The Ozarks Chronicle/The Hill Country Gardener

The Ozarks Home and Garden

The Hill Country Gardener

What to do next ... in the aftermath of the ice storm

By Delaine Litman-Hohenfeldt

Executive Editor

In the future, people will surely remember the ice storm of 2007 that recently swept across Missouri causing power outages and major damage to trees and other plant life. But for now the task of cleaning up downed trees and branches shifts to attending more closely to the damaged surviving trees. Unfortunately, even with proper care, changes in the landscape will be visible for many years to come.

Perennial plants, evergreens, and woody shrubs may suffer from the ice storm that occurred on the heels of a large amount of rain and an unseasonably warm period when many plants began to show signs of breaking dormancy or acting as if it were spring. Several people have commented to me that their crocus were coming up and buds were swelling on some trees. The hard freeze that followed may have caused damage to plants that were beginning to break dormancy, but in most cases the damage will not be evident until spring or even summer. Flowering shrubs and trees may lose their flower buds and have a poor spring bloom, although leaf buds usually survive.

Trees, being the focal points in most landscapes, of greater value, and much more obvious when they are damaged, need attention now to prevent further injury or loss of the entire plant. Some important points to remember before you begin the clean-up process are:

§ Contact your home insurance agent before beginning. Many homeowner’s policies cover all or part of tree removal if there was structural damage also. Some policies also place value on trees and cover replacement. If your policy covers damage to trees, contact a reputable tree or landscape professional to get an appraisal, since a professional may see things you might miss in determining your loss in financial terms. Four factors that determine the value of trees, shrubs, or evergreens for insurance purposes, court testimony in lawsuits, or income tax deductions are – size, species or classification, condition, and location. The International Society of Arboriculture at http://www.isa-arbor.com/findArborist/findarborist.aspx provides an extensive list of arborists in this area. Just search by your specific zip code for ones nearest you.

§ Evaluate the amount of damage to the crown of the tree to determine if the tree is worth trying to save. Three categories established by the USDA Forest Service range from less than 50% damage where the tree has a high chance of survival, to 50-75% damage where the location of the break determines the likelihood of internal infections and suppressed growth, and finally to greater than 75% damage where the injured tree has a slim chance of survival. For details on these categories and illustrations of damage go to http://na.fs.fed.us/ . Enter “live crown damage” in the search area. Select number 2 from the choices that appear. Then select #1 under “Information Sheets” for the publication called “How To Determine Percent Live Crown Loss In Hardwoods Before Leaf-Out.”

§ Prune conservatively – clean up roughly broken branches first, saving major pruning until later. The tree’s injuries may not be as severe as it appears now and waiting until late winter or early spring to further assess the damage will reduce the chance of removing a tree that might possibly recover.

§ NEVER top trees! Topping trees is unnatural and unsightly. It can shorten the life of a tree since branches that sprout below the topped area have weak attachment points that become stressed and hazardous as they lengthen and increase in weight.

§ Follow “natural target” pruning methods as developed by the USDA Forest Service. For detailed information on pruning methods on the internet, go to http://na.fs.fed.us/ . Enter “pruning” in the search area. Select number 2 from the choices that appear for the article “How to Prune Trees.”

§ The best time to prune live branches is late winter or early spring before leaves appear. Dead or dying branches may be pruned at any time. Always make clean cuts using sharp tools putting safety first.

§ Do NOT use wound dressing or paint to cover wounds or pruning cuts. These materials do not reduce decay and can interfere with the tree’s natural healing process.

The good news is that most trees are pretty resilient and will recover in spite of having numerous injuries. Some injuries that are relatively minor can be treated with proper care.

Small, young trees that have leaned over or bent (provided the trunk is not cracked or split) from the weight of the ice may be carefully straightened by staking with guy ropes or cables. If the tree is uprighted fairly soon after the damage occurred it should recover nicely. Leave the supports in place until mid-summer to allow the roots to settle again.

Young trees of a manageable size that have been uprooted with most of the root ball still intact may also recover completely using proper techniques. If the root ball is only partially exposed, simply reposition the tree and remove only enough soil to replace the exposed roots. Cover roots with soil and water to remove air pockets. If the root ball is mostly exposed, dig up the plant, being careful to not disturb the root ball any more than necessary and replant it. Water to remove air pockets. In the spring treat the tree with root stimulator and keep it well watered.

A more bizarre type of tree injury seen after ice storms or hard freezes that follow rainy periods is frost cracking. This injury happens when temperatures drop quickly freezing water in the trunk and causing the bark to split open or explode off the tree. If the crack is not too large or too much of the bark removed, the crack may close up some and heal over when the weather warms. No treatment is required for this type of minor damage.

Some plants have a self protection mechanism that is triggered during periods of winter stress. Some plants shed their leaves, some roll their leaves downward or inward, and some look like they are wilted. Some evergreens take on an unnatural color. These outward appearances should not be confused with frost injury. It is advisable to wait until spring to remove any plants showing these signs. In early spring remove plants or branches that are obviously dead, but scrape the outer bark of a limb to see if the plant is really dead first. If the scraped area reveals a green layer underneath then the plant may recover. Give it some more time before removing or pruning.

In the spring special care will still be needed for plants that sustained winter injury. An application of compost and mild fertilizer to the soil around the plants can be beneficial. Be sure to provide plenty of water during the dry months of June, July and August so as not to further stress the recovering plant’s system.

If you do have to remove a tree and are going to replace it, consider the type of tree carefully before making a purchase. Certain trees, especially those that are fast-growing, have brittle wood and are more susceptible to ice and wind damage. Check with the Missouri Department of Conservation for tree species suggestions.

Send your questions or comments to: The Hill Country Gardener, c/o The Ozarks Chronicle, PO Box 1122, Rolla, MO 65402-1122 or email me at delaine@theozarkschronicle.com.