Re: [apple-crop] Southwest Injury

[David A. Rosenberger]

Hi, Greg —
I’m really curious to hear what others suggest.  Old-timers in northern NY 
would sometimes use shingle nails to nail the loose bark back to the trunks of 
big old winter-injured trees when the bark split away from the trunks due to 
cold injury during winter.  I’m not certain if it did any good, but it might 
have helped to reduce further desiccation of the loose bark if it was not 
already killed all the way back to the point of attachment.  Obviously, there 
is no value in nailing back dead bark.

So long as there is still live bark on one side of the trees, you might be 
surprised to see how well the trees recover on their own if you can avoid crop 
load stress and drought stress for the next year.  The damaged trees will never 
be quite the same, but my bet is that those trees that are not completely 
girdled will recover if they can be defruited or at least over-thinned this 
year.

Concerning bridge grafting, it’s pretty labor intensive, but I’ve seen it used 
effectively.  Unless you have ideally placed root suckers already growing at 
the base of affected trees, you would need to gather the grafting wood 
immediately and refrigerate it so as to have dormant wood for grafting when the 
bark begins to slip a bit later in spring.  Grafting will be more feasible if 
you had enough snow cover to keep some bark alive above the soil line.  If bark 
is killed all the way to the soil line, you might instead consider inarch 
grafting with rootstock liners (if you can find any for spring delivery).  
These can be inserted next to the trunks with a needle-nose spade, stomped to 
backfill the spade slot, and grafted into the trunks above the damaged area 
sometime near petal fall after the liners have begun to grow.  We did this 
successfully with some Delicious/MM.106 trees that were dying from union 
necrosis (ToRSV) back in the early 80s.  In that case, we needed several 
liners/tree because the union was dying all the way around the tree.  A single 
liner/tree might work OK if you still have live bark on one side.  But as noted 
above, the tree may recover on its own if it is still alive on one side.

As noted above, grafting is labor intensive, especially if it will be required 
for many trees/A as in high-density plantings.  In addition to the labor 
required for grafting, additional attention is required to remove buds that 
will sprout on the inarch pieces and special care will be required to avoid 
hitting those tender graft pieces when applying contact herbicides.

On Mar 16, 2014, at 10:42 AM, Peck, Greg 
mailto:greg.p...@vt.edu>> wrote:

Apple-Crop participants,

Like everyone else in the Eastern half of the US, we've had a particularly cold 
and snowy winter in Virginia. Not surprisingly, I am starting to hear reports 
about Southwest injury to young trees. While there is a lot of information 
available on how to prevent southwest injury, I have not been able to find much 
information on how to deal with the trunks after the damage has been done. 
Typically, growers in Virginia have do not paint trunks with latex paint, but 
many will probably reconsider that decision in future years.

Many trees are probably not going to make it, but I'm wondering if anyone has 
experience trying to save some of the less severely injured trees with 
bridge-grafts. How about wrapping the bark with grafting tape to try to get the 
wounds to heal? (I'm guessing that this will have a low success rate because 
the tissue has already dried out.) Depending upon how far into the rootstock 
the split extends and the age of the tree, we might also try cutting off the 
scion and hoping an advantageous bud breaks dormancy.

Any other suggestions from those who have to deal with Southwest Injury on a 
more annual basis?

Thanks,
Greg

Gregory Michael Peck, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Horticulture
Virginia Tech
Alson H. Smith, Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center
595 Laurel Grove Road
Winchester, VA 22602 USA
540/869-2560 ext 19
greg.p...@vt.edu
arec.vaes.vt.edu/alson-h-smith
www.anr.ext.vt.edu/tree-fruit/
blogs.ext.vt.edu/tree-fruit-horticulture
www.facebook.com/VtechPomology


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Re: [apple-crop] Southwest Injury

[Hugh Thomas]

Greg, My "gut" tells me grafting tape will not help. I think an open wound
will heal better. I suppose the SW side thawed and quickly refroze.
Somewhere I have seen adhesive backed insulation that has a peel-off
coating. If this were white and had UV protection, strips a few inches wide
and a foot or two long could be stuck to the south -southwest side of trees
to prevent this from happening. As far as bridge grafting, this is beyond
me. Seems like a replant would be cheaper/faster, I don't know. I paint
newly planted trees with a cheap 2 gallon hand pump sprayer. 3 or 4 to 1
paint with water, and I can spray 1000 trees in 3-4 hours.  I walk the rows
on the S.E. side and then the S.W. side. I use the Ace Hardware sprayer on
sale for $9.99 (reg 12.99) and just toss the sprayer after the job is done.

