Most people worry about frost killing their trees in January. Far fewer think about what a relentless July sun can do to bark ...

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 ...

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 ...

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.

Summer sunscald happens on trees when bark gets too hot. This happens on young tree trunks or young branches of older trees. Bark gets so hot that cells die. Winter sunscald happens in colder weather ...

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 ...