Winterize Your Trees Now
Saturday, December 18, 2010
New England winters are hard on trees. It strips moisture from soil, damages branches, and destroys root systems. Fortunately, you can take measures to protect trees from our harsh winters. Here are some tips to put into action this weekend.
Planting your Christmas tree...
If you’re planning on planting your Christmas tree after the holidays, dig a planting hole as soon as possible. Then cover the backfill and the hole with about an inch of mulch. This keeps both the hole and the soil from freezing and losing moisture. Once that happens, the soil dries up until spring, making it hard for a tree to take root.
After taking the Christmas tree down, store it in your garage or another place protected from the wind and low temperatures. Keep it there for a few days, which helps the tree adapt to the cold.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTOnce you’ve planted the tree, apply mulch over the roots and soak the tee’s base with water. Keep watering the tree for about three days, which should give the tree enough soil moisture to outlast the winter. By then, the tree will have taken root and can survive on its own.
Another use for your holiday tree
If you’re not planting your Christmas tree, you can recycle it. Old Christmas trees are often ground into mulch for re-use around plants or cut into wood chips for re-use around young trees. Many communities collect Christmas trees after the holidays for recycling. Check with your community for pick-up times.
Protect the trees you already have
Winters are especially hard on trees with smooth, thin barks like beeches, birches, and maples. These trees often incur “frost crack” injuries along their trunks—longitudinal splits in the bark on the tree’s southwest side—thanks to the sun. The sun warms the bark during the day. If the nighttime temperature drops dramatically, the huge change causes the bark to lose heat, contract, and split.
To protect a tree from frost cracks, wrap the lower trunk with something that reflects light, like light-colored crape paper. Wrapping keeps the sun from heating the bark to a high temperature. You can also coat the lower trunk with white latex paint—an old but effective trick.
In addition, look for crossing branches and exceptionally long branches, which can snap or break during the winter. Remove the crossing branches and shorten the long branches, reducing the chance of disfiguring branch injuries from wind, snow, or sleet.
Don't forget the roots
Root systems are also vulnerable in winter. Fluctuations in temperature can destroy root system. By the same token, sunny days and cold nights can thaw and freeze, and then re-thaw and re-freeze the soil, which can also destroy root systems. Mulching is a good way of protecting a tree in winter. Leaves make an ideal mulch. To prevent the leaves from packing, run over them a few times with a lawn mower, creating a light, porous mulch. Spread the mulch around the tree’s base to a depth of about an inch. Spreading a layer of wood chips also protects a tree in winter. Lay the chips around the tree’s base to an inch depth, but don’t let the chips touch the bark. It encourages a fungus to grow where they touch, enabling the fungus to burrow under the tree’s skin.
Want to know more? Visit the Rhode Island Tree Council’s Web site or any of the Web sites listed below.
www.treehelp.com
www.arborday.com
www.treesaregood.com
John Campanini is technical director of the Rhode Island Tree Council. Previously, he was Providence’s city forester.
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