Snow is around the corner here and I'm wondering what else I should do to prepare my trees for winter. I've cleared out all the leaves to suppress pestilence. I bought a bottle of dormant oil but I haven't yet applied it as I'm a bit hesitant about overdosing. I had read some posts earlier about applying an organic clay-based elixir to the trunk, is that recommended?
What do other people here do to winterize?
Zone 6a in the moraines of eastern Connecticut.
Not a lot. Keep leaves and mulch away from tree trunks lest you provide a cozy home for voles, who will eat you tree cambium until they kill the tree.
I bring in tender plants. I put a rain cover on plants that need excellent drainage. You probably don't get so much winter rain.
We hardly get any snow in Portland.
John S
PDX OR
Buzz, mostly I have apples and sweet cherries with a couple tart cherries, a dwarf peach, a pluerrie, a plumcot all of these on M27, G935, Newroot-1, Citation and St Julien. I've got Sweet Shelly grapes, a trailing blackberry and a dwarf blackberry. There are a couple of mature pears as well, and the trunks on these have split to varying degrees.
John, that's the elixer I was reading about. So, it's not a general prophylactic? Seem like a lot of work but maybe worth the effort if it wards off disease and pestilence. I was thinking of painting the trunks with latex paint which I've read can prevent trunk splitting. Iirc it's a clay based mixture. What type of clay do you use?
Zone 6a in the moraines of eastern Connecticut.
Idyllwild
John S
Marsha H
Viron
jafar
portlandian
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