Can Tree Roots Freeze? - Here's How to Protect Them

Ben Cuddeback from Davey's Northwest Detroit office shares signs that your tree's roots are being affected by freezing temperatures and how to protect them this winter, as well as what you can do in the spring to set them up for the next winter. 

In this episode we cover:  

• Is snow a good insulator for roots? (0:41)
• Roots freezing (1:26)
• Mulching in the winter (2:24)
• Watering in the winter (2:43)
• Droughts and floods (3:17)
• Signs of tree root damage (4:34)
• Are young trees more susceptible? (5:33)
• Can older trees recover better than young trees? (6:01)
• Declining trees in Detroit (6:32)
• Diverse trees to plant (8:23)
• Windbreaks (9:37)
• Ben's way to keep deer out (11:40)
• How to protect tree roots in the winter (12:40)
• Fertilizing after a tough winter (14:13)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about tree roots freezing, read our blog, What Happens If Tree Roots Freeze?

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
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Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!

Transcript

[music]

Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much, much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer. I'm joined again this week by Ben Cuddeback. He's a sales arborist for the Northwest Detroit Davey office. We both have colds, so you might be able to hear that. We're talking all about frozen tree roots, and I think we picked the right day to talk about it. Right, Ben?

Ben Cuddeback: Sure did, Doug. Sure did.

Doug: Although we both have a little bit of snow today, I would think that'd be a good insulator for the roots.

Ben: It can be. The trees are going to go into their dormancy, and they do well. They've been doing that for years. They require some of that thick snow to get through and protect those roots through the wintertime.

Doug: Well, I'm in Pittsburgh, here in Michigan. We haven't seen much thick snow in a long time.

Ben: No, we haven't. No, we haven't. That could be a reason why we have a little bit more decline throughout the years for some of these older trees, as they just don't see the snow load they used to when we were kids growing up. Right?

Doug: Definitely. Let's talk a little bit about roots freezing when it gets really, really cold. We get into January, February, and maybe we don't have that snow cover. What can happen to a tree?

Ben: Well, a tree can go into a little bit of a shock. Some of the more fine roots are going to be affected more than the thicker buttress roots on the trees. Where you run into issues is the depth of the freeze. A vast majority of the root system on a tree is in the top one to two feet of soil, really. If you don't get that thick cover, you're going to have a problem there. What we can do to help with trees like these is mulch. Mulch definitely adds that year-round insulation as well through the wintertime, too. If you can add mulch, wood chips, or even leave a whole bunch of leaves raked up, that's the same concept there.

Doug: If we haven't done that already, is it okay to do that now?

Ben: Absolutely, if you can find it. [laughs] Some stores may not have mulch, or there may not be people delivering that anymore. As it gets more and more frozen, it's harder to make that delivery and install that mulch.

Doug: I know we were supposed to water before it got cold. Has that ship sailed now?

Ben: It depends on your location. Here in Michigan, most hoses are put away, so there's probably not going to be a chance for us to water much. Unless you get something. A company like ours we can do deep root watering. That is something that's still available so long as the ground is not frozen. At this point, it's probably okay to start the wintertime. Something to consider for next year if you really wanted to do it.

Doug: We've talked a lot about, especially for the eastern US, the drought we had this year. Did you encounter that in your area?

Ben: Yes. In our area, we had a mixture. We had a drought, and then we had a flood. It went straight from nothing to way too much, and nothing really absorbed it. Everyone thought their trees and shrubs should look fine, but they just weren't absorbing everything because there was just so much runoff everywhere, and the streets were flooded everywhere here for a little bit. It was crazy. [laughs]

Doug: What do you think about the effect on the trees? Is there any way to know?

Ben: Trees react slowly to a lot of things like that. Sometimes we won't notice a big difference until the next spring and see how they come out. A lot of decision-making if you're going to remove a tree. If you notice a big stressed one, for instance, in your yard, and you want that, and you're thinking, maybe I'll take it out this year, maybe next year, let's see what happens. At this point, you can wait to see what happens if you're really on the fence about it. If not, wintertime is a great time to remove trees because the ground's mainly frozen, and there's very little damage that can happen to them.

