Bora-Care and Timbor are both borate products used to treat wood, but they could not be more different.  Timbor is in a powder form that is mixed with water.  It is much less expensive but it is intended more for protecting new wood only, or wood that you know does not have any issues.  Timbor will only penetrate the outer layer of the wood so it is more for protection or for treating fungus on the surface of the wood.  If you have an active infestation of termites, powder-post beetles or wood borers deep inside the wood then Timbor would not make it through the wood to kill these insects.  BoraCare is a liquid borate but has an additive, a glycol solution, which allows the product to penetrate through the entire piece of wood, therefore it should be used any time you have an active infestation because you are guaranteed it will kill anything in the wood no matter how deep it is.  Also, BoraCare will last forever in the wood so you will never have to worry about any infestations in the wood that you treat ever again.  Just to recap if you have an existing infestation, you should use Bora-Care.  If you are just treating wood to be used in new construction or surface fungus, then Timbor is fine to use.  Both products are very safe, virtually odorless and do not require respirators unless you are in a enclosed space with no ventilation.  You should always wear gloves and protect your eyes anytime you apply pesticides or herbicides.  All you need to apply either product is a one or two gallon hand pump sprayer.  Timbor is used at 1.5 lbs of Timbor to each gallon of water.  Bora-Care is mixed 1:1, one gallon of Bora-Care to one gallon of water which will make two finished gallons. Both products should be mixed in a 5 gallon bucket and then poured in your sprayer to use.  We sell these products to homeowners every day and they are very successful treating their issues and you can have great success too.  Remember that we are always here to help.  Good Luck!

How much Bora-Care you need depends more on the size of the wood you are treating than just square footage.  Also, it's the lineal footage of the wood more than square footage.  Here is a link to a worksheet that you can fill out and it should give you the correct amount needed based on the size of wood you have and how much you need to treat.  Typically, each gallon of Bora-Care, after mixed 1:1 with water, will treat about 1000 square feet of space, but if you have larger sized wood (for example:  2 x 8 instead of 2 x 4), then one gallon of Bora-Care may only treat 800 square feet.  The worksheet should be able to get you an exact estimate.

No, Bora-Care,  like any other borate product cannot be used on trees or plants.  Borate's will kill any living plant, shrub, grass or tree.  You might want to look at Talstar P.  It is typically used on trees for beetles.  It cannot be applied directly on the product you are harvesting but it can be applied to the bark and tree and it will not harm the tree itself.