Painting trunks for sunburn and rodents

[btle]

I don’t know about vole but castor oil is relatively expensive, and it didn’t work for gophers in my area. Steel wool will rust really fast when wet.

[SMC_zone6]

Does castor oil work?

I’ll report back in the spring. I sure hope so, though. Voles tend to get one or two of my trees every year.

[northof53]

The trees I am protecting are ones in my greenhouse. We have such a short season, and the winters are brutal so I am experimenting with step over espalier fruits that line my greenhouse beds. I only need to protect them in the winter as the voles and mice live in the mulch so water and rusting should not be an issue. I am considering feeding my farm cats in the greenhouse.

[Silverfoot]

I was in the mood to paint all my young fruit trees today. Grabbed a can of a light colored roof paint and went to town on the trunks. When I got done I noticed it is an acrylic based paint and not latex. Hope I have not just hurt my trees.

[Steve333]

Did you dilute the paint 50:50?

[Silverfoot]

Nope. Just painted it on till everything was covered. Not sure what affect this will have.

[mamuang]

@Silverfoot,
Roof paint has ingredients that seal a surface tightly. No room for water to leak. This means your tree trunks are tightly sealed as well.

I wonder how harmful it would be for a tree if its trunk could not breathe.

[Silverfoot]

Well, the reason I chose that paint was

1. I happend to have some left from a different project.
2. Several of my young trees had bark that was peeling off from probably sun damage and I wanted something thick to seal some cracks.
3. I did not bother to consult Google first. Lol.

The trees are painted from ground level to 18" or so.

[Steve333]

Typically folks use an interior flat latex, diluted 50:50 with water to thin it even more. The idea being (at least here in my locale) that you are making the trunk more reflective of the sun, not sealing it. Even semi-gloss and glossy finish paints tend to seal too well.

On the other hand, folks use a lot of different paints and techniques, including mixing with plaster/spackle and putting it on really thick Can’t imagine there is a lot of air exchange through that… So there is a good chance your trees will be fine.