Caring for Trees During the Winter Months

If you have trees in your yard or at your business, you know how important proper care and routine maintenance are. Knowing how to take care of your tree is crucial for maintaining its health year round. The winter months can be especially trying for your trees. Without the right care, they have a higher risk of being damaged or dying. This post will talk about what tasks you should carry out in the winter months as well as what temperatures your trees could suffer frost cracking and snapping at.

Winter Care

Winter is an excellent time to perform routine maintenance on your trees, especially if they are young. You should place mulch around your trees in both the summer and winter months. This process will help the soil retain moisture, decrease the temperature in the summer, and increase the soil temperature in the winter months. Mulching also adds much-needed nutrients to the soil so your tree can stay healthy. If your tree needs bracing, winter is a great time of year to accomplish this task. Bracing or cabling will provide stability all year round. If your trees already have this hardware installed, check it every winter to make sure it’s functioning as it should. You should also take the time to remove any infected trees as they are dormant in the winter months.

Frost Cracking and Snapping

Frost cracking and snapping occur in trees when the external temperatures fluctuate from one extreme to the next. If the temperature rises above freezing and plunges back down to well below the freezing mark in a day, this could cause trees to snap. You can prevent this from happening by wrapping your young trees in a paper layer from the ground to the point of their first branches.

Pruning and Rejuvenation

Pruning your trees year round will help keep the growth healthy. When you prune your trees, you can take out dead and dying branches and thin out the foliage. This is also an important factor in the case of a bush fire. The less foliage that is packed together, the less fire starter there is in one place. Pruning will also assist with rejuvenating your trees in the spring. You cut away the dead or damaged branches to give new growth room to come through. You should also add mulch around your trees as this will infuse nutrients into the soil that may have been lost during the winter months.

Each of these steps is designed to keep your trees as healthy as possible all year round. Proper care and maintenance are a must to having beautiful, full trees in the spring and summer months. If you want to get expert help, arborists from Henshaws tree service will be happy to inspect the area and provide you with the best possible solution.

Tell-Tale Symptoms of a Sick or Dying Tree

When you know the tell-tale signs to watch for, you’re empowered to take action the moment you realise one of your trees is sick or dying and needs the expert attention that only an arborist can provide. And while it’s important to discern between deciduous and evergreen trees, the following signs are a fair indication that something is wrong and your tree needs to be inspected.

Leaves and Trees

If a tree is leafless or has far fewer leaves than other trees, there’s a good chance that it’s sick or dying. With regard to leaves, keep an eye out for the following:

Clinging dead leaves – If a deciduous tree has branches with dead leaves clinging to it while the others are bare, the branches with leaves are probably diseased or dying, as dead or dying branches don’t drop their leaves when they should.

Discoloured leaves – On evergreen trees (trees which stay green all year round), branches with leaves that are yellow, red or brown are sick or dying and need to be inspected.

If you notice these signs, give us a call and one or our arborists will inspect the tree and discuss your options with you.

Tree Branches

Generally speaking, branches that have lost their bark are dead and those losing their bark are dying. Some other signs to look out for here are boring insects (these insects only bore into diseased/dying or dead wood), fungus, which is a sure sign something is wrong, and signs of rot.

Inspecting your trees on a regular basis is an important aspect of tree care. Should you notice any of the tell-tale signs discussed here that indicate a tree is dead or dying, call Henshaws Tree Service.