Tree paint

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Tree paint on the base of a Norway maple in Chisinau, Moldova MD.C.C - Paltin de cimp, Mateevici 81 - may 2016 - 02.jpg
Tree paint on the base of a Norway maple in Chișinău, Moldova

Tree paint, also known as wound dressing, is any substance applied to damaged surfaces of a tree intended to improve its health. It is commonly applied after pruning, or at locations where the tree bark has been damaged. [1]

Contents

Description

White tree paint on trees along a road in Hefei, China HFUT Road.jpg
White tree paint on trees along a road in Hefei, China

Tree guard paints are sold as organic and non-organic products. Some gardeners use a light-colored interior latex-based paint diluted with 50% water.

Both summer sunburn and winter sun scald can cause the tree's bark to crack or die, resulting in additional stress which is compounded by insects and parasites that enter the barkless wood, an invasion that will ultimately shorten the tree's life. Tree paint or whitewash protects against this. [2]

Some tree paints, depending on ingredients, also protect against insects and rodents. For example, neem oil has been used by Indian farmers for thousands of years as a natural insect repellent and insecticide. A diluted neem oil spray repels insects and smothers those that come into contact with it, ultimately killing most insects that ingest the product within 1–3 days.[ citation needed ]

Castor oil, derived from the castor tree seed, gives a coated surface an unpleasant taste to rodents, such as rats, moles, voles, and gophers that may otherwise gnaw on the tree's bark. [3]

Tree paint may help to prevent disease-carrying insects from entering a wounded tree. [4] Studies have shown that wound dressing must be applied immediately after damage or pruning. Even a delay of three days can be too long. [1]

White tree paint is commonly applied to citrus trees to keep the affected tissues from overheating, as dark-colored paint can raise the surface temperature of the treated tissues. The classic tree paint is black, because it is based on an asphalt emulsion.

Tree paint may be applied using spray cans, paint guns, or brushes.

An organic tree paint can be made; it is similar to a brushable mud.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Paint is a material or mixture that, when applied to a solid material and allowed to dry, adds a film-like layer. As art, this is used to create an image or images known as a painting. Paint can be made in many colors and types. Most paints are either oil-based or water-based, and each has distinct characteristics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Varnish</span> Transparent hard protective finish or film

Varnish is a clear transparent hard protective coating or film. It is not to be confused with wood stain. It usually has a yellowish shade due to the manufacturing process and materials used, but it may also be pigmented as desired. It is sold commercially in various shades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lacquer</span> Liquid or powder coating material which is applied thinly to objects to form a hard finish

Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fire blight</span> Disease of some Rosaceae trees (especially apples and pears) caused by Erwinia amylovora

Fire blight, also written fireblight, is a contagious disease affecting apples, pears, and some other members of the family Rosaceae. It is a serious concern to apple and pear producers. Under optimal conditions, it can destroy an entire orchard in a single growing season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enamel paint</span> Paint with a glossy finish that dries hard

Enamel paint is paint that air-dries to a hard, usually glossy, finish, used for coating surfaces that are outdoors or otherwise subject to hard wear or variations in temperature; it should not be confused with decorated objects in "painted enamel", where vitreous enamel is applied with brushes and fired in a kiln. The name is something of a misnomer, as in reality most commercially available enamel paints are significantly softer than either vitreous enamel or stoved synthetic resins, and are totally different in composition; vitreous enamel is applied as a powder or paste and then fired at high temperature. There is no generally accepted definition or standard for use of the term "enamel paint", and not all enamel-type paints may use it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mulch</span> Layer of material applied to the surface of soil

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitewash</span> Paint made from lime and chalk

Whitewash, calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk (calcium carbonate, CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oil paint</span> Type of slow-drying paint

Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. For several centuries the oil painting has been perhaps the most prestigious form in Western art, but oil paint has many practical uses, mainly because it is waterproof.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neem oil</span> Vegetable oil from the Indian neem tree

Neem oil, also known as margosa oil, is a vegetable oil pressed from the fruits and seeds of the neem, a tree which is indigenous to the Indian subcontinent and has been introduced to many other areas in the tropics. It is the most important of the commercially available products of neem, and its chemical properties have found widespread use as a pesticide in organic farming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Girdling</span> Removal of the bark from around the entire circumference

Girdling, also called ring-barking, is the circumferential removal or injury of the bark of a branch or trunk of a woody plant. Girdling prevents the tree from sending nutrients from its foliage to its roots, resulting in the death of the tree over time, and can also prevent flow of nutrients in the other direction depending on how much of the xylem is removed. A branch completely girdled will fail and when the main trunk of a tree is girdled, the entire tree will die, if it cannot regrow from above to bridge the wound. Human practices of girdling include forestry, horticulture, and vandalism. Foresters use the practice of girdling to thin forests. Extensive cankers caused by certain fungi, bacteria or viruses can girdle a trunk or limb. Animals such as rodents will girdle trees by feeding on outer bark, often during winter under snow. Girdling can also be caused by herbivorous mammals feeding on plant bark and by birds and insects, both of which can effectively girdle a tree by boring rows of adjacent holes.

