How to Prevent Frost Damage to Fruit Trees in Winter? Practical Frost Protection Measures

Severe winter has arrived, and every year orchards suffer greatly in production due to frost damage. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent it before it happens; waiting until it occurs and then remedying it will not only cause losses but may also increase costs. So how do you prevent frost damage to fruit trees in winter?

1. Parts of fruit trees where frost damage occurs

① Frost damage to young shoots. Because fruit trees stop growing relatively late, immature young shoots have unfilled tissues and poorly developed protective tissues, making them prone to frost damage, drying up, and dying.

② Frost damage to branches. Normally developed branches can also suffer frost damage when the temperature is too low. Some branches may look unchanged on the outside, but when cut open, the xylem has turned brown, later forming a black heart. Frost-damaged branches sprout late, and their leaves are thin, small, or deformed, with abnormal growth.

③ Frost damage to limbs and trunks. The bark of frost-damaged limbs and trunks sinks or splits, the interior turns from brown to black, and the tissues die; in severe cases, large branches die one after another.

④ Frost damage to the root crown. The root crown refers to the base of the fruit tree trunk. The root crown area of fruit trees has relatively poor cold resistance. After freezing, the root crown bark turns black and dies. In mild cases it occurs only locally; in severe cases it forms a black ring surrounding the trunk, and the whole plant dies.

⑤ Frost damage to the root system. Frost damage to roots growing underground is not easy to detect, but it seriously affects aboveground growth. It shows as late or uneven sprouting in spring, or withering and shrinking after leafing out. The outer bark of frozen roots turns brown, and the bark separates from the xylem or even falls off.

2. Preventive measures

① Promptly remove snow from the trees. Because fruit trees have not yet dropped their leaves, heavy snow covering the canopy and branches increases the weight on the branches and leaves, causing branches to bend and break.

② Smoke the orchard after snow to prevent freezing. On the evening after heavy snow clears, 6 smoke piles should be made per mu of orchard in the orchard to raise the temperature by smoking. Stop smoking after the sun comes out the next day. Doing this for 2 to 3 consecutive nights has a very good effect on driving off cold and preventing frost damage.<

③ Mound soil and cover around the roots of fruit trees. After snow, mound soil around the trunk along the tree, with a mounding height of 20 to 25 cm. After the temperature rises in early spring the following year, remove the soil. This can reduce frost damage to the root crown of fruit trees. However, soil should not be taken from the tree, to prevent the roots from being exposed and suffering frost damage.

④ Wrap the tree body. According to weather changes, before the cold wave arrives, wrap the main trunk and main branches with straw rope, or bundle the trunk with straw.

⑤ Irrigate with sealing-freeze water. If freeze water has not been applied, promptly give the fruit trees sufficient winter water after snow and before the soil freezes. This can both promote the growth and development of fruit trees and keep the ground temperature relatively stable during the cold winter, thereby reducing frost damage.

⑥ Whitewash the trunks. After snow, promptly and evenly whitewash the trunks and main branches of fruit trees with whitewash agent, so that the tree body temperature changes steadily and there is no alternating freezing and thawing. This prevents freezing and sunscald, and can also kill pathogens, insect eggs, and adult insects in the trunk. The mixing ratio of the whitewash liquid is: 100 parts quicklime, 10 parts sulfur powder, 10 parts table salt, 1 part vegetable oil, and 200 parts clean water, mixed evenly.

⑦ Strengthen cultivation management the following year. Apply fertilizer and water in time to restore tree vigor. At the same time, after the tree body is frozen, it is prone to pest and disease damage, which should be controlled in time.

In fact, in addition to doing a good job of preventing low-temperature frost damage in advance, after picking in autumn and winter, orchards should also do a good job of clearing the orchard, thoroughly removing diseased and pest-infested branches, dead and dry branches, fallen leaves, rotten fruit, weeds, and so on from the orchard, and burning or deeply burying them in a centralized manner, so as to reduce the overwintering base of field pests and diseases and protect healthy leaves that have not been frozen so they can overwinter.