Now’s the time to wrap up Fall tree care

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.  

Now's the Time to Put the Vegetable Garden to Bed

Putting the vegetable garden to bed isn’t nearly as much fun as starting the garden in the spring, but with Halloween right upon us and a hard frost in our pocket, it’s time.  

Fall cleanup is an important step in preparing the garden for the next growing season, because what you don’t accomplish in the garden now, you’ll need to do in the spring, when you’re eager to plant your garden, not clean it up. Additionally, a vegetable garden left unattended through winter provides a cover for insect pests and disease.     

Begin by taking an inventory of your garden and making notes about successes, disappointments, and changes that you’d like to make.  Taking pictures before starting the cleanup process will help you recall what the garden looked like as you begin the planning process for next season.

  

Once you’ve finished documenting the garden, you’re ready to start the process of cleaning your vegetable garden.  Leaving tomato plants, cucumber vines and other plant debris in your garden after you've finished harvesting will provide cover for plant diseases, giving them a head start next spring. Bacteria, fungi and viruses can remain alive, though dormant, during the winter months, if there is enough plant material to protect them.   

  

Insects, too, survive quite nicely over the winter months, given sufficient cover. Western Flower Thrip, Cucumber beetle, potato beetle and others overwinter in different life stages – egg, larva, pupa, or adult – depending on species. In spring they migrate to young plants where they feed and lay eggs for a new generation.  

While you’re at it, keep an eye out for signs of beneficial insect egg cases attached to stalks when you prune or clean up.  You’ll often find egg casings such as this mantis ootheca and occasionally an adult or a ladybug sunning herself. 

In addition to tomato and vegetable debris, many weeds serve as alternate hosts for insects and fungi, helping them to complete their life cycle.

Removing and destroying these weeds removes a source of future troubles.  

Once clean, the next step is to facilitate adding organic material to your garden bed while the soil is warm and workable. Healthy soil is key to your garden and a clean garden bed is the ideal time to amend your soil. Adding organic material now will improve soil structure and increase microbial activity, which leads to stronger root development and improved nutrient uptake in the spring and summer garden.   

Rake or mow the leaves off your lawn and spread them out over the garden bed or raised bed, then add three to four inches of organic compost on top of the leaves. This will help maintain the structural integrity of the soil as well as protect the all-important micro-organisms living in your garden soil. Organic material can be in the form of packaged organic compost, peat moss and earthworm castings.  Come spring, the decomposed leaves and compost can be worked directly into the garden soil.     

Using a cover crop is a great way to rebuild soil structure and overall soil health, protect and nourish soil microorganisms, suppress weeds, and return organic material and nutrients to the soil in the spring when you turn it over. Winter Rye and common buckwheat are good choices for cover crops, at this point in the season.    

Together, cover crops and organic material will build and maintain healthy, microbial-rich soil through the winter, a sure way to improve the crop yield in your garden next season.   

Make the fall garden clean up a part of your routine. It will set up your vegetable garden for a great start next spring.