Treatment of fruit trees with urea

Only a well-groomed garden looks beautiful. Therefore, gardeners have to monitor their fruit trees every year: prune, whiten the trunks, treat and spray the crowns. One of the best fertilizers for fruit trees is urea, which is also called urea. Spraying the garden with urea solves several problems at once: plants receive the necessary trace elements and protection from most pests.

This article is devoted to how urea is used for fruit trees, what it consists of, what benefits it brings to the garden. Here you can also learn about the important features of such a fertilizer as urea, how to prepare the garden for processing, how to properly spray.

Characteristics of urea

Spraying fruit urea is considered one of the most effective garden fertilization methods. Carbamide is an organic substance, although it looks and is used as a mineral supplement. The colorless fertilizer crystals are odorless carbonic acid amides.

Carbamide is a universal remedy used not only for plant nutrition, but also for the prevention or destruction of insects. Urea granules contain an extremely high amount of nitrogen – more than 45%. The particles of this fertilizer quickly decompose in the soil under the influence of live bacteria and microorganisms, therefore, in an extremely short time, they reach the roots and saturate the plants with useful substances.

Outwardly, urea is very similar to saltpeter, but unlike it, it does not burn the leaves, so it can be safely used for spraying the crown. Granules dissolve very easily in water, but it is better to use water heated to 70-80 degrees. The resulting solution is perfectly distributed over the treated plant, quickly absorbed by all its parts.

Rules for working with carbamide

Before spraying fruit trees and shrubs with urea, you should familiarize yourself with the important rules for working with this substance. So, when choosing carbamide as a fertilizer, the gardener should know the following:

1. Urea, in fact, is an organic compound, but it is customary to refer to the group of mineral nitrogenous fertilizers.
2. Carbamide fertilizer begins to act immediately, and the treatment has a lasting effect.

   

3. As a fertilizer, the introduction of granules directly into the soil is more effective, spraying the crown is more appropriate for the prevention and control of pests.
4. You can use urea on any soil, fertilizer works well in greenhouses or greenhouses.
5. Carbamide is very effective on soils subject to waterlogging.
6. Urea is the safest way to treat the crown in the summer heat – even a solution that is too concentrated will not burn the leaves.
7. One of the properties of carbamide is a slight slowdown in the vegetation process – the treated plants begin to bloom later, which reduces the risk of damage to the ovaries by return frosts (this quality can be used for early varieties of peaches, plums, cherries or apricots).

   

8. The nitrogen composition can be applied during bud break on fruit trees, which saves plants from many spring insects and early diseases.
9. It is strictly forbidden to mix urea with other fertilizers, both mineral and organic.
10. In the soil, urea is converted to ammonium carbonate (ammonium carbonate).

Preparing the garden for spraying

The very first treatment of the year should begin with the preparation of the garden.  In early spring, they audit the garden and perform some preventive actions:

• carry out pruning of damaged, dry and frostbitten shoots;
• dig up or loosen the soil around fruit trees;
• check the integrity of the bark on the trees and, if necessary, clean the dead areas with a metal brush;
• make an audit of cracks in the bark and identify clusters of insects in them – pests must be destroyed before treating the garden with urea;
• collect last year’s fallen leaves, dry grass and other debris with a rake, which can become a habitat for larvae and bacteria.

Carbamide against insects

As already mentioned, urea is a universal remedy that not only saturates the earth with nitrogen, but also helps in the fight against garden pests. Spraying fruit trees with a solution of carbamide is an effective prophylaxis, which is recommended to be carried out in the spring.

It is necessary to start spraying the crown in early spring, as soon as the air temperature rises to 5 degrees. Until the fruit buds have blossomed, the insects are in a state of hibernation, they are inactive and lend themselves well to processing.

Attention! Urea is not able to cope with all pests, but actively fights the most common and dangerous of them (aphids, sucker, apple flower beetle, weevils).

For spraying fruit trees, it is necessary to prepare a solution by diluting about 600 grams of urea in 10 liters of hot water. When calculating the total amount of the solution, you need to follow the recommendation: about 10 liters of diluted urea will be required per 2,5 square meters of the garden.

The treatment of those fruit trees that were very sick or actively affected by insects last season will be especially effective. Of the diseases of the garden, urea lends itself to the following:

• monilial burn;
• scab;
• purple spotting.

A solution of urea is not able to completely destroy the causative agents of these diseases, but it leads to inhibition of bacteria that lose their ability to reproduce. That’s why it is very important to spray as early as possible before infections begin to spread.

The same substance can be sprayed on fallen leaves before winter, for example, when dry leaves are used to shelter plants and their roots from frost.

Carbamide as a fertilizer for the garden

As a rule, experienced gardeners use a solution of urea both as a fertilizer and for the prevention of diseases and pests. For spraying, it is important to choose suitable time:

• the air temperature should be above +5 degrees;
• ants crawl near the trunks of fruit trees (precursors of aphids and other pests);
• the garden is cleared, the damaged shoots are cut off, the soil is dug up;
• sunny and windless day.

If all conditions are met, you can start preparing the solution. It is necessary to work with organic matter in a protective suit, mask, goggles and gloves.  For spraying old trees, it is recommended to use a special sprayer with a long rod nozzle. A stable stepladder will also help the gardener.

There is A few tips for beginner gardeners:

1. If the task is to both fertilize the soil and destroy insects, then it is better to mix urea with copper sulfate: 700 grams of granules + 50 grams of copper sulfate + 10 liters of water.
2. No need to spare the solution – urea is not able to harm fruit plants.
3. The first spraying should be carried out before bud break, the second treatment should coincide with the flowering of fruit trees, and the third time the garden is treated immediately after the appearance of the ovaries.
4. If it rained within a day after spraying, the treatment of the plants will have to be repeated.
5. Additionally, you can carry out root treatment of fruit trees with urea. To do this, granules are poured under the tree and the plant is abundantly watered with water. The calculation of the amount of fertilizer depends on the type of plant and its age (usually apple trees need about 230 grams of granules, and cherries and plums – no more than 150 grams per tree).
6. If, in addition to carbamide, some organic fertilizers were used, its dose should be reduced by a third, or even by half (depending on the quantity and quality of organic matter).

Conclusion

Treatment of fruit trees with urea is today considered one of the most effective and safe methods of pest control and soil fertilization in the garden. The solution of urea does not lead to leaf burn, so it can be used at any stage of plant vegetation. As a nitrogenous fertilizer, both a solution and granules of this substance can be used (in the latter case, the earth should be watered abundantly).

Urea is a versatile and affordable tool that is great for beginner gardeners.