Our ancestors had no idea about pesticides and herbicides, but they grew excellent crops in their gardens. Do not be naive to assume that in those days the grass was greener, and pests of horticultural crops did not exist. How did they exist! It's just that people knew how to deal with them with the help of natural remedies that do not harm human he alth.
Alas, many of these folk methods have long been lost, and almost all modern gardeners use chemistry everywhere. However, there are also opposite examples. So, someone intensively uses birch tar. The use of this tool in horticulture has more than one hundred years. It is worth taking advantage of the experience of the ancestors!
In this article we will list the main garden and garden pests, as well as diseases that can be defeated with this simple drug. As a result, you not onlysave money by not buying synthetic analogues, but also preserve your he alth and the he alth of your family members. And further. In some cases, birch tar is simply indispensable in horticulture and horticulture. N 66-FZ provides for punishment for the excessive use of pesticides (especially if a beekeeper lives nearby), so this tool can become just a lifesaver if you need to protect your plantings.
We fight apple pests
Most often, gardeners are troubled by the apple butterfly, common codling moth and hawthorn. The most dangerous is the codling moth, since in a particularly “good” year, its caterpillars can actually gobble up almost half of the entire crop. The young generation of this pest hides under the bark, in the poorly dug up soil of tree trunks, in branches and fallen bark. Most often, caterpillars begin to pupate approximately from mid-May, and this process continues for about 50 days. After the apple tree has faded, the mass departure of the imago (adult form) of the insect begins.
This has been going on for about 19 days. Butterflies lay their eggs by attaching them to the underside of the leaf blade. Two weeks pass, and voracious caterpillars appear from them, which with great pleasure pounce on the fruit that has set. And at this moment birch tar comes to the rescue. Application in horticulture allows you to reliably protect apples from the codling moth. This will require not only the tar itself, but also water and soap, of whichyou need to make a special solution.
Cooking method
10 grams are taken into a bucket of water, and then half a bar of soap is added. But then you have to remember hanging Christmas decorations for the New Year, since the finished solution is poured into small bubbles and hung in the crown of trees. The meaning of this action is that the smell of the resulting mixture repels codling moths very well. What else can birch tar? Horticultural applications are not limited to repelling this pest.
Counteraction to hawthorns
Have you ever seen strange dry leaves on an apple tree, wrapped in a cocoon and wrapped with something like cobwebs? This is how hawthorn caterpillars hibernate. When the temperature rises to at least 15-17 degrees Celsius, they crawl out of their hiding place and begin to methodically devour young kidneys: each one eats one piece a day! At the end of May, having properly eaten, they pupate. Development does not take much time - about 20 days. Already in mid-June, the summer of butterflies begins, and in early July a new generation of caterpillars appears, continuing the dirty work of their predecessors. And how can birch tar help in this case? Its application in gardening is quite simple this time as well.
To get rid of this misfortune, you need, firstly, to spare no time, collecting the "package" remaining on the apple trees. Secondly, the trees should be sprayed with the tar solution, the preparation method of which we have already discussed above. Conductthis event is necessary at the beginning of the flowering of apple trees, that is, at the same time when the trees are being treated against the codling moth. Against whom else is birch tar used in horticulture and horticulture?
Pests, pear diseases and control measures
Despite its name, the cherry sawfly is not averse to feasting on young pear leaves. Like other pests, the larvae of this insect hibernate in the soil near trees, as well as in the debris that remains during poor autumn garden cleaning. As soon as it warms up and the soil warms up to the proper degree, they pupate, and then turn into adults. Their departure coincides with the beginning of the flowering of stone fruit crops. They harm both pears and cherries, do not ignore cherries, quince, raspberries and even strawberries. In principle, caterpillars can "lodge" on almost any fruit-bearing tree.
When and how to use tar?
Females lay their eggs in rows, placing them along the lower surface of the leaf plate. When the larvae hatch, they first modestly peck at the flesh, and then, growing up, gnaw huge, through holes in the leaves. You can notice the presence of a pest by the presence of cocoons on the lower surface of the leaves. In appearance, they resemble spittle. What to do and how does birch tar help here? The use of this tool in horticulture and in this case is not particularly difficult. As soon as the first green leaves appear on the trees, it should be sprayed with the composition we previously described. After about a week, the procedure is repeated.
What to do if you notice dark spots with concentric circles in the form of white dots on the fruits? After all, this is how a dangerous fungal disease manifests itself - scab. And birch tar will help here. Application in horticulture in this case is completely similar to all the situations described above, with the exception of one point. The active substance (that is, tar) in a bucket of water should not be taken ten, but approximately 15 g. Just do not overdo it! The fact is that birch tar, the use of which we are now describing in the garden and vegetable garden, contains many vigorous substances that, if used excessively, may well burn the leaves.
