Apply no more than two inches of mulch around newly planted or transplanted trees and shrubs and keep the mulch a few inches away from plant crowns.  Do not pile mulch up in deep cone-shaped mounds around tree trunks.  This looks bad, holds moisture against trunks and potentially leads to crown and stem rots.  Extend mulch out one to two feet beyond the planting hole to allow for the season’s root growth for trees.

Painting tree trunks.

Painting or spraying the trunks of young fruit trees with white latex pain in the late fall may reduce chance for freeze injury (southwest trunk damage).  Paint from the ground up to just past the junction of the lower scaffold limbs.

Painting tree trunks with a bright white latex pain to reflect the winter sun and minimize temperature fluctuations at the bark surface should be done sometime after harvest.  Any inexpensive white latex paint will do.