How to Care for Young & Newly Planted Trees this Winter!

Sean Zieche from Davey's Glen Ellyn office explains what you can do to preserve newly planted and young trees this winter to help them thrive in the spring. 

In this episode we cover:  

• What can you do if your tree is affected by winter weather? (1:05)
• Should you mulch young trees during cold temperatures? (2:15) 
• What to do before winter arrives (3:26)
• The difference between maintaining a newly planted small vs big tree (4:03)
• Snow cover in Illinois (7:43)
• Can you apply anti-desiccant spray in cold temperatures? (9:08)
• The factors that impact a young tree's development (9:49)
• The importance of planting a tree correctly (11:18)
• Why biochar is a great planting tool (13:48)
• How to know if trees planted in the fall made it to the spring (15:14)
• How long should you wait to help your trees in the spring? (16:28)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about protecting young trees from cold temps, read our blogs, How To Protect Newly Planted Trees From Frost and Winter Tree Pruning: Young Trees, Fruit Trees, Spring Flowering Trees.

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!

Transcript

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Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much, much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer.

I'm joined again this week by Sean Zieche. He's the district manager in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Today, we're going to talk all about Will My Young Tree Survive the Winter? Sean, this is certainly the winter to talk about that. Welcome back to the show.

Sean Zieche: Thanks very much, Doug. Thanks for having me.

Doug: On the day we're recording, tell me what the temperatures were when you were coming into work.

Sean: It's a brutal couple of days here. On my way into work this morning, it said negative 9 on my truck on the way there. The real feel being around negative 20 to negative 30 degrees. It's brutal out there right now.

Doug: Yes. Let's say we put a small tree in, we followed the protocols, we planted in the fall, we got it established, then we get a type of cold that we really haven't had that much of in the last maybe five seasons, four or five seasons. What are you thinking?

Sean: It's a great question. I'm sure that this is going to come up quite a bit this season. I have a couple of questions right off the bat. What kind of tree are we dealing with, and how big of a tree is it? I like to gauge it based off the size. We're talking a tree that's under 2 inches in diameter, which is the caliper of the tree. It's a whole different program compared to something that's a little bit bigger. I would say one of the biggest things that you can do is mulching. You got to mulch that tree early in the season.

Right before winter starts, I'd get about 2 to 4 inches, build it up around the base of these trees. Don't let it touch that bark. Touching that bark is going to cause some issues in the future, so just avoid it at all costs. That would be the number one thing that I'm going to say to do. Another thing--

Doug: Okay.

Sean: Yes, go ahead.

Doug: Let's say, though, that that ship has sailed, and we can't get mulch out there when it's this cold. Do we put mulch on when we get back up into the 30s? Would that be something to be preferable if we do it the right way?

Sean: Honestly, if you have mulch available to you even now, go ahead and throw it on. All it's going to do is give it another layer. I wouldn't be opposed to just, even though it's negative 9 degrees outside right now, you're at least putting yourself-- imagine a blanket over the root system. I think that's a good way to put it.

Another thing, too, is if the snow does come, don't take the snow off of it. Snow creates a blanket as well. Anything we can do to warm up that root zone. Yes, the ship has sailed. If you don't have access to mulch, another thing you could do is throw some burlap around the tree. That's always going to contain that heat as well. Putting it around the bark of a single-stem tree, or if it's an evergreen, wrap it all the way around that tree. Not too tight, but just enough to contain it.

Doug: I think what's interesting was, when we get to this point, there were things that should have been done earlier. Let's talk about a few of those. One of them, especially for evergreens, would have been watering before the ground freezes solid, right?

Sean: Absolutely. That's a big one. Watering before, sufficiently before. Not doing it right before winter because it's here. If you planted a tree, you should be out there almost every day, every other day babying this thing. Keeping up with that so that those roots are flush with water all throughout the entire winter.

Doug: You mentioned that a small tree that was newly planted and a bigger tree that's newly planted, those have two different procedures we're talking about?

Sean: I would really baby the smaller tree. I would go as far as even putting up a small fence around it. If you're planting something, what we call a whip, it's about the size of your thumb, somewhere around that, you have to protect that against wildlife in the winter. We have deers, we have squirrels, we have all these hungry animals. Once their food source is either underground and frozen or they just don't have access to it, they're going to start ripping the bark off of these trees.

Putting a small mesh fence around it without, again, not touching the bark, but having enough space around it to protect it. One of the tricks that I've learned over the years is, some of these deer know that there's a tree back there, so they're going to jump up and maybe grab the higher-ups. Same with the squirrels, they can crawl up and over. I've actually started putting leaves inside of the fence to almost-- in a sense, it tricks them. It just looks like a bunch of leaves and a tube along the fence that's protecting the tree. It's camouflage. [chuckles]

Doug: Well, Sean, I know exactly what you're talking about because I've got a herd of deer, probably 15. There's no hunting where I'm at. They're in desperation mode with this winter. I've watched them. They're coming up to where a Davey arborist had removed an old ewe. There's still some green left on there. Not the tastiest thing in the world, but they're actually coming up to the house and nibbling on that old ewe green just to get something in their stomachs.

