If you live in areas where winter is severe then you need to exercise caution and take adequate steps if you have a variety of fruit trees growing in your backyard. There are several methods, some of them polluting and other simple precautions that need to be taken if you want your fruit trees to survive through the cold season. However, you should also know that a bucket of water under fruit trees prevent killing frost and you can try this inexpensive method to save your trees.
You could have planted apple, apricot or peach trees in your garden, which will need to be protected in case of freezing conditions. Although you might think that winter snow means that your trees will receive water or moisture, in essence, it can actually cause freeze burns that can destroy roots and the trunk, and eventually kill the fruit trees. It is essential that you have a working drain line to drain away any excess water that reaches your tree’s roots so that any existing water does not freeze over. If possible, your trees should also be grown on a slope so that the chilly wind has a chance of escaping towards lower ground.
While you can protect your fruit trees externally by wrapping them in tree wrap or bubble wrap, you can also protect their roots by placing a bucket of water under each fruit tree to prevent frost from killing it. Each bucket of water should have a tiny hole at the bottom and this should have a matching watering line in the soil that leads directly to the roots of the tree. Since water is at a higher temperature than ice, it will help keep the soil moist and thus prevent freezing that might ultimately lead to the death of your beloved tree. However, you will have to ensure that your soil does not become too soggy since it also needs to breathe freely for the roots to absorb the water. You will have to regulate the amount of water seeping into the soil. Anyway, this environmentally-friendly method is much better than using stack heaters that pollute the environment.
Along with the bucket strategy, you can also spread a thin layer of mulch under your fruit trees. This will provide warmth to the freezing trees and turn into nutrition in the coming summer months. While your bucket strategy is helping your fruit trees to brave through the freezing winter, you too should remain adequately hydrated during these cold months. If you hate to drink plain water then you can surely try to drink flavored water that can be bought in bottled form or better still made right at home with the help of various flavors that are available even over the Internet. Flavors such as orange, strawberry, grapefruit, lemon, etc can keep you hydrated with a warm smile on your face. You should however, ensure that those flavors are totally sugar-free as well as calorie-free before buying them.
Winter can bring in freezing winds and frost, and your fruit trees will have to bear the brunt bravely if they want to survive into the next year. You too can help your trees by putting a bucket of water under fruit trees prevent killing frost so that your trees do not freeze to death and you can enjoy the fruits of your labor in the coming seasons.