Content
Bordeaux mixture for apple trees in the spring is an effective way to protect against diseases and provides essential nutrition. Depending on the season and purpose of spraying, solutions of varying concentrations are used for treatment.
Bordeaux mixture can be purchased at gardening and hardware stores.
Bordeaux mixture for apple trees in spring and autumn is used as a fungicide that has a strong inhibitory effect on parasitic organisms. Gardeners have successfully used a solution of copper sulfate in slaked lime to protect crops for more than 150 years.
Why treat apple trees with Bordeaux mixture?
Fungal and bacterial infections often cause decreased yields and even death of garden plants. Bordeaux mixture allows you to eliminate fungal infections of fruit trees, vegetables, and ornamental flowers.
Treatment of pome trees, which include apple trees, is carried out in order to prevent and get rid of fungal and bacterial diseases: scab, fruit rot, black cancer, spotting, phyllostictosis, etc.
In addition, the lime-sulfate mixture repels some types of insects. But the components included in the solution are not toxic to bees, which is very important for preserving the garden biocenosis. The drug belongs to the universal category, as it is used for spraying all varieties of plants in the garden.
In addition, the main component of the solution, copper, is a microelement that is essential in the formation of the plant. Its deficiency in the soil causes apple tree seedlings to lag in growth and development, and also causes chlorosis and low yields.
When to spray apple trees with Bordeaux mixture
It is advisable to treat apple trees with Bordeaux mixture twice a year: in spring and autumn. Preventative work in the spring is easier to organize and carry out, since the leaves on the branches have not yet opened, which means that the greenery will not suffer from the effects of the burning substance.
Timely spraying of apple trees with Bordeaux mixture in the spring guarantees that fungal spores and insect larvae that survived the winter will die. Cultivated plantings treated with fungicide will delight gardeners with healthy buds, buds, and later fruits.
In the fall, spraying apple trees with Bordeaux mixture is necessary for disinfection in preparation for wintering. It is recommended to carry out the treatment after intense leaf fall, when the trees are bare. You should first trim the branches and repair damage to the bark with garden varnish. Fungal spores formed after prolonged rains and remaining insects die during intensive spraying.
How to dilute Bordeaux mixture for treating apple trees
In order for Bordeaux mixture to have the desired effect, you must strictly follow the recipe for its dilution. To prepare the solution you will need packages of copper sulfate and quicklime.
1% Bordeaux mixture
A 1% fungicidal mixture has a lower concentration of the active substance. The solution is prepared as follows:
- Dissolve 100 g of vitriol in 1 liter of hot water in a plastic container.
- In a non-metallic container, 150 g of lime are diluted in 10 liters of cold water and filtered through cheesecloth.
- After the copper sulfate crystals have completely dissolved in water and the solution has cooled, pour it in a thin stream into the milk of lime, constantly stirring with a stick.
Pour the copper sulfate solution into the milk of lime in a thin stream, stirring continuously
3% Bordeaux mixture
For a more saturated 3% solution, the components are taken in large quantities. The sequence for preparing the mixture is the same:
- 300 g of copper sulfate is dissolved in 1 liter of water.
- 400 g of lime is dissolved in 9.5 liters of water. Lime milk is filtered.
- The dissolved vitriol is slowly poured into the diluted lime, without ceasing to stir.
- Heavily contaminated soil, for example moldy soil, is treated with a 5% solution of a fungicidal mixture.
In the process of preparing Bordeaux mixture, it is important to follow the rules:
- It is necessary to pour copper sulfate into the lime. Otherwise, the quality of the working solution decreases.
- It is recommended to check the pH level of the resulting liquid using the litmus paper included with the vitriol package.The test strip should turn blue when a substance comes into contact with it. If the paper turns red, lime should be added to the solution to prevent burns to the plants during processing.
- The finished liquid can be stored for no more than a day, so its use is limited.
How to treat apple trees with Bordeaux mixture
In early spring, before foliage appears, gardeners should use a 3% mixture of vitriol and lime when treating overwintered plants. The procedure for cleaning the area from pathogenic organisms and parasites can be carried out 1-2 times.
It is recommended to spray apple trees with 1% Bordeaux mixture in late spring, during the growing season of plants. In some cases, for example, if the spring was rainy or the apple trees are heavily infected, it is permissible to use a 1% solution of the drug in the summer.
It is definitely forbidden to treat pome-bearing tree species (apple trees, pears, quinces) during the flowering period. The last spraying should be planned no later than 15 days before harvesting.
Spring treatment of apple trees with Bordeaux mixture is carried out until the leaves appear.
In late autumn, a 3% Bordeaux mixture is used to treat apple trees. Spraying fruit trees after the leaves have fallen is called eradication treatment. This is a very effective procedure aimed at large-scale improvement of gardening. Vitriol does not have a negative effect on woody parts of plants.
When processing apple trees, it is important to follow the following recommendations:
- before starting work, you must wear safety glasses, closed clothing, a respirator and gloves;
- It is better to carry out spraying in dry, windless weather, having familiarized yourself with the weather forecast in advance;
- treating plants before rain is useless, since precipitation washes away the active substances contained in the solution;
- It is advisable to spray trees in the morning or evening to avoid sunburn;
- treatment should begin with generous spraying of the top of the apple tree, as the drug flows down the trunk, freely penetrating into the smallest cracks.
The amount of solution is calculated based on the fact that one tree (depending on its size) requires from 2 to 5 liters of copper sulfate solution.
Tillage
Simultaneously with spraying the fruit trees with fungicide, the soil is treated. Comprehensively carried out work contributes to:
- reliable protection of garden crops from fungal and bacterial diseases;
- increasing the frost resistance of young seedlings;
- enrichment of humus with copper;
- stabilization of acid-base balance.
The most effective time for treating a garden plot with Bordeaux mixture, according to professional gardeners, is the first half of spring. In addition to cleaning the soil from spores and pathogenic bacteria, when spraying with the composition, the soil environment is enriched. Peat and sandy soils, where there is a deficiency of the element, especially need copper sulfate.
In the autumn, vitriol is used mainly for the prevention of diseases affecting the roots of apple trees. Tillage is carried out after harvesting, falling leaves, clearing the garden plot, breaking clods.The prepared soil is watered with a 1% solution of Bordeaux mixture at the rate of 10 liters per square meter of area. For soils affected by fungal spores and mold, more concentrated solutions (3% and even 5%) can be used.
When carrying out work on treating an area with copper sulfate, it should be taken into account that an excess of the element is just as harmful to the humus layer of the soil as its deficiency. Excess copper causes plants to lack another element important for fruit plants - iron. In this regard, it is advisable to carry out intensive cultivation of the land with copper sulfate no more than once every 3-5 years.
Conclusion
Bordeaux mixture for apple trees is used in agricultural technology in spring and autumn to create healthy conditions on the site. Gardeners should take into account that only dilution of a solution of copper sulfate and quicklime carried out in accordance with the instructions, as well as targeted use, guarantees the effective action of the drug.
