CONTRIBUTED CONTENT: Heavy berries, hard winter?

It’s smack dab in the middle of summer, with temperatures as high as we’ve seen all year, so I thought I’d break out some cold-weather conversation to cool us down a bit.

There are all kinds of myths and folklore surrounding predictions for the upcoming winter season, and one of them goes like this: “When the Mountain Ash bears heavy, a hard winter’s coming.” Versions of this proverb can be found throughout Northern Europe as well, which makes sense, as one of the common Mountain Ash varieties we find in our landscapes is the European Mountain Ash. Fun fact … they’re also known as Rowan trees.

The idea is that nature somehow knows and can predict a hard winter ahead, so the trees load up with berries in preparation to feed birds and wildlife. I’m not going to try to sway folks away from superstitious notions such as this. I personally find them rather fun to entertain. The reality, though, is that the berries we see now were set in motion months ago.

Excellent bloom weather, good moisture, mature trees and natural boom-and-bust cycles all came together to produce a heavy berry crop. A tree producing a large crop is typically showing that it’s healthy. The downside of these berries is that the trees often have a hard time supporting the weight of the crop, and you end up with something that looks like it jumped off the page of a Dr. Seuss book. The branches can droop heavily under the weight, causing the tree to take on more of an umbrella shape rather than the upright form it should have. In some cases, the berries become so heavy that branches fail because the supporting limbs and attachment points simply weren’t built to carry that much weight. This breakage can be made even worse by heavy rain and, later, by the weight of snow during the winter.

Fortunately, there’s a remedy for this called end-weight reduction. It’s a common pruning practice that we use to reduce weight on overextended — or, in this case, overloaded — branches. We prune with the objective of reducing the fruit load before it damages the tree. If your tree has taken on an exaggerated weeping appearance due to this year’s berry production, I’d recommend having this type of pruning done, especially before the snow arrives.

So, will this heavy berry crop predict a harsh winter? Probably not. But it may predict something else — a busy fall for arborists helping Mountain Ash trees shed a little extra weight before the snow flies. Whether winter is mild or severe, giving these trees a helping hand now can go a long way toward keeping them healthy and structurally sound for years to come.

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