Now, again, in the cold weather like this, putting a fence up is going to be problematic. What I'm doing is, when it warms up anyway, I'm spraying the leaves with the repellent for the deer.

Sean: Excellent, yes.

Doug: That's all I can do. Sean, I've got these mountain laurels, which are technically poisonous to the deer, but the young ones will see those buds and they'll eat them up and they'll go up in the woods and sleep it off, and then your flowers are gone.

Sean: Yes, that's too bad. The deer have always been an issue here in Chicagoland. If you're not from Chicago, you wouldn't think that we would have a lot of forest here, but we do. We have a lot of forest preserves surrounding us. There's a Catch-22 there. It's a beautiful thing, but boy, oh boy, do the people that live close to those forest preserves, they're the ones who truly have to deal with the deer interaction. They're the ones that are going to have to jump on this right away and either try to get that fence in. Even though it might not be into the ground, you can still put something around it to give yourself that barrier. Even the burlap around the tree is going to be helpful at this time if it's truly an issue.

Doug: You can't blame the deer. It's us. You can't just assume they're not going to eat your plant because, as I said, with this winter, with the amount of snow cover we've had here in the east, with these cool temperatures, they are in desperation mode. They'll eat anything.

Sean: Yes. That deer spray that you were mentioning, that stuff works excellent. That's another thing I can recommend. If you live close to a forest or a forest preserve, give an arborist a call. We can throw an anti-deer repellent on that. It works really well. It does. It's all about getting it early in the season, though. If you can call us late fall, right before winter breaks, that's going to be your best time.

Doug: At this time that we're recording, I've got some snow cover. We've talked a little bit about that. I'm so glad to have snow cover. How about you guys? Do you have some snow cover in this cold?

Sean: No. We've had a very light year this year. We did have a little bit of snow earlier, but we did have a little bit of a warmup. Now, everything's just ice. We're dealing with the cold ice.

Doug: In this case, I guess it was better to have a bigger tree put in the fall, right?

Sean: Yes, agreed. I'm not trying to scare you, but I'm worried about some of those smaller trees that were put into the ground this year, just because of the weather. The larger trees, yes, they tend to do a little bit better. They've got a bigger root ball down there that can stay a little bit warmer. That definitely is a huge help. I was going to say, one thing I did not mention about the larger trees, that is a great idea, again, to prepare for in the fall time, is throw an anti-desiccant if you have an evergreen.

An evergreen tree, they tend to lose water over the winter months through the needles. What we do is we actually will throw on a foliar spray that's going to help prevent the water loss and frost damage. If you have that option, if you have a certified arborist that's near you that has that capability, I highly recommend going ahead and doing that, especially in a high-wind area.

Doug: Could that still be done when we go back up into the 30s, or has that ship sailed?

Sean: It can be done, but the issue is hiring a truck to come out and do it. We always worry about our trucks freezing when we're out and about. Water in a truck in the back of a tank when it's 30, 32 degrees, we're pushing the limit. Now, if we get up to a 40-degree day, I can justify it, but it's likely that the ship has sailed. [chuckles]

Doug: All right. I'm looking at the 10-day. I saw a 40-degree day in there.

Sean: I'll get my trucks rolling.

Doug: [laughs] I'm hoping. Let's discuss, though, something here that I think is interesting with a small tree. If we were to lose it, this is just part of growing things. Plants die sometimes, and we can't control the weather. I often tell people this. It's like, yes, we're doing the best procedures we can in putting a tree in or a bush or whatever it might be, but Mother Nature rules. [laughs]

Sean: That's a great point. Not only does Mother Nature rule, but you got to think of all the steps that that tree has been in to get to your house. You know what I mean? The nurseries out there, they're growing it. They're either moving it around on their site, or, hopefully, best-case scenario, it stays in the one spot and it's dug right before it comes to you. Then it has to transport in a truck. Then it has to be taken off of that truck, put into the ground. There's a lot of movement with these trees up in the build-up point, all the way to it.

It also does come down to who installed that tree for you. I do question that a lot. As long as you have a reputable company out there actually babying this tree for that amount of movement before it comes to your home, that can be the make-or-break situation for you if that tree's going to survive a winter or not. If you damage that root ball, it's going to struggle.

Doug: That's a great point. Having the tree planted the right way is going to go a long way to having it survive during the winter. Let's talk a little bit about this because I know from doing the podcast, there's several mistakes that homeowners make when they put a tree in oftentimes.

Sean: I know a lot of people like to grab their trees from a simple box store. I'd highly recommend going to an actual nursery. We know what we're getting. It's vetted. That's where it starts at. It starts right there. Then, also, getting that tree to the property, again, covered up so that you're not getting any wind damage along the way. When you're planting the tree, it also comes down to taking the ball and burlap off of the wrapping.

I see it all too often where I show up to a house where I have a client saying, "Hey, I've planted a tree in the same spot three times. What's going on? It must be the soil." My first question is always, who's planting the tree? Who's going about doing that? That's usually where it goes to is proper planting techniques. It comes down to removing the ball and burlap. Sure, does the burlap break down? Yes, they claim it does break down over time, but there's some new synthetic stuff out there that doesn't break down as quickly.

