In the cold months, don’t forget to care for your trees. The following are some vital winter tree care tips.
Winter Tree Pruning
Trees go into dormancy in the winter. The cold months are the perfect time for pruning. Tree professionals advise pruning trees while they are young to form good structure and halt damage like limb failure. Here are five tips when pruning young trees:
- Choose the central leader.
- Identify scaffold branches.
- Get rid of diseased, dead, and damaged branches.
- Pick the lowest permanent branch.
- Pick the branches under the lowest permanent branch and remove or head back.
If you feel anxious about pruning or do not have the right tools, get a certified arborist to provide winter tree pruning service.
Protect Trees from Freeze
Be ready with protection for your most vulnerable trees when the temps drop to freezing. Young trees can’t handle temps lower than 32 degrees.
Cover susceptible trees with tarps, burlap, or sheets that stretch to the ground to keep in the earth’s stored warmth. Use stakes to lessen contact between the tree and the cover. You also need to put potted trees in more sheltered locations. Moist soil soaks up more solar radiation than dry soil, re-radiating warmth during the night.
Mulch
Cover the soil with some mulch beginning near the trunk and going two or more feet from the tree in every direction. You are putting the mulch in a circle around the tree. Mulch should look like a circle, not a volcano, around the trunk. Use organic ones, like wood chips, without any leaf matter.
Continue to Water
Keep watering your trees during the wintertime. Water young trees every 7 – 14 days. Use about 10 gallons per watering. It’s crucial to water newly planted trees to aid them in recovering from the strain of transplanting.
You have to water mature trees every 30 days to 60 days. Use 15 gallons of water per inch of trunk diameter, Apply the water slowly, so it has time to penetrate the ground.
Contact Durham Tree Service for more helpful winter tree care ideas.
