Extensive injury may result in browning and premature abscission of entire needles. Placing a protective barrier of burlap over or around plants to protect them from winter winds and sun will help to reduce the incidence of this injury. Antidesiccant sprays applied once in late autumn and again in mid-winter may also prove helpful. This type of injury occurs when the sun warms tree bark during the day and when the bark rapidly cools after sunset. These abrupt fluctuations are most common on south or southwest sides of trunks and branches, and they may kill the inner bark in those areas.
Frost cracks are splits in bark and wood of a tree that result from rapid drops in temperature.
They may be associated with internal defects resulting from previous injury to the trunk years prior to splitting. Defective wood does not contract as readily as the outer layers of healthy wood do when winter temperatures plunge rapidly. The strain between the outer, contracting layers of wood and the inner defect causes the outer layers of wood to crack. The initial crack is often accompanied by a loud snap. In winter, the crack may become wider or narrower during colder or warmer periods.