The word dormancy refers to a season. Trees enter their season of dormancy in late autumn, and remain there for much of the winter. A dormant tree is not actively growing as per Tree Care service in Palo Alto.
Goals for someone that has chosen to prune dormant trees
• Find and remove any crossed branches
• Find and remove any weak limbs
• Increase chances that, come summer, the amount of sunlight in the yard will allow establishment of a flower or vegetable garden.
Added benefits for homeowner that has chosen to prune trees during season of dormancy
That action limits the number of factors that might work to attract pests
Pests hibernate during trees’ dormancy; hence, they cannot climb into a pruned tree. In other words, they remain unable to sneak into any weakened spaces, those that might have been created by the stressful pruning process.
Amount of trees’ stress reduced during dormant season. The reduced sap is evidence of that fact. When a tree has reduced level of stress, it does a better job of healing from the effects of the pruning shears.
Furthermore, a mold or fungus does not release healthy spores during the time of year when trees are dormant. Because those spores are not healthy, the spore from a diseased tree should not harm other plants in the area.
Another task that has fewer consequences, if done during a tree’s dormant season
That is the task that involves transplanting a tree. The transplanted tree does a better job of recovering from exposure to a new environment, if it has entered the season of dormancy.
Still, no tree could complete such a recovery, if it did not receive the proper care. In other words, even a dormant plant ought to get watered on a regular basis. A dormant plant remains alive. A living plant requires sunlight, access to nutrients and water.
Moreover, care should be taken for protection of a dormant root system. That system could fail to survive, if it were to feel the pressure produced by many feet. So, the measures used to protect a tree’s roots should not be abandoned during the dormant season.
Instead, it helps to place some sort of barrier around a transplanted tree/bush. That should limit the number of feet that walk on the ground above the tree’s roots. The root system must get established in the ground.
Do not think that the ground remains quiet at that particular time of year. Worms in the ground help it to stay rich. Hence, it has the ability to support a new tree’s roots. That is why a true tree-lover makes a point of utilizing the advantages that nature has created during the dormant season.