Yesterday I auditioned for Ice Capades at TimberPine. Today I made it through second call and got to perform again. I’m fairly certain I out-skated my opponents by showcasing my camel spin right before the legendary death spiral that landed me face first into the arms of a Bradford Pear. The competition is fierce out here, but I’m confident I’ll return tomorrow for final cuts….I should know more later.
If you find yourself engaging in your own little ice competition, please leave the skate dancing to the professionals. Let TimberPine come to the rescue and demolish your ice rink. We remove snow too….in case you didn’t know.
At TimberPine we have already seen the lost of two of our cherished Bradford Pears, just within the last couple days. The ice was just too much for them and nothing could be done about it. There are several “theories” roaming about on how to care for ice-storm damaged trees, let’s put some of them to bed.
First~some things to consider when assessing the severity of a tree’s wound. Obviously safety is first and foremost. Take for instance the exposed trunk of this Pear.
Because TimberPine is a retail company with several people roaming about daily, this deep cut is a liability and the tree will be removed. Same school of thought should be applied to your residential plot. If a damaged tree could pose a threat to your house, your family, you need to have it removed by professionals. Maybe not now, in the middle of winter, but it should be assessed. Straggling branches may need to be removed before the end of winter.
If you have a less severe wound made by the ice storm, or buck rubbing, please follow these steps:
1. Clean the wound: cut any broken, ragged strips of bark. Do not try to rip or tear the bark, the trim needs to be clean for the best chances of survivability. You can apply hydrogen peroxide to the wound to clean any bacteria.
2. Leave wound exposed-wrapping causes more damage by harboring fungus and eventually rotting away at the core of the tree.
3. In the spring (before June 1st) insert slow release fertilizer spikes at the base of the tree. There are recommendations on how many spikes to insert, based on the size of the tree.
And that is it! Nothing more! Grandma’s swore by remedies to not work here!
And if you’re not sure which said magic potions I’m talking about…here’s the list of “do nots”:
- wrap the trunk with some sort of fabric
- apply black tar to the wound
- rub dirt in the wound
- paint the wound
- and don’t…don’t try to shake or remove the ice from branches
A tree’s healing process can vary on the length of time depending on the severity of damage, type and age of tree. Positive signs are when the wound starts to form a callus along the ridge of the exposed bark.
If you have any questions, concerns about the survivability of your wounded tree, please leave a comment, shoot us an email (sales@timberpine.com), or give us a call. We’re here to help!
Happy Skating!
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If we have willow birches that we can shake off some ice easily and it brings the weight off of the branches so it does not split, shouldn’t we try?
We have been doing this and it has saved them, we have even roped several large trunks together to hold them up in the ice storm and it helped but now I am reading from you to not shake the branches? Please let me know the does and don’ts for the willow trees!
Thanks,
sheri
Thanks for your question! It’s a good one.
If you have younger specimens of Birch and Willow trees, I think their flexibility is what has kept you from having issues with removing the ice. If your trees are older, say 25ft tall and 15ft wide or so, I believe you have been lucky to not damage them with the ice removal.
I think your technique of binding the branches together is great and will work well against the heavy weight of the ice bringing the branches down.
The reason we suggest not removing the ice is because that trauma generally causes more harm than just leaving them be. Most people, I would suspect, try to remove ice by beating the branches with a shovel, broom, or shaking them. This act can crack branches and/or break branches.
I personally have immature Birch trees in my backyard that the tops are bent over, stuck to the ground. They are flexible enough where nature will take it’s course, thaw them out, and they’ll just snap back.
I hope this is helpful…if not, please banter back or give us a call. Thanks again for your question!
OH NO… this can’t be good!
I wanted to thank you for the tweet out the other day. I recently moved over to WordPress o please stop by my blog. I am going to miss the FOLLOWING application that Blogger has but I LOVE wordpress posting options!
Great to meet you!
I think you’ll really like WordPress…but agree, the “follow” functions aren’t as cool as blogger.
Happy Planting!!