. Apple trees in winter need protection from hares, mice and other rodents, which damage future crops and can even kill trees.
Rodents - a threat to apple trees
November - December is a difficult period for gardeners, as it involves a thorough preparation of the garden for wintering, the main point of which is the protection of trees and shrubs not only from temperature extremes, but also from the constant raids of hungry rodents.
by the most dangerous pests for apple trees, especially annual young shoots, mice, hares, water voles and wild rabbits are in winter. nibbling tree bark in a circle slightly above the level of the snow cover, they leave the trunk almost bare, which subsequently leads to the death of the tree, since the bark is a conductor of moisture and nutrients. Rodents are especially active and hungry in February and March. First of all, they damage apple trees and shadberry, touch apricots, plums, cherries much less often, because stone fruit trees the bark is bitter. Rodents also do not particularly favor a pear.
Photo gallery: from whom to protect apple trees in winter
Water vole can severely damage the root neck of an apple tree
The mouse usually gnaws a tree, making its way under the snow.
A wild rabbit, like a hare, destroys the bark of an apple tree
Methods for protecting the apple tree from rodents
Fencing and wrapping
If hares and mice became frequent guests personal plot, trees need to be protected as much as possible from periodic raids and attacks. This can be done by first enclosing the trunk of each tree or shoot with a metal wire mesh. For this purpose, a fine mesh about 120 cm high is best suited. It is advisable to bury it in the soil by 30 cm.
A fine mesh of metal wire will protect the tree from rodents
You can use a soft plastic mesh to protect trees. It does not interfere with light transmission and air circulation. Having cut the mesh to the size of the tree, we wrap it around the trunk, and fasten it with wire or rope from above.
Before the first frost, you can also wrap the trunks with polyethylene or roofing material. However, when a thaw occurs, you should not delay removing such protective wrappers in order to avoid overheating. It is worth shooting them in rainy or cloudy weather, since direct sunlight on the overheated bark can lead to burns and drying of the branches. If you are not sure that you can remove polyethylene or roofing felt in time, use better natural sugar burlap. It perfectly passes air and in the spring you don’t have to worry that the material will overheat, forming a too sharp temperature drop.
You can use plastic mesh bags (from potatoes or onions). Wrap them around tree trunks a few centimeters thick and at least 1 m high.
The simplest, but no less reliable option would be winding with ordinary spruce branches. Lapnik lets air through, but the procedure itself is rather troublesome. Needles must necessarily stick down, especially at the bottom of the trunk. To Bottom part the tree was reliably protected, the earth should be more densely raked up to the spruce branches.
Spruce branches (lapnik) - the simplest, but reliable way protection of a tree trunk from rodents
It is recommended to wrap the trunks of apple trees with spruce branches at least 80 cm high. Then you need to tie the spruce branches with ropes so that they do not crumble. You can wrap the trunks over the spruce branches polyethylene film. In this case, the film will not prevent the tree from breathing, but will protect it from rodents. Also, on top of the spruce branches, you can make a fence made of plastic or metal mesh, which is desirable to be deepened into the ground by 25–35 cm.
Needles of spruce branches should stick down, especially at the bottom of the trunk
A good way to protect the trunks of an apple tree from rodents in winter time serve as ordinary nylon tights. They are also wrapped around tree trunks. Since the bark of the tree does not fade under the nylon, unlike polyethylene, there is no need to remove the wrapping from tights at the first sign of a thaw. The undoubted advantage of this method is the safety of use and additional protection from spring sunburn. You can wrap trees with pantyhose long before the onset of cold weather. The only drawback of the method is the high cost. If there are few trees in the garden, then you may be able to find a sufficient amount of old tights. If there are a lot of trees, then you can wrap young seedlings with pantyhose, and use some other method to protect old apple trees. Usually, mice and hares do not gnaw the trunks of old trees, since a too thick layer of dead, coarsened bark does not attract them, rodents are looking for tender food.
Instead of tights, you can use a special non-woven material, the cost of which is much cheaper. The tree trunk is wrapped in a spiral in several layers. nonwoven fabric will protect apple trees not only from rodents, but also from sudden changes in temperature.
Repellents
By their nature, hares are very timid animals, so ordinary large black ones will be a good way to scare them away. plastic bags. They need to be hung next to the trees or on the lower branches. Creating a rustle with every gust of wind, the bags will serve as an appropriate imitation of a scarecrow in the fight against uninvited rodents.
You can hang black cardboard circles with a diameter of about 150 mm on the lower branches of trees (2-3 pieces per tree). They are very different against the background of snow and when the wind moves, they scare away with their movement.
Can be cut from cans from under the carbonated drinks tape and twist them in a spiral. Then hang them on the lower branches of trees so that when the wind blows, they hit each other. Alternative option- bright woven ribbons (preferably red).
You can hang plastic bottles with holes on the lower branches by putting naphthalene tablets in them. Its pungent odor will repel rodents. During the winter period, it is advisable to renew the tablets several times.
