Have you ever thought about what winter means for your trees? It’s true that Florida winters aren’t the harshest, but your trees will still need to prepare themselves for the drop in temperatures.
The good news is that you can take a few steps to help your trees get ready for the season. This article will share a few top tips on how to prepare trees for winter, highlighting the value of consulting a professional tree service contractor in East Lake, FL.
How Do Trees Get Ready for Winter?
Trees have a remarkable ability to survive harsh conditions, thanks to the natural defenses they’ve developed.
Besides shedding leaves, trees also prepare for winter by going dormant, undergoing cellular changes that make them more tolerant to weather shifts. Trees also slow down their metabolisms for better moisture retention and energy conservation.
How You Can Get Your Trees Ready for Winter
As effective as these natural measures are, it doesn’t hurt to give your trees a bit of a helping hand as they prepare for winter. Are you unsure how to go about doing this? Here’s how to prepare trees for winter.
Pruning Weak Branches
Pruning weak or dying branches fortifies your tree’s overall strength and is vital to sustaining its health and longevity.
Since trees slow down food production during winter, there are usually not enough resources to go around. By removing weak, dead, or dying branches, you help ensure these limited resources won’t go to waste.
Tree Wrapping
You don’t really need to worry about frost protection in East Lake. However, wrapping your trees will help prevent winter sunscald and other conditions that could damage the bark.
When insulating tree bases, we recommend doing it from top to bottom. This way, you can stop moisture from collecting in the folds.
Mulching
Mulching roots is all about helping your trees retain moisture better. It also helps reduce the temperature extremes that occur in the soil during winter’s drier, colder months. Just remember to leave enough space between the mulch and your tree’s base to discourage fungus growth.
Applying Fertilizer
If your trees are already fully grown, applying fertilizer might not seem essential, but this is actually a crucial step when learning how to prepare trees for winter.
With nutrients in short supply during winter, applying fertilizer is vital to winterizing soil and sustaining your tree’s life. A slow-release fertilizer especially helps prevent any damage, insects, and disease.
Watering the Tree
If you planted the tree two or three years ago, it’s important to continue to water it to keep it from drying out. The best way to go about it is to water your trees in October and continue doing so regularly throughout winter.
Consult a Certified East Lake Arborist
As helpful as these tips are, it is especially crucial that you get the preparations right to avoid doing more harm than good. For instance, with mulching, the last thing you should do is create a mulch volcano around your trees. You want to have it at the right height and distance.
The only way to ensure you’ve set your tree up for winter in the best way possible is to reach out to a certified arborist. They’ll assess your trees, evaluate the conditions they are growing in, and make educated recommendations.
Let Arborist Aboard Get Your Trees Ready for Winter
Are you interested in learning how to prepare trees for winter so that they can withstand the cold months? Our Arborist Aboard team is happy to help.
Speak with us today at (813) 920-4410 to schedule professional tree care that’ll help keep your trees healthy, addressing everything from leaf scars to tree winter preparation.
