Orchard Tree Mud Pack
To make a wound-covering mud pack for your orchard trees, take:
- 2 parts silica sand or diotomaceous earth
- 3 parts potting clay, soaked for a few days until sloppy (it needs to be wet, and is used for water holding capacity, so it sticks)
- 4 parts cow manure (organic, can use bagged)
you also need a bucket, a scrub brush, and a paint brush
(other mixes are 1:1:1 and with addition of Equisetum arvense powdered tea, but that is just adding more silica which you have in the DE or the sand)
- Mix together with rainwater in a bucket or wheelbarrow to make a sloppy paste.
To prepare the tree for the mud:
- Scrub off the trunk/branches with a scrubbing brush (like a floor brush) and if there are actual HOLES, use a dust-spray can (like they use to clean computer keyboards) and insert the straw right into the hole and blast it once, then brush around the hole.
- The best time to apply is right after winter pruning, as a preventative and on the prune wounds, but any time you see an infestation, apply it.
- Use a medium-size (2″) paintbrush to paint the mud on the branches where the infestations are. I like to do the whole base of the trunk too. I often use my hands and fingers to put the mud on, to pack in the mud into any holes or fissures and wounds along the trunk and branches, and to get it into the crooks of the branches well.
- After hard rains, brush off flakes and reapply.