Last year’s snows were particular damaging to Truckee landscapes In June 2004, we had a foot or so of wet sticky snow on our beautiful gardens that were just reaching their peak. I saw more spring damage than I ever recall. In October 2004, during a long Indian summer without frost and the trees still flush with leaves, we received more than a foot of extremely heavy goo that, once again, did more damage than I’d ever seen from one storm. That storm left trees and shrubs, in landscapes and in the wild, broken and twisted and much of the debris was not cleaned up before winter. Then, of course, at the very end of the year, a series of storms dumped light snow day after day, to incredible depths, without allowing any chance to settle. At the end we received a rain to top it off and deep cold followed the rain (imagine wet snow freezing to everything it was touching and firmly taking hold). In that state, the snow settled and as it did, it pulled out branches and crushed trunks of even the most flexible and snow tolerant trees and shrubs.

Many of the landscapes (natural and planted) of Truckee are a wreck and it will be a while before they recover. The good news, as with all aspects of gardening is that they’re plants, they grow and they’ll eventually recover. And: there’s always next year. That doesn’t make the plants grow any faster but that understanding always makes me feel better.

I advise “defensive pruning” and I’m sticking by it. Prune hard when plants are young. By heading back your plants in spring and summer for the first two to four years, you create stocky trunks, thick branch shoulders and dense bases that are far less susceptible to the ravages of our sierra cement. Wide weak branches and long thin leaders are the first to be broken. It is far better for you to cut them than for the snow to rip them. The simple physics of shortening the “lever arms” (besides reducing the area where snow can collect) reduces the force the snow can exert. Prune in early spring when buds begin to swell and again in mid-summer when new growth is at its peak. Prune top and side leaders back to the thickest part of last year’s growth, just above a healthy bud. I use the analogy of preparing asparagus for the pot. When you bend an asparagus spear it breaks at the point where the tough stalk transitions into the tender new growth. With defensive tree pruning, remove the tender part and keep the tough base.

We talk about this in many of our classes but I still see few people doing it. Our short growing seasons and relatively slow plant growth make us reticent to remove any gains that we and our plants have worked so hard and long to achieve, Prune anyway, because if you don’t remove it the snow may, Storms shows little restraint and know nothing of aesthetics.

For a time, there was a field known as “tree surgery”. There were tree surgeons in the 40’s and 50’s who went around and pruned out decaying wood, filled holes in trees with cement and put braces in branches. International Society of Arboriculture’s Certified Arborists are today’s well-trained and trusted tree surgeons. Modern arborists are concerns with overall tree health and vigor and may advise mulching and fertilizing as often as they will recommend severe cuts. If you have large trees with damage or with potentially hazardous branches please call a certified arborist for professional advice and assistance Call the Villager (or check out the ISA list at www.isa-arbor.com). For aspen, crabapples, maples and other trees and shrubs that you can easily reach, there are some very simple methods of repair that work well.

If you don’t absolutely need a broken branch, remove it. It is always better to remove a severely damaged limb than to repair it.

When a branch rips from a tree but appears alive and is still attached by a good-sized piece of trunk, Use wood screws and a cordless drill. Push the branch back into place and put one to three long decking screws up/across/through the branch and into the trunk. If the branch is small, pre-drill the holes through the branch.

If the tree or branch is larger, use bolts and washers. For branches pulled down and out from the trunk, drill in a straight line through the limb and the trunk and connect them with long bolts with washers at both ends. An alternative method is to put eye-bolts into each and connect the two with a threaded tension turnbuckle. On straignt branches or trunks without the advantage of something to attach them to, I have used a splice. A sturdy piece of hardwood drilled seems to provide enough support (see picture). The vascular tissue of a tree is essentially a sheet, wrapped around a wooden core. Poking a few holes in it with a drill does little harm. In time the tree will heal around the metal with many layers of wood.

For conifers with a bent or broken leader (last year’s narrow upright growth): Tape a bamboo or redwood stake to the main trunk in two or three locations and leave a foot or so sticking above the tree. Tie either the bent or broken leader to the stake or tie the largest branch from below the broken leader into an upright position against the stake. Use either flexible poly tree tape or paper masking tape to hold the repairs in place. The tree tape needs to be removed after a year but the masking tape usually decays and falls away on it’s own.

Pruning sealer is a tar-like material used, in the past, to cover all pruning cuts. Today we use it to keep thin strips of damaged and surviving tissues from drying out and to prevent beetle entry into pruned or damaged conifers. It is widely accepted that pruning sealer may actually slow the growth of cambium over an injury and so is not used for most general pruning.

To straighten out many softwood trees, tie a rope to an upper portion of the trunk. Slowly (over a week or so) pull the tree to upright and then past in a sort-of over-correction. This seems to help align the layers of wood in the trunk. After a few weeks of over-correction, un-tie the rope. The tree usually returns to some approximation of upright.

It should be obvious that you will need to stake and wrap your repaired trees and shrubs thoroughly and carefully before next winter and hope that we don’t get so many growing season snows. It is also very important to keep your trees healthy and to encourage as much growth as possible. Slow release organic fertilizers beneath a thick layer or organic mulch will provide long lasting nutrition that will encourage quick but not excessive new growth. For transplants and repairs and for producing stronger plants in general. Seaweed extract is an excellent liquid feed that can be applied to the soil or in a foliar spray where it may do the most good. The natural plant hormones in seaweed help plants produce new roots, new growth and stronger cell walls among other benefits.
Don’t forget to water your garden. If your damaged trees are large natives, we have seen amazing advantages from adding a little organic fertilizer and supplementing the natural summer moisture with a few extra “simulated afternoon thundershowers”.

We will be offering a short class on the subject along with our other classes this summer. Or you can look on line for additional pictures at www.moonshineink.com