Preventing Winter Sun Scald on Trees.

Sun Scald is a real problem, especially with younger trees. This is the result of sun warming the frozen bark in the winter, then the bark freezes again quickly damaging the cell structure. Now is the time to get ahead of this before the winter damage occurs.

In the past, fruit tree orchards painted the trunks white to help prevent the quick change of temperature on the bark. However I do not recommend paint on living tissue.


You will see a lot of people wrapping trees as seen in this video. Which is acceptable and can help stop some pests from chewing on the bark in the winter.


I prefer using the white card board which your tree was probably delivered with from the nursery as shown by this nursery to the bottom left.

The wrap has a tendency to hold moisture against the bark and harbor insects whereas the card board allows air movement, can be put on very quickly and easily with zip ties, can be removed very quickly in the spring and easily stored to re-use next winter.

Sun scald damage is serious in that the vascular system of the tree is mostly vertical so to damage and entire side like this will inhibit growth on that side of the tree. This is a quick and simple way to protect your trees.

Snow damage to Trees

Look out for damage from these heavy snows. Due to the suddenness and amount of snow, many trees, especially our Maples, had not dropped their leaves. These trees will be holding far more snow load then they should. This can do severe damage if we get winds. If you can remove this snow carefully, without bending the limbs even more and breaking them, than do so. However, if it takes too much shaking, stop, you may do more damage than the snow load.
Props are not out of the question if certain limbs look in danger.