Like other evergreen plants, juniper in winter, and in summer it pleases the eye with lush greenery. Care for this plant is not difficult, but the question "Do we need to cover juniper for the winter?" Can confound even an experienced gardener. To understand the nuances of winter care for juniper, we'll try together.
Is it necessary to close the juniper for the winter?
Although juniper is a close relative of fir and pine, and is able to tolerate winter frosts without losses, it often enough by spring it loses the lion's share of decorative or even dies. There are several reasons for this:
- Snow dripping . The sprawling crown of the juniper during the snowfall is able to accumulate such a volume of snow mass that the young shrub can simply turn out of the ground with the roots. Not to mention the fact that brittle branches break, not withstanding the snow load.
- Lack of moisture in the soil . With the onset of thaws or the first spring days, the juniper needle begins to breathe actively, evaporating a huge amount of moisture. At the same time, the roots in the still frozen soil can not compensate for this loss. All this is deplorable in the condition of the crown, which becomes brown and begins to crumble.
To help the juniper to survive the winter without losses and to meet the spring fully armed, it is quite simple, if in time to carry out all measures to prepare it for the winter, including the organization of a protective shelter.
How to prepare a juniper for the winter?
Take care of the preparation of juniper for the winter period should be in late October or early November, when the frosts were not yet established. Training includes the following activities:
- Water-charging watering . For each plant, it is necessary to pour out about 4-5 buckets of water (depending on how rainy the autumn was). This amount will be enough to ensure that juniper does not experience water shortage.
- Strapping branches . The crown should not be tightened with a rope to prevent breaking and freezing of branches.
- Organization of shelter . For winter shelter, you can use burlap, pritenochnuyu grid or polypropylene cloth. In this case, one should not try to wrap the plant completely, the task is only to protect it as much as possible from sunburn. But polyethylene and other "non-breathing" materials for this use should not be - under them will actively multiply fungi, which can lead to the death of the plant.