New trees winter prep

[lilwalter]

We planted our property lines in spruce trees and juneberry shrubs this past spring. They were planted with a weed barrier. I was considering mowing the area on each side of the weed barrier this fall to eliminate the snow fence effect of the weeds. I was told that I should consider leaving the weeds to protect the trees from winter burn. Your thoughts?? Thank you.

[Scott K]

I planted a bunch of spruces earlier this year as well. My initial thought was to keep it mowed, and weed free so the weeds dont compete with the trees for moisture. But I got lazy and let the weeds grow. I was going to weed wack around them, but found the tall weeds around the trees actually helped keep the ground moist. As for over the winter, my opinion would be to let the weeds be, snow wont hurt the trees, but cold will, and the extra snow will insulate the trees.

 

But I am not a professional tree grower, so hopefully someoneelse will pipe in.

[delcecchi]

Over the past years I have planted a bunch of spruce (norway, black hills, colorado) as well as some white pine and some scotch pine, in my back yard here in Rochester.  The only ones to winter burn were a couple of white pines, and I think that was due to salt spray from Hiway 52.   The trees growing wild around our cabin, white spruce and balsam fir, which is considerably north of rochester, never seem to get winter burn. 

On the other hand the guy next door to my daughter in St Paul has some trees he has to wrap in burlap.  I think they are yew or something like that. 

If you plant the right evergreens, cold will not be a problem either.   Deer and rabbits maybe, but not snow and cold. 

[NWKR]

All trees can get winter damage, snow and grass will both help protect the tree during the winter. The winter damage is due to losing moisture, which is why the side the wind blows on is what turns brown on larger trees. Small trees might turn 100% brown, which happened to us. We had black spruce, white spruce, and norway spruce planted in may 2014 have all needles turn brown and fall off after the 2014-2015 without snow cover. With spring and summer rains alot ended up surviving. Only this years growth has needles. Even some of our evergreen trees planted in the woods lost a lost a lot of needles. Wildlife planting is a numbers game. Watering them would be nice, but it is easier to buy a few extras at 0.25 a piece and plant those the next year in spots where trees died.

Also, after a year or two I am planning on spraying a grass selective herbicide like clethodim to take care of grasses. I want fast growth, and the worst things for tree growth are drought and competition. Cutting the grass just makes it grow back taking up more moisture and nutrients that the tree could use. 

I have been buying trees from Itasca Greenhouse in Cohasset, they lost 1,000s of seedlings to winter burn last winter. Including many trees with a northern MN seed source.

 

[delcecchi]

Bambi and bunnies and mickey mouse or velma vole are the biggest problem for me. 

And nothing like having a nice about 4 foot tree get trashed by a stupid buck doing simulated combat. 

Edited September 22, 2015 by delcecchi