How Wrapping Helps Protect Your Trees In The Winter

Pruning your trees in the winter helps protect them from developing diseases, as well as from the winter elements. Another effective means of protecting your trees against disease development is wrapping. Tree wrapping material protects your trees against animals and other elements like the frigid cold during the winter. As a result, the life of your tree(s) is significantly extended year after year. Here is how wrapping helps protect your trees in the winter.

How Wrapping Helps Protect Your Trees in the Winter

Sunscald

Wrapping trees with paper or plastic protects the trees bark against sunscald. Sunscald occurs when the bark of a tree warms up in daylight and then freezes at night. This causes the bark to crack and peel, while at the same time weakening the cambium layer beneath the bark. The cambium layer is a layer of cells responsible for adding to the girth of the trunk as the tree grows. 

Protection From Animals

Wrapping also protects the trunk of your tree(s) from animals that might nibble at it during the winter. Rabbits, squirrels, deer, and small critters like to nest the trunks of trees during the cold season. It is especially important to wrap the trunks of small, newly planted trees and those with thin bark in order to ensure a proper growth cycle. 

How To Wrap Your Tree

As aforementioned, wrap trees with thin bark, like ash, maple, and linden trees. Contrary to common belief, you must wrap the tree from bottom, not the top. Wrapping from the top leaves the folds facing upwards, allowing moisture to get in between the wrapping material. Begin at the bottom by burying the end of the wrap in the ground, then wrapping upwards and creating a shingle effect. Go as high as the first branches, cut it off, and apply it with tape, twine, or wire. However, be careful not to wrap the material too tightly.