It’s Friday, Dec. 23, and I’m not working today as it is 28 degrees with strong winds that seem to blow right through you. I did get out and drive through the neighborhood to check out how the plants and trees were holding up with the high winds and freezing temperatures. While it is obvious that this coldfront will not have the devastation as the big Feb. freeze of 2021, there will still be damage created by the continuous hours of harsh wind chill temperatures.
Here’s the catch concerning the present cold blast – do not overreact and call in the hordes of “Plant Trimmers” and the “Chain Saw Brigades”!
The Feb. 2021 freeze happened at a time in our region that lends itself to the normal timing of trimming and feeding all of the plants at the cusp of springtime energy. It was necessary to cut off the extensive damage, resulting from four or more days of temperatures in the lower 20s. The middle of Feb. in the Rio Grande Valley is when we recommend doing your seasonal trimming and applying a good fertilizer to force out strong new healthy growth at the beginning of spring.
At this time, I recommend sticking with that timing (mid-Feb.) for any damage that has shown up from the Christmas freeze of 2022.
This freeze happened just two days into the official beginning of winter. To do a hard trimming now will probably force out tender new growth immediately since our weather has gone back to our normal 70’s and 80’s with no immediate threat of another freeze. The benefit of not trimming off freeze damage now is if we have another hard freeze in late Jan. or Feb., the freeze damage showing on your plants now will actually act as insulation and may help your plants sustain less damage. For example, if we get a frost, the frost will be sitting on old, damaged, brown and dead surface and not on still alive plant tissue.
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