Freeze warnings next few nights

[Desert O'Piñon]

I'm sorry for the tree damage and loss in this thread. Makes me feel blessed that forecasters can never get it right out here in the desert.

 

[rockm]

Here in n. Va. The only night I would worry about is tonight Tuesday April 8. With fast freezing forecasts the thing to look for is moisture, cloud cover and duration of the cold. I left all my trees out last night wasn’t worried about frost or freezing. Wind and more importantly rain and later cloud cover meant no frost or freezing. Cloud cover traps “warmth” and prevents radiational cooling. Rain puts moisture in the air and ground and takes a lot of cold to freeze it. Wind stirs up air and prevents it from settling and cooling. We had both clouds and wind into dawn last night (the hour before and after sunrise are the coldest hours overnight)

Tonight is a different story. Clear skies wind out of the north which will calm overnight. That’s a set up for freeezing hours tonight. The temp is forecast to be at or below freezing for more than a couple of hours. That’s danger particularly for smaller trees as their lots will freeze more quickly. I’m bringing most everything in tonight.

FWIW this past winter was a harsh one but not very. I’ve got minor damage in finer twigging on elms and maples but nothing catastrophic. I feared for my satsukis but they endured 3 f for a few nights. They’re fine. There have been way worse winters over the last 30 years I’ve been doing bonsai

I use deep mulch like four to six inches over the tops of pots set on the ground and cold pits with the same amounts of mulch.

If you’ve got dead trees, think about how you overwintered- protected from wind? Enough protection at the root zone? Enough water at the roots? Etc.

 

[Jrmcmich]

In Ohio overwintered with 2 cold frames with some mulch but not nearly as much mulch as rockm and also used snow as much as was available which worked well. One cold frame I dug down about 10” in ground trying to increase temp but ironically that one always showed colder than other cold frame which was just on ground. Both had similar mulch and snow. So far all trees but 2 have appeared to wake up. I was Worried with such a brutal winter but also only my 2nd winter to go through.

 

[Dav4]

The inn is full here in southeastern Michigan for the next two or three days. It was 20° this morning, and I was horrified to see snow falling on some of my deciduous trees yesterday while I was at work ( it never got below 35°F so all is well). Working again today and on Thursday and it’s not supposed to warm up again until the end of the week so anything with leaves on it or that got repotted is inside for a while.

 

[Paradox]

Left the cold frame open last night cause it was raining so figured the water would help.
Went down to 41.7 degrees in the cold frame so it wasnt that bad, nor as cold as they predicted.
I have to agree with @rockm, going to cover it tonight because they are predicting temperatures below freezing.
Wind is picking up also so wind chills will be a problem for new foliage.
Temperatures will go back to normal on Thursday so Ill uncover it then

 

[coh]

Just another April morning in the great white north with a fresh 1-2" of snow that says "spring? surely you jest!". Really not that unusual since Rochester averages about 3" in April, but still not welcomed.

 

[SgtPilko]

Good luck guys we are having something of a mini-heatwave in London - it has been sunny for weeks and hitting 71F this weekend not complaining but v weird/fortunate! (It usually means we'll have no summer)

 

[rockm]

Good luck guys we are having something of a mini-heatwave in London - it has been sunny for weeks and hitting 71F this weekend not complaining but v weird/fortunate! (It usually means we'll have no summer)

It was 85 F here last Tuesday. Tonight its going to 30 f

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

Saturday morning we only dipped to 34°F, but cold for us, after a day and a half of rain/snow mix. In the desert. In April.

82° today, 90s the rest of the week up to 96° Saturday. Planted my work "garden" today.

 

[Yamamomiji]

Got some cold snap too, but luckily, only dipped to about -0.5 °C (~ 31 °F) for a few hours the last couple of days here in Vienna.
So I let the trees in the greenhouse and will move them out later today as a very warm spring weekend is yet to come.

 

[Paradox]

Went down to 29.5 last night but the covered coldframe only went to 36.1

 

[penumbra]

Well that is depressing. I was just inspecting my plants after a 26F evening and it looks really bad. Other than bonsai I collect JMs with about 60 varieties and over 200 plants overall. They range from about 2 feet tall to over 20 feet tall and they all look like crap. The ones with the reddest leaves are already black. Almost all were leafed out and it looks bad. Also my many many ginkgo, my Stewartias, and many others look like crap. When this happened some years back, I literally lost a growing season, especially on the JMs. After working with plants for over 50 years you would think I would have learned..........that is unless you know me.

