Helping Trees Through Winter

Most of the growing points in the tree are protected inside jackets called buds. Only in spring will it be apparent whether the tree has put aside and saved enough resources to respond to the new season of growth.

Winter is a difficult time for trees. Trees must stand in the face of drying and cold winds. Food reserves are carefully conserved for the coming needs of spring and water continues to move through the tree until it freezes. Any creature needing a meal chews and nibbles on the resting buds and twigs. Trees stand against all circumstances that the winter season can generate.

What can you do to help your valuable trees? A few things can help a tree be more efficient and effective in surviving the winter and thriving in the spring. These small winter investments can pay off in a large way, yielding healthy and structurally sound trees.

• Add a thin layer of composted organic mulch that blankets the soil surface. Mulch protects and conserves tree resources and recycles valuable materials.
• Properly wrap new young trees and newly planted trees that have not developed a corky bark and could easily be damaged. Mechanical injury from the environment, including chewing and rubbing by animals, must be prevented.
• Remove visible structural faults and deadwood. Try to make small pruning cuts that minimize the exposure of the central heartwood core on branches.
• Perform limited pruning of declining and poorly placed branches. Pruning should conserve as many living branches as possible with only a few selected cuts.
• Fertilize in early spring with elements needed in small quantities. Essential elements added over a mulch layer will help provide a healthy soil environment for root growth.
• Water where soils and trees are cool but not frozen, and where there has been little precipitation during the summer or fall. Winter droughts need treatment with water the same as summer drought. However, it is easy to overwater in winter, so be careful.

Source: The Nebline