The pungent smell of mothballs perfectly repels rodents
Coating and spraying
A reliable and proven remedy against hares is smearing boles with a mixture of clay and fresh mullein in a 1: 1 ratio. The mixture must be diluted with water to a creamy state, and to enhance the effect, you can add a tablespoon of carbolic acid. Also, mullein can be mixed with freshly slaked lime in the same proportions. Bring to a thick state by adding water and apply the mixture to the trunks.
Special whitewash materials repel rodents, for example, water-dispersion paint VD-KCh-577 (GOST 28196-89). It will take 30 g of paint per 1 sq. m for a young tree, 150 g for a fruiting tree. Apply to the trunk of an apple tree in one layer with a brush or pneumatic sprayer. Drying time - 1 hour.
To scare away rodents, you can apply special whitewash materials to the trunk of an apple tree, for example, water-dispersion paint VD-KCh-577 (GOST 28196-89)
Mice don't like blue vitriol either. They process trees late autumn. In addition, copper sulfate protects against fungal diseases. For 10 liters of water you need 100 g of the drug. It is recommended to start this procedure on a calm day in November, when the leaves have already fallen. If your garden consists of young trees up to 6 years old, you will need up to 2 liters of solution blue vitriol for one fruit seedling and up to 10 liters for an adult fruit-bearing apple tree. Since this solution is an aggressive preparation, it must be diluted away from animals, and at the same time ensure that residues do not fall into wells and other sources of water supply. After work, wash your hands and face with soap and rinse your mouth.
When the ground begins to freeze slightly, you can spray the trees with a one percent solution of Bordeaux mixture. Its smell is unpleasant to rodents, so they are unlikely to approach the site. In addition, the larvae and pupae of wintering insect pests will be destroyed. To prepare 10 liters of Bordeaux liquid, you need to dissolve 100 g of copper sulfate in glassware in a small amount warm water. Then add cold water to get 5 liters. In another container, extinguish 150 g of quicklime in advance with 5 liters of water, then strain the milk of lime. In a cold solution of milk of lime, you need to pour a solution of copper sulfate and mix thoroughly.
Properly prepared Bordeaux liquid will blue color and no cereal.
If you have prepared the Bordeaux liquid correctly, it will be a bright blue color and without flakes.
The treatment of trees with a solution of Bordeaux liquid is recommended to be carried out in November in calm weather. It is necessary to spray apple trees evenly from the base of the trunk to the upper shoots of the crown. Drying, the liquid gives the trees a light blue color. On the mature tree you will need 8 liters of liquid, and for a young one - 2-3 liters.
Rodents do not tolerate the smell of fat, fish oil, naphthalene, blood.
You can coat the branches of the apple tree with lard or a mixture of fish oil and naphthalene (8: 1). Such treatments must be repeated after each newly fallen snow.
An excellent method of protection against rodents is to lay out sawdust, pre-impregnated with creolin or lysol, under the crowns of trees. repellent chemical composition it is necessary to dilute at the rate of 50 g per 10 liters of water and moisten the sawdust with plenty of it. During the winter, the procedure should be repeated 3-4 times. Such a solution can also be mixed with 2-3 kg of clay and treated with boles.
Lures
The laying out of baits containing poisons in their composition is effective way. However, it should be borne in mind that they are not safe for pets, so poisonous agents should be used with extreme caution. For example, Efa is a well-known effective pesticide against mice and rats. Due to the properties of the active substance latest generation to receive lethal dose rodents will only need to eat the bait once or twice.
Pour 5–10 g (1–2 tsp) of Efa bait onto cardboard or polyethylene and spread both in rodent burrows and on the soil surface near tree trunks. The bait must be added as it is eaten. The death of rodents occurs a few days after eating the bait.
Efa - an effective pesticide against mice and rats
Lures can be made independently. For example, by mixing equal parts sugar, flour and alabaster or cement. And if you add a drop to this mixture sunflower oil, then it will become especially desirable for mice. However, baits will have to be updated from time to time.
Ultrasound
Repelling rodents with ultrasonic waves is effective, but completely impractical in winter, as it requires a constant power supply or frequent battery changes. Applying ultrasonic tool, it should also be taken into account that wave propagation affects a limited perimeter and does not pass through walls and other types of fences.
Folk ways
Bunches of mint tied to a tree or spearmint oil added to the paste is effective tool from all rodents, including mice and rats. Mint has a strong smell and therefore rodents do not tolerate it. A similar effect has an elder or marsh rosemary grass hung on the trunk.
And to prevent the movement of mice under the snow, you need to thoroughly trample it around the tree. In such a dense snow floor, mice are deprived of the opportunity to move freely. It is advisable to do this by pouring several layers of snow. The ice crust formed after this will not allow mice to make minks and manholes in the snow, and will reliably protect the roots of the tree.
