Is it necessary to remove lichens from trees or is this an imposed recommendation: the opinion of professionals
Lichen is nothing more than a symbiosis of fungi and blue-green algae, which uses microelements that settle on it during fog or rain as food.
We asked the expert of the online publication BelNovosti, scientist-agronomist, landscape designer Anastasia Kovrizhnykh , what to do if lichens were noticed on trees in the garden.
First, it is worth figuring out whether such an organism harms plantings.
According to the expert, since the lichen attaches to the old bark, it does not cause any harmful effects to the tree.
This fact - that the lichen does not penetrate deep enough to use the nutrients supplied to the plant - is confirmed by the fact that this organism can be found even on rocks.
So is it worth removing lichens from trees?
The answer is simple – you should only start this operation if you don’t like the appearance of the garden, the trees of which are covered with the very symbiosis we are talking about.
All that is needed for this is to treat the garden with a 5% solution of ferrous sulfate.
But it is better to put metal brushes aside, because they can damage the bark, which will cause more damage to the tree than the presence of lichen on it.
