How to treat young trees in spring. Treatment of the garden in the fall from pests and diseases: preparing the garden for winter. Where the lacewing, apple mite and viburnum leaf beetle can hide

The main condition for the first treatment of the garden after winter and a good harvest is thorough treatment of both trees and shrubs.

To prevent such problems from arising, it is necessary to periodically treat the area with special means. The first of these is considered to be spring garden cultivation, the methods of which will be discussed in this article.

Why treat your garden in spring?

The key activities that include garden care in early spring are pest control and the prevention of fungal and infectious diseases. To effectively protect young and mature trees, carry out comprehensive treatment.

When to spray trees and shrubs in the garden in spring

A responsible owner who cares about the future harvest begins work in the garden immediately after the first snow has melted. After all, there is a lot of work to be done: before you start spraying the garden, you need to carefully prepare everything.

If you are just starting to get involved in this business, and do not really understand the intricacies, then it is better to invite an experienced specialist who will tell you what needs to be done first. The 3 months of spring can be divided into 3 main stages in gardening:

The beginning and middle of March - before the bud formation process begins - is an excellent time to take care of your favorite trees and shrubs. Gardeners protect trees from various harmful microorganisms that have overwintered in the cracks of the bark and with the first warmth began their vigorous activity, which negatively affects growth, bud formation, flowering and the subsequent formation of fruits.

The beginning and middle of April are devoted to spraying the buds and stimulating their growth. Responsible gardeners know that during this period various fungal diseases can appear en masse on trees, which require a quick response and measures aimed at protecting the entire garden.

The first half of May, when everything has already bloomed, is a period when trees can be very sick, that is, after previously taken measures, you should not relax, but constantly monitor and take care of the garden. If the first 2 stages passed without problems, then the 3rd stage is very important, because the further ripening of the fruit depends on it.

Tree pruning before spring gardening

It will help remove sources of diseases and overwintered pests remaining from the fall from the garden.

At the end of February and in March, sanitary pruning is done: dry, damaged branches are removed, removed from the garden and burned. At the same time, you can begin to reduce the crown and cut out improperly growing branches. Be sure to cover the cuts.

During the snow melting, when the temperature is above +5C and before the buds open, continue pruning, clear the bark of mosses and lichens (if this was not done in the fall).

Treating the garden with biological preparations

For those gardeners who want to reduce the use of chemicals in their garden, biological protection methods can be offered:

For example, to prevent the development of powdery mildew, currant and gooseberry bushes are doused with hot (70 degrees C) water before the snow completely melts.

Against wintering pests and vermin, eradicative spraying of tree crowns is carried out with 10% table salt.

Treating the garden with chemicals

Of the chemical insecticides allowed, alatar, fufanon, kemifos, spark - 10 ml per 10 liters of water, kinmiks (2.5 ml), actellik (15 ml). Any of them can be used. Lately, pear worm has spread in gardens. It begins to cause harm at the beginning of flowering and continues throughout the summer because it produces 4 generations. To combat it, fufanon is used during the budding phase - 2 treatments with an interval of 20 days. Add 40 g of laundry soap to the solution.

Treating the garden with iron sulfate

Before treating the garden with iron sulfate, you need to remember that it cannot be mixed:

• with drugs related to Karbofos;
• with lime;
• with substances that decompose upon contact with alkali.

Instead of lime, you can use wood ash to prepare the whitewash mixture. Its three-day infusion (1 glass per 3 liters of boiling water) after straining is combined with 9 liters of water. 600 g of iron sulfate are dissolved in the resulting extract.

Iron sulfate can be sprayed on tree trunk circles after digging. It also needs to be addressed immediately after the cold weather subsides. In dug up soil, pests become defenseless against possible frosts. Some of them, however, will be able to survive them. Ferrous sulfate finishes them off.

Sometimes trees are treated with iron sulfate without first removing moss and lichen from their trunks. Those who do not want to injure the bark by mechanical cleaning spray the plants with a chemical solution twice. Within 2 weeks after the first spraying, the growths on the trees should die off. Then the treatment with iron sulfate must be repeated.

April marks the period when insect pests lay eggs under the bark of plants. At the same time, the plants begin to bud. It would be good to carry out a secondary spraying of trees, shrubs and vines before the first leaves appear. By the way, iron sulfate tends to delay the beginning of the growing season by 7-10 days. Gardeners use the chemical to help plants survive possible frosts without consequences.

Iron sulfate has another important function. It fights iron deficiency in the soil. A 1% mixture of chemical and compost is usually applied to the soil during autumn digging. For those who did not fertilize the soil in the fall, you can add sulfate by digging up the area in the spring.

