I spent several hours in the Finley Lane orchard inventorying bloom and looking for trunk damage.

For years we’ve been painting straight Neem Oil on the lower trunks of the young apple trees (1—15 years old) to prevent damage from the round-headed apple tree borer. The treatment has worked extremely well. The “borers” can be devastating to young trees, but since using Neem, we’ve had almost no damage. However, the neem-painted areas look very dark in color, presumably as a result, and some bark has split open. I’ve been concerned that straight Neem Oil may be damaging the bark.

Brandywine in bloom, Finley Lane Orchard, May 26, 2026

Today I checked 350 trees. The bark on most of the trees look fine, but I found 18 with at least some minor bark damage. That’s 1 tree in every 19 or about 5%. In every case all the damage has been on the Southwest (SW) side of the tree. This leads me to believe that the Neem itself is not damaging the tree, but the darkened color of the bark is causing “southwest injury” aka sunscald. SW Injury is caused in the winter when the bark and sap heat up during sunny days and then freeze after dark causing the bark to split. The Neem-blackened trunks probably absorb more sun which could increase the absorption of heat resulting in damage to the bark.

So what to do? This spring I’m painting a paste of clay and fresh manure on the tree trunks. The color is light tan. The tree paste has healing properties and forms a crust that could deter borers. (I say “could.” Time will tell.) Because of the light color, I hope that the winter sun will be reflected rather than absorbed, and winter trunk damage will be reduced or eliminated. Another ongoing experiment.

The hit parade of iconic May birthdays continues today with the 100th anniversary of the birth of the jazz trumpeter, Miles Davis who died in 1991. Although I rarely listen to Miles, I do own a copy of “Kind of Blue” and play it 35 or 47 times a year. All Miles tributes mention the 1959 album as the best-selling jazz album of all-time. There’s a reason for that. The album is superb.