One of the popular evergreens is thuja. It is planted in parks, alleys, decorate areas near administrative buildings, often planted on summer cottages or household plots. Unfortunately, thuja is susceptible to diseases and pests, how to deal with them, we will consider in this article.
How to deal with thuja diseases
It is possible to fight thuja diseases, but it is better to prevent them. The thuja needs proper care: watering, fertilizing, pruning, weeding. Many diseases develop in a humid environment, so when watering it is important not to overdo it, usually watering is carried out once a week.
Pests are disposed of with the help of insecticides, they are also used folk methods. In case of severe damage to individual parts of the plant, they must be removed and disposed of. In principle, almost all diseases can be cured if detected at an early stage.
brown shoots
Brown shoots are a fungal infection, its signs appear in early spring. The fungus often overwinters in the remains of vegetation and in the soil, so the site must be thoroughly cleaned for the winter. In thuja, when affected, the scales of the bark begin to turn yellow, the disease gradually affects the shoots, and they die.
Owners of plots where conifers grow should know how to treat thuja from a fungus. the best antifungal agent is Fundazol. The plant is sprayed with a two percent solution in the summer-autumn period through the month of October inclusive. Affected branches must be removed. To protect the thuja from the fungus, the roots of the plant are sprinkled with limestone.
Important! Fertilizers for thuja are applied in the spring, it is absolutely not advisable to fertilize the tree in the fall so that the young shoots do not freeze.
Rust is a disease of young plants, there can be several causes of the disease: high humidity, lack of nutrition, hot weather and dry air. As a preventive measure, all conifers on the site are sprayed in the spring. Spraying is carried out with the preparation "HOM" (40 g per 10 liters of water), the diseased parts of the thuja are removed. If it is not possible to localize the disease, treat with "Fundazol" (20 g per 10 liters).
Schutte
Schutte - fungal disease, its signs are darkened and falling needles. Schutte, like rust, mainly affects young trees. The reason is lack of nutrition and improper care. Treatment is carried out by spraying with a solution of the drug "Topsin-M" (15 g per 10 liters of water). Processing is carried out not earlier than the threat of winter frosts has passed. Spraying thuja with Bordeaux liquid is considered very effective against fungi; you can buy it at any flower shop.
Did you know? Indians North America called thuja "tree of life". On the basis of thuja, the tribes treated many diseases, used it as a prophylactic against scurvy. The wood of the plant was used in the manufacture of fences, roofs, canoes.
The most dangerous fungal disease for thuja in the area is late blight. The reason for its appearance is most often the proximity ground water or poor soil drainage. The fungus settles on the roots of the plant and gradually affects the entire tree. The trunk closer to the surface becomes loose, the needles and bark change color to gray, and over time the tree dies. Fungicides are used for prevention, it will not be possible to cure late blight if the root system is damaged - it is better to dig up and burn the plant. Fungus spores live in the soil for a long time, so the soil must be replaced or disinfected.
tinder fungus
The tinder fungus affects thuja through mechanical damage or dried knots. Spores penetrate the tissues of the plant, forming peculiar growths - the fruiting bodies of the fungus. At the same time, thuja dries and turns yellow. Mushroom growths, all affected and yellowed parts of the thuja must be cut off. The discovered wounds should be cleaned and treated with a special putty. Spray the plant itself with a solution of Bordeaux mixture. Preventive spraying is carried out in the spring and autumn periods.
If the thuja turned yellow and began to dry out, and visible reasons no, what to do with it? Most likely, the cause is Fusarium roots. This fungus affects the root system, so it is not immediately noticeable, first the shoots dry, and then the whole tree. The crown and roots are watered under the bush systemic fungicides. Since the fungus appears in weakened plants with a lack of nutrition, it is necessary to feed the thuja with fertilizers, which include a large number of copper or iron.
Attention! At the beginning of spring, it is desirable to remove damaged and dry shoots; in the summer season, shorten the branches by a third of the length.
How to deal with thuja pests
There are a lot of thuja pests, insects infect both the aerial parts and the roots of the plant, in addition, they lay their offspring, which also destroys the tree.
