Younger trees need to receive special care, especially during their first 2 years of life.
Oxygen’s role in a tree’s life
A gardener should not give too much water to a sapling, and should water that same young tree slowly and gradually. An act that inundated the roots could cause those underground structures to suffer from a deficit of oxygen.
The presence of mulch could also help to ensure maintenance of slow soil absorption. In addition, the mulch would protect the roots from the effect of colder temperatures.
A young tree’s life could be cut short by development of sunscald.
Sunscald can form on frozen branches that have been exposed to the sun. It is best to cover younger trees on those nights when the temperature falls below 35 degrees Fahrenheit. The cover should be a breathable and lightweight material. It should not be plastic!
Homeowners that hope to purchase a suitable covering material should consider buying some type of mesh, or burlap. The same homeowners would need to buy support sticks, as well. That would provide them with the equipment that would be necessary for construction of a tent-like structure, which could serve as the tree’s protection from sunscald.
Tree Care service in Palo Alto knows that the support sticks should keep the cover’s weight off of the thin branches. In that way, a gardener/homeowner would avoid creation of a structure that could interfere with the leaves’ need to carry out the process of photosynthesis.
Why is a tree’s ability to carry out the process of photosynthesis essential to its maintenance of life?
During the spring and summer months of the year, each of the green leaves on the branches of each living tree uses its green chloroplasts to carry out a process called photosynthesis. That changes the light energy in the sun’s rays into chemical energy.
The tree then stores that chemical energy, so that it can be used later. Trees do not move around, like animals and humans, but each of them does keep growing. A small sapling must undergo a lot of growth, in order to become as large as the branching plants that surround it.
During photosynthesis, each leaf’s chloroplasts uses sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make a form of storable energy. Yet, it the chloroplasts were to get damaged, the leaf would be unable to perform that process. That fact highlights the reason for limiting the amount of weight that falls on the leaf-bearing branches.
It would make no sense to keep the chloroplasts from doing their vital function, in order to prevent the development of sunscald. That is why arborists recommend creation of tents, whenever saplings could be exposed to a series of nights with especially cold temperatures.