The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1897-12-03
Whitening Peach Trees.

The old New England practice Oh
whitewashing fruit trees seems likely
to come into vogue again. The MIS-
souri, experiment station in a recent
bulletin says: Even though the pro-
portional difference between the tenn
peratures recorded under the different
colors is not uniform, it is evident that
the darker colors absorb much more
heat than the lighter ones. When the
sun was not shining the various Their
mometers registered alike. At one
time, during bright sunshine, o dlffer-
ence of 81 degrees was recorded be-
tween the white covered and the purple
covered thermometers A difference
of 10 to Is degrees was frequently not
ed between these two. This is suffi-
cient to indicate that we might expect
considerable difference in the growth
and time of Towering of whitened and
unwhitened peach trees.
The expense of whitening Is not
great. A common lime whitewash was
at first used, but it washed off badly
during rainy weather. Finally white
wash of lime with one-fifth skimmilk
added to the water, was tried with
much more satisfactory results. About
one pound of salt was also dissolved
in each bucketful of the whitewash.
Four applications of this wash, applied
during the winter and spring, are SUI
ficient to keep the peach trees thor
oughly whitened. The first whitening
should be done early in winter, short
ly before Christmas. The wash may
be sprayed on with almost any kind
Of spray pump. We found the Bor-
deaux nozzle to be satisfactory, as
solid stream could readily be turned
on if the lime clogged the nozzle. The
whitening should be repeated as often
as the lime is washed off by rains. A
good wash, however, will adhere well
for weeks. The trees need two spray
ings to begin with, just as wood needs
two coats Of paint in order to cover 1t
well. Two subsequent sprayings are
sufficient. The whitewash should be
made as thick as can be sprayed
through a Bordeaux nozzle We used
a small bucket spray pump and applied
about one-half bucketful, to a tree,
at each spraying. The time required to
apply the whitewash will vary from
five to ten minutes, according to the
kind of pump and to the size OF the
trees. The more trees that are spray
ed, the cheaper it can be done per tree
Altogether, the cost need not exceed
ten cents per tree for the winter. AS
fungicides are more safely applied to
peaches when they are dormant than
when they are in leaf, we tried adding
copper sulphate to the whitewash. The
copper sulphate was dissolved in the
liquid used to thin the lime, at the rate
of one pound to ten gallons. This dis
colored the whitewash somewhat, and
another spraying of the wash without
copper sulphate was given to cover 1t.
We are not yet ready to report on the
efficacy of the winter application of
fungicides for the diseases of the
peach. 1t should not be believed that
the winter whitening of the peach will
be found a reliable prevention of all
classes of injuries caused by cold
weather; yet, from the results already
given, it is clear that it tends to check
swelling of the buds on warm days of
winter, and to retard poisoning in
spring. We have not been able to de-
tect any injury to the trees by this
practice. Wherever peach buds are
subject to winter killing by f1uctuating
temperatures and where their flowers
are frequently killed by the late spring
frosts, we suggest that whitening be
tried on a small scale at least.