Fall is a beautiful time of year to behold, especially for Texas homeowners with trees right on their property. You get a front row seat to the gorgeous life and color cycle of leaves in the autumn. But while the transformation of the leaves can be entrancing, don’t forget that now is the time to start preparing your landscape for the incoming cold weather.
Take the steps below to arm your trees with everything they need to survive and thrive through an unpredictable Texas winter!
1) Give them an inspection.
As the leaves begin to fall from your trees, now is the time to assess the state of your upper canopy. Take a break from raking and turn your attention upwards. Look for dead branches, symptoms of disease, and any damage from summer storms that could’ve been hiding under your once luscious foliage.
2) Prune thoroughly.
The upcoming dormant season is the best time of year to give trees a full pruning. Removing dead, diseased, and loose limbs now will get your trees in ideal shape for the onset of the next growing season. This will also make them safer for winter, when snow and ice pile onto branches, increasing the potential for weakened ones to fall and cause damage or injury.
3) Insulate with mulch.
Mulching your trees before winter will maximize moisture retention through the dry season and insulate roots from cold and fluctuating temperatures. A fresh 2-3-inch layer will help the soil temperature remain constant and slow down water loss. Remember to mulch out to the canopy line instead of up, as piled-on mulch can actually harm your tree’s roots instead of helping them.
4) Wrap your trunks.
Just like the roots of your trees, the bark on their trunks needs protection from the temperature fluctuations a Texas winter often brings. The warm winter sun can activate cells in tree trunks during the day, only to have them abruptly damaged when the temperatures fall back below freezing at night. The result is an unsightly scarring called sunscald. Wrap the trunks of your trees from the base up to just above the lowest set of branches to prevent sunscalding and cracks from winter frost.
The cold fall weather will be in full swing before you know it, so the sooner you address any problems with the trees on your property, the better. The tree care specialists at Forest Tree Service in Kingwood can provide the cost-effective solutions and services you need to prepare your trees for winter dormancy and a robust return next spring.
Call us today at 281-381-4125 to get started with your cold weather tree prep!