Re: Ferdinand's clay coating

[Allan Balliett]

Here's an early BD Tree Paste recipe (preceded by a recipe for a tree wash spray) From: The Biodynamic Treatment of Fruit Trees, Berries, and Shrubs by Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer (Available from JPI)

Ad. 4. Tree Washing with No. 500 and equisetum tea,

One portion, or unit, of No. 500 is suspended in 2 to 4 gallons of plain water or rain water. If chlorinated city water has to be used, let it stand for a few hours in a pan or bucket exposed to the daylight, if possible to sunlight. To this add a tea made from horsetail-equisetum arvense. Theoretically a total solution consisting of 2% of the tea would be best. There is, however, not enough equisetum arvense available. We have, therefore, made a compromise and suggest the use of an 0.5% solution. This means that the final wash or spray solution should have a (tea) strength of 0.5%.

For each gallon of spray solution, 2/3 of one ounce of the dry herb has first to be measured out. Thus we would have:

for 1 gallon, 2/3 of one ounce; for 2 gallons 1 and 1/3 ounce; for 3 gallons, 2 ounces ; for 4 gallons, 2 and 2/1 ounces.

The required amount of the tea is just covered with water and brought to a boil, then allowed to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes (finely powdered or shredded equisetum arvense for a shorter time, coarse material for a longer time) to make a tea concentrate. The concentrate is then mixed with the suspension of the Preparation No. 500 in water, and well stirred for about 10 minutes. Then it is so sprayed into the tree that the solution covers the entire trunk and branches. This very same spray is used as a foliage spray to reduce fungus development, especially during a wet season (damping off, or mildew, for instance). Equisetum arvense contains a protective factor against fungus infection. The Preparation No. 500 stimulates the growth and renewal of the cambium - as well as doing this for the root when sprayed on the soil.

This washing of the tree is recommended in all cases where the tree has a lot of loose, peeling bark, split bark, bleeding, lesions from pruning or breaking off branches, and especially recommended if the tree is covered with mold, mildew, lichen, MOSS. In the latter case it is a preparatory step to the application of the tree paste.

Ad. 5. The B. D. Tree Paste Application.

This has been, in our experience a most effective means of getting healthy trees with a smooth bark, healing lesions, and protecting the tree as much as possible against pests, especially those which hibernate underneath the bark, or in crevices - sucking insects, scale, aphis, wooly aphis, etc. That is, provided that the job is done right. The principle is that the entire tree, trunk, branches, twigs, buds, is thoroughly covered with the paste. Many of our biodynamic orchardists have covered only the trunk. This restores a healthy trunk. Yet many pests hibernate and lay their eggs on the outer twigs and near the buds - for instance bud borer, aphis, scale - and are in this case not counteracted by the paste. It is especially important that not only the under side of the branches is covered, but the entire branch, including the dead corners where the branching off takes place, and that no loose bark remains to give hiding places.

Any lesion of the timber can be painted with the paste, which is a much better procedure than covering with tar, oil, asphalt, or paint, as is usually done. Holes in the trunk should be well cleaned out and then filled with the paste. If eggs, larvae, scale, are covered with the paste, it will exclude the air from them and they will perish. Since this paste is entirely harmless, and in no way toxic, it is an ideal means of protecting the tree and avoiding poisoning sprays. We have even sprayed it on the green foliage, when this was attacked by pests and fungi (rust for instance, or mildew), so that the leaves were entirely "painted yellow". The rain washes it off eventually, and leaves recover with a healthy green.

The original recipe for the tree paste was: 1/3 sticky clay, 1/3 cow manure, 1/3 fine sand. This mixture is approximate, for the sticking quality varies and the proportions have to be somewhat altered accordingly. As much water is added as is needed so that the paste can be easily applied and still will stick to the tree. To the solution can be added the Preparation No. 500, the equisetum
tea (if needed), an extract of nasturtium plants against aphis, or other ingredients that one wants to apply. For many years it was the biodynamic practice to apply the paste, in solution form, with a whitewash brush, by hand, to the trunk and larger branches. Nowadays one finds few orchardists who want to paint a tree by hand with a whitewash brush, and we admit it is a rather messy procedure. But everybody is eager to use a pressure sprayer or spray rig. For a few individual trees, the hand application may still be the easiest. For a large orchard spraying is the only way to do it.
Since it has been discovered that many pests lay eggs and hibernate on the finer, outer twigs and buds and have thus never been hit by the paste applied to the trunk, it must now become B. D. practice that the material (in sprayable form) covers the entire tree and even the buds. This applies whether the material is used in Fall (after the leaves have fallen off), or in Spring as a pre-emergence spray (before the buds open, but after the main frost period is over). In the latitude of Philadelphia, for instance, the Spring application will be at the end of February or early in March, further North more toward the end of March.

For application with a whitewash brush, the clay and manure can be fairly coarse, i.e., somewhat granular. For use with spray equipment, the source materials need to be well screened in order not to plug the hose, pump and nozzle. Clay is rather abrasive to pumps; apparently the piston pumps will do better with it than rotary pumps. Spraying equipment such as is used for Bordeaux-lime mixtures will be the best.

The holes of the screen through which the source materials are passed before using should be of the same size as the nozzle to be used for spraying, or just a little smaller than this. Use about 40 to 60 pounds pressure. It is obvious that the manure and clay should be collected and prepared far ahead of time.* This can be done during the dead season. Sand cannot be used in a pressure spraying system. The formula therefore needs some adjustment. Our trials were with 80% clay and 20% manure, well ground and screened so that it does not contain any fibrous material which clogs the nozzle. In some cases we just use, as a nozzle, a half inch galvanized pipe, plugged at one end and with a small slit cut into it with a hacksaw. While this is rather successful and does not clog up, it may waste a lot of material, and the spraying process is messy. The degree of dilution of the paste-spray, and the timing of the spraying, have to be worked out by more trials. It is absolutely necessary that the entire tree, up into the finest twigs, is covered with a paste, and no uncovered span is left. Only then will the full protection be effective.

As said previously, the same spray can be applied as a foliage spray on green leaves. In practice one will apply the foliage spray as a somewhat diluted solution for which any pressure sprayer will do. It is not necessary to spray this as a mist, but it should go out as fine droplets. The foliage spray can be applied several times a season, as the need arises. But under no circumstances should any spray be applied during blossoming time.