Diseases and pests of plums
The plum codling moth is especially rampant on the plum. There are Transbaikalian and Central Asian types, but, by and large, the only difference is in the way of wintering. The first type uses fallen leaves and branches for this, it can winter in the cracks of the tree itself. The Central Asian codling moth spends the winter under a layer of bark. Be that as it may, but adult butterflies appear in early June. By the middle of the month, they manage to lay a bunch of eggs in inflorescences. Coming out of the egg, the caterpillar proceeds to the meal, first destroying the plum stone, and finally completely eating the pulp. As a result, a kind of sac remains from the fetus, completely filled with pest excrement.
To prevent such an unpleasant phenomenon, it is necessary to spray the plum well with a solution of tar in soapy water in early May, and do it again a week later. The same wayact if your plum plantation was “attacked” by perforated spotting of stone fruit crops. In this case, birch tar, the use of which we have just described in spring gardening, helps to save almost the entire crop without resorting to the use of aggressive chemicals.
Pests and diseases of cherries
Cherry is affected by plum codling moth, hawthorn, and weevil. The most dangerous weevil is a bug about five millimeters long, which has a light grayish color. He is engaged in the fact that he gnaws the edges of the leaf plates or simply gnaws out the entire central part of the sheet. These insects also do not disdain young shoots, buds and buds; massively eat the ovaries, in some cases leaving farmers without a crop at all.
The pest especially loves the young kernels of recently started seeds, for access to which it gnaws through young berries. Most often, the affected cherries simply fall off, and the remaining ones acquire an ugly shape and a completely indigestible taste. The beetles overwinter in the topsoil, preferring to hide under a layer of fallen leaves and bark. Egg laying begins in mid-June, with female pests choosing for this purpose those cherries that by that time had grown to half their size.
After the larva appears, it first completely eats the young and tender core, after which it pupates. An adult beetle emerges from a dead fruit around August, immediately starting to look for a suitable place to overwinter.
How to deal with a harmful beetle by practicing the use of birch tar in gardening? In general, the measures are the same. As soon as the first young leaves appear on the cherry, the tree should be sprayed with a soapy solution of tar. Immediately after the end of flowering, when clearly visible ovaries begin to appear on the tree, the event is repeated.
Diseases and pests of black currant
Blackcurrant is not only one of the most common berry crops, but also one of the most affected by pests and diseases. The most common are moth, various types of mites, as well as rust and powdery mildew.
The most dangerous pest is the moth, which infects almost all varieties of currants. Her pupae overwinter in the garbage left after poor cleaning of the garden, as well as in the topsoil. The departure of young butterflies occurs from the moment the first leaves bloom and ending with the time when flowering is completed. Most often they lay their eggs right inside the flowers. A week later, caterpillars appear, which immediately begin to bite into young ovaries. Having finished with the first berry, the caterpillar crawls to the neighboring ovaries, marking its way with the help of a web. For a whole month, the larva intensively devours the fruits, after which it descends to the soil level and prepares for pupation.
How, in this case, is the use of birch tar in gardening? Before flowering, it is necessary to make a saturated tar solution (at least 13-15grams per bucket of water) with soap and carefully spray the bushes. The composition is applied especially carefully to the lower part of the leaf blades, since these places most often remain untreated, which is why butterflies can lay eggs there.
There is one more nuance. Practicing the use of birch tar in gardening, many experts coat currant stems with pure tar mixed with a small amount of wood ash. This prevents the development of many bacterial and viral infections that could very well leave you without a crop.
Gooseberry pests
In addition to the same moth, the control measures for which we described above, this crop is especially zealously attacked by the sawfly. In addition to gooseberries, these beetles very often choose red currants as an object of attack, the bushes of which may well die as a result of their mass invasion. As in all previous cases, the pupae overwinter in the upper soil layer, and the first adult insects appear already at the time of the blooming of young leaves, on the lower part of which the pest females lay many eggs. In just a week, caterpillars appear, which begin to scrape off the juicy flesh of the leaf. A month later they turn into pupae, and a week later a new generation of pests is born.
How does birch tar help in this case, the use of which we describe in the garden in this article? It is recommended to slightly modify the solution, which has been repeatedly mentioned above. First, a couple of glasses of sifted wood ash are placed on a bucket of water. The mixture is aged for about a day, after whichthe solution is filtered and at least 15 grams of tar and half a bar of soap, ground into small crumbs, are added there. When destroying the sawfly, birch tar should be used in gardening twice: at the time of the first leaves blooming and a month after that.
Raspberry pests
The real scourge of this culture is the flower beetle weevil. It looks like a tiny bug, the length of which does not exceed three millimeters. Most often it hibernates in a layer of leaves that have fallen for the winter. It prefers to feed on buds, but before they appear, it does not disdain young leaves and shoots, in which it gnaws its moves. The laying period is more than a month. The emerging larvae remain in the buds, together with them they fall to the ground, where they begin the process of pupation.
In order to prevent the mass reproduction of parasites, even before the first buds bloom, it is necessary to properly spray the raspberries with the composition that we have repeatedly mentioned above. But birch tar is suitable not only for the destruction of these pests. Application - garden, vegetable garden. Aphids, ants and spider mites are also susceptible to this amazing natural remedy.
In a word, using such a simple tool, you can reliably protect your lands from many misfortunes!
