Trees get sunburns too: tips to protect your trees from the sun this winter (2024)

FAQs

Trees get sunburns too: tips to protect your trees from the sun this winter? ›

Other ways of protecting trees from sunburn include wrapping them in light coloured paper, cardboard or cloth, planting susceptible trees in shadier parts of the garden and, for some trees, retaining lower branches that will naturally shade the trunk.

To reduce or eliminate sun scald injury, wrap the trunks of the susceptible trees each fall with tree wrap paper. Do this each year in late fall (October) until the trees mentioned above develop some “character” or roughness to the bark.

Leaf scorch can occur because leaves are exposed to high levels of solar radiation. The damage is often exacerbated by a low level of soil moisture, which reduces the cooling effect of transpiration (when water evaporates from leaves).

With good care, trees survive, but the trunk is disfigured for years, and the open wound can be the source for borers or a hollow tree later in the tree's life. Preventing sunscald injury means paying special attention to watering during the first few years of establishment for young trees.

Commercial tree wraps made of crepe paper insulate bark and are an effective way to prevent sunscald.

Once leaf scorch has occurred, there is no cure. The leaves that have already turned brown will not recover, BUT as long as you water properly, the rest of the plant should survive.

WATER: During an excessive heat event, we recommend that you double your normal watering routine. This means that your new trees should receive 15 gallons of water at least twice a week throughout the heat wave, meaning a deep watering every three to four days when it's about 90-degrees or more for an extended period.

Applied onto the plant surface with a knapsack or orchard sprayer, plant sunscreens form a film of microscopic "prisms," that reflect 85%-95% of harmful Ultraviolet radiation and reflect infra-red rays, keeping plants up to 4 degrees C cooler; however valuable photosynthetic light is still allowed to pass through to ...

If anything, it's wise to err on the side of less sunlight—once you're dealing with sunburned plants, there's not much you can do. Since the leaves won't heal and return to their normal color, your best option is to cut off the damaged leaves and move the plant back to a spot with no direct sun.

The process of photosynthesis also captures energy from the sun for the plant to use. Because of this need of plants for sunlight, it would seem reasonable that a plant could never get too much sunlight. But too much sunlight can be detrimental to the growth of a plant and cause physical damage.

How do you save a burnt tree? ›

The first thing you should do with fire-damaged trees is to water them. Your tree's soil is likely dried out or even hydrophobic from the fire, so watering will help. Water slowly by laying a drip or soaker hose on the ground and letting it run in a slow and steady fashion.

After a couple of growing seasons, new foliage will fill in the areas that were damaged. If an entire evergreen is brown, recovery is unlikely and the plant should be replaced with something (e.g., a deciduous shrub or tree) that is better-suited to the site.

Other ways of protecting trees from sunburn include wrapping them in light coloured paper, cardboard or cloth, planting susceptible trees in shadier parts of the garden and, for some trees, retaining lower branches that will naturally shade the trunk.

Use Tree Wraps

Protecting the trunk with tree wraps is the best way. Tree wraps can be pulled taut against the trunks of both small and large trees, which means there are no gaps in which insects can hide, unlike plastic spiral tree guards, which don't offer as much tree trunk protection.

Wrap your trees using Kraft paper, starting at the base and winding the paper up to the first major branch. Or, place white plastic tree guards around the trunks (below). This protection will reflect the rays of the sun off the trunk, keeping it cool.

Once leaf scorch has occurred, there is no cure. The dehydrated portions of the leaf will not turn green again, but with proper water management, the plant may recover. Prevention of scorch needs to begin with winter watering.

Besides wraps and guards/tubes, some suggest painting the lower trunk with white latex paint to reflect sunlight. Make sure the paint is not toxic to the plant tissue. Although it has been suggested that trees under water stress are more prone to sunscald this has never been confirmed by research.

Proper pruning also helps in sunscald prevention: never prune more than 20% of the canopy in one year to maintain sufficient shade for the bark. Tree wraps provide an easy alternative to paint for young trees. Simply wrap the over-exposed bark in Spiral Tree Guards to provide shade to those areas.