Then, also, they wrap these trees four to five times in burlap. With one wrapping, sure, it probably would break down, but it's not going to support the tree. Most of the time, these trees are wrapped in burlap four to five times, and it's thick. The water can't even penetrate it, so you have to pull that off. Get the tree into the ground first. Make that hole big, two times the size of the hole that you actually need so you can work around it. You're going to pull the burlap off. Then you're going to pull the metal cage and actually clip that off with some bolt cutters. You don't have to take that all the way off, but I would say the first, probably one-third of the metal cage, should be coming off.

Then, actually, putting the soil back, not just the soil. I like to add some amendments. We have biochar. Biochar is a great amendment to be throwing in there. A bag of compost with some biochar mixed in it, even better. Anything that you can do to help this tree out to give it the best start. Like we were saying, hey, once that tree's in the ground, you're just sitting there waiting until springtime to see if it survives. Well, let's ensure it does by following those steps I just discussed.

Doug: Boy, biochar has become the thing, hasn't it, sir-

Sean: I love it.

Doug: -when planting. We've done entire episodes on biochar, but just briefly explain why it's a great thing to put into a planting hole.

Sean: Biochar, it's been around a very long time, but it's really coming to our industry right now as a net benefit. It's an amendment. It is not a fertilizer. I cannot stress that enough. It is not a fertilizer. Essentially, what it is, it's a living space for microbes. What we're doing is we're putting in this very porous object, which is all wood. It's just natural wood. Essentially, what we're doing is we're taking our wood chips, we have a kiln that we then put it in, takes all the air out of it, and we burn it at about 2,000 degrees, I believe is what it is. What comes out is just a very fine charcoal-looking product.

When that product is put in the ground or mixed in with compost, it just allows roots to grow, microbes to grow in between all these porous spaces. Again, it's an amendment. I can't stress that enough. One of the great things it does is it relieves compaction. That's one of the biggest issues we have in our urban industry is compaction. Biochar is maybe not a quick fix for it, but it's definitely a fix.

Doug: We get towards the end of winter, the snow melts, the temperatures warm up, the daffodils start blooming, we start thinking about gardening, and we're looking at our little tree that was planted in the fall. What are we looking for to hope that it made it? [chuckles]

Sean: Is it here yet? I can't wait.

Doug: Me too. [chuckles]

Sean: Signs of winter damage. One of the things that we get a lot here, because we're planting a lot of maples. Maples are a hot topic. Beautiful fall colors, right? I get it. I have a bunch on my property. However, they do have very thin bark. In the wintertime, that contracts. Then once it gets a little warmer, it expands, and we get frost crack on those trees quite often. Checking for that, broken limbs or branches, maybe the snow, the weight of the snow might have broken some of those limbs off.

Then one of the dead giveaways on evergreens is going to be discolored needles. Browning or even black needles is a very bad sign. Wait for your rhododendrons, though, and azaleas. They might turn a little brown, but let's see if they come back.

Doug: How long should we wait? What can we do if we've got something that's like, okay, it leafed out, or in the case of the evergreens, it started a little bit of new growth? First, let's start with what can I do?

Sean: What can you do? Besides the waiting portion of things, I'd say fertilize it. Water it, fertilize it, anything you can to get that thing up and going for the season. Double-checking the mulch again, making sure it's there, or it hasn't float away from all the spring rain that we've gotten. That's probably going to be the number one thing I'm looking for. Another thing is also going up and doing a little, what I call the bend test, like the flexibility of a branch. That's another thing. Even in the wintertime, it's going to have some flex on the branches to see if this thing is alive. If it's dead, it's going to snap right away.

Doug: Dead is dead. Once it's gone, that's it. There's nothing wrong with doing a spring planting either.

Sean: Without a doubt, you can always-- we'll try again. One of the things that you can do to protect split bark, how we were talking about in the maples, for planting a tree that's 2 inches or larger, maybe even a 4 to 5-inch tree. They do make a tree protection. It's like a guard that you can wrap around just a single stem of the tree. Now, that's not going to be foolproof, but it definitely can contain some of the heat. I also still recommend throwing a burlap, maybe over the top of that, if you're really trying to stop frost crack. I don't want you to think frost crack's going to kill your tree.

Doug: All right, Sean, good stuff. I hope by the time that this episode runs, we're both a little bit warmer than we are today. I appreciate all your great information. It was great to talk to you again.

Sean: Thanks, Doug. I appreciate your time.

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Doug: Tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I am your host, Doug Oster, and I need you to do me a favor. Hey, subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss a show. If you've got an idea for an episode, maybe a comment, there's two ways to reach us. Send us an email to podcasts@davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S @D-A-V-E-Y, dot com. You can also click the link at the end of our show notes to text us a fan mail message. Your ideas might be on a future podcast. We'd love to hear from you. As always, we'd like to remind you, on the Talking Trees podcast, trees are the answer.

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