As you read this, right now is a special time for our local trees. After the long work session of summer they are at idle. The term “dormancy” always kind of baffled me. It just sounds like inactivity, and while trees are not going full tilt boogie like summer, they are idling along.
One day a few years ago, while on a party boat on an albacore fishing trip, the skipper stopped steaming and kicked the boat into idle. Listening to the twin Cat turbo diesels idling for about ten minutes or so I stepped into the wheelhouse. We had left the dock about 8 hours earlier and were about 80 miles from the closest shore. As I looked around at all the sonar displays, chart plotters, weather fax, sideband and other marine radios, I said “Hey Skip, don’t you ever kill your engines when you’re out here?”
“Their runnin’ aren’t they,” was his reply. “Look,” he said, “the Coast Guard is at least 4 or 5 hours away and we can’t risk a restart.”
Your tree could not risk a restart right now either, so it throttles down to idle.
This is the time to mulch and let the winter moisture and microbial goodness get off to a good start. It will go a long way to reduce the stress of the next summer when the tree is revved up and running hard.
Most deciduous and all evergreen conifers have a green layer that is exposed to what little sun we have during this time of year, and this keeps the batteries charged so to speak, so your tree isn’t really “shut down” right now, it is at idle.
The common belief that it is the lengthening of the daylight hours that rev up your beloved tree and kick it into gear.
Quite the opposite really. It is the shortening of dark hours that opens the throttles, so to speak.
All the next points of growth were created when the tree was at full throttle last summer. Neatly wrapped in tight waxy bundles, they hate winter just as much as I do and can’t wait for a beautiful spring!
Most pruning of conifers should take place now as the risk of attracting boring insects are at the year time low.
A little early for fruit trees and other deciduous broadleaf types but you gotta do what you gotta do.
This is the best time for picking out idling trees, as the structure of the scaffolding isn’t hampered by a bunch of pesky leaves, so hit the nurseries now to pick out the cream of the crop for your next planting.
We have lost a GIANT amount of conifers the last two summers, so if appropriate for your situation, that would be a great place to start.
Our winters can play hell on our in-town, non-native trees if we get a heavy wet snotty snow as they just haven’t evolved with that condition, caveat emptor…
Trees at idle are less prone to stress and now is the time to move something if you must.
The most important thing to remember when choosing a new tree is where did it grow up? Are you buying a tree that grew up in Portland and planting on a wind/sun-blasted south facing slope in crappy heavy clay soil? If so it had better be a tough type indeed! Proper planting will probably prevent piss poor performance but when you hear hoofbeats, expect horses, not zebras!
That said, there is an easy way to beautify our lives, and yes, you guessed it…
Plant high and often!