Weevils
wireworms
Thuja false shield affects the bark with yellow fast-growing ulcers. If you do not get rid of the pest in time, the entire trunk will turn yellow, and the thuja will die. From false shields, drugs are used: "Aktellik", "Antio", "Karbofos", "Rogor". Folk remedies: soap solution on alcohol (15 g of soap, 10 ml of denatured alcohol, 1 liter of water); applying glue from caterpillars and larvae to the bark of a tree.
Tui - beautiful ornamental trees which have become so popular thanks to simple care and great looks. Beautifully trimmed can decorate any garden. But any disease can destroy the whole result obtained by the gardener as a result of his labors. Most dangerous diseases thuja western (Smaragd) and their treatment:
Pests of coniferous trees: what you need to know?
Pests of conifers are no less dangerous enemies for thuja, since they can also quickly lead to the death of plants. The most famous pests today include:
- Thuy moth. Butterflies of this pest reach a size of only 5 mm and fly out in early May. It is easy to notice the pest: the leaves of the plant begin to turn brown, and the tops of the tree die off. In order to prevent the appearance and spread of butterflies on the site, it is necessary to treat trees with preparations that contain pyrethroids (for example, Cypermethrin).
- Thuja aphid, causing great harm to the needles of a tree, which eventually disappears, lowering the decorativeness of plantings. The pest has dark brown color and lives on the bottom of the shoots. The main control measures include spraying the plant with Karbofos. For reliability, read all the instructions on the package with the drug.
Do not forget that with any drugs you need to work only with gloves and, if necessary, in a respirator. This will protect your health when using toxic agents.
Proper care of the thuja is the key to the health of the tree
To minimize the risks of pests and diseases in your garden, you need to competently take care of your thujas. So, water the plant from once a week to once a month - it all depends on the weather, the condition of the soil, while young trees should be watered more often.
The basic rule is that the roots should not dry out, but it is not necessary to overmoisten the ground either.
In the hot season, the ground under the tree is covered with peat, which will avoid moisture loss, but for the first few winters, the soil is sprinkled with sawdust.
Remember to cover and protect the wood from sunburn, which can also lead to rot. For this, it is best to use kraft paper to wrap the trunk. From time to time, water the thuja from above, which will stimulate the growth of young shoots. In the spring, thuja needs to be fed, for which it is best to use
Like thuja. All of them differ in the color of the needles and the structure of the crown. It should be noted that thuja does not require special care, it can grow on absolutely any soil, but its growth rate depends on the landing site. So, this tree will develop faster in a moist place where there are no winds. It can grow both on the sunny side and in partial shade, but the thuja does not tolerate the shadow, because of this its crown often thins and loses decorative properties.
This plant tolerates pruning well, so you can easily form a crown. Usually it is given the shape of a pyramid or a ball, as well as a spiral or column.
Thuja care requires elementary. It must be remembered that the needles of a tree evaporate a large amount of moisture, so it is necessary to constantly maintain soil moisture. Depending on the size of the seedlings, at first, up to fifty buckets of water may be required for watering, while the plant is watered once a week, also irrigating the crown. This helps to open the stomata of the leaves, so the plant breathes better.
Thus, in garden chernozem and with good moisture, on semi-shady or sunny place thuja forms a chic crown. And dry black soil and location in the shade contribute to the loss of decorativeness of the plant: its color changes, the needles become faded, the crown thins, a large number of cones appear. On heavy soils, it is necessary to make drainage with a layer of twenty centimeters, and in swamps - to lay pipes in trenches. At the same time, when transplanting, you need to ensure that an earthen lump is present around the roots.
During the period of active life of the thuja, care requires the following: the soil must be loosened to a depth of ten centimeters without damaging the roots of the plant. To keep them from freezing winter time and did not dry out in the summer, it is necessary to cover the tree trunks with straw, peat, bark or manure. And so that the plant does not get sunburn, it is covered in the first three years. And if the tree is tall enough, its branches are pulled together with twine for the winter so that the crown does not break under the pressure of snow. In the spring, thuja is fed with nitroammophos or At the same time, in the case of fertilization during planting, the first top dressing should be carried out only after a few years.
