No. Spray with a fungicide if concerned. I wouldn’t bother.
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Have you used Doc Farwells heal and seal? When I do apply it, I get good results. I have used it on large borer damage and other cuts I had particular concern about. I have never noticed the gumosis or damage like you have described.
Doc Farwell’s Seal & Heal Tree Protection Green - 32 Oz https://a.co/d/4jUwxg1
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I do not use any sealers. And I do not like to “repair” trees.
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I understand. My use is limited.
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I just took a ‘Tree Tender’ course this past weekend and one of the topics covered was pruning, more focused on landscape trees. The photo @danzeb shared is a fantastic example of what we all should be working towards. The main reason why- the tree will heal itself faster if you prune properly.
I am of the opinion that using any waxes or sealants is completely unnecessary for regular pruning if done at a time of year where diseases entering the wound is not a high concern. Fireblight weather is the main thing I’m thinking of for pome fruits. Otherwise, sealants/wax/Parrafin tape products are reserved for grafting in my arsenal.
Sealing cuts gives limited opportunities for moisture to leave the wood, and if you trap moisture you may invite rot and mold which defeats the purpose of trying to trim your trees. I hope things work out well for you!
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Harris disputes Shigo on this based on conflicting research, and flush cuts are still a matter of some controversy. Obviously, a larger wound will take longer to heal and Shigo is the person who established the difference between trunk tissue and branch tissue, which is very important. For one thing, the trunk tissue wraps around the branch tissue which creates relative strength in the connection. If the diameter of the branch is more than 50% of that of the trunk at the point it is attached the collar may not be strong enough to hold the branch if it’s under wind or crop load stress.
At any rate, when I remove a branch I try not to cut into the collar or trunk tissue, but the divide is not always obvious.
Here is an earlier, affordable edition of Harris’s book which I recommend for anyone interested in the science. I have the next one which hadn’t added much. The nice thing is that it is much easier to follow than most biology based subjects as explained in text books, and I’m speaking of all the text books on Arb. that I’ve read. In my opinion, it is far more useful than anything published by Shigo, or any other writer I’ve read. Maybe there’s something new though.
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As I wrote in my book, THE PRUNING BOOK, it is generally best not to apply any sort of wound dressing to pruning cuts!
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Thanks Lee for posting. The Pruning Book is my favorite of all your books. I just can’t remember best practice for each species and often refer to it. A very practical guide to pruning just about all edibles.
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Hi Pen.
I am going to give you a totally effective and also very economical solution.
You are going to make the pruning mastic yourself.
It’s as easy as the following:
You go to a store specialized in paints, and buy a bottle of latex paint (I buy 5 kilos bottle because I also apply it to the trunks of the trees that rabbits gnaw, to seal and promote good healing).
Attention, I am referring to water-based latex paint, not acrylic paints.
To the bottle of latex, you add a few tablespoons of copper oxychloride powder, and mix it well.
You now have the best pruning mastic in the world prepared, at a very affordable price, and very easy to apply with a brush.
That easy.
Regards
Jose
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Great presentation for discussion, Peng.
I’m also in the PNW, Portland. I was trained never to prune stone fruit in wet weather, or even look sternly at them. Only in dry summer weather, because they are so prone to fungal disease.
I use Parafilm for grafting, and Doc Farwell’s over the Parafilm, and I use a dab of Doc Farwell’s on the distal end of a whip graft to prevent dehydration.
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I would agree with that statement, however my Cherry trees all needed to be headed to convert them into low to the ground bi-cordon trees. If I’d waited till the summer to perform my all my heading cuts I wouldn’t have gotten the vigorous growth response I was looking for to sculpt the trees into the UFO trained forms I was looking for. Waiting until the summer would have greatly delayed their development to the shapes I was looking for. I was willing to take the risk of infection because it advanced the timetable for shaping them into there final forms far quicker.
I normally don’t use sealant for pruning cuts, but under these special circumstances I figured better to be safe than sorry.
I’m not advocating for using sealants on all pruning cuts. I’m simply saying there may be instances where using a sealent might be the lesser of two evils.
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So basic answer here. I too recently took up fruit trees and what looks like happened is when you sealed the cut moisture was trapped. It doesn’t take long for fungal spores to get to an open wound so a fungal infection might have infected the tree.
Overall you need to take a look at your soil composition and other site factors. For example if you prune and then fertilize or increase the nitrogen in the soil the tree will grow instead of prioritize healing. This happened to me with. Particularly vigorous apple tree.
Recommendation is to stop cutting your trees. Only seal large wounds - young trees are extremely resilient and will heal quickly. If you need to seal or feel compelled to just keep it to the mature trees. Logically the larger a tree grows the longer it takes nutrients to travel up the trunk and through the tree - that’s why you should keep the sealer for mature trees.
Stone fruits are lazy trees. Prune early spring and after whenever your large bug season ends. For me it’s September ish. Yes - keep track of all the environmental changes. Different bugs and different fungus appear at various times.
Hope this helps.
Yes i used to be a pruning sealer and wax guy myself. Like others i learned the hard way years ago to prune and graft differently. Someone here might enjoy this grafting thread Grafting large Callery and Betulifolia pear rootstocks .consider modeling clay though still oil based it does not tend to seep oil like sealers or wax. That seeping causes grafting failures and caused issues for people here. Years ago i used and swore by sealers and waxes. The difference is it is hotter than it has ever been. In the cold weather these things work nicely. It is not cold anymore.
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