- Lime coat: Many positive effects
- Lime coat: when and how to apply?
- Make lime paint for trees yourself
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Young trees are often painted white in winter. The so-called lime coating not only helps to prevent frost damage, but also protects against browsing by game.
You can protect your fruit trees in winter with a coat of lime. In this article, we will explain what you need to watch out for, what materials you should use and how you can even make lime paints yourself.
Lime coat: Many positive effects
Lime coat against mold and co.
Lime is a natural product. Its naturally brilliant white color is often used as a pigment in paints. It is therefore well suited for painting fruit trees because its bright white reflects the sun's rays optimally.
Because of its high pH value, lime also has a strong alkaline effect and is therefore antibacterial. A coat of lime can therefore not only protect against frost damage, but also has a preventive effect against infections that can penetrate through cracks in the bark. Some preparations available on the market even contain small amounts of fungicides that protect our fruit trees from infection with fungal diseases.
Furthermore, lime can have a limited positive influence on soil conditions. Due to rain and dew, the lime paint is gradually washed away and carried to the ground by the seeping water. If the soil is too acidic, the washed-off lime can ensure a higher pH value and thus better growth conditions, at least in the environment close to the roots.
Lime coat as frost protection
In winter, temperatures are often icy despite the bright sunshine. This interaction can lead to stress cracks forming in the bark of our fruit trees. This happens when the bark on the sun-facing side heats up and expands, while the bark in the shade remains rigid. Young trees in particular are affected by this problem because their bark is still very thin and susceptible to injury.
You can protect your fruit trees from frost damage by applying a lime coat.The white color of the paint reflects the sun's rays, preventing rapid heating and expansion of the bark. There are no cracks and your fruit tree is protected from drying out and the ingress of pathogens.
In addition, a coat of lime slows down growth in the winter months due to the lower heat generation. This can delay the budding of flower buds from fruit trees. The risk of the vulnerable buds being injured by a late frost and thus losing yield is therefore lower.
Lime coat against deer browsing
In winter it is difficult for game to find food. The soft bark of young trees proves again and again to be a tasty change in the meager winter diet of the animals. A coat of lime makes the bark taste bitter and thus reduces the appetite of the game. Since the conductive vessels are found in the outer bark of trees, the transport of water and nutrients to the leaves can be completely destroyed and prevented in the event of bite damage. Consequently, in the worst case, the tree will die.
The following products have proven themselves on our trees:
- Shaft white coat: Lime coat for all trees and shrubs to protect against frost cracks with high-quality natural sea minerals.
- Lime paint: Biological and allergy-friendly swamp lime with antifungal effect.
- Neudorff organic tree paint: To protect your trees and shrubs from frost, deer browsing and fungal pathogens.
Schacht 1WEIS901 white paint 1 kg for fruit trees against frost cracks€11.99Details →
Lime paint / swamp lime. 30 m swamped. 100% organic. Allergy friendly… .€21.87Details →
NEUDORFF organic tree paint 2 l€12.90Details →
Lime coat: when and how to apply?
Before applying the lime paint, you should consider a few things. Young trees often have smooth bark. Here the lime coating can be applied directly, without further preparation. Older trees usually have a rough and brittle bark. Before applying the lime paint, the loose bark parts should be removed with a spatula or a blunt blade. If the bark is covered with lichen, it can be removed with a wire brush. HoweverLichens will be pushed out by the lime paint after a few weeks.
A simple brush can be used to apply the lime coat. Above all, the vertical parts of the plant should be provided with a thin layer of lime paint, the uneven irradiation is strongest here.
In principle, the lime coating can be applied all year round. The lime coat is worthwhile immediately after planting, because young trees in particular are susceptible to frost damage. The paint should be applied before the first frost so that the coating has the most effective protective effect possible in winter. This means that the color is minimally worn off during the critical cold season. To avoid rinsing the paint off immediately after application, a sunny and dry day is best for applying to the tree trunk. However, if the paint is too faded, you can of course reapply it at any time.
The following things must be observed when applying the lime paint:
- Process older trees with brittle bark and carefully remove detachable pieces
- Lime paint can be applied all year round
- For effective protection, apply in autumn before the first frost is ideal
- Select a day that is as dry and slightly sunny as possible for applying the lime paint - this is how the paint dries best
- Faded lime paint can be touched up at any time
Make lime paint for trees yourself
Lime paints are now available in many variants on the market. Anyone who prefers to decide for themselves which coat of paint their valuable fruit trees should get or is dependent on larger, cheaper quantities can fall back on a few well-tried recipes.
The best-known lime coating is milk of lime. For the production you need water, burnt lime and paste from the hardware store in a weight ratio of 8:2:1. The mixture should be stirred until it resembles a creamy emulsion. After stirring, allow the lime coat to swell for at least two hours to ensure adhesion to the bark.
Note: The color of the self-made whitewash may not be as bright white as that of the commercially available counterparts.
You can help with fertilization to ensure that your fruit trees bloom beautifully after the winter and bear plenty of fruit. See our article on fertilizing fruit trees for informationon timing and procedure.