Hugh Thomas
Stevensville, MT


On Sun, Mar 16, 2014 at 9:30 AM,  wrote:

> Greg;
>
> We get the same damage here in Southern California, but from sunburn, not
> Southwest Injury.  But the damage is the same, dead cambium layer and
> sunken bark.  Besides robbing vigor from the tree, here it also attracts
> borers who take advantage of the tree's inability to sap out the maggot,
> and exploit the edges of the injury.  The wounds will not heal; they may
> eventually be covered by cambium growing from either side, like a pruning
> stump is covered over.
>
> Bridge grafting is easier on shorter injuries like vole and rabbit damage;
> the problem with SWI is that the wounds are long and narrow. Cutting the
> tree off and letting a latent bud sprout may be a viable option depending
> on the damage, but you will have to weigh the loss of productivity against
> how long it would take if you just pruned the tree hard and let it try to
> heal the SWI.
>
> Painting trunks white, especially with an airless sprayer, seems way less
> trouble than any of this.
>
> Kevin Hauser
> Kuffel Creek Apple Nursery
> Riverside, California
> Nakifuma, Uganda, East Africa
>
>  On Sun, 16 Mar 2014 10:42:00 -0400, "Peck, Greg" 
> wrote:
> > Apple-Crop participants,
> >
> > Like everyone else in the Eastern half of the US, we've had a
> particularly
> > cold and snowy winter in Virginia. Not surprisingly, I am starting to
> hear
> > reports about Southwest injury to young trees. While there is a lot of
> > information available on how to prevent southwest injury, I have not
> been
> > able to find much information on how to deal with the trunks after the
> > damage has been done. Typically, growers in Virginia have do not paint
> > trunks with latex paint, but many will probably reconsider that decision
> in
> > future years.
> >
> > Many trees are probably not going to make it, but I'm wondering if
> anyone
> > has experience trying to save some of the less severely injured trees
> with
> > bridge-grafts. How about wrapping the bark with grafting tape to try to
> get
> > the wounds to heal? (I'm guessing that this will have a low success rate
> > because the tissue has already dried out.) Depending upon how far into
> the
> > rootstock the split extends and the age of the tree, we might also try
> > cutting off the scion and hoping an advantageous bud breaks dormancy.
> >
> > Any other suggestions from those who have to deal with Southwest Injury
> on
> > a more annual basis?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Greg
> > 
> > Gregory Michael Peck, Ph.D.
> > Assistant Professor of Horticulture
> > Virginia Tech
> > Alson H. Smith, Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center
> > 595 Laurel Grove Road
> > Winchester, VA 22602 USA
> > 540/869-2560 ext 19
> > greg.p...@vt.edu
> > arec.vaes.vt.edu/alson-h-smith
> > www.anr.ext.vt.edu/tree-fruit/
> >
> blogs.ext.vt.edu/tree-fruit-horticulture<
> http://blogs.ext.vt.edu/tree-fruit-horticulture>
> > www.facebook.com/VtechPomology
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Re: [apple-crop] Southwest Injury

[kuffelcreek]

Greg;

We get the same damage here in Southern California, but from sunburn, not
Southwest Injury.  But the damage is the same, dead cambium layer and
sunken bark.  Besides robbing vigor from the tree, here it also attracts
borers who take advantage of the tree's inability to sap out the maggot,
and exploit the edges of the injury.  The wounds will not heal; they may
eventually be covered by cambium growing from either side, like a pruning
stump is covered over.

Bridge grafting is easier on shorter injuries like vole and rabbit damage;
the problem with SWI is that the wounds are long and narrow. Cutting the
tree off and letting a latent bud sprout may be a viable option depending
on the damage, but you will have to weigh the loss of productivity against
how long it would take if you just pruned the tree hard and let it try to
heal the SWI.  

Painting trunks white, especially with an airless sprayer, seems way less
trouble than any of this.  

Kevin Hauser
Kuffel Creek Apple Nursery
Riverside, California
Nakifuma, Uganda, East Africa

 On Sun, 16 Mar 2014 10:42:00 -0400, "Peck, Greg" 
wrote:
> Apple-Crop participants,
> 
> Like everyone else in the Eastern half of the US, we've had a
particularly
> cold and snowy winter in Virginia. Not surprisingly, I am starting to
hear
> reports about Southwest injury to young trees. While there is a lot of
> information available on how to prevent southwest injury, I have not
been
> able to find much information on how to deal with the trunks after the
> damage has been done. Typically, growers in Virginia have do not paint
> trunks with latex paint, but many will probably reconsider that decision
in
> future years.
> 
> Many trees are probably not going to make it, but I'm wondering if
anyone
> has experience trying to save some of the less severely injured trees
with
> bridge-grafts. How about wrapping the bark with grafting tape to try to
get
> the wounds to heal? (I'm guessing that this will have a low success rate
> because the tissue has already dried out.) Depending upon how far into
the
> rootstock the split extends and the age of the tree, we might also try
> cutting off the scion and hoping an advantageous bud breaks dormancy.
> 
> Any other suggestions from those who have to deal with Southwest Injury
on
> a more annual basis?
> 
> Thanks,
> Greg
> 
> Gregory Michael Peck, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor of Horticulture
> Virginia Tech
> Alson H. Smith, Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center
> 595 Laurel Grove Road
> Winchester, VA 22602 USA
> 540/869-2560 ext 19
> greg.p...@vt.edu
> arec.vaes.vt.edu/alson-h-smith
> www.anr.ext.vt.edu/tree-fruit/
>
blogs.ext.vt.edu/tree-fruit-horticulture
> www.facebook.com/VtechPomology
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