methods for trunk cleaning soft bark trees

[Ces]

Hey guys,

Would love to hear how our members go about cleaning the trunks of trees with soft, desirable bark (e.g. C. torulosa, B. harlandii etc.).

I've tried skewers and soft toothbrushes, wetted down moss and grime but I always damage the bark a bit. Not so much to worry me on medium and larger trees but I have a few shohin and mame trees that fall into this category. Small damage on these trees can amount to major flaws.

so how do you do it? Love to hear it.

cheers guys,

Ces.

[kcpoole]

I use Vinegar and water to remove moss.

Toothbrush is the only other thing I have used.

Ken

[Josh]

Same as Ken. I use vinegar and I have a hard and soft toothbrush.

Josh.

[gerald randall]

It looks like we all do the same. I just spray it with the solution and often it just falls away by itself after a couple of months. Or leave it to die and dry out and then you do not have to brush as hard. It either just falls off or can be pulled off easily by hand. I have a twin trunk elm which always gets moss growing half way up during our wet winter. In summer I spray, wait for it to dry, and remove as best I can without damaging the bark.

[Rory]

Okay, this is just from my experiences, but specifically for C. Torulosa, firstly it depends on the type of moss you have.

If it is a course moss do not use a toothbrush.... when you peel off the moss, it needs to be wet. If it is dry, this is the most common mistake someone will make, because if it is dry it will stick to the delicate bark more and rip off the bark as you pull off the moss. So wet the moss around the trunk. Leave it to soak in well, ...say a good 10 minutes or so. Make sure it is very wet, so spray it again, then use a pair of sharp long (very sharp) tweezers. This way you are gently pulling off the moss, which should come freely. You can gently scrape up each tiny piece of moss from the bark to encourage the moss off. Obviously this can become quite painstakingly brain numbing, but I have never damaged the bark doing this.

If the moss is very fine and emerald green, then you are entering hells kitchen. This is painful, no other way to describe it. The vinegar method is okay, I've heard it used but I've never tried it. If doing this, dry out the moss in the strong sun for a few days, then attempt again also doing the same as above for the fine moss, i.e. the tweezer method. If you are using a soft tooth brush, do not brush back and forth. Follow the strongest point of the individual piece of bark and go with the grain. I do not use a tooth brush myself. I personally do not recommend a tooth brush, as I find it clumsy and too rough. I use a very thin accurate brush which you can get from insect zapper sprays, or the type of thin brush you get for cleaning your electric razor. So the brush part is only a few mm or about half a cm across of bristles.

[Ces]

Thanks for the information guys. Very detailed description rory, thank you.

so vinegar is part of the missing link? What sort of dilution ratio do you guys go with?

Thanks again guys.

ces

[gerald randall]

I use 10% dilution. If it does not work, I have gone up to 30%. It needs to go into the sun as that intensifies the results. Don't drench the soil, spray the moss. The type of moss I have seems to die and fall off after a few months. I do sometimes have to do some work, I do use a stronger brush than proposed above.

[gerald randall]

Forgot to mention, to clean grime, I dilute dishwashing liquid. I'm not sure if you get Sunlight liquid. 1/3 of a teaspoon in 1ltr water. With very dense junipers, such as Procumbens, which easily get lots of bugs hiding in it, use the above in a spray bottle. It chases the bugs away and they do not come back easily. It also helps for scale, etc. It keeps a lot of the bugs away from your trees, not only junipers. In the heat of summer, the spray tends to seal the leaves also and less watering is needed. The trees do show improved growth. Don't keep spraying. Once or twice a season is enough. If the bugs persist, a systemic insecticide is a good option. I use the insecticide at the beginning of the growing season on all my trees anyway....ok, now I'm on a totally different topic.