Thuja care involves its annual pruning. At the same time, dried shoots are removed and a crown is formed. Pruning is done in autumn or spring. Pruned shoots can serve as cuttings for subsequent planting in the ground. But branches that are sharply plucked from the tree are best suited for this.
This propagates coniferous plant both seeds and vegetatively. In this case, the seeds are used in the case when the decorative properties of the thuja are not needed. Young cuttings root easily. At the same time, pits are dug up to eighty centimeters deep, covered with a mixture of earth, peat and sand, adding nitroammofoska. Trees are planted at a distance of up to five meters from each other.
Every spring, thuja requires the following care: dry branches are cut and burned, and the tree is treated with a fungicide in order to prevent the development of a fungal disease. When cracks appear on the trunk, it is necessary to cover them with garden pitch and pull off the cracked bark well so that the wounds heal.
Thus, plants of the genus Tuya include six species of coniferous trees (shrubs) with flat shoots and scaly needles. These plants live up to one hundred and fifty years, and some specimens even more. They are planted in parks, on alleys, used to create gardens and hedges and so-called living borders.
Knowing how thuja grows, planting and caring for which do not constitute great work, you can create a beautiful hedge or garden.
Thuja is a popular conifer evergreen tree or a shrub belonging to the cypress family. Preparation for the winter of such a conifer should be started even before the onset severe frosts.
Features of autumn care for thuja
The main measures for caring for an ornamental plant in the autumn are aimed at strengthening immunity and preparing for winter frosts. In order for the conifer to easily survive the winter, it must be provided with the right agricultural technology.
Thuja watering regimen in autumn
A crop planted in the autumn period needs irrigation measures and sprinkling in volumes equivalent to spring seedlings. young plant needs a lot of moisture, which has a positive effect on overwintering. If there is a sufficient amount in autumn precipitation, then watering should be reduced almost to a minimum or stopped completely.
Too much moisture, which affects the root system of a plant for a couple of weeks, often becomes the main cause of damage to the culture by pathogenic microflora or death.
The scheme and technology of pruning thuja in the fall
Pruning should only be done in dry weather. The aerial part can be trimmed to be pyramidal, columnar or spherical, while the Smaragd variety is most often used for spiral and chess garden figures. A careful examination of the crown is preliminarily performed, and a visual determination of the desired shape of the aerial part of the conifer.
You can not cut the branches immediately after the rain, as in this case there is a risk of pests and various diseases appearing on the crown. To give an arched and rectangular shape are used special blanks or twine. All cutting tools must be sharp and clean.
Tui autumn feeding rules
Fertilize the plant immediately after planting on permanent place there is absolutely no need if all the appropriate top dressings and fertilizers have been applied to landing pit. The best option is top dressing in spring or summer.
In areas that are characterized by poor soils, plants need to be fed with full-fledged complex fertilizers. In the autumn period, it is not recommended to feed the plants, since in this case there is an excessive development of shoots and twigs that do not have time to fully form by the winter cold. Such conifers often die during severe frosts.
How to clean thuja in the fall (video)
Preparing thuja for winter
When preparing the conifer for winter frosts, it is very important to adhere to standard terms, which vary depending on the soil characteristics and climatic conditions in the region of ornamental conifer cultivation.
How and when is thuja sheltered for the winter
Before deciding on the need to use shelter in the winter, you need to decide on the age and time of planting the conifer. If a ornamental plant was planted in the spring or summer of the current year, then it belongs to the category of young crops in need of protection.
Mature and strong plants may well do without shelter. if planted in the shade of large trees or near the house and high fence. Be sure to cover the aerial part of the bush when temperature regime below -35°С. To protect the crown, light and breathable, so-called "breathable" covering materials or traditional burlap should be used.
Why and how to tie a thuja in the fall
In preparation for winter snowfalls, the crown of young and adult arborvitae in without fail it is required to tie it very carefully with a nylon rope or twine, which will prevent the fluffy branches from breaking under the weight of the snow mass. Tie up the crown of the conifer should not be too tight, but very weak binding is absolutely ineffective.
