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How cold is "too cold" for pruning?

7 years ago

Here in Tuscany, Italy, we are having a cold spell; after several years of excessively warm winters,I guess this is good, though I sure wish it would rain or snow. (the Italian Alps are said to be devoid of snow still, which is VERY BAD). Normally now is the season to be pruning, but I often read that one should only do so if it is "not too cold". But what, exactly ,is "too cold"??? Can anybody give me a sort of temperature range in which it is "safe" to prune roses?

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Comments (5)

dbarron
7 years ago
Well, my general idea of when to prune things is usually just as they start into growth, so you can remove all dead limbs. If you prune before that, you may lose additional limbs.
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Hans
7 years ago
Bart, though your climate is a little milder than ours, I'ld wait till there is no more risk of severe frosts, which would give you some die-back that you can't prune away anymore. I guess by the mid of February you'll be safe to prune. Over here I need to wait till the first week of March.
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Raven, too cold for you, maybe not the trees. Don't know what you're waiting to prune. I've pruned when the temp was in single digits and certainly in windy weather in the teens. Pruned during blizzards as well. The question, I think, is about how cold is too cold for the trees and it's a good one. The literature is deficient on this because there is no proper way to scientifically evaluate it. Trees will probably respond differently to wounds depending on what stage they are at in terms of hardening off. Also, even same species are variable from variety to variety to cold tolerance in general. And the same variety will likely be more vulnerable when younger than older. When I started my business I tried getting all pruning done during what was considered the best time- end of winter, beginning of spring. This was actually based on Cornell guidelines. Very quickly I had to expand my pruning season and I found out that commercial growers tend to have a much more liberal idea about when to prune and they are not likely to risk the health of their trees. Early winter around here they often prune their oldest apples than move to younger apples and pears and finish up with stonefruit. Some commercial growers in the Hudson Valley (down to Z5) prune their apple trees right after harvest. This is based on the kind of winters we were getting before the recent warming trend. It really doesn't answer the question by saying when you choose to prune unless you've pruned earlier in the past and suffered some kind of consequence. I manage thousands of trees and have never seen any consequence to cold from poorly timed pruning..
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If you're in Alameda, it's a lot less likely to have frost because you're surrounded by water and are well inside the Bay. I live in Oakland, straight down High St. halfway up the Oakland hills, and our Meyers and Bearss are in the ground. Occasionally the fruit gets nipped by frost (interior dries out) but the issue is in-ground plants don't suffer because the ground NEVER freezes here. You may want to be more careful with container plants because most people use the smallest containers possible since large ones aren't easily moved....and smaller pots may be more susceptible to frost nipping. Keep them a foot or so off the ground; that will avoid the coldest air currents. Setting them against a south- or west-facing wall will help, too.
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Buford_NE_GA_7A
7 years ago
When my gardening gloves can't keep my hands warm! Again, it's not the current temperature, it's the timing. you can prune now, but if it gets warm and the roses break dormancy (stirred by the pruning) and then you get another cold snap, you can lost all the new growth and possibly damage the remaining growth.
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User
Original Author
7 years ago
Thanks, all! See, here the climate is so different! I have roses that are in bloom now; they never really go totally dormant, really. A lot of times, pruning seems to serve the opposite purpose of the conventional idea of it stimulating new growth, almost,since it helps defoliate them. Actually, I think they tend to be closest to real dormancy during the summer drought than at any other time of year; once (if) it starts raining in the fall, they start growing. The old adage quoted so often "prune when the forsithia are in bloom",is total nonsense in this climate: by that time the roses are usually leafing out already. To give an idea: even now, I've got a little basal break coming up on a Mt. Vernon Purple Noisette...Basically, I've always stuck to a different adage, which says that, in warm climates like mine,all major pruning on roses should be done by Valentine's Day; I've already pruned several of them, back in December . I guess what I'm worrying about is having a result similar to that which I had years ago, when I summer pruned: due to the lack of water and the heat, I got tons of die-back. But if what Buford says is true, that it's not the current temperature that really matters,I guess I'd be ok. Honestly, here it's more the summer heat that seems to be the enemy of roses,since IME when it's extremely hot out, pruning is a very bad idea...
seil zone 6b MI
7 years ago
I'm with dbarron. I wait until I can see some tiny bit of growth starting. That way I can tell more easily what is really dead wood and what is still viable.
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