The summer months have come and gone and you have a new fruit tree that is getting ready to experience its first winter in your yard. In the coming months of winter, you have to take necessary measures in order for your tree to survive the cold weather, especially if the tree is rooted in the ground. With special care and paying close attention to your tree’s needs, your tree will most likely return the favor by producing favorable fruit for your every enjoyment.
Plan Ahead
In order to protect your tree from the harsh winter, it will require a bit of planning ahead. It is imperative to consider your tree’s protective needs or else you may not have a tree for the following year.
Get Rid of Pests
Nothing is worst than returning to the spring and summer months after a long winter to only lose your well-protected fruit tree to built-up pests infestation. Before you wrap up your tree and prepare it for a cozy hibernation, you have to get rid of the creepy crawly things that will try to take refuge on your tree during the cold weather. A great way to do this is to prune off damaged and old branches. Once the rest of the leaves have fallen off, it is time to give the tree a nice inspection to check for fungus and bugs. Horticultural oil is an oil-based spray that is safe on fruit and citrus trees to help control bug problems. This spray, when applied, suffocates the bug in a sense and prevents any of them from reaching adulthood in turn helps prevent them from reproducing during the winter. The best way to help with the many different fungus that affect fruit and citrus trees is by pruning away the infected branch or fruit and applying a copper fungicide to help kill, control, and prevent future infections.
Protect Your Tree
One of the major issues trees deal with in the winter is, “cold stress.” Cold stress is caused by the outer layer of a tree’s bark heating up during the daylight hours and cooling down too fast when the sun passes over. The rapid temperature change causes the layer to crack or split. Though the tree is able to heal itself from this damage, continuous cracking and splitting will eventually damage the tree’s softer inner core. Purchasing tree guards, thick insulation sheets that wrap around a tree’s bark to help retain heat, can easily prevent this problem.
Another part of your tree, which is very important to protect are the roots. Everything happens through the root system of the tree. It is where water and nutrients are absorbed and taken into the tree to help keep it alive and assist in photosynthesis. Without this root system, the tree will fail to exist. During the winter months, this root system needs to be protected, and the way to do this is some form of insulation. Because the Earth’s plates rest on top of a large ocean of boiling hot lava, the ground remains naturally warm, but the closer to the surface you go, the cooler those temperatures become. That means that simply having your tree planted in the ground isn’t enough to protect it from the cold weather, you’ll need to provide extra warmth in order for the roots to survive. A few materials you could use to help with insulation include mulch, pine bark nuggets, pine straw, and wood nuggets. Lay the material completely around the base of the tree. This will help retain heat that rise up naturally from the ground and the heat given off by the sun’s rays. StarkBros.com gives additional tips and suggestions on ways to help protect your tree from any damages.
Things to Avoid
There are a few things you want to avoid doing when caring for your tree during the winter. Do not fertilize your tree. Once fall begins to pass through, trees naturally begin to shut down on bloom, produce, and leaf production. The energy and supplies used to produce are now being spent to strengthen and extend the root system beneath the surface so that the tree may have a fighting chance of survival against any frost. By fertilizing the tree, you force the tree to produce, which will eventually cause the tree to become distressed, go into shock and probably die as a result.
You may also want to avoid leaving frost-damaged branches on trees. Though it is suggested to wait to prune trees during the winter, limbs that have been burned by a hard freeze may actually cause a domino effect and the burn will cause extensive damage to the rest of the tree. Think of it like frostbite to a toe or finger, the only way to prevent the damage from spreading, you have to cut off the damaged parts in order to save the rest of the body from infection.
After-Winter Cleanup
Once winter has moved on and your tree survives the harsh cold, it is time to prepare it for summer production and a future harvest. Remove the mulch from around the base to prevent over-heating and burning the tree. Do another full inspection to check for pests that may have lived on your tree during the winter. Begin small amounts of fertilization to help the tree to jumpstart production and let nature take its course.
References:
Citrus Trees. (2012, May 1). Retrieved November 13, 2015,
From
https://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/8552276662
Colby-Williams, J. (n.d.). How to care for fruit trees in winter. Retrieved November 13,
2015, from http://www.homelife.com.au/gardening/features/how to care for fruit
trees in winter,15295
Protecting Fruit Trees in Winter. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2015,
From
http://www.starkbros.com/growing-guide/article/protecting-fruit-trees-in- winter/
Waterworth, K. (n.d.). How to Care for Fruit Trees in Fall & Winter. Retrieved
November 13, 2015, from http://homeguides.sfgate.com/care-fruit-trees-fall-
winter-59294.html
No comments:
Post a Comment