[Hobnails]

I noticed my French neighbour had painted the trunks and first foot of their branches with a white paint-like substance.

I asked him the why, what and how questions and he came back with a torrent of enthusiastic French of which I picked up little and he picked up that I had missed most of it.

He disappeared inside his house and came back with an old copy of Chasseur Francais
and pointed energetically at an article in the gardening section, telling me that this will explain the procedure and its purpose.
So with a French-English dictionary the size of a  wheelbarrow, I sat down on Saturday and translated the article.

In summary it ran as follows:-

Following on as part of the Winter pruning programme, trees would benefit from the brushing on of a whitewash made by mixing one part of quicklime with four parts of water in a metal bucket. ( To make slaked lime)

This will create a violent effervescence which is extremely caustic and injurious to health - so appropriate  precautions need to be taken.

Once the 'boiling' has subsided leave for eight hours and then mix it with cow's milk.

The casein (protein) in the milk will encourage adherence to the trees.

After wire brushing the trees to remove lichen and 'blisters' the preparation is hand brushed onto the trunks of trees.

It has two benefits, apparently.

For all trees, it will attack any bugs or larvae hiding below the bark.

For stone fruit and flowering  trees that flower before frosts are over for the year it will delay the  warming of the tree and so delay flowering to avoid  late frost damage.and loss of crop.

My neighbour swears by this and says he has done this for years- its publication in this article would appear to give it credibility.

I wonder if anybody else has heard of this or even tried it?

[percy thrower's cat]

a winter wash sounds a bit easier...non?

[Trillium]

Some orchards here do it, but only smaller ones as its so labour intensive. Others here simply use leftover latex paint. Its quite startling at times to pass apple trees with either pink or blue trunks  Supposedly it deters various pests from climbing or boring into the tree. Probably works if they weren't blinded first 

[LivvyW]

Good God that sounds a little vicious !

[savbo]

our asian neighbours over the street have painted their 2 garden trees like this. I've never asked them about it but I know I've seen trees on the telly done too... I would think it's good at deterring goats?

(cue old elephant deterrent joke)

M

[moose]

I was told by an Italian friend that they also do it so you don't bump or drive into it on your way home from the wine bar. I did see someone in Cornwall using diluted emulsion.