Plastic bottles
Plastic bottles can be used to protect the trunks of young trees from rodents. Cut off their bottom and neck, cut lengthwise, clasp the stem of a young tree and secure with twine. Bury the base into the soil. It is important that the trunk of a young tree is thin, that is, that the plastic bottle does not wrap around it too tightly. In addition, during thaws, moisture will accumulate around the barrel under the bottle, which can lead to decay. Therefore, it is important not to miss the moment of thaw and remove all the bottles in time.
Plastic bottles can be used to protect the trunks of young trees.
Creeping apple tree protection
A creeping or slate apple tree differs from a stem apple tree by short stature and sprawling branches with an almost complete absence of a trunk. During wintering, tree branches are pressed as low as possible to the ground and, depending on the thickness of the branches, are securely fixed with poles or metal pipes. Plastic bottles with slotted holes are dug under the tree trunk. They contain poisonous bait. Slate trees hibernate under snow cover and, if necessary, are covered with special nets to protect against rodents.
It is also advisable to use herbs that repel rodents (mint, elderberry grass or wild rosemary), which are tied to branches.
Video: how to protect an apple tree from rodents in winter
Treatment methods for rodent-damaged trees
Engraftment of the bark
The method of engrafting a healthy bark onto a bare area of the trunk is enough complex process and does not always positive results. For a patch, they take a branch of the same tree and, using sharp knife remove the bark from it, adjusting the size of the damaged area. Then the place for engraftment is cleaned with a knife from irregularities. New bark is applied in accordance with the direction of bark growth on the stem. The engraftment site must be tightly wound with PVC tape, while capturing the healthy bark of the trunk along the upper and lower parts by at least 5 cm. After such an operation, the tree is provided with regular watering and top dressing. The composition of fertilizers depends on the soil and apple variety. A similar method is most effective to produce before the start of sap flow.
Vaccinations
A simple method of rescuing a damaged seedling is grafting with a bridge. In early spring before the sap flow begins, clean the damaged edges to a healthy tissue. Cut off last year's shoots from the tree, prepare cuttings from them 7 cm longer than the damaged area of the bark, and then sharpen 2 cm obliquely on each side. Drive the branches under the bark below and above the damaged area with the cut side towards the trunk. The number of cuttings for grafting depends on the thickness of the tree. If the stem diameter is up to 5 cm, 2 cuttings will suffice. If the diameter is about 10 cm, you will need 4-5 pieces. Then wrap the bridge with plastic wrap, tie it with twine and cover it with garden pitch - a paste designed to treat wounds on trees after pruning and when the bark breaks. The cuttings will take root and become a kind of tree donor, i.e., they will be fed from the roots to the crown.
After a few years, the shoots you grafted will become thicker and grow together with each other.
Bridge grafting can save rodent-damaged seedlings
You can save the tree in another way. Plant a wild bird next to the damaged apple tree. Sharpen its tip sharply and put it under the bark of the seedling above the damaged area.
Stem cutting method for reverse growth
This method is the most radical, since it involves sawing off the damaged trunk above the lowest kidney (1–2 cm above the kidney). It is important to cut the tree before the buds begin to bloom, and also not to damage the bud that remains. To in spring period the sawn stump did not begin to germinate at the site of the diseased cut, it is covered with garden pitch.
Var helps to heal damaged areas, protecting against germs and negative impact environment.
Garden pitch will help heal damaged areas of the tree and protect against germs.
If the roots of the sawn tree are strong enough and developed, then new shoots will go in the spring. However, this method will not bring a positive effect to a young tree with an undeveloped root system. Reverse cutting is recommended for trees older than 5 years.
Other recovery methods
A decoction of linden bark heals trees damaged by rodents. In early spring, grind 200 g of bark into pieces of 10-15 cm, pour 1 liter of cold water and boil for 40 minutes. Cool, strain and carefully coat the wounds of the trees with the resulting mass. Wrap the damaged trunk on top with thick paper and tie with twine. Do not remove the bandage for several months until the wounds heal.
Clay mash can be used as a healing and healing "balm". To prepare it, you need to pour 0.5 buckets of clay into a ten-liter bucket and pour water 1-2 cm above it. Within a few hours, the clay swells and the lumps dissolve. The mass must be stirred several times. If the water is absorbed and disappears, add a little more. After 1-2 hours, the clay turns into a thick mass. We carefully coat the damaged trees and wrap them with cotton cloth. When the new bark begins to grow on the damaged areas, the tissue will spread on it and will not make constrictions in the places where it is located. That is why it is very important to use shreds of cotton fabric for this procedure. If you take, for example, silk material, then it will not tear when the bark grows. The cloth should not be removed until August, until all wounds have healed.
Video: how to save a tree after being damaged by hares and rodents
It is problematic to save trees damaged by rodents. No method of restoration will give a full guarantee that a cured tree will be able to bear fruit in the future. Therefore, it is extremely important to take care of apple trees in time, preparing them for winter and protecting them from rodents and hares. There are many protection methods today, so every gardener can choose a few suitable ones for himself. The more effort you make in November - December, the more likely it is that uninvited guests will not spoil the apple trees planted with love.