Winter’s Hidden Threats: How Cold Weather Can Silently Damage Your Trees and What to Watch For
As winter settles across Long Island and Suffolk County, many homeowners assume their trees are safely dormant and protected from harm. However, despite the fact that your trees are “sleeping” this time of year, they are not immune to the hazards of the winter season. Though they are susceptible to injury in the cold months, the effects are often not known until spring. Understanding the signs of winter weather damage is crucial for protecting your valuable landscape investment and ensuring your family’s safety.
The Science Behind Winter Tree Damage
Contrary to popular belief, plant damage is not generally caused by an unusually cold winter. Low-temperature injury is more often associated with extreme temperature fluctuation than with prolonged cold weather. Despite this, it isn’t necessarily the extremely cold weather that harms a tree the most during the winter. Instead, it’s the intense temperature fluctuations that often cause the greatest amounts of damage.
Trees face multiple winter threats, including winter sun, wind and cold temperatures can bleach and dry out evergreen foliage, damage bark, and injure or kill branches, flower buds, and roots. Additionally, snow and ice can break branches and topple entire trees.
Key Signs of Winter Damage to Watch For
Sunscald and Southwest Winter Injury
One of the most common forms of winter damage is sunscald, which is often referred to as “sunscald” and often develops on the south or southwest side of trees following a sudden exposure to direct sun. Sunscald is an injury in which living cells just inside the outer bark are damaged by day-to-night temperature fluctuations. When the sun warms up the exposed bark on sunny days it awakens the dormant cells within the tree. These newly activated cells are then injured when temperatures drop below freezing during the nighttime hours.
Signs of sunscald include the bark slowly darkens, turns reddish-brown, and becomes rough. After a time, the callus tissue eventually cracks and falls away. Sometimes only the outermost cambium layer is damaged and a sunken area appears on the trunk. Affected trees often have sparse foliage, stem dieback, and stunted growth.
Winter Burn and Desiccation
A browning or scorched leaf tip on evergreen foliage in late winter and early spring is a form of winter injury. Browning usually occurs from the needle tips downward. This condition, known as winter burn, occurs when like human skin, trees can struggle to find enough moisture during the winter months. Low moisture levels in the air and soil create an arid environment. With less water available to the tree during winter months, the tree takes moisture from its own cells. This leads to damage and brown or red foliage.
Symptoms of winter damage can include a change from the normal green color to gray, yellow, blue, purple, bluish-green, brown, and bronze leaves or needles.
Frost Cracks and Bark Splitting
Frost cracks (also called radial shakes) are vertical cracks that form in the bark and also occur from a sharp drop in temperature. Like sunscald, this injury is most common on the south or west side of a tree, and young trees with thin bark are most susceptible. Thin-barked, deciduous trees like maple, cherry, mountain ash, apple, peach, tulip, ash, willow, birch and linden are highly susceptible to winter-induced crack or bark split on the trunk, especially when the bark is young and tender. This problem is also known as southwest injury, because in most cases the crack develops on the south or southwest side of the tree.
Snow and Ice Damage
The addition of snow and ice during winter months can create more weight and increase the risk of limbs breaking. Having your trees properly pruned and removing dead limbs will reduce this liability. Multi-stemmed evergreens, such as yews, arborvitae, and junipers, are often the most prone to damage. The branches of many hardwoods, such as Siberian elm, maples, and birch, may be seriously damaged in ice storms.
Animal Damage
Winter also brings increased wildlife pressure on trees. Mice and rabbits often damage young trees in the winter by feeding on the bark and girdling the trees. Damage occurs most commonly when there is prolonged, heavy snow cover, and food is scarce. Rabbits feed on the bark above the snow, while mice feed near the ground level.
What to Do If You Spot Winter Damage
Be sure to wait until after shrubs leaf out if you are unsure whether or not a branch is still living. Exposure to this winter’s extreme temperatures may cause delayed leaf development on plants, so if you prune as early as you would after a normal winter, you may be cutting off live growth.
If an ice storm occurs it is best to be patient. Let the snow and ice melt because trees that are bent but not broken by the weight of ice, will often recover without special care. But any tree that is visibly damaged, leaning, or the crown has been lost, will require a certified arborist to assess the damage and health of the tree.
Professional Tree Care in Suffolk County
When winter damage affects your trees, it’s essential to work with experienced professionals who understand Long Island’s unique climate challenges. Miguel’s Tree Service is a locally-owned and operated tree company dedicated to delivering exceptional tree care services in Suffolk County, NY. With 15 years of experience in the industry, we have earned a reputation for our expertise, professionalism, and commitment to customer satisfaction. Our tree company consists of skilled arborists and tree care specialists passionate about maintaining your trees’ health and beauty.
For residents throughout Suffolk County, including those seeking professional tree service bohemia, Miguel’s Tree Service offers comprehensive solutions for winter-damaged trees. Founded on the principles of integrity, affordability, and exceptional service, we pride ourselves on our licensed, skilled arborists who bring meticulous attention to every detail, from stump grinding to tree trimming. Our commitment to delivering quality service at competitive prices ensures that every project we undertake not only meets but exceeds your expectations. Trust in Miguel’s Tree Service to enhance the safety, beauty, and health of your landscape, reaffirming our legacy as Suffolk County’s premier tree care provider.
Prevention and Maintenance
The best defense against winter damage is proactive tree care. Protecting the tree trunk with a commercial tree wrap is the most effective way to protect sensitive trees from winter crack and bark split. The wrap reflects the light away from the trunk of the tree, thus preventing the sun from warming the tissues to the point where they can become damaged if followed by sudden temperature drop. Tree wrap is usually applied just before hard freezes, approximately the beginning of November, and then is removed when the chance of hard freezes has passed near the end of April.
Winter desiccation can be prevented by watering trees and shrubs deeply in the fall prior to ground freezing. A thick mulch of wood chips, sawdust, leaves, or straw applied over the root zone after soil temperatures drop below 45 F will conserve soil moisture and moderate the soil temperature.
When to Call the Professionals
Signs may include broken limbs, cracked bark, browning or loss of needles, browning of broadleaved evergreens, and loss of twigs or bark. If you notice any of these symptoms, it’s important to have a certified arborist evaluate your trees promptly.
Tree emergencies don’t keep regular hours. Miguel’s Tree Service is ready 24/7 for urgent tree removal and storm damage cleanup in Suffolk County. Investing in professional tree care not only enhances the aesthetic appeal of your property but also adds value and promotes safety. At Miguel’s Tree Service, we understand the importance of maintaining healthy trees and landscapes. Our services are designed to prolong the life of your trees, mitigate potential risks, and create a safe and beautiful outdoor environment for you and your family to enjoy for years to come.
Don’t let winter’s hidden threats compromise your landscape’s health and safety. By understanding the signs of winter damage and working with experienced professionals, you can protect your trees and maintain a beautiful, safe property year-round. Remember, early detection and proper care are key to helping your trees recover from winter’s challenges and thrive for seasons to come.