Young trees overwintering abilities...

nao57

Crowing
Mar 28, 2020
1,726
1,779
318
So...here's what I'd been wondering about. And curious for advise.

I'm in grow zone 5 near the Rocky Mountains. Its already first week in August. I got so busy that I didn't get on things fast enough.

I wanted to do some black locust trees in the yard, and maybe a peach tree or two. But I'm worried about how well a young tree can overwinter? Winter for us doesn't usually start until Thanksgiving. That's when the cold hits for us. And then it will be cold off and on until April. chances for late frosts around May 1st, but April is usually kind of spotty bouncing around with warm, cold, stormy, etc all mixed up.

Does the tree have to reach a minimum size to make it through winter? Normally I don't question this, but for trees that are very young, or not very tall yet, it suddenly made me realize I shouldn't assume a lot and that I didn't have much data.

Thank you.
 
I live in Zone 4 in flat, windy, north central Iowa, and we also have crazy weather here. Last winter, the actual temps -- without wind chill -- fell into the minus 20-something range several times. And we had plenty of snow.

The only peach tree I've found that can survive for me is a Reliance, and when I got it several years ago, it was really just a two-foot stick. I mulched around the base and added chicken wire fencing to keep rabbits from munching it.

Today, it's probably 15 foot tall and consistently produces fruit. So, I think yours would have a good chance.
 
You might want to wait until the spring to plant a young tree. Last year (zone 6A), we planted a tree -not a fruit tree - that was a year old. We planted mid summer to later summer. The top several inches died over the winter. So now there will be a fork in the trunk as the 2 side branches will become the main branches.
 
One thing to consider for young trees any time of the year... protect the bark from mice, and the young branches from deer. I've lost fruit trees to both.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom