If your tree has frost cracks, you will want to heal them. Frost cracks pose a serious threat to the health of your tree, and a dying or dead tree poses a serious threat to your yard and your home. Fortunately, frost cracks can be healed.

How Does A Tree Get Frost Cracks?

Frost cracks are caused by sudden drops in temperatures. On cool days moisture can collect on the bark of the tree. When the temperature drops suddenly, such as when the sky becomes overcast, the bark cools rapidly and the moisture freezes, causing the bark to expand. This exposes the inside of the tree like an open wound; bacteria, fungus, and insects have easy access to the tender wood of the tree and cause disease, or even simply wear down the health of your tree.

What to Do If Your Tree Has Frost Cracks

Frost cracks can usually heal on their own if there is clean crack with no loose bark. If the tree has a jagged crack and loose bark is present, you may have to heal the tree yourself. The tree heals frost cracks by forming a callus layer to seal edges of the crack. Neither tree paint nor tar can cause this formation and should not be used to heal a tree’s frost crack. When healing the tree yourself, you will enact this formation of the callus layer. To heal the frost crack you will need: denatured alcohol, water, a sharp knife, an empty spray bottle, and a towel.

1. Mix denatured alcohol and water, consisting mostly of alcohol.

2. Dip a knife into mixture.

3. Carefully remove loose bark and smooth the edges of the crack with the knife without cutting deep into the wood.

4. Cut a ½-inch deep oval around the frost crack while sterilizing the knife with the alcohol mixture between each cut. Have the cut 1 or ½ inches away from the frost crack.

5. Remove bark from the newly cut area, so that the area is bare.

6. Pour the mixture into a spray bottle and spray it onto the exposed area to sterilize it.

7. Soak up any excess mixture with the towel.

Need Professional Help?

If you think your tree has frost cracks, or may be dying, contact a quality tree removal service. TalkLocal will connect you with up to three tree removal services in your area in just minutes. Try it out today, for free!

This entry was originally posted on Thursday, April 4th, 2013 at 10:00 am and is filed under Tree Removal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.