I planted this pluot tree for my grandma a few weeks ago and made sure to paint its trunk to protect it from the sun; I hadn’t so protected a pluot tree that I planted for my mom eight years ago and look what happened.

Pluot tree with sunburned trunk.

I’ve seen a lot of trees in other yards and school gardens lately with this problem. Check your fruit trees; I hope you don’t find it, but check.

Effects of sun damage

The good news is that this damage from sunburn on the trunk does not usually kill the tree, at least not immediately nor if you can protect the trunk from further damage. My mom’s pluot tree in particular still grows and bears fruit although it doesn’t perform as well as the trees without damage that grow next to it.

My theoretical explanation for this is that the trunk now has less capacity for sap flow — for water and nutrients to flow up from the roots to the leaves, and for the energy that the leaves create to flow down to the roots. It is roughly analogous to pinching off some of the blood vessels in your legs; they’re still going to work but not as well.

Another effect of sunburn on a trunk is that it is attractive to certain pests. Borer insects sometimes show up to exploit the easy entry point into the tree. (Read more about tree borers on the University of California IPM website here.)

Sunburned horizontal branch on my nectarine tree that is oozing sap. Unfortunately, I painted this limb after it had already started to get sunburned.

Which trees to paint

So I paint the trunks of almost all fruit trees that I plant nowadays. There is no downside to painting trunks, save the minimal money and effort it takes to do the painting.

Last winter, I planted this apple and painted its trunk:

Buckeye Gala apple. Even painted some lower limbs that face the strong southwest sun.

Two winters ago, I planted this pear and painted its trunk:

Fanstil pear tree.

Also two winters past, I planted this cherry and painted its trunk:

Royal Crimson cherry tree, just starting to leaf out.

These are the types of trees that especially need their trunks painted: pluots, apples, pears, cherries, and plums too. What do they have in common? They are inclined to grow their branches upright, especially in their early years when they’re not bearing much fruit. These vertical branches provide little shade for the young trunk whose bark is thin and susceptible to the sun.

Another type of tree that is extremely sensitive to the sun in general and therefore often needs its trunk painted is avocados. I planted this avocado the other day and will be sure to paint its trunk as soon as this week’s rains pause:

Newly planted avocado without low limbs, in need of sunscreen on trunk.

On the other hand, I planted these avocados and found it unnecessary to paint their trunks because their lower limbs are shading their trunks well:

No need to paint the trunks of these newly planted avocados.

How to paint

There are a few expensive products that you can buy to paint trees, but I just use cheap white latex paint (interior or exterior, it doesn’t matter) and I dilute the paint about 50 percent with water. Many other people have done this for many years in many locations. It works.

Old can of white latex paint that I’ve been using on trees for many years.

Paint all the way down to the soil and all the way up to the lowest limbs on the south side of the trunk. It is the south-facing side of the trunk that usually gets sunburned although it can also happen to the east and west sides, depending on what is around the tree. So I always paint all sides except the north just to be safe. The sun never shines strongly from the north here in the Northern Hemisphere.

After initially painting a tree’s trunk, usually, the tree grows and bears fruit and its branches become more horizontal under the weight of the fruit. These branches then shade its trunk such that no later paintings are required. Here is a five-year-old pluot tree in my yard whose trunk I painted at planting, and which now has weeping lower limbs that shade its trunk:

Dapple Dandy pluot tree.

If, however, a fruit tree doesn’t begin to protect its trunk from the sun like this, then that remains our responsibility. Grab the paint can, and get it done well before summer.

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