Preparing Your Trees For Winter

Crabapple pruning to prepare for winter in North Berwick, Maine.

There are a number of things worth looking for on the trees in your landscape before the winter: overextended limbs, weak/hazardous trees and large deadwood, just to name a few.

I spent a lot of time pruning the crabapple pictured above to remove deadwood and to reduce overextended limbs to limit chances of snow and ice damage over the winter. Often times the most likely branches to be damaged are the overextended limbs that protrude from the rest of the tree canopy. These limbs receive more of the wind and snow load than other branches in the tree, and due to the additional length will put more leverage on the trunk and branch attachment.

The remedy is to make selective cuts to reduce the length, surface area and weight of the limb in question. All this needs to be balanced with making a proper pruning cut and leaving enough foliage to maintain the health of the branch.

Winter will be along before we know it, and while some tree care projects are best completed during the winter months, it’s always best to meet with a certified arborist to look at those key trees in your landscape that may need preventative maintenance pruning or hazard mitigation before the snow starts to fly!