From £9.84
Fruit Tree Grease in 200g pots, used on older trees with ridged bark. Grease is an organic control tFrom £9.84
Winter tree wash is mainly used against aphid eggs, though it works on any pest that lays its eggs in your woody trees. These eggs would hatch in the spring to attack the tender new shoots and a bad infestation can really take a toll on your precious fruit or ornamental trees. This is an organic pesticide that works by attacking the waxy compounds that make up insect eggs and carapaces.
Watch our quick video on applying winter wash here.
Note: this spray will scorch leaves, so it is only suitable for winter use, after trees have lost their leaves and before their buds have begun to open in early spring.
Winter tree wash is a contact insecticide - you must spray it directly onto the eggs for it to work, so you will need to prepare a safe ladder or use a cherry picker to spray big trees.
Each bottle of Vitax winter tree wash contains 500ml of concentrated liquid, which you will dilute to make 10.5 litres of spray by mixing 50ml of concentrate with 1 litre of water. Mix only as much as you need for each application.
It is hard to estimate how much you will need per tree, the main thing is to cover all the bark really well and spray into all the nooks and crannies where branches meet the trunk. A light application will have little effect, you need to lay it on thick. As a very rough guide, a large, mature fruit tree will need up to 15 litres to spray thoroughly (1.5 bottles of concentrate).
An established bush or half-standard tree that has been growing for 3-4 years and developed a good head of branches will need about 3 litres, so 1 bottle of concentrate should do 3 young trees.
Use a coarse head on your sprayer.
You can buy more garden chemicals and fertilisers here.