Caring for Your Trees During the Winter

With the quick temperature fluctuations, ice, snow, and bitter cold, trees can really suffer across the northern part of the United States. This even includes trees that are native to the colder areas. It is particularly true for residential landscape trees that are isolated and exposed to the bitter weather. All though some of this stress that plagues the trees can be avoided some cannot. Here are two problems and how you can care for your trees during the winter months.

Cold Stress

This problem can take a variety of forms. One effect on mature trees is the quick change between night time freezing and day time heat. These fluctuations can lead to stress in the tree between the inner wood and outer bark. This stress can cause cracks, referred to as frost cracking. There is little that can be done, in most situations, to prevent this from happening. In many cases the tree will be able to repair itself but the area that was cracked will remain vulnerable and can crack again in the same place and cause damage that can be major. For tropical and young trees you can wrap the bark as part of your fall maintenance program. You can also apply Wilt Pruf to help reduce the moisture in the bark and help to prevent winter damage.

Another form of cold stress is having an early frost on the late growth. It is vulnerable because it has not had the time to get ready for the cold weather. The early frost can cause ice crystals to rupture the walls of the cells on the branch tips, which will die off the next season. To help avoid this from happening you should not prune until fall after the tree has gone into dormancy. If you prune it too soon it could encourage new growth. When doing fall fertilization avoid ones with a high amount of Nitrogen that is quick-release.

Winter Drought

Drying out during the winter can become a big problem, especially for evergreens. This type of drought occurs when the tree loses more water than it can absorb from the ground that is froze. This is especially true in the early spring when the sun starts to warm the tree but the ground remains frozen. There is no particular solution to this problem but you can help to control it by putting down a thick layer of mulch that is organic around the base of the trees in the late fall. The mulch can act as a buffer for the temperatures for the tree roots and help to slow runoff and moisture loss.

Maintaining good tree upkeep helps to ensure healthy strong trees that have a good chance of surviving the winter.