Discover the Benefits of Winter Tree Care from a Professional Team

While your trees may be dormant, our arborists at Blue River Forestry and Tree Care are not. We offer seasonally specific tree care services, as well as plant health care services to keep your trees maintained throughout the winter, to emerge vital and beautiful come spring. Continue reading to discover everything we provide for tree care in winter.

Winter Tree Care

When trees have dropped their leaves, and we’ve had our first couple of snow falls and nights become cold and early, it’s important to remember that just because the trees have gone dormant, they’re still alive and require care to maintain biological processes. Tree trimming can be done at almost any time of the year, but there are many benefits to winter trimming. While your trees may be dormant, our arborists at Blue River Forestry and Tree Care are not. We offer seasonally specific tree care services, as well as plant health care services to keep your trees maintained throughout the winter, to emerge vital and beautiful come spring. 

Winter Pruning for all species

Trimming a tree has a variety of benefits besides just removing dead branches.  Creating a healthy and strong tree structure to prevent breakage and damage from the elements, promote light penetration and air movement within the crown, and to provide clearance for sidewalks, pedestrians or children that may play in the area. Breakage from heavy snow loads on mature trees can be fatal for your house, car or anyone near. The structure of the tree is most visible in the winter when the leaves are gone. It allows the arborist to move gracefully through the tree because of better access and mitigate structural problems that are seen. 

Winter Pruning for the Rosaceae Family 

Winter is generally not a time when we think of fruit and flowers, as everything is carefully resting in its dormant period. However, this is the recommended time to trim your flowering and fruiting species like your apple or mountain ash. These species of trees are prone to diseases like bacterial leaf spot and fire blight which are both contagious and inclined to spread to surrounding trees. Trimming during dormancy will contain the spread of these diseases and significantly reduce recurrence of the disease in the blooming period to follow.

Horticultural oils for pest management

Horticultural oil spray services are a great way to manage a variety of pests and pathogens on a wide range of tree species. Highly refined botanical or petroleum based oils are mixed with water and applied as a foliar or trunk and branch spray at specific times in the life cycle of the target pests. Horticultural oils function in several ways: by smothering the insects' breathing holes, causing them to suffocate; by disrupting cell membrane functionality, causing the insects to desiccate; and by interfering with metabolic processes and feeding behavior, increasing mortality rates. Horticultural oils must be applied when a vulnerable life stage of the target insect is present for maximum efficacy – this often falls within the “late winter / early spring” time frame. Horticultural oils are a great pest management option because, when applied properly, they pose a very low risk to applicators, beneficial insects, and the environment.

Commonly managed pests in the Front Range are Kermes scale on oak trees and European elm scale on elm trees and aphids, mites, caterpillars, leafhoppers, thrips, and whiteflies on many species of fruit trees, shade trees, and other woody ornamental plants. Dormant applications of horticultural oil sprays are a common management practice for fruit trees to help manage population levels of a variety of pests while the overwintering life stages are present.

Winter Watering 

In Colorado, it’s essential to bridge the gap between snow events by providing your trees with supplemental water to prevent tissue damage or death. Regular watering during drier weather also helps trees prepare for the initial burst of growth that happens in spring. Blue River Forestry and Tree Care offers winter watering with the addition of a naturally derived, biodegradable wetting agent that helps improve water penetration and retention in the root zone. Interacting with water on chilly winter days isn’t the most appealing of prospects, so let our arborists help with your winter watering regimen! Your trees will reward you with beautiful spring leaves and blossoms. And, as always, a nice mulch ring goes a long way in regulating and maintaining soil moisture and temperature, which will help you get the most out of your winter watering efforts!

Mulch Rings                                                                                                                            

Winter is the time to revisit and replenish your tree’s mulch rings. Mulch rings protect trees by conserving moisture, and in the dry Colorado weather retaining water is a high priority for healthy trees and landscape.  At Blue River Forestry and Tree Care, we will install or replenish your tree’s mulch rings with native mulch that will not only protect your tree's roots but will nourish the surrounding soil. Mulch rings not only have wonderful ecological benefits, but they also enhance the aesthetics of your landscape.