How to close up a hollow in an apple tree: reasons and what to do, the better to cover up

Damage to a tree by wound rot, which makes itself felt by the appearance of a depression in the trunk, causes a lot of trouble for both beginners and experienced gardeners. If it is not closed, he althy tissues become infected, the bark rots, and the tree gradually disappears. How to close a hollow in an apple tree also depends on the cause of its formation, however, it is easier to carry out prevention than to stop the growth of the depression.

Causes of occurrence

A hollow can form due to the fault of the gardener himself. If the bark rises during pruning, bacteria or fungi enter the untreated stump. The trunk cracks under the weight of the apples.

Deepening formed:

under the influence of wood diseases;
during the invasion of rodents;
as a result of freezing of the sawn area.

A tree breaks during a storm or hurricane, after which a hole is formed on it. Most often, the problem occurs due to neglect of pruning rules, improper care of the plant.

When can a hollow be closed?

After a frosty winter, sometimes cracks appear on the apple tree, from which juice flows. They must be closed immediately. Large recesses are filled in late autumn, when the tree is no longer growing, and the material quickly hardens.

What tools will you need

To cope with the hollow on your own, which even a novice gardener can do, you need to purchase a sharp knife and saw. When working with clay or cement, stock up on a trowel, spatula and chisel.

If you have to close up a large recess, take a drill with a nozzle on which a metal brush is attached.

The hollow is cleaned from rot with a spoon and a file, illuminating with a flashlight. It is necessary to work in rubber gloves and a respirator.

Preparing the affected area for treatment

Do not think that depressions appear only in old apple trees, a hollow can also form on a young tree, but the wound heals faster.

Before patching the hole:

Cleanse dead bark.
Scrape off a small layer of living wood.
Inside and outside disinfected with fungicides.

Destroy fungi or bacteria using ferrous sulfate or copper sulfate. Wood is treated with these substances.

Choice of filling material

How to close the recess in the trunk depends on its size and the degree of damage to the bark. An extensive hole is filled with brick chips or crushed stone, after which it is poured with cement mixed with lime.

A small cavity is plugged with a cork made of wood so that it fits snugly, using oil paint or garden pitch, which can be prepared by heating the mixture:

wax;
resin;
sunflower oil;
rosin.

Close up the recess and cement, fixing the wire in it, cover it with varnish based on drying oil. Does not let air through, does not allow moisture to enter the hole, mounting foam, which is applied in 3-4 layers.

Methods of sealing a hollow

The recess in the trunk of an apple tree is closed in several ways, which option to choose depends on its size, on the time of formation.

Filling

This method of sealing the hollow uses a different material that prevents air from penetrating. Often, gardeners cut a cork from he althy wood, which is decontaminated and adjusted in accordance with the size of the recess. Having installed it in the hole, the excess part is cut off and filled with a composition that is boiled by mixing resin and ash.

Cementing

When the cavity has a significant size, first clean out the affected tissues, disinfect the inside with vitriol and fill it with gravel or broken bricks, pour cement. When the solution hardens, oil paint is applied on top in several layers.

Filling a small hole

Many gardeners use polyurethane foam to seal a small recess. With this method, neither air nor moisture gets inside:

The hollow is cleaned from the affected bark.
Disinfected with blue vitriol.
After 3 hours, the edges are smeared with garden pitch.
Coated with mounting foam.

So that the polymer that makes up the substance is not damaged by the sun's rays, oil paint is applied. Large cavities can also be filled with this material.

Hollow large sizes

If the hole has a significant diameter and has appeared for a long time, the dead wood is cleaned with a drill with a metal brush nozzle. The depression is disinfected several times with vitriol or a solution of carbolic acid.

The cavity is laid with brick chips in 3-4 stages, carefully compacted, filled in layers with a thick mixture of cement and lime. Paint or garden var is applied from above.

If the diameter of the hollow reaches 60 cm, it is necessary to fix the metal mesh both inside and outside the apple tree.

Construction battle is poured with cement, and the trunk is wrapped with polyethylene. After hardening, cover with drying oil, when it dries, apply garden varnish and cover with oil paint.

