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It is necessary to protect apple trees in winter not only from frost, but also from rodents. The bark of apple and pear trees is to the taste not only of common voles, but also of wood mice and hares. There are especially many mice in warm years. In order to protect your garden from pests, you need to know how to protect apple trees from mice in winter.
Mice begin to raid gardens after the onset of cold weather, when it becomes increasingly difficult to find food in the surrounding fields.
Rodent damage
Rodents, despite their size, can cause enormous damage to trees. Most of all they prefer the bark of apple trees or pears, but if they cannot get close to them, they choose cherries or plums. Due to the presence of a slight bitterness, rodents do not like the taste of stone fruit bark. The invasion of mice and hares is especially dangerous for young apple trees and seedlings. Feeding on bark and buds, they expose the trunk and disrupt the natural growth processes of the tree. After all, the bark performs the most important functions:
- it protects the apple tree from various diseases and numerous pests;
- the bark helps ensure the continuous movement of nutrients and water.
Most often, mice gnaw at the bark in a vertical strip on one side of a tree trunk. But it happens that they gnaw out the bark of a seedling from all sides, which is fraught with its death – the connection of the root system with the crown of the tree stops.
Inoculation by the bridge
This type of grafting is used when the tree has received too much damage. It often happens that in cold winters, mice gnaw the bark on apple trees from all sides. As a result, the movement of nutrients is disrupted, and the tree may die. Bridge grafting helps save such trees. If the trunk is only partially bare, you can simply treat this area with Bordeaux liquid and lubricate with garden pitch.
Any trees can be grafted with a bridge if their trunk diameter reaches 3 cm.
Preparation of cuttings
- They can be harvested in late autumn after pruning trees or in early spring. But you can’t immediately plant a cut stalk on a tree – it simply won’t take root. The grafting material is stored in a dark room, cuttings are immersed in wet sand or sawdust. You can store cuttings in the basement. If there is no basement, you need to wrap them in a damp cloth and put them in the refrigerator. During storage, care must be taken to ensure that the fabric does not dry out, and the cuttings do not germinate.
- The thickness of the scion depends on the area of damage. If the height of the damaged area is not more than 5 cm, branches up to 4 mm in diameter are taken. If you have to take cuttings of a larger diameter, you need to make sure that they are flexible and bend easily.
- The number of scions depends on the diameter of the trunk. For seedlings with a diameter of 3 cm, two scions are enough, but an adult tree will need at least 8. The number of buds on the cuttings does not matter, since they are removed before the procedure. If you leave the buds on the scion, they will begin to grow and disrupt the conductive ability of the scion.
- Varieties of apple trees from which grafts are taken can be completely different. You can even take cuttings from wilds.
- When calculating the length of the cutting, it is necessary to take into account the width of the damaged area, the length of the cuts at the ends of the cutting and a tolerance of about 10 cm.
- The number of grafts intended for one tree must be even. The distance between them should not exceed one or, in extreme cases, two diameters of the handle.
Vaccination procedure
Grafting with a bridge is carried out during the period when sap is flowing, and the bark is easier to lag behind the trunk – in mid-latitudes this time usually falls on May. Up to this point, sections of trunks with ring damage must be protected from drying out, for which it is enough to cover them with natural drying oil or garden putty.
Particular attention should be paid to the processing of scions. Tools must be well sharpened and disinfected. At the ends of the cuttings, cuts with a very sharp angle must be made. The cut should be smooth, without roughness. Its length should be 4-5 times the diameter of the scion.
The procedure requires accuracy and precision:
- the bare part of the stem with a sharp garden knife is cleaned to a shine;
- a part of the bark is removed above and below the injury site – to a healthy area;
- retreating 1-2 cm from the edge of the bark, you need to make a cut in the form of the letter T – it should be symmetrical, above and below, and shallow;
- under the edges carefully bent with a knife, a cut of the prepared cutting is started, the edges of the bark are closed, smeared with garden pitch and fixed with a plaster – the cut should fit snugly against the trunk;
- in the same way, a cut of the second end of the scion is installed and fixed – the stalk should bend in a small arc.
After all the cuttings are grafted around the trunk circumference, it is recommended to tie the graft with a washcloth, then wrap it with roofing paper and sprinkle with sawdust. Bast will gradually overheat, so the bandage can not be removed. Do not apply too tight a bandage – it will interfere with the growth of the tree. Some gardeners tie with plastic tape – then, around the middle of summer, the bandage should be removed and the apple tree should be given the opportunity to harden for the winter.
If shoots grow from the buds on the cuttings, they need to be cut off. All flowers are also removed from the apple tree to reduce the load. If the wounds are inflicted in the lower part of the trunk, bridges must be placed from the root system to the trunk.
Preventive measures
Before taking measures to protect apple trees from rodents in winter, several preventive measures must first be taken.
Before the onset of cold weather, the garden should be cleared of fallen leaves, small twigs, and tree trimmings, since it is under them that mice hide.
While the soil has not yet frozen, tree trunks should be dug around the trees. But do not dig too deep, so as not to damage their root system.
After digging, you can immediately wrap the boles of trees with burlap or other covering material.
