Is vasaline bad for citrus?

[Mathew R]

Gday all!

I remember a video not too long ago when Mark mentioned that a thick layer of vasoline would prevent further white spot from climbing and being a pest to citrus!

I spoke with a senior horticulturist and he mentioned a scary story when his friend applied a 7-10cm band that was half an inch thick around the base ans it caused the tree to have bark issues and die!?

Can we get some vaso wins/loses to weigh out its effectiveness of pest prevention?

Kind regards

Me, Matt!

 

[ClissAT]

Ive never used vasaline on plants.

Closest I've come to anything like that is soaking rags in sump oil to wrap around the trunks of trees to stop catapillers climbing up.
I don't think that worked either!

 

[AndyH]

Hi Matt, not sure about citrus but the vaso certainly helps with all the Pineapples I used to get when I was in
I'm sure you know what I mean.....anything that helps to get past all those spikes is a good thing

 

[Mathew R]

Haha love it, we were always lacking the vaso in our kits... So water and nescafe (rust) 43 did the trick.... Didn't make it much smoother but added caffeine kick never hurt !!

 

[Mathew R]

Ive never used vasaline
I don't think that worked either!

Did you notice any damage or residue effect where you had the rags?

 

[ClissAT]

Matthew its a case of dont use too much or wrap too tightly.
Actually for the hairy catapillers, you want to tie the collar onto the tree firmly then fold at least half the width of the collar down loosely over the tied bit so the catapillers go up under the loosely folded part or skirt as it is called.
Then in the morning you lift the skirt and brush all the catapillers into a bucket and dispose of them.

All this means your wrap will be around 80 cm wide by twice the circumference of the trunk of tree. That way you can wrap cord or bale twine around a few times to tie the wrap, then still have a good amount loose above the ties to fold down.
Most ground dwelling catapillers like to hide during the day and come back down out of the tree they are feeding on which is how the wrap works. In the evening they head back up the tree and get caught up in the skirt part and suffocate when they get the sump oil all over them.
Best not to leave that sort of wrap on permanently.

However, those catapillers that are laid as eggs onto the leaves will live full time in the leaves and never move away from the tender tip growth.

Always identify what catapillers you have before resorting to spray. Some are not so bad to have. Yes they eat a few or more leaves but the tree recovers well without damage and you have facilitated the life cycle of some beautiful and important butterfly.
Even the big stripped catapillers that look like a piece of bird dropping on the leaf dont do that much damage to a citrus because they are the natural predators and the tree is genetically programmed to recover from that munching. Any healthy tree gets over them easily.
Those catapillers turn into beautiful butterflies.