 

[Jrmcmich]

I had one of my Japanese maples I put out couple weeks ago. Had it in garage and knew was gonna warm up in day but was still like 29 when I stuck them out. Many leafs on it turned black as well so assume it was due to this. Newer leafs on it seem ok

 

[Carol 83]

Well that is depressing. I was just inspecting my plants after a 26Fo sorry evening and it looks really bad. Other than bonsai I collect JMs with about 60 varieties and over 200 plants overall. They range from about 2 feet tall to over 20 feet tall and they all look like crap. The ones with the reddest leaves are already black. Almost all were leafed out and it looks bad. Also my many many ginkgo, my Stewartias, and many others look like crap. When this happened some years back, I literally lost a growing season, especially on the JMs. After working with plants for over 50 years you would think I would have learned..........that is unless you know me.

So sorry to hear that Rob but glad you checked back in here even if it was under unfortunate circumstances.

 

[rockm]

As an experiment I left several bonsai out during the coldest night on Tuesday. I wasn’t afraid of losing them as the freeze wasn’t a deep one. It got down to 29 in the early dawn.

I left out a Japanese maple forest in full leaf, Amur maple and Chinese elm in full leaf and a couple of boxwood I put them all on the ground without mulch the entire night. I watered all of them very well before dark

A couple of days later there aren’t any signs of damage to growth or leaves.

Had the temp gone lower than 28 I would have had issues but the cold wasn’t deep enough to really cause problems (at least for those species) I am not as confident with leafing out bald cypress and cedar elm or trident maple. All of that came inside

 

[penumbra]

As an experiment I left several bonsai out during the coldest night on Tuesday. I wasn’t afraid of losing them as the freeze wasn’t a deep one. It got down to 29 in the early dawn.

I left out a Japanese maple forest in full leaf, Amur maple and Chinese elm in full leaf and a couple of boxwood I put them all on the ground without mulch the entire night. I watered all of them very well before dark

A couple of days later there aren’t any signs of damage to growth or leaves.

Had the temp gone lower than 28 I would have had issues but the cold wasn’t deep enough to really cause problems (at least for those species) I am not as confident with leafing out bald cypress and cedar elm or trident maple. All of that came inside

That is what I was hoping for, but even though plants were watered that evening and all on the ground, there was a serious set back. When you have hundreds of susceptible plants, there just is no inside to keep them. It would have been much worse if I didn't have cold frames for the smaller bonsai and those just re-potted. I have come to realize that I just have too many plants. This is the first year in many years that I did not start any new plants. I usually start about 50 JMs and a hundred or so Ginkgo each spring, but I made a hard pass this year. Time to unload many of my younger plants and just work with those that give me the greatest pleasure. On a positive note, I don't need to worry about these plants going forward. What is done is done.

 

[namnhi]

I find that plants that are in the shade or covered by patio or whatever will fare much better than the ones that are not. If you can't move them, you will need to cover them with something.

 

[rockm]

I find that plants that are in the shade or covered by patio or whatever will fare much better than the ones that are not. If you can't move them, you will need to cover them with something.

Yes. Overhead cover slows down or prevents the radiational cooling that drives frost formation in open areas. It helps a bit with freezing temps but it diminishes the longer the cold is around

 

[penumbra]

I find that plants that are in the shade or covered by patio or whatever will fare much better than the ones that are not. If you can't move them, you will need to cover them with something.

Yes. Overhead cover slows down or prevents the radiational cooling that drives frost formation in open areas. It helps a bit with freezing temps but it diminishes the longer the cold is around

Yes, very true, but I don't have enough cover(or enough energy) for a quarter acre and I don't see that happening. And I have many Japanese maple in the ground in various locations. I am grateful for all the plants I have that take their time leafing out. I have much more to be grateful for than to be dismayed over. Been through it before and will be through it again. The logical solution at this point in my life is to pare it all way down. I'm good. Just complaining to put things in perspective.

 

[leatherback]

As an experiment I left several bonsai out during the coldest night on Tuesday. I wasn’t afraid of losing them as the freeze wasn’t a deep one. It got down to 29 in the early dawn.

great minds, jadiejadie..