In horticulture, lime sulfur (lime sulphur in British English, see American and British English spelling differences) is mainly a mixture of calcium polysulfides and thiosulfate (plus other reaction by-products as sulfite and sulfate) formed by reacting calcium hydroxide with elemental sulfur, used in pest control. It can be prepared by boiling in water a suspension of poorly soluble calcium hydroxide (lime) and solid sulfur together with a small amount of surfactant to facilitate the dispersion of these solids in water. After elimination of residual solids (flocculation, decantation, and filtration), it is normally used as an aqueous solution, which is reddish-yellow in colour and has a distinctive offensive odor of hydrogen sulfide (H2S, rotten eggs).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heart rot</span> Fungal disease of trees

In trees, heart rot is a fungal disease that causes the decay of wood at the center of the trunk and branches. Fungi enter the tree through wounds in the bark and decay the heartwood. The diseased heartwood softens, making trees structurally weaker and prone to breakage. Heart rot is a major factor in the economics of logging and the natural growth dynamic of many older forests. Heart rot is prevalent throughout the world affecting all hardwood trees and can be very difficult to prevent. A good indication of heart rot is the presence of mushrooms or fungus conks on the tree.

A bridge graft is a grafting technique used to re-establish the supply of nutrients to the rootstock of a woody perennial when the full thickness of the bark has been removed from part of the trunk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wash (visual arts)</span> A background in an artwork created by applying dilute colour

A wash is a term for a visual arts technique resulting in a semi-transparent layer of colour. A wash of diluted ink or watercolor paint applied in combination with drawing is called pen and wash, wash drawing, or ink and wash. Normally only one or two colours of wash are used; if more colours are used the result is likely to be classified as a full watercolor painting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Branch collar</span> German term: a part of a tree

A branch collar is the "shoulder" between the branch and trunk of woody plants; the inflammation formed at the base of the branch is caused by annually overlapping trunk tissue. The shape of the branch collar is due to two separate growth patterns, initially the branch grows basipetally, followed by seasonal trunk growth which envelops the branch.

<i>Neonectria ditissima</i> Species of fungus

Neonectria ditissima is a fungal plant pathogen. It causes cankers that can kill branches of trees by choking them off. Apple and beech trees are two susceptible species.

Acrylic painting techniques are different styles of manipulating and working with polymer-based acrylic paints. Acrylics differ from oil paints in that they have shorter drying times and are soluble in water. Since this type of paint dries quickly you will need to work somewhat quickly if you do not want your paint to dry out. There are benefits to adding water before it dries out completely because you can reactivate the paint. These types of paint eliminate the need for turpentine and gesso, and can be applied directly onto canvas. Although they do not need gesso it can be beneficial to give your canvas a few coats of gesso to improve the life of the painting and have a smoother surface to work with. Having various paint brushes and a multi color palette is helpful in finding a technique that works for you. Aside from painting with concentrated color paints, acrylics can also be watered down to a consistency that can be poured or used for glazes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conservation and restoration of paintings</span> Preservation of heritage collections

The conservation and restoration of paintings is carried out by professional painting conservators. Paintings cover a wide range of various mediums, materials, and their supports. Painting types include fine art to decorative and functional objects spanning from acrylics, frescoes, and oil paint on various surfaces, egg tempera on panels and canvas, lacquer painting, water color and more. Knowing the materials of any given painting and its support allows for the proper restoration and conservation practices. All components of a painting will react to its environment differently, and impact the artwork as a whole. These material components along with collections care will determine the longevity of a painting. The first steps to conservation and restoration is preventive conservation followed by active restoration with the artist's intent in mind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polka-dot paint</span>

Polka dot paint is a paint of "polka dot color", i.e., a paint which paints an object with a polka dot pattern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chalk paint</span> Water-based paint made with chalk

Chalk paint is a water-based, decorative paint invented by Annie Sloan which may be applied over almost any surface. It requires very little preparation and needs a topcoat to avoid flaking. Chalk paints are also used by utility companies to mark road surfaces.

References

  1. 1 2 Juzwik, Jennifer, French, D.W., Jeresek, Jon, Overland Spread of the Oak Wilt Fungus in Minnesota, Journal of Arboriculture 11(11): November 1985 323
  2. "California Agriculture PDF" (PDF). ucce.ucdavis.edu. June 1970. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  3. "Organic Tree Paint". www.thegardenacademy.com. Archived from the original on 2015-05-08.
  4. A Guide to Successful Pruning, Pruning Deciduous Trees