A big nuisance for both an amateur gardener and a professional who has devoted his whole life to growing and creating new varieties of fruit trees is the appearance of a hole in the trunk of an apple tree. This suggests that the tree is affected by wound rot, and if urgent measures are not taken to save it, the apple tree may die. This fungus will infect healthy tissues and the hollow will grow, causing irreparable harm to the tree.

Various bacteria enter the wound, as a result of their development, the bark begins to rot, first a depression appears, then a small hole, and then a hollow.

As a result, the apple harvest decreases, the fruit tree stops growing and develops, the apple tree can break under strong gusts of wind. If you do not start treatment, after a few years the tree will simply rot.

Causes of occurrence

There may be several reasons for the appearance of a hollow:

  • breaking a part of the trunk by the wind;
  • incorrect trimming;
  • damage to the bark by rodents;
  • damage to the bark near the root;
  • frost and sun.

Hollow in an apple tree

In strong winds, large branches of an old apple tree can break. At this place, if the wound is not healed with a garden pitch, a hollow will gradually form as a result of rotting wood.

A hollow can occur if the tree is cut incorrectly. Pieces with a diameter of more than 2.5 cm will start to rot from the inside if they have not been processed after removing the knot. If traces of rot are already visible, in order to cure the wood, diseased tissues are removed to healthy wood and disinfected. Seal the holes with putty to help the wounds heal.

Attention! Garden pitch can be prepared independently from sunflower or linseed oil and spruce or pine resin in a ratio of 3: 8.

Their composition may differ. Basically, the following ingredients are used:

  • mullein;
  • slaked lime (chalk);
  • wood ash;
  • sand.

All of them are mixed with each other in a ratio of 16: 8: 8: 1.

Rodents do great damage to fruit trees, gnawing the bark and thereby violating its integrity. To save the apple trees from the encroachments of hares and mice, they are covered with whitewash or putty from clay and fresh mullein after the end of garden work.

Additional Information: if there is a forest nearby, you can pick spruce branches and close the lower part of the tree for the winter, tying it with the needles down. This is also one of the ways to save apple trees from rodent raids.

Sometimes, when the soil is cultivated close to the trunk, the integrity of the bark is disturbed by shovels, rakes and other agricultural implements. Wounds in such cases can be treated using the methods described above.

Prevention

Spider mite on apple tree

You should know that coping with the disease is much more difficult than taking preventive measures.

If there is a need to prune excess branches, then this is done in late winter before sap flow. Cutting points should be treated with pitch, zinc paint, 1% copper sulfate. But, if, upon visual inspection, clear signs of decay are revealed, all damaged parts should be removed with a special scraper, removing the colonies of the fungus. Next, the wound should be dried, and only then treated with 3% copper sulfate (copper sulfate) or 5% iron sulfate (ferrous sulfate).

After harvesting, the trees are cleaned from the old dead bark with wooden knives and scrapers.Many pests settle under old scales, and with such preventive measures the gardener can save his apple orchard from a number of diseases. The fallen bark needs to be burned.

Hollow prevention

To protect trees from frost and sun in winter, they are treated with quicklime. Prepare the mixture as follows: pour two buckets of water into a large container and add, with stirring, a bucket of quicklime in small portions. The mixture is filtered and the whole tree is sprayed using a coarse-mesh sprayer. This can be done even in winter, during the warming period, but usually such activities are carried out a little earlier.

Hollow sealing methods

Measures to get rid of the hollow should be carried out in the fall, when the metabolism is slowed down and the trees are preparing for winter.

Lichen on an apple tree (how to get rid)

Young gardeners often have a question: how to close up a hollow in an apple tree if it appeared in the spring.

Important! You should not wait for the end of the season, you need to carry out all possible work to stop the spread of rot. After winter, remove the contaminated parts, disinfect the surfaces and protect the hole with a black film from moisture.

And after the end of fruiting, start eliminating the hollow.

There are several ways to plug holes in the trunks of fruit trees:

  • filling;
  • cementing;
  • use of construction foam.

Filling

If the hollow is small, then gardeners, in order to close it, make a wooden cork, precisely adjusting it to the size of the hole. The cork is disinfected, inserted into the tree, the excess is cut off and filled with a special compound. It consists of resin and ash mixed in equal proportions. The resin is heated to a liquid state and poured into a hollow.

Filling

Cementing

In order to close a hollow of impressive size with the help of cement, you will need:

  • fragments of red bricks;
  • sifted sand;
  • fungicide;
  • scraper.

With a scraper, remove all damaged surfaces, treat the insides of the hollow with copper or iron sulfate. Then break the bricks into smaller pieces and completely fill the hollow with them. You can take fine gravel instead of bricks. Next, you need to knead the cement mortar and cover up the hole. This should be done on a dry day so that the protective coating hardens faster.

Additional Information: after complete hardening, it is necessary to paint the sealed surface with oil paint several times. This is done to protect it from destruction by precipitation and sunlight.

Using an unusual method

The assembly foamy mass has also found its application in filling holes in fruit trees.

  1. Initially, the hollow should be cleaned of debris and rot, and the damaged areas should be cut off to healthy wood. The inside of the hollow must be dry.
  2. Next, treat all internal surfaces with 5% copper sulfate, obtained by adding 100 g of powder to 2 liters of water. Allow to dry.
  3. Then from the spray can first fill the outermost corners of the hole with a foamy mass.
  4. Then wrap the barrel with black film, leaving a small hole on top near the hollow so that the spray can pass through, and then continue filling the space of the hollow under the film.
  5. Leave the entire structure unchanged until completely dry.

A few days later, the black film is removed, all bulges and irregularities are removed with a hacksaw. For durability, the surface should be coated with oil paint. Then cover the entire tree, including the sealed hole, with a clay mash. This event can be held in early winter if the previous season did not please with good weather.

Using an unusual method

Experienced gardeners recommendations

Ants on an apple tree how to fight

Many people face the problem quite unexpectedly. Sawing down dried knots, they notice: an absolutely healthy apple tree outside, the trunk rotting from the inside.

Experienced people in such cases advise, in addition to the above, a few more options, how you can close up a hollow in a garden apple tree on the trunk.

  • a mixture of epoxy resin and sawdust;
  • a mixture of asphalt and sawdust;

Pre-clean and treat the hollow with fungicides. Dry. Take 1 part of heated resin and 2.3 parts of sawdust, mix and pour into a hollow. The resin hardens well and prevents moisture penetration.

First, manipulations are carried out to cleanse and disinfect the wound, then the heated asphalt is mixed with sawdust in a ratio of 1: 2 and the mixture is poured into the hole in the hollow.

With an attentive attitude to his garden, even an amateur is able to do everything to preserve it for many years. A hollow on the trunk of a fruit tree is, of course, a serious nuisance. But even such a problem has a solution that will save the apple tree.