Preparation of the thuja root system for wintering
root system thuja, regardless of age, is characterized by compactness and a fairly superficial location. It is precisely because of their botanical features that the roots of the conifer are able to freeze out in too frosty and little snowy winters, as well as overheat in the hot summer period.
To prevent freezing and overheating, it is necessary to carry out high-quality soil mulching in the autumn and spring. This agricultural technique also allows you to save a sufficient amount of moisture in surface layers soil, well maintains the soil in a loose state, and also prevents too active growth and development of weeds.
Digging and mulching tree trunks
Shallow digging and loosening, followed by mulching of the soil, can greatly facilitate the care of ornamental crops. Such activities must be carried out without fail not only in the early spring, but also with the onset of autumn.
A soil crust does not form under the mulch, and the soil itself receives effective protection from erosion during irrigation activities. Mulching can be done with garden compost, leaf litter, lowland peat, wood chips and sawdust, as well as other organic components.
Autumn problems and methods for solving them
Failure to comply with cultivation technology and violations in the care regimen often causes problems in the autumn. A diseased plant may shed its needles or turn very yellow.
How to cut thuja in autumn (video)
For what reason does thuja shed its needles in autumn
There are several reasons for falling needles, but The most common and easily identified category includes:
- too strong and prolonged frosts, which have an extremely negative effect on the appearance of the crown are not too frost-resistant varieties with absence quality insulation;
- severe drought in the autumn period in the absence of high-quality freezing measures and the drying of the root system;
- sunburn, severely burning the youngest and most recently planted plants, in the absence of shading;
- too late and abundant application of chemical fertilizers that cause burns to the root system.
Why does thuja turn yellow in autumn
Natural browning of the crown of the conifer is often observed at the end of the growing season with the onset late autumn. In this way, the plant adapts to the upcoming low temperature regimes. However, sometimes pronounced yellowing is the result of significant errors in care and violations of growing technology.
So it is strictly forbidden to carry out late autumn watering and transplants, as well as plant seedlings in sunny areas without the use of a shading shelter. Significant yellowing of the needles can also be caused by excessive late fertilization and insufficient oxygen to the root system. decorative culture.
If the yellowing of the needles is caused by fungal infections, then it is advisable to perform preventive treatment of the crown with zircon or any copper-containing preparations, including "HOM" and " Bordeaux liquid". The strait of near-stem circles with a solution based on foundationol, as well as spraying the crown with the Tornado Antiklesh preparation, has a very high efficiency. Also in the fall, quite often, experts recommend using the drug "Decis".
Why does thuja turn yellow (video)
Why does the thuja bark crack in autumn
Breaks in the cortex occur in the process active growth cambium, which is located between the bark of the conifer and wood. Through the cracks formed on the bark, a viral and fungal infection enters the wood, capable of short time cause the death of decorative culture.
To restore the health of the plant, it is necessary to completely stop the application of complex fertilizers and growth accelerators, and it is also necessary to add monopotassium phosphate, or a mixture based on 15 g of potassium sulfate and 40 g of superphosphate, to the trunk circles, which will stop rapid growth processes. It is recommended to treat cracks in the bark with a solution consisting of 15 ml of Fufanon and 50 g of Abiga-Peak diluted in a bucket warm water. At the final stage of processing, the cracks are cleaned and smeared with garden pitch.
The most common thuja diseases and methods of dealing with them
Not only pests are dangerous for thuja. With improper care and watering, they can be subject to disease. It is worth considering the main ones: how they are characteristic, and how to cure your favorite trees from them.
Phytophthora
Phytophthora is considered the most famous and dangerous fungal disease of thuja. It's a root disease that destroys it upper layer. This is reflected in the appearance of the thuja as follows: it withers, turns into grey colour, the lower part of the trunk becomes soft to the touch. The tissue under the bark changes color to brown, and a plaque will appear below. The root becomes brittle, with a smell of rot.
Basically, phytophthora affects thuja growing on poorly drained land, the water often stagnates here.
