Steve, Fedco recommends the painting of tree trunks with latex/joint compound. " After years of experimentation, I think that painting is the best deterrent. I�ve tried a number of recipes and this is my favorite. It�s easy and requires no hard-to-find ingredients. Mix white interior latex paint with joint compound. (The stuff you smear on sheet rock joints and nail holes�you can buy a small tub at any hardware store. Some exterior paint formulations contain ingredients that can harm the underlying phloem.) The consistency should be thick but still quite easy to paint, not glob on. Repaint periodically or each year as needed. This mix will help deter borers. It will also make for easy detection of any infestation you may have. Look for the frass! Using the paint method, you will also need to put some sort of screen or plastic rodent protector around the trunk during the winter months. We are experimenting with a borer-protection formula using more benign ingredients. It doesn�t last or adhere as well as the paint-joint compound mixture, but it appears to work fairly well. 2 qt quick lime 4 gal milk 1 gal boiled linseed oil Mix well. Thicken as needed with clay or Surround (available in the Organic Growers Supply section of the Fedco Seeds catalog). Ap" I applied an approx 20% mix but it may have been too much because a lot of it washed away. I reduced it to 10% with better adhesion. Flat indoor latex. Some think I'm nuts for putting a shot of sulfur/lime for "good measure". Some question the logic to this practice, but Fedco is playing around too. I like the idea of having the aphids' ant-servants have to traipse their way through the chemical wasteland! Noogy

Rope or wire through hose is not a good way to stake or anchor a tree or shrub. A wide strap is the best solution. It can be mesh, fabric, rubber, etc., but it just needs to be wide. Wrapping the trunk is not a good idea, unless you intend to do it for a very short period of time. Be sure to give your plant some room to sway a bit in the breeze. It needs to do so in order to bruild up a strong trunk and root system. Here is a link that might be useful:

Let's see....are you going to put anything on the stump like a planter?? If so you could paint trailing vines with flowers down it like they are coming down from the real plant. Or I saw somewhere that a lady painted little tiny rock climber people on a big rock. It was soooo cute. Gosh I guess you could paint just about anything you like. How about some cute bugs and butterflies like they just climbed or landed on it. Or you could paint a totem pole depending on how tall it is. Maybe an owl peeking out of a painted hole? If you like Native American art you could paint petryglyphs on it. Just stare at it for a while and see if anything speaks to you. ha Hope you'll share a pic when you get it done. :) ~Anj

I paint trunks of all my fruit trees (Bay Area is cooler than Tracy, but the sun should be equally intense, except for foggy areas). Trunks of some of my rose bushes that were not painted were sun scalded over the summer, so this spring I will paint them as well. As trees grow, paint cracks, so I re-paint at least every spring. Use the cheapest indoor white latex paint mixed 50/50 with water.