So, we didn’t have 12″+ of snow, but we did have about 9 inches of very wet, very heavy snow over the course of two days followed by almost 9 hours of freezing mist. The branches of the dormant birch tees are stunning. My pines, arborvitae and italian cypress, they will need some help to regain their shape.
In the past, as time has allowed, I have trussed up my cypress in advance of the winter weather. This year, lets just say I didn’t get to it and the result after this winter’s storm is very sad. Many times I have taken my natural twine and wound it around my cypress gently and firmly, though without it being tight after the damage has been done. I figured once my path cleared a bit and I could get up my steep slope to my trees I would again take this approach. However, I figured since I am marooned in my home by the weather and treacherous roads I might as well do some digging online about what professionals recommend for this type of damage. So I typed “ice snow damage to pine tree” into Google and started perusing. The following is a list of the most useful links in my opinion (not in any order):
- http://www.viette.com/v.php?pg=680
- From http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/trees-new/text/tree_damage.html#snow : Snow/ice damage- Snow and ice on branches can cause them to break or bend from the extra weight. High winds will compound the damage. The result is often misshapened plants from broken or split branches. Little can be done about removing ice from plants. Snow can be removed with a broom. Always sweep upward — lifting snow off. When the branches are frozen they are quite brittle. Do not be in a hurry to prune to correct plants bent out of shape by snow or ice. Often the plants will straighten up in a few days by itself. Broken branches, however, should be pruned as soon as possible. Proper pruning is effective in minimizing potential damage from ice and snow. Particularly important is the removal of weak, narrow-angled, v-shaped crotches.
And sadly, that is pretty much the extent of what I was able to learn. To summarize…
1. If just snow and now ice, use a broom and sweep upward gently or do nothing and wait for the precipitation to melt because if it’s cold enough to snow or ice, it’s cold enough to freeze the branches making them brittle. I “swept” my pines and arborvitae of snow yesterday (I couldn’t reach the italian cypress) but left everything alone today since it was all frozen and encased in ice.
2. Once the snow and ice have passed, consider proper pruning of the damage is such that branches have split from the tree or the bark is disturbed.
3. Provide support for the “drooping” branches. In my case, I will be using twine to wrap up my italian cypress as well as staking materials to pull up and support an pine branches that look unattractively droopy. In the first link above, it appears that I may have to keep my cypress wrapped for about a year. I figured I’d buy the green twine so that the trees wouldn’t be too unsightly for such a long period of time. Perhaps if I wrap them up after this storm, once spring arrives they will grow back into shape and I can untie them at the beginning of summer- or at least test one of the 6 to see how they are doing. As I mentioned previously, I have tied up my cypress this way for many years and must admit that tying them after damage isn’t nearly as effective as tying them up in the beginning of winter as a preventative measure. The after damage scenario has typically involved pruning for aesthetics as inevitable a branch or two refuse to grow back up.
I’ll continue my internet searches using different key words and see if I can find some more information on this topic to share. As well as some pictures of my poor trees.
