Baby trees or seedlings have been getting through winters since winters have existed. There is nothin special that you should need to do.
I guess just make shure that it is planted securely.
Any young plant that i put in the ground is not larger than 3 gallons. And i never need to stake them.

Good luck.

they are trees ed ... not co-dependent babies ... crikey ... lol ..

if you get snow cover and tend to walk your garden ... leave stakes until spring.. so you dont wipe them out with your big whomping feet ... they can be releases from the stakes... and the stakes left as markers.. for years ...

tree tubes... protect from winter vermin ... like peter cottonrattail ... i leave them for years ...

if your soil drains.. and you soil is actually dry down 3 to 6 inches ... water ... but without the insult of summer sun ... even thought the surface might APPEAR dry ... it usually is not dry at depth ... and if you got a lot of rain.. why even bother ...

i dont think you need bug protection in winter .... but i wouldnt waste money on that anyway .... with IPM .... you are supposed to react to an actual threat ... not treat preventively ... is there actually anything you are thinking about ???? .. or just needing to spend some money on the babes ... lol

ken

Contrary to the thoughts of the other posters, many trees and bushes both young and old suffered damage last winter in the upper midwest. It was too cold, windy and not enough snow cover.

Water them well before the freeze sets in. Especially the evergreens since they transpire all winter.

Leave your stake and the tube on them. That will keep them from blowing around so if it's windy and will keep the trunk from suffering sunscald.

Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Weather Brings Sunscald to Trees

The phrasing "baby trees" was to get a rise out of ken_adrian...

Mother nature plants oodles of baby trees every year...and most of them die. When a year comes when you get the right amount of rain a crop survives. I try to emulate that strategy, but I'm probably not going to plant THAT many saplings, so I want a somewhat higher survival rate. (Plus you may be planting things marginal for your climate that wouldn't grow wild there, but I try not to do that...)

As far as pests...I know turpentine beetles killed a lot of pines I've noticed holes in the leaves of a lot of the deciduous trees. I've heard there is a problem with Winter Moth in the area. I've seen a lot of Japanese Beetles.

My instinct is to give everything a soaking right now before the ground freezes, but we got a lot of rain.

peoniesandposies, your link didn't work for me.

This post was edited by edlincoln on Thu, Dec 18, 14 at 13:28

Ed, I think you really know how to take care of the "babies" better than me, and several peeps on here. But, I will add that likely the most important thing in my yard, and something most important in a rural or even suburbs anymore. Protect from wildlife. I think that cold temps are gonna happen, and the trees should be able to deal with it, I guess some trees may do better with protection, but, trees for our zones should be able to deal with it. The deer rubbing on bark/trunks of trees and mice chewing at thin trunks, is where I would put up fences. The cold temps, I may protect a Crepe/Crape myrtle, but not an oak. Poaky1

In my experience, the biggest threats are summer sun and lawn mowers....

Deer aren't a problem, but there are a LOT of rabbits and squirrels. I've been experimenting with tree tubes. but honestly not sure a rabbit couldn't lift one up if it tried.

Mostly concerned about cold with respect to Mountain Laurel, English Holly, and American Holly (although I'm not attempting to plant any of that last this year...)

This post was edited by edlincoln on Mon, Dec 22, 14 at 17:09

I call my seedlings "babies" all the time. :)

As long as the seedlings are hardy, I agree with poaky and would worry about critters most. Rabbits or deer munching the trunk or branches, voles chewing the roots.

I just put tree wrap around the new Cherokee Brave dogwood today (planted last Spring), because some dumb deer has been rubbing against the trunk. Coincidentally, the deer chomped down some C. florida seedlings I planted a few years back. Maybe they like that species?

Saw this old post of mine. For the record, last winter was epic here. The only plants mentioned above that are still alive are one of the ten bare root pitch pine (which is doing well) one blue spruce (looking sad) and (oddly) the frost burned Big Box Clearance Mountain Laurel I mentioned is doing is doing well in one of the most wind swept locations.

Hi Ed, bad winter here too. I'm 6a too, and lost two mature Stella cherries, a Large Black Heart cherry, and several seedling cherry. Lost a couple of peaches, but the seedlings (peach) all survived. Lost a white spruce. Grumble, complain, sigh. Ah, next year, the gardeners' mantra..............

The only mature tree we lost was a...don't remember what it was, a maple or a basswood. The White Fir and Norway Spruce all survived this one, as did the black cherry..
Anyway, the trees are getting old. The whole reason I was planting bunches of saplings every year was to deal with the natural attrition.

The tree tubes I'm using are actually green.

White spiral tree wraps work too. Sometimes, it's just a really bad winter, and nothing helps. Still, seedlings fill in later, grin.

I think it depends somewhat on the type of tree and how well it is adapted to your region. Marginally hardy saplings will def. need protection. Around here, protection from rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks is important nearly year-round, especially for small oaks.

We have massive numbers of squirrels and rabbits, but so far they've been pretty well behaved. Of course, all it will take is a winter with less food then usual to get them nibbling on things they usually don't. Major purpose of the tree tubes has been to protect from accidental lawnmower injury and drying out in the summer. (I;m planting at my parent's place...can't be there to water them regularly...)

joeinmo 6b-7a, would the green tree tubes help over the winter?

When would I do the last big watering before the soil freezes?