Risks of Winter Pruning Your Plants

Some people get anxious to get outside and work in the yard after being cooped up indoors during the cold wintry months. If you are one of those people, do something else besides prune your trees or shrubs, or you will risk winter injury to them.

Pruning stimulates growth, growth during the winter is not what you want. One night with temperatures dipping below freezing will kill the new plant growth and possibly the entire plant.

The cut in the limb will free the plant's water content , increase it's hormones, while decreasing the level of the plant's natural antifreeze, and result in the plant's loss of hardiness. The risk of losing the plant's hardiness while there is still the probability of below freezing temperatures is not a good thing.

A plant, tree or shrub that has been pruned too early in the season makes it more prone to winter injury and possibly even the loss of the plant. The plant may appear to be alright in the spring after a winter pruning, it may produce buds and leaves like normal, only to collapse and die shortly there after because all it's food reserves have been used up. The plants food reserves leaked out through the cut made when it was pruned in the winter.

It is easy to be tempted to prune during the winter months. A sunny afternoon gives us the desire to get outside and do something, combine that with the fact that you can see the limbs better without the leaves on them, makes us want to grab a pair of pruning shears and get our plants into shape. Do try to avoid that temptation so you won't risk winter injury to your plants.

If you have read my previous articles on preparing your plants, shrubs and trees for winter, then you should have done all to your plants that need to be done until the temperatures warm to above freezing and all danger of frost has passed. That will be the time to prune all your trees and shrubs to stimulate their growth for the season.