How to Protect Trees from Sunburn

With the fruit trees happy in their new home, we are in maintenance mode. The new pear and apple trees have not ever been painted and the few year old cherry and nectarine trees have little of their original coat of sun block remaining.

The trees that had been painted were done a few years ago and you can see how the paint wears off with the rain, snow, wind and sun.

This damage on this cherry tree is, I’ve been told, from sun scald. The damaged bark will split and peel away. The sun burn occurred fairly high up on this tree because the foliage is still too immature to protect the trunk. Once the tree is better established and has more mature limbs and denser foliage, it will create a canopy sufficient to protect the trunk in the summer, though sun scald can still  be a threat in the winter months.

I used some white latex paint we have hanging around the basement and a sponge brush to apply it. The paint was a little on the thick side which made it easy to apply liberally. I painted from the soil level up to the start of the limbs.
An alternative to using paint is a tree wrap which can be purchased and provides the same effect.