Hello I recently started down the trail of growing bonsai trees, I started in mid october 2012 by diging up some tree seedlings and starting hte process of stratification of some seeds.
it is now mid january and the trident maple seeds have sprouted, the oaks now have leaves and I've managed to kill a number of willow cuttings by over watering them, I found the stage between cutting and treeling to be a difficult one to gauge and as a result they where over watered or moved at a terrible time.
I live in northern Minnesota in planting zone 3..my specific area 2A 2B and 3A converge and it is literally only like that around my home town the rest of the area surrounding my town is all zone 3B. (forgive me if I got the A's and the B's mixed up)
now I did research befor planting or digging up anything on air layering and cuttings and transplanting potting mix and so forth. I came up with these points
Chiken grit, expanded clay and a peat and black dirt mix for potting soil at about 60 inorganic/40 organic that i've personally tested and works well for me
now the issue I need to address is I have plants from outside of my zone that need winter such as Trident Maples, wich off the top of my head are a zone 5-7 plant, I also started some tropicals I know how to deal with them.
Now during my research I discovered a few things plants in the northern environment go into dormancey when night time temps (or emperatures in general) drop below 50 degrees F, the plant then begins to accumulate what is known as "Chill Hours" hours accumulated between the temperatures 32-45 F with between 45-50 counting as a half hour and between 32-(I thought it was 0) counting as a half hour, anyhting below that does not count and anything spent at 60 or great counts as a negative to your chill hour accumulation. That is what I grasped from reading on the internet most articles simply stated that 32-45 was when the plant does its "dormancy thing" and moves into post dormancy or starts waking however I found this near the end of my research on chill hours
The Utah Model says that
1 hour of chill below 34 F. is worth nothing
1 hour at between 35 and 36 F. gets 1/2 a chill hour
1 chill hour is given at 37 to 48 F.
49 to 54 F. gets only 1/2 a chill hour
55 to 60 F. get no chill hours
Above 60 is all negative chill …..eeekk!!!
dunno if it's credible but seems smart
after being armed with that information I started to look for average chill hour maps, much like hte planting zone maps they show some interesting data.
http://raintreenursery.com/skin/common_files/pages/en/images/chill-unit-map3.gif
in my area we get between 1200-1800 chill hour annually wich equates to roughly 73 days, for a state that sees almost five months of snow to think that only 73 days or less of it are around 32-45 degrees, then I thought "well gee we only get about a month of that in the spring and a month of that in the fall" the rest of the time we are hovering between -20 and +20. My idea is to build a wall unit with air in and air out fans and some mild duct work and a thermostat to control the fans, get to warm in the case intake fan kicks on blowing in cool outside air, case gets too cold the gate for air intake closes and the exhaust fan kicks on sucking out cold air and replacing it with warmer air that will inevitably be sucked in thru cracks in the glass or plexy glass face. I know how to construct and wire this and also have all the parts...locating them will prove interesting however.
Does anyone have anything to say on this idea befor I begin building it? is it a huge mistake? has anyone ever done something similar? (I know people have wintered plants in refrigerators, and I also tryed that with a few plants my self this year successfully) and how do you suggest I winter my naturally occurring specimens?
but all in all this will be quite a year and I may have some seedlings for sale or trade in a few months (they would not be able to ship of coarse until erly October)
soo do I seem to have my stuff together or did I just go out and make a huge mistake?
if you read all of this, your a soldier in my book.
Austin
it is now mid january and the trident maple seeds have sprouted, the oaks now have leaves and I've managed to kill a number of willow cuttings by over watering them, I found the stage between cutting and treeling to be a difficult one to gauge and as a result they where over watered or moved at a terrible time.
I live in northern Minnesota in planting zone 3..my specific area 2A 2B and 3A converge and it is literally only like that around my home town the rest of the area surrounding my town is all zone 3B. (forgive me if I got the A's and the B's mixed up)
now I did research befor planting or digging up anything on air layering and cuttings and transplanting potting mix and so forth. I came up with these points
Chiken grit, expanded clay and a peat and black dirt mix for potting soil at about 60 inorganic/40 organic that i've personally tested and works well for me
now the issue I need to address is I have plants from outside of my zone that need winter such as Trident Maples, wich off the top of my head are a zone 5-7 plant, I also started some tropicals I know how to deal with them.
Now during my research I discovered a few things plants in the northern environment go into dormancey when night time temps (or emperatures in general) drop below 50 degrees F, the plant then begins to accumulate what is known as "Chill Hours" hours accumulated between the temperatures 32-45 F with between 45-50 counting as a half hour and between 32-(I thought it was 0) counting as a half hour, anyhting below that does not count and anything spent at 60 or great counts as a negative to your chill hour accumulation. That is what I grasped from reading on the internet most articles simply stated that 32-45 was when the plant does its "dormancy thing" and moves into post dormancy or starts waking however I found this near the end of my research on chill hours
The Utah Model says that
1 hour of chill below 34 F. is worth nothing
1 hour at between 35 and 36 F. gets 1/2 a chill hour
1 chill hour is given at 37 to 48 F.
49 to 54 F. gets only 1/2 a chill hour
55 to 60 F. get no chill hours
Above 60 is all negative chill …..eeekk!!!
dunno if it's credible but seems smart
after being armed with that information I started to look for average chill hour maps, much like hte planting zone maps they show some interesting data.
http://raintreenursery.com/skin/common_files/pages/en/images/chill-unit-map3.gif
in my area we get between 1200-1800 chill hour annually wich equates to roughly 73 days, for a state that sees almost five months of snow to think that only 73 days or less of it are around 32-45 degrees, then I thought "well gee we only get about a month of that in the spring and a month of that in the fall" the rest of the time we are hovering between -20 and +20. My idea is to build a wall unit with air in and air out fans and some mild duct work and a thermostat to control the fans, get to warm in the case intake fan kicks on blowing in cool outside air, case gets too cold the gate for air intake closes and the exhaust fan kicks on sucking out cold air and replacing it with warmer air that will inevitably be sucked in thru cracks in the glass or plexy glass face. I know how to construct and wire this and also have all the parts...locating them will prove interesting however.
Does anyone have anything to say on this idea befor I begin building it? is it a huge mistake? has anyone ever done something similar? (I know people have wintered plants in refrigerators, and I also tryed that with a few plants my self this year successfully) and how do you suggest I winter my naturally occurring specimens?
but all in all this will be quite a year and I may have some seedlings for sale or trade in a few months (they would not be able to ship of coarse until erly October)
soo do I seem to have my stuff together or did I just go out and make a huge mistake?
if you read all of this, your a soldier in my book.
Austin
I myself would be willing to let you call me or I could call you as my long distance is free. If need be feel free to PM me 
