Top 3 Reason to Remove Your Tree Wrap in Spring

When the seasons change and frosty mornings finally fade into sunny spring days, its time to prepare your saplings for warm weather. How? By removing the tree guards you put on them before winter started. While tree trunk protectors are great for keeping your young trees safe during the cold Minnesota winters, leaving on your tree wrap in spring can cause just as much damage as not putting them on in the first place. Let us explain how…

Why Use Tree Protectors?

Tree wraps and tree guards play an essential role in keeping your young trees healthy all winter long. When trees are just saplings, their bark is thinner, meaning they are more likely to be harmed or unable to survive harsh winter conditions. Therefore, these wraps protect the sapling from the freezing and thawing damage like frost heaving and frost cracking, sun scald, salt burns, and deer eating or rubbing off the tree’s bark. This gives your trees the best chances to continue to grow into a healthy adult tree.

Reason to Remove Your Tree Wrap in Spring

While these tree protectors are great at helping your sapling survive winter, keeping them on when the weather warms up can cause a lot of damage to the vulnerable trees. That is why the general rule of thumb it to put on your tree wraps at the end of November and to take it off in mid-April after the last frost of the season. That way, your tree is bundled up for the freezing temps, but ready to feel the sun on its bark come spring.

Leaving your tree wrap on for a little bit after the last frost won’t cause damage to your sapling, but waiting several weeks into springtime weather may put it at serious risk of:

1. Abrasions & Girdling

Keeping tree guards on – especially those tightly wrapped around your tree’s trunk – can rub against the thin bark of the tree as its growing season starts, damaging the bark. When the tree’s bark is damaged or rubbed off, the tree’s nutrients are no longer able to flow through the tissue layers under the bark. So, while your tree may bud that spring, you will notice its health decline without proper nutrition.

2. Bacterial Cankers

When moisture gets trapped between the tree protector and the bark of the tree, it makes the perfect environment for fungus and bacteria to grow and damage the tree. One of the big problems they cause is cankers which gets under the bark and spreads throughout the tree, weakening branches and making them more prone to storm damage.

3. Insect Infestation

The warm and moist habitat between the tree’s trunk and the tree protector also attracts insects looking for a home – such as the invasive species, the Emerald Ash Borer. From here, the insects bore into the tree’s bark, where they disrupt the trees nutrient flow, discoloring leaves, weakening branches, and killing the tree.

Don’t let your busy spring schedule leave your saplings in danger of the negative effects of forgetting to remove your tree wrap in spring. Keep your vulnerable young tree safe all year long and avoid the risk of tree girdling, bacterial cankers, and insect infestations. If you notice your sapling’s health declining – whether you left your tree protectors on a little too long or not – contact the experts at Ivan’s Tree Service today.