I have touched on eucalyptus & wind burn elsewhere on Bog Lizard, but feel I need to put the record straight and banish all the myths that seem to abound, even in “scientific authoritative” articles !
Eucalyptus do get wind burn, but so do the vast majority of trees. Strong cold winds aren’t generally present during the growing season, however climate change is impacting, and normal weather patterns can’t be predicted with certainty.
So as in the video below, Storm Hannah raged through West Clare in Ireland on the 26th of April 2019. Late on for ferocious Atlantic gales. It can’t be said that temperatures were bitterly cold, but they certainly weren’t tropical. Forecast wind gusts were up to 150 kph.
Eucalyptus exposed to salt winds are more affected by wind burn than those further inland, though a couple of sources have indicated to me that they recover quickly.
Storm Hannah was very late on in the year, so it wasn’t cold.
Eucalyptus tend to be more prone to wind burn during the colder winter gales, and also the lack of sunlight for quick regeneration.
This is what my plantation looked like after The Beast from the East Storm of 2018
As you can see, completely fired with all leaves completely brown. Yet by the end of the growing season they were thriving 🙂
You can verify this by looking back through my blog Eucalyptus & Me 😉
