Winter in Idaho Falls isn’t just a time for trees to rest; it’s the best time for you to protect them.
While fungal diseases like Marssonina Leaf Spot and Fire Blight may seem to vanish when leaves fall, they actually overwinter in bark and fallen debris, waiting to infect new growth in the spring.
The secret to a healthy landscape in Eastern Idaho is using the dormant season to your advantage. Because trees are inactive, winter is the ideal time for strategic pruning and dormant oil applications that physically remove or smother disease-carrying pathogens.
By acting now, you can stop a destructive outbreak before your trees even wake up.
Here is how to identify common winter tree diseases in Idaho Falls, along with the steps you can take to keep your landscape healthy all year long.
Common on aspen trees, this fungal disease also affects poplar and cottonwood trees.
You’ll typically notice brown spots with yellow halos on leaves. Many of these spots eventually merge together, creating large brown blotches. Leaves may drop prematurely.
The disease doesn't typically kill trees, but stresses them and may weaken them over time.
This fungal disease of spruce trees causes needles to turn brown and fall off.
Trees stressed from drought, poor planting practices, or other factors are more likely to suffer from it.
Proper planting and air flow is your best defense. (More on this, and other winter tree care, in a bit.)
This fungal disease looks just like it sounds. White to gray powdery spots, blotches or felt-like mats form on leaves, stems and buds of infected plants.
Although any tree can get this common disease, the ones that are most commonly affected are oak, maple, dogwood, magnolia, catalpa, and crabapple.
Fire blight is a common and very destructive bacterial disease of apple and pear trees.
Caused by a bacteria, the disease can kill blossoms, fruit, shoots, twigs, branches and entire trees.
Fire blight bacteria overwinter as cankers in the tree’s tissue. The infection is spread once the trees bloom and bacteria are carried from the cankers to open flowers by splashing rain, pollinating insects. or during pruning.
While spraying fungicides can help, Lawn Buddies technicians often treat this with tree injections, an important part of tree and shrub care in Idaho Falls, ID.
Tree injections are like shots for your trees. They treat diseases and insects by delivering “medicine” directly into the tree trunk, which is quickly taken up by the vascular system and distributed throughout the tree.
This direct treatment works faster and is more effective than spray treatments.
Nobody wants to see big brown spots on their aspen leaves, watch diseased needles fall from their spruce, or lose a beloved apple tree.
While fungicides and tree injections can treat diseases, preventing them in the first place is even better, right?
Here’s how:
Pick the right tree or shrub for the area, and plant it at the proper depth.
Planting trees too deeply is a common mistake. It can lead to root rot, thinning canopy, cankers, and all sorts of other problems.
Even the best Idaho tree and shrub health care can’t make up for a poorly planted tree.
Pruning is a huge tool for disease management. Winter is the best time for pruning trees and shrubs.
This time of year, when your trees and shrubs are dormant, you’ll do less damage when you prune, shape and thin your deciduous plants than if you tackle it in their prime growing months.
Those fresh pruning cuts you make heal faster during the dormant season — and are less likely to attract insects, which can carry diseases.
When pruning out diseased areas, be sure to disinfect your pruners in-between each cut. Otherwise, you’ll help spread the disease.
Applying fungicides in late winter or early spring before the tree or shrub starts growing can help prevent diseases.
But this is a job for professionals in tree and shrub care in Idaho Falls, ID, because the exact treatment varies by tree or shrub type and the disease you’re trying to prevent.
Tree and shrub diseases in winter aren’t a huge problem in Idaho Falls.
But don’t forget about tree and shrub health during the other three seasons.
A good plant health care program is your plants’ best friend, offering food and fixes for every pesky problem, from disease control to tree and shrub fertilization to tree injections to boost your trees’ health.
Plant Health Care Services can be added to our Complete Health Care Program in Idaho Falls.
The first step is to sign up for our 6-step complete lawn care program.
Got a few minutes? That’s all you need to get started. Just fill out the form on this page, call us at (208) 656-9131 or read more about our services. Then you can kick back and relax in your healthy, thriving yard.
Image Source: Leaf Spot, Powdery Mildew, Fire Blight