MEK is the strongest solvent I use (methyl ethyl ketone - available at any hardware store) although paint remover will remove some things MEK won’t, if it sits on there for 1/2 hour. MEK will rapidly remove more things than acetone (which is the active ingredient in fingernail polish remover).
I think hot peppers have potential to reduce animal feeding (Even grizzly bears are somewhat repelled by bear mace.) But I suspect something really bitter would also reduce feeding.
I’ve found simple painting the trunks w/ latex will reduce rabbit gnawing, but we don’t have too much rabbit pressure here.
My kids showed me a video the other day of some guys eating a Carolina Reaper. Painful!
LOL! You know when you cut one of those CR peppers open you can smell them in the air immediately and it gags you instantly unless you have a mask on, these are not toys! I can’t wait to grow more, I have some new ones and actually a bunch of sweet peppers I want to try next year. I will be growing a lot more peppers than tomatoes next year.
I still have a few bell pepper type plants in the garage with about 6 peppers on them. I think I’m going to leave the plants, and see if they can survive the winter in the garage.
I have quite a few young trees, all less than 2 years old and I’d like to make sure they’re adequately protected from the scorching Florida sun. If I’m reading this correctly folks are painting with either a latex based or water based with a 1 to 1 water to paint ratio, is that correct? Should I wait until the trees break dormancy to paint, or does that not matter? Thanks.
I can’t imagine it would make a difference. I started out painting trunks to avoid SW winter injury, but quit years ago and not noticed any SW injury or sunscald on trunks in my area, but have had some sunscald on scaffolds, if I prune too aggressively in the summer.
Last fall I painted some trunks on very young trees because I noticed rabbits were really gnawing up peach prunings. I’ve had decent luck painting trunks w/ straight latex paint to discourage rabbits from gnawing them, but in my part of KS/MO we generally don’t get snow coverage which lasts for weeks and weeks as some areas do.
thanks…fortunately we don’t have to worry about snow down here…but the sun is a different story…guess I can test it out with some straight latex and see what happens.
I was out re-painting the trees today, I know not be the best time of year but the weather was great and I had to get outside. Sunscald is a problem in my area (Utah) and I have had a lot of damage on trees if I don’t paint them or if I prune to much. Also all of the orchards in the area paint their trunks as well as the local extension recommends it. I have a few small pawpaw trees and I want to know if pawpaws need protection from sunscald? In case you are wondering I went ahead and painted them anyways. I have never heard of people painting them and they seem to have a naturally lighter colored bark, but is it enough? I think it is important to say that a lot of the larger indigenous trees in the area have light bark like quaking aspen, cotton wood poplar and box elder.
Unfortunately neither of those is appropriate for organic certification. GoNaturalPaint is just latex paint tinted to the color of tree bark. And whitewash uses Calcium Hydroxide which is “Not approved for organic production”
Hambone,
I’ve had rodents attack mature trees. Once the bark gets hard I feel pretty safe. Seems like some trees get hard bark much later than others. I have pears that develop hard bark in 3-5 years. Apples in my experience take much longer to harden up than pears. Apple trees are rodents preferred food over any other fruit tree.
I just painted a few trunks with interior latex mixed with joint compound but I left out any water, didn’t seem to need it as the mix went on pretty easily. Is water a key ingredient? Any problem with just latex and joint compound?
Update-For anyone interested in the paint formula, I just heard back from John Bunker at Fedco in Maine: no need for water.
See my earlier comment (#44). I did not test 50-50 paint:joint compound but when I did 100% paint I had bark die back/rot. Disclaimer, in my zone with my soil in my hands. I use 1/3:1/3:1/3 paint:water:joint compound with good results.
I’ve had real good results with 1/2" hardwr cloth cylinders around my trees, 18 or 24" high. It keeps out mice/etc yet lets air in. And you can see what’s going on. Easy and last a real long time. You could leave them on all year but I take them off when I borer-paint and tanglefoot the trees in early summer, put them back on in fall. I’ve used Fedco/Bunker’s alternate formula anti-borer paint for six years with success (no borers), having lost many trees previous. I substituted what I had on hand (dry milk instead of fresh, potters clay instead of Surround) and it stays on the trees just fine. I like the color – more gray than white.