Cover material requirements
Shelter of apple boles in winter should provide not only protection from frost, but also from rodents, so the covering material must meet the following characteristics:
- it must have sufficient density;
- it is recommended to choose a light-colored fiber so that it reflects direct sunlight and protects the tree trunk from burns.
Dark-colored fiber should not be used as a covering material – it can cause overheating and damage to the tree. It is impossible to insulate the trunk with organic material, for example, straw – on the contrary, it will attract mice.
In recent years, agrofibre has become widespread as a covering material. The old improvised materials, such as nylon stockings and tights, have not lost their relevance.
It is necessary to wrap the trunk of an apple tree from mice carefully and carefully, making sure that there are no gaps left. The entire trunk is covered, starting from the very roots to the first skeletal branch. First, you need to rake the soil from the base of the apple tree to deepen the covering material, and then pour the soil.
Ways to protect apple trees from mice
In the arsenal of gardeners there are many ways to protect apple trees from mice.
Protection with odorous substances
Before sheltering apple trees from mice, their trunk can be coated with lime mortar with the addition of cryolin or tar – substances that have a sharp characteristic odor. But closer to spring, the smell already disappears. To protect apple trees from mice, placing sawdust soaked in odorous substances around its base will help. Today, the chemical industry can offer more odorous compounds with a persistent odor. Do not use oils, kerosene or grease – they can leave burns on the trunk of the apple tree.
Mice also cannot stand the smell of burning wool. During the winter, you can periodically hang pieces of singed wool on the branches of seedlings.
Coriander bundles spread under seedlings effectively protect apple trees from mice. You can simply plant this odorous seasoning under the trees in spring.
trunk wrap
A cheap method widely used by gardeners is tying an apple tree from rodents using spruce branches. Branches of spruce or juniper must be tied to the trunk with needles down. On top of the spruce branches, you can cover the apple tree from mice with a film or net. The tree will be provided with breathing, and access to rodents will be blocked.
Many gardeners advise wrapping the trunk of an apple tree from mice with an iron net. The shelter procedure should be carried out carefully so as not to injure the bark of the tree.
By wrapping the stem of an apple tree from mice with nylon tights, you can moisten them with a strongly odorous substance. Rodents cannot cope with such protection.
The use of roofing material
Sometimes, in order to protect the trunk of an apple tree from mice, it is tied with roofing material. However, one should not forget that:
- the dark color of the roofing material will lead to overheating and burns on the bark of the tree;
- it is necessary to prevent contact of the roofing material with the surface of the tree due to its impregnation with resin.
If you had to use roofing material as a covering material, you must take precautions – first wrap the bole with paper or burlap. The gap formed between them must be closed so that water does not flow there. Otherwise, when frozen, it will compress the tree. In the spring, as soon as the frosts go away, you need to quickly remove the roofing material, since it does not let air through.
other methods
Mice usually hide in the trunk circle. After the snow falls, it is necessary to compact it well in a diameter of 2 meters around the apple tree. It will be more difficult for mice to wade through a dense layer of snow.
Spraying trees with a solution of copper sulfate or Bordeaux liquid will scare away mice. For processing it is necessary to choose dry and sunny weather.
All rodents are shy and afraid of loud noises. Empty plastic bottles are hung on the branches of apple trees from mice, which create a noise background even with a slight movement of air. You can also cut the bottles into strips and hang them in the form of ribbons. However, at the end of winter, when it is especially difficult to feed, rodents may not be stopped by the sound of plastic bottles.
There are also anti-mouse electronic devices, the effectiveness of which depends on the area of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthe site.
Such an interesting method is also proposed, such as storing a piece of foliage, cut branches, and other plant residues in a certain place. A pit of food waste will distract the mice from the trees.
The video shows different ways to protect the garden:
Protection of apple trees from hares
Those who like to eat the bark of apple trees also include larger rodents – hares. They often eat bark to the level of their height. But there are effective ways to protect the apple tree from hares in winter.
A fence made of metal mesh is built around the apple tree from rodents. It needs to be deepened into the ground a little. Hares will not be able to gnaw through such a fence. At the same time, the mesh will not restrict the access of light and air, which will protect the apple tree from fungal diseases.
To save apple trees from rodents, some orchard owners resort to various tricks – they tie the trunk with spruce branches, and tie dog hair to coniferous branches. Hares do not even come close to such trees.
You can hide the lower part of the apple tree from mice, and tie ribbons smeared with tar to the upper branches. Its pungent odor will repel rodents.
Young seedlings from rodents can be protected with plastic bottles. Having cut off their ends, it is necessary to put them on the trunk and twigs, sprinkle them with snow from below so that mice cannot slip through.
A high and strong fence without gaps and tightly adjacent to the surface of the earth will prevent hares from getting into the site.
Excellent guards for the garden will be pets – cats and dogs. The smell of a cat will scare away mice, and hares will not dare to approach the house where dogs live.
Many, instead of an iron mesh, take artificial, fine-mesh, in which vegetables are stored. The mesh is wrapped around the trunk, and on top of it they are wrapped with insulating material.
If there is a reservoir near the apple trees, water rats can come from there.
To save the garden from this danger, it is necessary to dig ditches around the trees as deep as the bayonet of a shovel video:
To protect apple trees from rodents in winter, it is best to use several methods at the same time. Then the protection will be more effective, and the apple trees will winter safe and sound.