Along with your other late fall garden chores, be sure to include time for getting the trees in your landscape ready for winter. Keeping your trees healthy through winter gives them the best chance to thrive when the growing season returns.
Winterizing trees includes light pruning, watering, mulching and in the case of young trees, wrapping the trunk.
Pruning this time of year should be confined to damaged branches and suckers. Tree suckers are branches that can emerge from the base of the tree or low on the trunk.
Trees that are under stress will tend to send up more suckers. Prune these branches off now. Small dead branches in the trees canopy can be removed at this time. Using a sharp bypass pruner, cut these small branches near the main trunk.
Avoid heavy pruning of older trees that would expose limbs and trunks that have been shaded to direct sunlight. Gradually thin out these limbs over several seasons.
Now’s the time to water your trees. This is important because water acts as an insulator to winter’s drying winds and temperature swings. Moist soil will be warmer. Hydrated cells will resist damage from the cold weather.
As far as how much water your trees need, a general guideline suggests 10 gallons of water per inch of trunk diameter, as measured at chest height. You can water by hand or use a simple lawn sprinkler.
Where you place the sprinkler depends on whether this is a newly planted tree or an established tree. For newly planted trees, water the root ball area. For established trees, place the sprinkler at the drip line. The drip line is the outer edge of the tree’s branches. The key is to water at a slow enough rate that the water soaks in and doesn't run off.
Mulching conserves moisture and helps keep the soil temperature stable. Mulch should be 2 to 4 inches deep and cover the root zone near the base of the tree, while avoiding mulching the trunk itself.
Suitable mulches include Gorilla Hair, Cedar Mulch or bark chips.
Finally, young deciduous trees need to have their trunks wrapped. This is to prevent damage from the winter sun. It’s not unusual for winter temperatures to reach 60° Fahrenheit in the daytime. When it gets this warm during the day, the low winter sun heats up the tree bark, especially on the south and southwest sides of the tree. The sun’s warming action breaks the tree’s dormancy and the cells on that side of the tree wake up and become active. When the temperatures fall after sunset, the active cells and tissue die. Prevent sunscald on young trees by applying tree wrap now.
Tree wrap is a corrugated paper product, sold in 50' and 150' rolls.
Start at the base of the tree and spiral the wrap upward to the first primary branch. Overlap each turn by one-third.
Once you reach the first set of branches, loop the tree wrap over a strong, sturdy branch and tape it, so it will stay in place.
A good rule of thumb is to wrap your trees around Halloween and remove the wrap around Easter.