Treating the garden with copper sulfate

Copper sulfate - promotes the opening of buds and their growth, and also actively fights various pathogens. The solution should have a 1% concentration of this substance; it will be enough to treat shrubs and large trees in the garden.

Treating the garden with garlic extract

Garlic tincture is quite effective against insect pests and diseases - copperhead, aphids, mites, rust, etc. Plants are sprayed with it. It is prepared like this:

• Chop 0.5 kilograms of garlic and dilute in 3-5 liters of water;
• strain and squeeze out the grounds;
• soak the resulting cake in water again;
• pass through a sieve, mix everything and add water to 10 liters.

This rich extract repels insects with its scent. There are still many folk remedies and recipes for various tinctures and herbal decoctions that may be effective, but there is no guarantee that they will be as effective as chemical drugs.

When it comes to the question of how to treat the garden in early spring, preference is given to chemical preparations that have a stronger effect than folk remedies. During spraying, particles of poisons enter not only the plants, but also the gardener’s lungs. In order not to harm your health, and not to turn yourself into a sick larva with your own hands, you must adhere to some rules for working with harmful substances. All treatments of garden plants against pests and diseases must be carried out in calm, dry weather. Otherwise, drops of the medicinal solution will scatter through the air and will not fall on the plants, and the rain will wash everything away, making the work in vain.

Processing fruit trees in the spring is one of the cornerstones laid for a rich future harvest. Although autumn treatment destroys some pests, it is more aimed at preserving fruit trees in the cold winter. Spring allows you to control the number of harmful insects and disease outbreaks. In fact, garden maintenance only stops during the winter months. The rest of the time, trees require a different procedure. And all this is subject to a certain scheme for treating fruit trees: immediately after the snow melts, it is too early to fight fungal diseases on fruit, and in the summer it may be too late to fight caterpillars and other insects.

Preparing plants in the garden

The first treatment of fruit trees after winter is carried out in March immediately after the snow melts from the trees. The air temperature is still low, the insects are sleeping, and there is a chance to manually remove some of the pests. During this treatment, branches that died in winter are cut off, old bark is removed and annual shoots are pruned. The eggs of hawthorns and lacewings overwinter under the loose old bark, and ringed silkworm nests are located in annual shoots. If the trees have been insulated for the winter, they are “undressed”.

When to start treating trees

Treatment of fruit crops against diseases and pests in the spring begins when the temperature reaches above zero of 4-6 °C. From this moment on, treatments of trees, either from insects or from diseases, begin one after another.

Treatment of fruit trees in early spring

After the snow near the trunks has melted to the ground, treatment is carried out against the apple blossom beetle. The fight against harmful insects begins in early to mid-April.

Important! In the spring, you should not delay treating apple trees against this pest.

The apple blossom beetle wakes up at + 8 °C. Before this moment, you need to have time to whitewash the trees and place hunting belts with glue on the trunks. At higher temperatures, fungal diseases become more active, and in this case, hunting belts are no longer necessary.

Spraying trees before flowering

The first spring treatment of fruit trees against fungal diseases is carried out even before the buds open during the “green cone”, that is, the swelling of the buds. Sap flow begins immediately at above-zero temperatures, and the buds in the central zone begin to swell at the end of April. At this time, spring treatment of fruit trees from fruit rot and scab is carried out. For spraying you can use:

1. Bordeaux mixture 1%. In 10 liters of water take 100 g of lime and copper sulfate.
2. Copper sulfate solution. 100 g of crystals per 10 liters of water.
3. Carticide;
4. Abigapik.

The last 3 are industrial fungicides. Breeding instructions are included.

Important! The timing of treating fruit trees against pests in the spring is strictly tied to the development cycle of insects.

Most insecticides act on insects at a certain stage of development. Whatever works on adults is safe for their clutches. During the swelling of the buds, the pear is sprayed against ticks with colloidal sulfur (100 g per 10 liters of water) or Neoron.

Spraying the garden during flowering

The main spring treatment of fruit trees against pests falls during the flowering period. In May, all insects have already woken up and are actively breeding. Biologically active agents are used against leaf rollers:

• Fitoverm;
• Biotoxibacillin;
• Lepidocide.

The preparations are diluted according to the instructions and sprayed on fruit crops.

Before the end of flowering, cherries and plums are sprayed with 1% Bordeaux mixture twice. The second treatment is done 2 weeks after the first. Spraying will protect these trees from fungal diseases:

• scab;
• perforated spotting;
• coccomiosis;
• monilial burn.