Doug: Let's say we have a really cold winter without much cover. What are some symptoms that I got tree root damage from freezing when I look at it in the spring?

Ben: That's a good question, Doug. A lot of times, you're going to see more damage for the leaf size. It'll generally be a little bit smaller. Some of the buds they may not make it through the wintertime. Some of them will freeze before then. That has nothing to do with the roots. That's just how cold the winter could be if it's a really hard one. You generally get a root to shoot. It goes together. If you have a big problem with your root system, you're going to see that up in the canopy first. That's going to be your first thing. If the canopy's really thin that year, there may have been a root problem. It could have been a girdling root, too. That's something to consider as well.

Doug: How about young trees? Are they more susceptible to this?

Ben: Young trees will definitely be more susceptible to that than the older, more established trees. Some of the oaks, for instance, their roots can go down 6, 8 feet down. The younger ones, especially if they're just planted and a root ball still sticks on the ground, you're going to really want to have that mulched or some kind of protective covering on that root system.

Doug: In general, I'm just assuming that, especially an older tree, it can recover from this type of root damage if we have a decent spring, right?

Ben: Generally speaking, it can. Usually, older trees like that can get through events like this pretty easily. If it happens year after year, you'll start to see more of a decline. Some trees will just not make it. Some will be okay, but it varies on the tree species, too.

Doug: You mentioned earlier the word decline. Again, what are you seeing in decline in your area in general?

Ben: We are seeing a little bit more of what we call oak decline, white oaks especially. That's generally a fancy way of saying there's a lot of things going on inside the tree, fungus issues, insect issues. It's not normally just one specific thing that happens to that. In combination, the tree gets stressed out with fungus issues, insects come, and then that's a secondary problem. Getting an arborist out there to take a look at your trees if you suspect something's going on is a good idea. As you know, Davey, we do this for free for people. We come out and assess trees and shrubs and let them know what's going on with their property to give them an idea on how to tackle that. We can come up with a game plan, too, obviously.

Doug: Ben, I've seen it firsthand because when the arborist that I work with climbed up this white oak and took that hammer and hit into a spot that I saw had mushrooms all over it, you could hear it from the bottom that it was hollow inside.

[laughter]

It was right over a she-shed that I had installed for my wife and grandkids. That tree had to come down. That was the only thing to do. As I talk about a lot on the podcast, I'm planting both spring and fall whenever I do lose an oak with something that has a little bit more diversity and interest. I want to take it there a little bit before we get back to winter roots.

Ben: Sure.

Doug: How can you help me out if I've got a forested oak area? What else would you suggest I put in there as my oaks start to decline?

Ben: As the oak starts to decline, trying to replace those big shade trees, for instance?

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 2: Your go-to would be a Norway maple. That's going to give you a lot of dense shade. It's a quicker grower than an oak tree. It's a little more stout, maybe widespread kind of tree for shade. There's a ton of other trees out there, obviously. If you wanted something a little bit more fancy, go with something like a tulip poplar. It's going to mimic a little bit like a maple, but it gives you those nice tulip flowers on a big tree. It really depends also on the site. What's available once that oak is gone? Is it full sun? Do you still have a ton of other trees around there? We've got to do a little bit of a research project before you plant for sure. Just going off the cuff of my head, those are two I could think of that would do.

Doug: Sounds good. I've always wanted a tulip tree, actually, in there. Back to our freezing roots, how about windbreaks? Is that something that you do, that you see, or is that a last resort? People put up burlap and things like that. Maybe we're talking for smaller trees and shrubs and stuff like that.

