Freeze damaged Willow Leaf

Srt8madness

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Soooooo, my enclosure didn't totally protect my plants from the freeze we had recently. I say plants bc my trees were protected, sans P afra and this one.

Basically the wind got under the plastic and the leaves got toasted. Very tips of the twigs are goners too. So Basically my tree got a free defoliation in the middle of winter. Good thing we have warm temps coming up.

Question is, should I go ahead and prune back before it re-leafs out? I just got it a few months ago so I've done zero work to it. Eventually I'll chop back most of the tree to build it out, but in the meantime I'd rather have the new foliage closer in than out.

That's it, any advice is appreciated. Here is a pic of the ugly lil bugger, looked a lot nicer with leaves LOL
 

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lehigh4me

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If it were mine I would go ahead and prune it back. They are pretty tough little trees. I have about 6 of them and they seem to stand up to whatever I dish out.:)
 

BrightsideB

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I want to get some willow leaf in the future. I don’t know a lot about them but I think they are tropical which means they don’t go dormant. I’ve hear of people putting them in their house during winter under lights or next to a window. My words aren’t gospel lol but I think it could of been just the cold temperature outside rather then the wind. I think they can die in temps below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Will be interesting to hear what others say as I like the tree and want to start learning more about them as well. I almost bought one at an auction but was a little to much for my budget. It was worth it though.
 

namnhi

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So it has been a little more than a week from the hard freeze we had. I say sure you can try to prune the parts you think are goner. The important part to look for is if the spots at the prune sites still have the white milky sap. If they do then congrats as the tree still alive. If they look dark greenish and no sap then I think it is a goner... it probably will still sprout from the base/root though... so keep it somewhere out of sight.
 

Srt8madness

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Oh yikes. I did some minor trimming but no milky sap yet...brb
 

Srt8madness

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So it has been a little more than a week from the hard freeze we had. I say sure you can try to prune the parts you think are goner. The important part to look for is if the spots at the prune sites still have the white milky sap. If they do then congrats as the tree still alive. If they look dark greenish and no sap then I think it is a goner... it probably will still sprout from the base/root though... so keep it somewhere out of sight.
Well, no sap still. I did wound the trunk lightly, green inside but no sap.
 

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namnhi

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Well, no sap still. I did wound the trunk lightly, green inside but no sap.
I don't like not seeing sap when wounded in a ficus. I afraid you lost the part above the ground. That happened to probably 10 of the cuttings I struck before the hard freeze we had a couple year ago. The top grows are slowly die just like yours but they regrow from the part close to the ground. Hope this one pull through for you.
 

namnhi

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I have some if this one decided to go to heaven.
 

Srt8madness

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Dang I just spent $75 on this sucker, was planning to strike many cuttings from the upper section. I may take you up on the offer, thank you 🥴🥴
 

LittleDingus

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Dang I just spent $75 on this sucker, was planning to strike many cuttings from the upper section. I may take you up on the offer, thank you 🥴🥴

Don't give up on it! Mine have survived short freezes.

They do go dormant. My smaller ones tend to lose all leaves in the fall. I don't usually bring them in until night temps hit low 40F...but I've missed that over the years and they've occasionally hit freezing for a few hours at a time.

Mine sometimes drop all their foliage in winter whether they hit a short freeze or not. I have 4 right now. Three held onto their leaves, one dropped everything. I think last year only one held onto foliage all winter.

Absence of white sap doesn't necessarily mean dead. It may be dormant or it may be dehydrated. I will intentionally underwater mine before major work so they don't leak all over and make a mess ;) I don't let them dry out to a danger point...just skip a watering or two before taking out the shears!

Dead branches are pretty easy to identify. They will look dull and possibly a little pruny compared to live bark. They are brittle. If a branch is still soringy, it's probably alive.

If it were mine and I was thinking to prune before this incident, I'd lean towards doing it now rather than later. They back bud readily. If, by chance, it was severely weakened by the freeze, the current buds are likely dead anyway. Cutting off branches just means less tree to try and spread resources around to...my $0.02 anyway...
 

Carol 83

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Mine sometimes drop all their foliage in winter whether they hit a short freeze or not.
I have had mine for almost 5 years and it has dropped it's leaves every winter after being brought inside. I don't think it showed signs of life this year until June. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, this year it didn't drop any leaves and is actually actively growing. 🤷‍♀️
 

LittleDingus

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I have had mine for almost 5 years and it has dropped it's leaves every winter after being brought inside. I don't think it showed signs of life this year until June. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, this year it didn't drop any leaves and is actually actively growing. 🤷‍♀️

I haven't had mine long enough to have trustworthy data, but all mine that have dropped leaves have had root work over the previous growing season. They all get roughly the same conditions year round. They are all always within feet of each other inside and out. The root work thing is the only correlation I've noticed...but not enough to say it's a "for sure" trigger.

By "long enough"...I've had some for 5 seasons now.
 

Carol 83

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The root work thing is the only correlation I've noticed...but not enough to say it's a "for sure" trigger.
Not my experience. I repotted it the first summer I had it in an oversized pot, so no need to repot it since. It just dropped it's leaves every November and stayed dormant for months. Not so this year and I have no idea why. Maybe it knew I was thinking about getting rid of it...
 

ShadyStump

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Not a willow leaf, but might help.
I've trimmed my benjaminas while dormant- i.e. no flowing sap- and it wasn't a huge problem. They don't callus as well, and the scars can take forever (relatively speaking) to blend in.

The sap is a sign it's awake and actively growing: best conditions to work the tree, regardless of season. No sap simply means it's NOT awake and actively growing, but also NOT NECESSARILY that it's dead.
I've even gotten some of those dormant cuttings to root.

If you really want to quit on this tree, though, I'll take it.
 

Srt8madness

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Thank you all for the replies. I cut it back a bit and will leave it alone and wait. Hopefully it is just dormant, we will see. If not I suppose I'll divide up the roots and try to get as many new trees as I can out of it.
 

namnhi

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Ya'll get me curious about no sap flow when dormant. The problem I see is the plant was actively growing then got hit by the deep freeze then turn brown. I lost the top on many from last year where I subject them to freeze. They were in the shed but closer to the doors where I supposed they subjected to a colder temp than interior of the shed. I will give it a test when I get home but the problem is most of mine are still in the active grow mode.

@Srt8madness Just leave it be and see if it will come back in the Spring. If not we can meet up somewhere I will definitely have something for you.
Am in Katy area. Curious what part of town you in.
 

Srt8madness

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Ya'll get me curious about no sap flow when dormant. The problem I see is the plant was actively growing then got hit by the deep freeze then turn brown. I lost the top on many from last year where I subject them to freeze. They were in the shed but closer to the doors where I supposed they subjected to a colder temp than interior of the shed. I will give it a test when I get home but the problem is most of mine are still in the active grow mode.

@Srt8madness Just leave it be and see if it will come back in the Spring. If not we can meet up somewhere I will definitely have something for you.
Am in Katy area. Curious what part of town you in.
Far North (Woodlands/Conroe), but I have a shared office in the Galleria, I don't go everyday, but I'm quite often close enough to Katy, just a short jaunt from the office. Always down to meet!
 

ajoe

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I want to get some willow leaf in the future. I don’t know a lot about them but I think they are tropical which means they don’t go dormant. I’ve hear of people putting them in their house during winter under lights or next to a window. My words aren’t gospel lol but I think it could of been just the cold temperature outside rather then the wind. I think they can die in temps below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Will be interesting to hear what others say as I like the tree and want to start learning more about them as well. I almost bought one at an auction but was a little to much for my budget. It was worth it though.
An interesting video here.
 
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