How to Protect Your Trees From the Summer Heat?

Protect Your Trees From the Summer Heat in Salt Lake City

As the weather heats up in Salt Lake City, your trees and plants need more care and attention. Without changes to their watering schedule, care and maintenance, and pruning or trimming needs, your trees are at a greater risk of dying or experiencing heat stress and sunscalding. By protecting your trees early, at the end of spring before the hot weather is in full force, you can preserve the life and beauty of your trees for decades to come. At Rent-A-Monkey Tree Services, we offer professional, reliable, affordable tree services in Salt Lake City and Park City, UT, including tree assessments, tree trimming, and tree pruning. To find out how we can help you protect your trees from summer heat, call us today.

Be Aware of Heat Stress and Sunscald

Rising temperatures make it harder for trees to take in water before it evaporates. When a tree loses water faster than it can replace it, the tree is at risk of heat stress. The primary way that trees absorb water is from the soil through their roots. They can also absorb some water from the air through their leaves and branches, but that is a much less efficient and effective method. If there hasn’t been much rain or if your watering schedule hasn’t changed, too much water will evaporate from the soil before the tree can absorb it through its roots. In order to prevent heat stress, you need to increase the amount of water your tree gets, proportional to its size. You may also need to increase the frequency of the tree’s watering schedule.

Sunscald is like a sunburn, but on a tree’s bark. High temperatures and sun exposure can damage the tree’s bark, causing it to die and peel off. Signs of sunscald are an elongated area of dead bark on the south or southwest side of a tree’s trunk, branches, or both. The damaged area may be sunken and have cracked, dried bark that peels off to expose dead wood.

Understand How Trees Handle Heat Waves in Salt Lake City

For the most part, trees can self-regulate their temperature as the weather changes. In extreme heat waves, however, your trees need your help. The sunlight reflected off of surfaces around the trees, heat radiating from surrounding areas, hot wind, and heat reflecting from the surrounding soil can all contribute to a tree’s heat stress level. The ideal temperature for most trees is 70-85 degrees Celsius. At around 115 degrees Celsius, trees begin to die. Trees can cool themselves to an extent through transpiration, but the water they lose needs to be replaced. Watering your trees deeply, slowly, and regularly will help them absorb the water they need before it evaporates into the air.

Look for Signs of Heat Damage in Trees

Some symptoms of heat stress and heat damage won’t show up in trees until it’s too late, so it’s important to regularly assess the health of your trees, and protect them from damage before it can happen. Watch out for these common signs of heat damage in trees:

• Wilting leaves
• Yellowing of interior leaves or needles
• Inability to produce new growth or healthy growth
• Brown, red, or rust-colored spots or bumps on the leaves
• Oozing sap from trunk
• Scorching around the edges of the leaves
• Increase in dropping or fallen leaves

If you notice any of these symptoms, you should contact a qualified tree specialist for assistance.

Protect Your Trees From Summer Heat

To reduce the risk of heat stress and heat damage in your trees in Salt Lake City, there are a few things you can do to protect your trees from the summer heat:

• Increase your trees’ watering schedule – The main thing you can do to protect your trees from summer heat is to increase the watering schedule. Use an automatic sprinkler or timed irrigation system to water your trees at least twice per day, in the cooler parts of the day, so that the water is less likely to evaporate before the trees can absorb it.
• Properly water your trees – Water deeply and at the drip line (rather than right up against the tree trunk). A tree’s roots can spread out as far as the edges of the tree’s canopy, so it’s important to water there to ensure the full root system gets water. Ask a tree specialist how much water each tree needs per day. Younger trees might need more water during heatwaves, and larger trees with more expansive root systems need more water than smaller trees.
• Maintain routine tree services – Regularly assess the health of your trees during the hot summer months, and hire a professional for routine tree services. A tree specialist will remove broken, dead, or diseased branches, freeing up room for new, healthier growth. A tree specialist can also protect your trees from insects and disease.
• Protect your tree from its surroundings – Some trees are at greater risk for heat damage due to their surroundings. If your trees are near asphalt, such as a sidewalk, driveway, street, or parking lot, they may be exposed to a high level of ambient heat. You might consider using mulch around the tree roots to protect the soil from water loss, reduce soil temperature, and add nutrients.

Look for Changes in Tree Health

Monitor your trees carefully during the hot months of summer to make sure they aren’t showing signs of heat stress or sunscald. If you have any doubts about the amount of water your tree needs, how to adjust the watering schedule for the summer, or how to protect your tree from the summer heat, contact a tree specialist for advice.

Learn More About Caring for Your Trees in the Summer

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can care for your trees in the summer heat in Salt Lake City, call us today at Rent-A-Monkey Tree Services. Our tree specialists have years of experience in caring for all kinds of trees of all ages and sizes. We can make a visit to your home or business to prune your tree and offer seasonal maintenance and care. To schedule a visit or learn more about our tree services in SLC, just call us today or contact us online.