Proper wound healing

In order for the affected tissues to tighten faster, a black polyethylene bandage is cut into strips about 50 mm wide. They are wound on a hollow, starting from the bottom. At the top, the tape is fixed with twine. In the spring, the bandage is untied, the live cambium is opened and wrapped again with plastic wrap, which promotes the emergence of new tissue cells.

Terms for the restoration of the trunk

Wound healing time depends on the size of the hollow, on when treatment started. If you do not immediately close up a small depression, fungi and bacteria start up in it, and then the trunk will recover for a long time. With a timely operation in the fall, the wound heals by spring.

What to do

Unfortunately, the gardener does not always find a small cavity in the trunk immediately after it appears, then filling the hole is already difficult.

When treating an old apple tree

The amount of damage on a tree of solid age can reach one and a half meters. A drill with a brush cleans the hollow, removes dust, treats it with a disinfectant solution, fills the cavity with construction waste and closes it up by mixing cement with lime. If the wound cannot be healed, the apple tree has to be dug up.

A hollow formed in a seedling

Very rarely do holes form in the trunk of a tree that is only a year or two old. It is covered with garden pitch, fixed with a film or electrical tape. The seedling's wound heals quickly.

Basic

The cavity that forms at the bottom of the apple tree causes it to weaken.At any moment, the plant can fall on a building or on a person. The sealing of a large hollow on an old apple tree is ineffective. It needs to be cut down. You can try to save a young plant by installing a metal mesh and flooding with liquid cement.

Pass-through

In a hollow, the diameter of which does not exceed 25 cm, lay building chips made of bricks or pebbles, fill with cement mortar. If the hole is through, install a board, which is removed when the composition hardens.

To close up a hollow of large diameter, first a mesh up to 3 mm thick is fixed in the cavity or a wire is pulled and nailed. The recess is filled with crumbs, poured first with liquid cement, and then with a solution of thick consistency.

If affected by fungus

It happens that when cleaning out a recess in the trunk of a plant, mycelium spores are found. Not everyone understands what to do next. Treat wood infected with fungi:

fungicides;
copper preparations;
colloidal sulfur.

With a small infection of the apple tree, a decoction of sorrel is prepared. It is necessary to spray the hollow not once, but at least 3, after which the cavity is closed and sealed.

Infested with ants

Sometimes insects start up in the damaged trunk of an apple tree, which do not spoil the bark, but spread the spores of the mycelium. When cleaning the recess, along with the rot, ants are often pulled out. Insecticides are injected into the cavity, the earth is dug up and treated with Diazonin.

Lots of rotten wood

When such a problem appeared on an old apple tree, it is better to cut it down, cut off the stalk and plant it on the wild. It happens that a small section of the trunk is affected by a hollow, but there is quite a lot of rotten wood. In this case, the hole is thoroughly cleaned, sprayed with fungicide, filled with liquid cement.

There is a nest

Sometimes birds make their homes right in the hollow of a plant. You need to fill the hole in late autumn, when the birds leave it. You can simply pull out the nest, clean the recess, spray with fungicide and cover with garden pitch.

Juice flowing

When bark beetles start growing on an apple tree, liquid begins to stand out from the damaged area, and the plant may disappear. They treat it by injecting the Actellik insecticide with a syringe. In the spring, after the flowers fall off, the plant is sprayed with Fufanon.

Sap flows when the wood rots, which often happens when a person doesn't know how to seal a cavity. To fix the problem, the trunk is cleaned of the affected tissues, disinfected and the composition is applied, which is prepared by mixing garden var with Rannet paste.

Prevention

To prevent the appearance of a hollow, the shoots on the apple tree need to be shortened until the sap flow begins. Sections should immediately be lubricated with garden pitch or zinc paint.

When rotting wood is detected, the affected area is cleaned, the wound is dried, treated with ferrous sulfate or copper sulfate. In autumn, the dried bark is removed, if insects have settled under it, the apple tree is sprayed with fungicides.