If the trees on your business’ property are developing frost cracks, shoddy commercial landscape maintenance may be to blame. After all, not all trees crack under Old Man Winter’s hand. The ones that do, tend to have defects that may be either inherent or man-made. The inherent defects may be avoided by choosing only the best trees for commercial landscape installation and the man-made ones may be circumvented by taking the right amount of care.
For example, let’s say that while performing commercial landscape maintenance tasks in the fall, someone accidentally damages the base of a tree. The tree may have enough time to generate wound-wood before the winter season kicks into high gear but it’s likely to be weak in certain spots. Examples of potential weak spots are the wound’s perimeter and areas where the ends of the replacement bark meet one another. With that said, prolonged warming and freezing cycles will undoubtedly weaken those areas, even more, thereby increasing the potential for frost cracks to occur.
Of course, trunk injuries are not the only man-made problems that can increase a tree’s risk of falling victim to frost cracks. Wounds created during the pruning process and branches that may have broken due to insect activity, heavy snowfall, or disease are prime spots for frost damage to occur too. Therefore, it’s important to hire a commercial landscape company that will do everything in their power to provide high-quality trees and prevent man-made damage.
They are not the only preventive actions that may be taken to guard against frost cracks. Oftentimes, applying special wraps and treatments to promote wound healing may help as well. To continue discussing frost cracks and how proper, commercial landscape maintenance may help keep them at bay, please contact our Chapel Valley team. Maintaining plant health year-round is one of our commercial landscaping company’s specialties.