Depends....usually if you plant bare root trees in a sunny location you would...they don't have leaf growth to protect the trunk. it's usually recommended to dilute white latex paint with water 50/50....

Where you are you don't need to paint them at all. Here in NY the only thing I'd paint is maybe apricots.

Thankyou both. apricots? mmmm! I love them. Filix.

oh yeah, didn't even look...maine....not known for it's blazing sun...

no its more known for its snow capped trees

It can get hot here. Last year it was in the 90s almost the whole summer. I have seen it over 100f. There are alot of apple orchards here. But bluebrries are king. filix.

Yes, the wild blueberries are king here and delicious. Disregard information from growers not from this area concerning painting the trunks white. No need to protect from not too hot summer sun. Young trees here need to be protected from South West injury. Think of what happens to that SW trunk on a sunny Jan day at 0 degrees and the sun goes behind a cloud. In an instant the bark goes from perhaps 40 back to 0. This can happen many times in a day. This scene is also intensified when snow is dished under the little tree and reflects more heat onto the trunk. As fruit trees get older they seem to be tougher and may not need this treatment. However I have found the white paint to be somewhat of a vole deterrent. Voles seem to go after my young trees so my vote is to paint. Since this is a tough area to grow peaches the white paint may slow down the waking up of peach trees. Even one day advantage over late frost may mean some peaches here. Paint way up into the limbs for the best results.

And, it's not just the heat that can burn the trunks of young stone fruits (apples and citrus, too). In places like Maine and other snowy areas, it can be from the sun's reflection off the snow (sun scald). This can occur on the south and southwest sides of the trunk. So, painting young tree trunks with regular old flat latex house paint in white, cut 1/2 with water will protect them in all areas. I just put several new stone fruits and apples in, and will be painting all my trunks this week :-)

Patty S.

Here is a link that might be useful: Planttalk Colorado: Sun Scald

Patty, at high altitude the sun is much stronger. I've never seen a commercial orchard in NY State that painted their tree trunks and there's snow on the ground much of the time in winter. I grow thousands of trees here without any problem with southeast injury. Apricots and some J.plums (Santa Rosa types and Elephant Heart) are the only exception to this Ive encountered.

Commercial orchards rarely paint the trunks of their trees in Maine and if they do it is only the new plantings. Deep snow may mitigate the need to paint but here on the coast of Maine many years there is little snow or bare ground much of the winter. Not so this winter however. I did notice that Konrad of the North paints his young trees and his snow conditions some years are similar to here. Hopefully Konrad can see this and maybe comment on this practice and if it is done extensively in Europe.