Treatment
For the prevention of phytophthora, it is often necessary to water the thuja with fungicides. If the disease nevertheless got to it, and the roots festered, it is best to destroy the tree and replace the earth, since this fungus can live for a long time.
This is a fungal disease that appears in early spring. You can notice it by yellowed scales. In the late stage of development, the disease affects the entire shoot, and it dies.
How to overcome?
To protect the thuja from this disease, it is constantly fed, and the roots are sprinkled with limestone. In the period July-October until October, it is advisable to spray the thuja with Fundazol (2% solution) every 2 weeks. If you see at least one affected shoot, it should be cut out immediately, and then the disease will not spread further.
If the bark is covered with yellow ulcers, which gradually grow and increase, your tree has picked up a false shield. Treatment should be started immediately, otherwise this disease will cause spots to cover the entire trunk, and it will die.
What to treat?
In order to destroy the false shield, the following means are used: Rogor, Karbofos, Aktellik, Antio.
There are also folk methods. To prevent this disease, you can wrap the trunk with straw or burlap. At the same time, treat the branches with a soap solution on dinatured alcohol (15 grams of soap, 10 ml of alcohol and 1 liter of warm water). Another way is to apply special glue from caterpillars to the surface (this will keep pests out).
As soon as you notice just a few larvae, try to simply brush them off with a brush or knife without damaging the bark.
Shutte and rust
fungal diseases, manifested by darkening and falling of needles. They begin in the spring and spread throughout the year. Mostly young trees are affected.
How to remove rust and shute? The best drugs for prevention
To stop the development of the disease, it is necessary to cut off all the affected branches and burn them to prevent its spread to others. coniferous trees. But this doesn't always help.
It is best to treat affected trees with HOM. The consumption rate of the drug is 40 g / 10 l of water. This solution should be sprayed on the affected trees twice a season: in spring (in May) and in summer when the disease reappears. Since both schütte and rust are characteristic of all conifers, it is worthwhile to carry out preventive treatment of the rest of the conifers (all, without exception). It is carried out with the same HOM in the same dose, but only once in the spring.
In the absence of effect, it is necessary to shed the trunk circles of the affected trees with Fundazol. The consumption rate of the drug is 20 g / 10 l of water - you get a solution (0.2%), which is spilled trunk circle affected tree once per growing season. No need to spray trees with it, only the soil to destroy the infection in it.
Topsin-M is also used from Shutte: the consumption rate of the drug is 15 g / 10 l of water, this solution is consumed per 1 mature plant. Spraying is carried out once in the spring after the threat of night frost has passed.
Instead of HOM, you can purchase Bordeaux mixture. This is an old, but very effective and proven remedy, suitable for many cultures. It is not necessary to buy it.
homemade bordeaux mixture recipe
It's easy to cook it yourself. The purchased bag contains lime and copper sulfate. So, to prepare ten liters of a one percent solution, you need 100 g of lime and 100 g of vitriol.
Prepare it like this:
- Vitriol (copper sulfate) is diluted in glass or wooden dishes (in no case iron or plastic!) Up to five liters of water are added, in another container the same with lime;
- Diluted vitriol is carefully poured into slaked lime;
- Mixed. You should get a light blue liquid;
- To understand if there is enough blue vitriol we poured, you need to take an iron object not covered with rust (for example, a knife) and lower it to the bottom of our liquid. The appearance of a red plaque means bust;
- Fixing this is easy by adding lime. It is necessary to check, otherwise you can burn the plants.
With this working solution, preventive spraying can be carried out every spring (during the growth of new needles) at the rate of 10 l / 100 m².
Outcome
Proper care and timely help will protect and cure your thuja from many possible diseases and pests. But it is also important to remember that the shedding and yellowing of the needles does not necessarily signal the appearance of some kind of disease.
Thuja often changes color and sheds needles at the end of the growing season. Appearance may indicate that it is dying. But in fact, it is just preparing for winter, and changing the color of the needles is just its defensive reaction.
You may be interested in information:
- thuja pests and methods of dealing with them;
