Is it me or the sulphur?

Bryan Ruznik

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I've used this lime sulpher (bought from bonsaiboy) on the deadwood of multiple trees and it turns everything yellow as hell. Never white. Am I doing somthing wrong?
 

PaulH

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1. Clean the deadwood well with water and a toothbrush.
2. Mix the lime sulfur with a little water.
3. Brush lime sulfur solution onto wet wood.
Should turn white within an hour.

If the deadwood is recently made from live wood it will tend to stay yellow. It should be allowed to dry out for a year or so before treating. The wood should have been thouroughly wetted before applying, if it is too dry it will take longer to turn white and will not be absorbed as well.
 

Stickroot

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1. Clean the deadwood well with water and a toothbrush.
2. Mix the lime sulfur with a little water.
3. Brush lime sulfur solution onto wet wood.
Should turn white within an hour.

If the deadwood is recently made from live wood it will tend to stay yellow. It should be allowed to dry out for a year or so before treating. The wood should have been thouroughly wetted before applying, if it is too dry it will take longer to turn white and will not be absorbed as well.
Yep, this is the way. I have used all different kinds of lime sulfur and Bonsai Jack in Florida is the best, it seems to be most concentrated.
 

JudyB

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What if you are applying to a tree to lighten up a live trunk bark? Same process?
 

JudyB

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Perhaps it's the ratio of dilution that is the difference, in which case both answers are correct.
 

AZbonsai

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4. Perform all lime-sulfur applications outside. Direct sun hastens the whitening.
I heard the exact opposite from David Nguy...he said let it dry in the shade.
 

Smoke

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Your brave.

1:12 with water as dormant spray on everything. Obviously the maple in the middle has received the treatment for years and is much whiter. The small elms in the foreground are not as white and still show brown trunks.
DSC_00031.JPG
 

Brian Van Fleet

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Your brave.

1:12 with water as dormant spray on everything. Obviously the maple in the middle has received the treatment for years and is much whiter. The small elms in the foreground are not as white and still show brown trunks.
View attachment 139354
1:12 as a dormant spray, but to lighten/even tones on the trunk of a maple, I've done 1:1 with no problems at all...in the sunshine. I wouldn't lighten the trunk on an elm at all.
 

Smoke

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1:12 as a dormant spray, but to lighten/even tones on the trunk of a maple, I've done 1:1 with no problems at all...in the sunshine. I wouldn't lighten the trunk on an elm at all.
Elms turn white here all by themselves. The small bonsai nursery gets small imports here all the time and they come in from China very dark almost black. within a year or two they turn very light grey almost white.

Just painted on?
 

Rambles

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Elms turn white here all by themselves. The small bonsai nursery gets small imports here all the time and they come in from China very dark almost black. within a year or two they turn very light grey almost white.

Just painted on?
Damn, I thought that was just for deadwood. And here I've been, using an acrylic whitewash all this time :)
 

SU2

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Sorry to resurrect this but hoping for clarification on what you mean by 'dormant' here:
1:12 as a dormant spray, but to lighten/even tones on the trunk of a maple, I've done 1:1 with no problems at all...in the sunshine. I wouldn't lighten the trunk on an elm at all.
I'm not getting the impression you mean that you can only treat trunks while they're dormant, but if not that then I've no idea what you mean as 'dormant spray'? Just got my first bottle of this stuff, am psyched to go outside and bleach some old deadwood, am glad I found this thread because there are spots that are recently-carved that I would've treated w/ the sulfur and it seems that's a bad idea (as they'd yellow), but mostly glad because this 1:12 (or 1:1!?) usage on trunks is a great concept to hear of as I've been using peroxide to battle trunk-gunk for ages and like the idea of something stronger, especially something with a bleaching-effect to it as it's not only sterilizing but lightening :D
 

Brian Van Fleet

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Sorry to resurrect this but hoping for clarification on what you mean by 'dormant' here:

I'm not getting the impression you mean that you can only treat trunks while they're dormant, but if not that then I've no idea what you mean as 'dormant spray'? Just got my first bottle of this stuff, am psyched to go outside and bleach some old deadwood, am glad I found this thread because there are spots that are recently-carved that I would've treated w/ the sulfur and it seems that's a bad idea (as they'd yellow), but mostly glad because this 1:12 (or 1:1!?) usage on trunks is a great concept to hear of as I've been using peroxide to battle trunk-gunk for ages and like the idea of something stronger, especially something with a bleaching-effect to it as it's not only sterilizing but lightening :D
The intended use for Lime-Sulfur spray is as a dormant-season fungicide and insecticide. Applied in strong concentrations to trunks and deadwood, it has the bleaching effect often seen on Bonsai. This can be done year-round, since you’re not spraying it on the leaves/needles, and not trying to smother fungal spores or insect eggs.
 

SU2

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Thanks for such a prompt reply! (and the blog, don't know how I've never stumbled on that before!!)

The intended use for Lime-Sulfur spray is as a dormant-season fungicide and insecticide. Applied in strong concentrations to trunks and deadwood, it has the bleaching effect often seen on Bonsai. This can be done year-round, since you’re not spraying it on the leaves/needles, and not trying to smother fungal spores or insect eggs.

Ok so when referring to dormant-spray you meant 12:1, not when in-context of whitening a trunk's bark (not deadwood) to smooth-out color discrepancies?(as detailed in your post where you linked the 1:1 dilution on that japanese maple) Had always thought the insecticidal ratio was more like 50:1 so got confused in thinking you were advising 12:1 when treating live-bark! To be clear, it's full strength on deadwood and 1:1 on live-bark, obviously taking-care not to over-apply or get on substrate (and being careful yourself of course!) Just want to be sure, have enough trees that have dark rings around their bottoms that iso and h202 can only slow-down, very much like the idea of trying this 1:1 on those spots!

FWIW I'm using BonsaiJack LS, though from what I've read it seems as 'general' a LS product as any!
 
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