Prepare your trees for Winter – Get a plan in place!
Cold weather can weaken or kill a tree. In order to make sure that your trees are ready for Winter, it is important to have a plan. Some trees can have a difficult time during frigid temperatures, especially with the snow and ice.
What a lot of people don’t understand is that Winter sunshine, frigid temps and strong winds can potentially:
- Injure bark
- Dehydrate and wash out evergreen leaves
- Harm or kill root systems, branches, or buds
- Snow and ice can weigh down and eventually break branches and even take down a whole tree
- Salt used for ice control is drying and damaging to plant life
- Deer and small animals may inadvertently cause damage to trees by chewing on the bark or branches due to the limited winter food source
Ice and heavy snowfall can lead to damaging effects to plant life and trees. Trees that are most vulnerable to snow and ice damage include:
- Trees that have multiple leaders
- Evergreen varieties
- Birch trees or others that have several smaller stems
- Trees with weaker frames, like those with slender branch crotches
Prepare your trees for Winter
Your tree is not a stranger to weather changes. Most trees have been through many Winters and Summers. With the proper care they will most likely survive this one, too.
To help your trees survive in tough weather conditions requires understanding how to protect them from the elements.
The key is to keep your tree healthy by watering it regularly, fertilizing it and pruning it when needed before Winter comes. If it is healthy already, the preparations for Winter can keep it that way.
Ways Mockingbird Tree Care can help your trees
The Mockingbird Tree Care team can help ensure your trees stay healthy all Winter long and get them ready to look wonderful when Spring comes. A few ways we do this, are:
Proper pruning – This can assist with weight reduction and prevent falling limbs due to winter conditions.
Root protection – Protect root systems of newly planted trees and shrubs by covering with 3-4 invoices of wood chips, so the roots don’t have first contact with the snow, ice, and below freezing temperatures.
There are other methods we can employ, depending on your particular situation.
Call Mockingbird Tree today for a free estimate with our ISA Certified Arborist to properly advise how proper pruning and other methods can help prevent Winter tree damage due to heavy snow and ice storms. We’d love to prepare your trees before Winter comes full force!