Ben: That's always a good idea, like burlap, windbreaks. Physical barrier is always a good idea, especially for your shrubs. Not only is it going to keep the wind from destroying those evergreen shrubs like boxwoods, ewes, those get hammered the most, junipers. The deer will destroy those arborvitae and ewes the most. They're sticking up out of the ground that are still green in the middle of wintertime. That's when the deer tend to just eat away at those. You can put a physical barrier on, it helps from the wind and the deer. We do antidesicant treatments as well for that, so people don't have to stare at that physical barrier, and deer repellents as well. I've always found the physical barrier seems to work the best to keep the deer out. [laughs]

Doug: Well, Ben, I've seen that firsthand too. As I mentioned, that forest is just filled with deer. There's no hunting in my area. These deer are very tame. They're not afraid of the dog. They're not afraid of me. If I don't spray, they'll eventually go after the rhododendrons and even mountain laurel, which is technically poisonous to them. I'm all with you on that physical barrier.

Ben: Absolutely.

Doug: I just use tomato stakes and deer netting. That way, what always happens to me is, in the beginning, I start out like I'm spraying all the time. I'm vigilant, but then I forget one day, and then that's all it takes.

Ben: That's it. That's all it takes. I did find that, in many years doing this now, I found some interesting ways to keep the deer out, too. Someone put some fishing line up on Ross. You really couldn't see it, but when the deer walked in and they felt that on their chest, about chest-high for them, they stopped and were afraid to go through because they couldn't see it. I was amazed that actually worked. [laughs]

Doug: Well, I actually use that to keep them out of my vegetable garden because it's fenced at the picket level but has taller 4x4s. Whenever I'm using fishing line and really thick fishing line, I put streamers on it. My theory is, to them, it looks like actually a physical wall, like you can't get through it. That's worked out pretty well for me. Also, I want to warn anybody else or anything else that'd be running through the woods that-

Ben: Right, something is there.

Doug: Yes, you want to see that fishing line. Anything else come to mind when we're talking about frozen roots, what we could do to help our trees out a little bit?

Ben: Just fertilizing in the spring or even in the fall helps them get through that a lot better. When we fertilize with a soil probe, we inject it in the ground and it is injected with pressure, with water. It gets delivered with water. When we do that, it breaks up that soil a bit. We create some macro pores, some bigger pores, and some space for the air to be in there and some water for the oxygen to go with those roots. That's very helpful for those trees in the long run. Other things to consider is, for the frozen roots, people tend to have a lot of parties.

Try to avoid parking on the root systems. [laughs] You'll get people with a whole bunch of families that come over, and they'll park their cars all over the places. Compacted roots, especially when they're frozen, are going to snap. They're not going to bend. You're going to get a lot of broken roots and other issues with that. There are growth regulators that you can do when you have root damage that helps increase the fibrous root system of a tree. That's the important roots that absorb the nutrients and allow the water uptake. There's ways to help correct that, but just staying off of it is number one, if you can.

Doug: Of course, after a tough winter, if we do have that cold January, February, like you said, in the spring, there's lots we can do to help that tree out. I think one of the number one things that people, they just don't know but is a good fertilization program for your trees.

Ben: Absolutely, 100%. We can do a fascinate humate injection in the springtime that we help with them, and that increases the tree's ability to uptake nutrients. It gets them through drought stress a lot better. Then we do our fertilizers in the late summer through the fall. As long as the ground is not frozen, [laughs] we can do fertilization in the ground. Then you just do that combination over and over again tends to have a really great effect on our trees.

Doug: For that cold, Ben, lots of rest, lots of fluids. Take it easy. You and I'll be through this in, who knows, a day or two, right?

Ben: You got it, Doug. You too. You get better.

Doug: All right, Ben. Thanks again for your time. Appreciate it. Great information.

Ben: You're welcome. Thank you so much.

Doug: Tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Do me a big favor. Subscribe to the podcast so that you'll never miss a show. If you've got an idea for an episode, maybe a comment, there's a couple of different ways to reach us. You can send us an email to podcasts@davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S@D-A-V-E-Y.com. You can also click the link at the end of our show notes to text us a fan mail message. Your ideas might be on a future podcast, and we'd love to hear from you. As always, we like to remind you on the Talking Trees podcast, trees are the answer.

[00:16:19] [END OF AUDIO]