Immediately after flowering, these trees are sprayed with insecticides against scale insects: Karbofos or Aktara.

Processing during fruit formation

At the end of May, codling moths are born and lay eggs in the developing ovaries. The larvae develop in fruits throughout the entire period of harvest ripening. Those “half-worms” that can be seen by biting off a piece of an apple are the codling moth larva almost ready for pupation. Codling moths affect not only apples, but also plums, pears and peaches.

Strong industrial insecticides are used against these moths when treating fruit and berry trees in late spring. After 2 weeks, the treatment is repeated.

The first month of summer can be considered late spring, since astronomical summer begins only on June 21. Trees may need to be treated again against codling moths this month. In the same month, trees are attacked by aphids and silkworms. Pest control in June is carried out with an eye to the timing of crop ripening. In some cases, you will have to use only folk remedies.

Important! Treatment agents need to be changed, as insects adapt to the poison.

How to treat fruit trees in spring

Depending on the month and the presence of leaves, flowers and ovaries, different preparations can be used to treat trees: from chemicals to folk repellents. Chemicals can be safely used in early spring at the stage of plant awakening and right up to the appearance of ovaries. When the crop is ripening, chemicals must be used carefully, checking their expiration date. If possible, it would be better to switch to biological agents, the main active ingredient of which is bacteria.

Folk remedies can be used at any time, even just before harvest. But these substances do not destroy, but repel insects. From the point of view of population control, folk remedies are of little use.

Chemicals

Among the chemicals used for spraying in spring:

• lime;
• copper sulfate;
• inkstone;
• Bordeaux mixture;
• industrial insecticides against pests.

Lime is the easiest to use. Tree trunks are whitewashed with it, and still bare branches are sprayed with lime water.

Copper and iron sulfate are used in the same way. Solutions of these substances are one of the first to be used in the spring, before the buds have yet opened. 100 g of any of the vitriols are diluted in 10 liters of water and sprayed on fruit trees. It is advisable to use iron sulfate on plums, pears and apple trees. These crops are in great need of iron. Spraying iron sulfate will not only help fight diseases and pests, but will also provide fruit trees with iron.

Bordeaux mixture is a mixture of lime and copper sulfate diluted in water. The functions are the same as those of the individual components.

Insecticides

It is advisable to choose insecticides with a prolonged action. Many modern drugs penetrate plant tissue and remain there for up to 2 weeks. Therefore, these formulations cannot be used shortly before harvest. In spring, chemical insecticides will be harmless to people. For pest control use:

• Fastak;
• Tsimbus;
• Arrivo;
• Decis;
• Sherpa;
• Karate;
• Tsitkor;
• Fury;
• Kinmiks;
• Fastak;
• Karbofos;
• Calypso;
• other drugs.

Instructions for use are indicated on the packages, but the general rule for liquid substances is: for aphids 1 ml per 10 liters of water, for ticks 2 ml per 10 liters.

Biological agents

Biological control methods involve the use of natural enemies of garden pests. It can be:

The insects will deal with each other themselves, the main thing is not to destroy all living things in the garden. Birds are lured into the garden in the spring by constructing nests for them. But birds are also dangerous. They can also eat the harvest.

Important! The composition is used immediately after preparation; after an hour it loses its toxic properties.

The need to use a substance immediately after preparation is a common problem with all biological drugs. During preparation, bacteria come out of their dormant state and become activated. Without receiving the food they need, microorganisms die.

Folk remedies

Traditional methods of control are more suitable for repelling harmful insects. These substances have no effect on fungi and pathogenic bacteria. Or they act, killing the plant at the same time. Folk remedies include:

• soda;
• ammonia;
• vinegar;
• laundry soap solution;
• ash;
• hydrogen peroxide;
• decoctions of repellent herbs.

It is better to use these products not in the spring, but at the last stage of harvest ripening, when there is little time left before the fruit is harvested. During this period, the drugs can repel insects, but will not harm people. After harvesting, tree foliage is treated with chemicals that destroy pathogenic microorganisms.

In order not to get confused about the timing and procedure for treating fruit trees, make a calendar of gardening work by month.

From June, it is better not to use Bordeaux mixture, copper sulfate and other preparations containing copper. They can cause burns on fruits and leaves. Especially if you spray the plants in cloudy weather.

When spraying the foliage of trees, make sure that the product also gets on the back side of the leaves.

Conclusion

Treatment of fruit trees in the spring, carried out at the right time and with appropriate preparations, provides the gardener with a good harvest. The main thing is not to be lazy to treat the trees in early spring, when the plants are just waking up.