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Landscape Recovery After a Winter StormAudio/Video Script: Landscape Recovery, After a Winter Storm Transcript: [Title Slide – Landscape Recovery After a Winter Storm. Picture of a tree and a saw. U of A Division of Agriculture Research and Extension University of Arkansas System. Music plays in the background.] The ice storm really did take its toll statewide. [Video shows a person pruning a tree with loppers and a hand saw.] We had plants and trees laying flat on the ground, from broken branches to uprooted trees. Many of the signs of damage are still visible. Recovery and cleanup is going to be a slow process. I hope by now you have been cleaning up most of the broken branches, but you need to have nice clean wounds, that’s what’s most important. So if you still have jagged cuts and wounds in these trees you need to get back in there with a saw or pruning shear and get a nice smooth cut. We’d like to prune to the branch collar, if possible. If you leave a little bit of a stub it tends to decay and that would go back into the heartwood of the tree and can lead to more decay on the inside. We also don’t want a flush cut. In some instances our trees were split in half, and some of those trees will have to be removed this spring. But for now, make the nice clean cut, make sure you get to a branch collar, of at all possible. No paints or wounds dressings are needed. The main thing is a nice clean wound and we hope the plants will heal over. [Video shows landscaping around a house.] And many of our plants that were lying over from the weight of the ice are now back standing upright – they are pretty resilient plants. Don’t do any reshaping of the plants now because we don’t know what else is in store for us this winter. Allow the plants to start emerging and growing in the spring and then assess the damage. Likewise, if your plants simply have some burned leaves on them you don’t want to prune those off either because that is extra protection and coverage for the plant. So allow the plants to get growing in the spring, assess what’s there, and then do the shaping and corrective pruning, as needed. [Trailer ran throughout video. After a storm it is important to assess damage to the landscape and take appropriate action to minimize the damage to trees and shrubs and to speed the landscape’s recovery. Trees with jagged wounds require pruning to prevent disease and decay. Prune a clean cut to the branch collar if possible. Avoid leaving a branch stub or a flush cut which can cause decay. Wound dressings and pants are not necessary. Do not take immediate action to landscape shrubs. Wait until plants begin growing in the spring before pruning away dead foliage and reshaping plants. Freeze burned foliage provide a protective barrier for dormant buds. Pruning away dead foliage not could expose dormant buds to further damage. (End trailer)] [U of A University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Research and Extension, University of Arkansas System] Related Links
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