You probably believe that your trees will do perfectly well during the cold months without your help. If your trees are mature and healthy and suited to your hardiness zone, you’re probably right. However, every living thing can use as much help as it can get when temperatures plunge and resources are scarce. Here are ways to keep your trees in peak condition during the holidays.
Have Your Trees Inspected
First, ask a professional arborist to inspect your trees. These experts can let you know what your trees need to survive the cold weather. An arborist can even pick up signs of disease or infestation that might be dormant during the winter but attack your tree when the weather warms.
Do Some Pruning
For a lot of trees, the holiday season is the best time to prune. This is especially true of deciduous trees, as their leaves have fallen, and it’s easier to see their branches. Have an arborist take away heavy branches that overhang structures and might snap off under a load of snow and ice. While rare, snow and ice storms can occur in Santa Rosa. Dead branches, damaged branches, and branches that cross need to be pruned. Suckers and water sprouts should also be pulled out. These are shoots that don’t produce fruit or flowers but steal nutrients from the rest of the tree.
Add Mulch
Mulch keeps the soil moist and warm, so it’s best to do this before there’s a freeze. Mulch also keeps down weeds. The best type of mulch is organic, as it decomposes and adds nutrients to the soil. This can be shredded leaves, compost, straw or wood chips. Make sure the mulch is about 3 inches deep and doesn’t touch the place where the trunk meets the root. Though you may have some mulch material around your property, it’s best to buy it from a nursery. The leaves you raked up from your yard might have pathogens or pests.
Protect Saplings
Saplings are especially vulnerable during the holidays. Wrapping a sapling’s trunk in white tape or painting it white can protect it from damaging temperature fluctuations. Some people wrap their young trees in burlap to protect them.
Add Holiday Lights the Right Way
It’s perfectly fine to put holiday lights in your tree, but you need to do it the right way. Test lights first, and don’t wrap them so tightly around the trunk or branches that they interfere with their growth.
Call Us to Learn More
There are many ways to make sure your trees and shrubs stay strong and healthy during the holidays. To learn more, get in touch with our professional arborists at Image Tree Pros of Santa Rosa, CA.