Pruning names cause wounds in the wood as well as broken branches. Fungi and germs can penetrate through untreated wounds and the trees die.
A wounded tree is particularly susceptible to bacterial attack in the affected areas. With the right care, the wounds can heal in time and the growth is protected from diseases.
Do wounds on the wood need to be treated?
Wounds on trees and shrubs usually result from the annual pruning that is required of both trees and shrubs. Whether these need to be treated depends on the size of the wound on the one hand and the time of year on the other.
Summer
Small wounds heal very well due to the typical summer heat. In most cases, no wound care is required.
Winter
Injuries to the wood should not be left unprotected in the cold season. The maintenance periods for most plants are between January and March in the calendar, plus the period from October to December.
Care for sore spots professionally
In the colder months of the year, wound care is always recommended. If the wound is fresh, prompt treatment will help protect the growth from disease. The best way to do this is as follows:
1The first step is to check whether the edges of the wound are frayed. These should be smoothed out with a saw or knife. Also remove any short remaining pieces of branch. This allows the wood to heal wounds more easily.
Tip: Make sure you always work with sharp and clean tools.
2In the second step treat the wound with a wound balm for woody plants. Depending on the product, the entire wound or just the edge of the wound should be treated with balm.
Tip: The wound balm used should definitely have a seal from the Federal Biological Institute.
In the warm season usually no care required
If a tree wound occurs in summer, the heat usually dries out the affected areas well, so that germs andbacteria does not have a suitable basis for spreading. A typical feature of such places is the so-called wall, in which the growth forms a veritable collar at the edge. On the other hand, a callus develops on the injury itself, which consists of natural tissue and acts as a protective film for the wound.
If you use a wound balm during this time, however, this can lead to the wood getting more cracks from the preservatives. Blisters can also form on the bark, and in the worst case it will come off completely. Curiously, areas treated with a protective balm are more susceptible to disease and fungal infestation in humid conditions in summer than in winter.
Consequences of lack of care
If the wound on a tree is not properly treated, germs and fungi can penetrate more easily. There is a risk that these will cause a variety of damage in the wood. As a consequence, individual branches die first, but the fungal disease continues to work its way through the entire plant, causing it to gradually rot.
Accordingly, wounds on trees represent an additional safety risk for trees within a garden and should be treated in a timely manner.