Q: My dad helped me plant a couple of young apple trees in my backyard last weekend and so far, so good. After we finished I said the only thing I had left to do was paint the trunks white. He looked ...

Answer: Have you ever noticed bark buckling off the tree trunk? I first noticed it in a mature mulberry tree in my yard in Las Cruces a few years ago. The bark on the west side of the trunk had ...

After last week’s column on transplanting 8-year-old plum trees was published, City of Las Cruces Community Forester Jimmy Zabriskie contacted me about another important consideration: sunscald.

Q. I recently moved to Redding and everywhere I go I see tree trunks that look like they’ve been painted white. I even saw some that were painted a light blue. Can you tell me why folks do this? A.

Many young trees and even some older ones are susceptible to winter sun injury. This is referred to as southwest winter injury or simply sun scald. It is caused by repeated freezing and thawing of the ...