Painting Shari with lime sulphur

[Bonbon]

When you carve to creat Shari on a living part of a tree, do you seal the edges first before painting lime sulphur? Will painting lime sulphur on the edges, which is still living , damages the tree?
Also, do you paint straightaway or wait for a few days before painting lime sulphur?
Do you paint undiluted lime sulphur or diluted one?

[shibui]

Wait at least a few days for the wood to dry out a bit so that the lime can penetrate. It will just run off the fresh wood.
There are lots of warnings not to get lime sulphur on living bark but no-one ever says why. I'm sometimes a bit sloppy and so far it has not hurt the trees but it does bleach the bark and leave white spots or streaks. I suspect that's why e are warned more than the health of the tree. Strong lime sulphur can damage the roots so don't spill too much on the soil.

I have not had any issues with getting it on the cut edges so I have never sealed along the edges. The tree will heal itself along the edge. Sealing the wound will help the tree heal over the wound quicker but you don't really want that when you make jin or shari. The lime should help with any infection issues in place of sealing compound.

Lime sulphur for jin and shari is used undiluted - full strength from the container but it does tend to bead and run off at full strength. Diluted 50/50 with water seems to work just as well and soaks in much better.