What to Paint for Winter Protection

After my first successful apple grafting attempt in the spring (15 out of 20 took to my surprise), I have waited until leaf drop and have finally planted my potted trees out.

Now the question, when “whitewashing” trees to prevent sun damage over the winter, do you paint over the buds that will lead to next year’s growth? Or will that harm the buds? I see people mention painting the trunks of apple trees, but those are trees with branching. My situation might be different as what I have are “whips”. I have not found one way or the other the proper way to whitewash whips or if that will damage buds. I plan to at least paint over the healed graft union to add some sun (and borer?) protection in that vulnerable area. As for how much farther to go, I hope to hear from those here, as I am clueless at this point.

Many thanks!

In my opinion, if the tree has been in it’s current location all summer, it is probably tough enough to survive and no paint.

I’ve noticed trees that are transplanted and the former ‘shady side’ is turned to the sunny diirection…they often have bark damage from sun on cold days.

Of course, this is general…not saying painting isn’t useful to do.

The spot where I planted them does have a bit more sun than where they resided most of the summer. That is why I am considering painting them. I just want to make sure I don’t harm the buds by painting them.

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I make my own paint — mix surround WP with skim milk. Makes a paint that stays on in the rain.

Add castor oil, eucalyptus oil, garlic oil as rodent and pest repellents.
Add food color if you choose.
Some people use indoor latex paint diluted. I’ve done that in the past.
I think surround is much safer for my plants.

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If they are just whips I would just put tree tubes on them I would not paint buds.

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Wish I had read this years ago. Thanks for the idea. I’m surprised it stays on that well.

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I never paint my apple trunks, nor have I seen any bark damage. Fortunately, I don’t have any rabbits to speak of so I have not seen the need to protect the barks. However, This year I had one variety of apple for which Surround would not form a protective coating on the fruit, so about 70% were damaged by codling moths. Perhaps I will try Ram’s recipe for fruit protection on my initial coats of spray next spring. For some reason my Chehallis apples would not accept the coating, although other varieties would and were completely protected. Maybe skim milk is the better surfactant for this variety.
Dennis
Kent, wa

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Milk paint was used in the 1800s before latex paints were invented. And the key component was …. Milk.

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You have an abundance of cloudy skies? The sun shouldn’t be a reason to paint trees if overcast is the norm, expecially in cold season.

I’m also z7. My experience is limited but I’ll share in case it is helpful. I painted my young trees with the dilute latex paint the first couple of years when I was planting, but then got lazy and stopped. I haven’t noticed any damage. My trees were larger than whips but I never noticed any damage to buds from the paint. I think the paint only needs to be applied on wider trunk areas to avoid overheating/large variation in temps across an area that could cause bark cracking. So, if your whips are tiny it might be a non-issue?

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