Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Knock it off? Snow, that is
Well, we got snow! Now what about those evergreens?
Should I knock it off or not? That is the question some folks in the northland ask when faced with snow and ice covering their conifers and other shrubs and trees.
Our first instinct is to knock that stuff off, set the branches free, however, you might do more harm than good. And put your own safety at risk.
The ice that can encapsulate those branches is beautiful but is it harmful? Depends… is it harmful to YOU, who might be trying to knock it off and instead, knock yourself out with a brittle branch OR is it harmful to the tree? Some light ice is not a problem but heavy ice and snow weighing down branches could be. Never mess with a tree where there are downed wires, don’t walk underneath heavily laden branches.
There were several branches of this lilac that had to be pruned out. They had broken. Obviously I waited until warmer weather!
Shaking or beating the tree can cause breakage, damage the tree’s vascular system and injure needles and buds beyond what the ice damage may do. Let the ice melt, then prune out broken branches. If they’re just bent, leave them be. There’s also prevention. Wrap small trees and shrubs that have multiple stems with twine, strips of cloth or nylon to hold them upright.
An excellent video from my friend Glenn Switzer: Removing snow from trees and shrubs:
And then there’s my video from January 2020… the yew I’m referring to is now gone and replaced with a crabapple ‘Firebird’. Two reasons, one is it was LARGE, two it was damaged after years of getting iced up.