No one freak out by the brutal cold that will be here in a few days

[elijah_moncrieff]

It was about -5F this morning, but plenty of insulation

View attachment 580558

Supposed to get more tonight! Won’t have to water for awhile lol.

Wow, those are some beautiful and well aged trees!

 

[elijah_moncrieff]

21 degrees this morning, 17 predicted for tomorrow. I replaced the frost blanket over all the trees until Sunday that night temps are supposed to go above 40 degrees. I have 2 trees that I repotted, O.Sweetgum and a momiji that I got from Brent that are resting inside the garage. A lot of the trees already started pushing leaves, elms, trident seedlings, J.Quinces... they are under the blanket, hopefully they will be fine.

I'm in a similar situation. Flagstaff, AZ we were in the high 50's and then now we got 18-24" of snow and lows in the teens. I have several species like yours that are already pushing buds and some small leaves (especially the katsura maples) and now having to keep a really close eye on them in the greenhouse!

 

[rockm]

I wonder what the risk may be when the snow starts to melt (pulling branches down could snap limbs etc.) and what could be damaged. Never done this with my bonsai, but I have had landscape plants that I piled snow on with my snow blower and depending on the speed the snow melts and snow density (how wet or dry the snow is) I have broken some branches. Thankfully they weren't bonsai!

yes, there is a risk but it greatly depends on snow load, species and size of the tree. I've not had any broken branching on my trees from snow in years. Some species are quite adapted to living under snow. I have an amur maple group planting for instance (Amur is basically Siberia). A three foot snow one years buried them completely. Their trunks were about two inches in diameter at the ground level. and tapered to under an inch in two feet or so. Snow bent their trunk down to the ground in a tight loop when they emerged from the melt. THought that might have snapped the trunk at ground level or removed branching . It didn't after the snow released them, they straightened out. Pines are another group that don't get much bothered by snow load. They are extremely flexible as a group for this very reason. They evolved for the most part in areas that get snow, sometimes very heavy snow. Their wood bends under the weight for the most part.

What DOES break branched and trunks in the snow is the person who tries to remove it, shaking the trunks, branching, or using a brush or something to remove snow. All that movement will snap branches or even trunks if its too rough.

 

[Dav4]

While I love snow as an insulator, and actually will shovel new fallen, preferably light and fluffy snow onto my trees' pots, I would never allow any of my more refined bonsai to get covered up by any appreciable snow fall. They're either under the eaves (and I do gently remove snow from their foliage) or fully under cover when the snow flies. Heavy, wet snow will freeze into a brick and will be there until the thaw comes. If this happens early on in the winter, you may be waiting a while, and subsequent storms may be dumping much more snow on the trees. When I lived in MA, after a particularly snowy winter (probably had 5-6 feet of snow that year), The receding snow drifts revealed 2 mound shaped Japanese maples that had all of their branches torn straight down by the compacted snow as it settled over the winter. The trees survived, but were horribly disfigured for years after.

 

[Colorado]

While I love snow as an insulator, and actually will shovel new fallen, preferably light and fluffy snow onto my trees' pots, I would never allow any of my more refined bonsai to get covered up by any appreciable snow fall. They're either under the eaves (and I do gently remove snow from their foliage) or fully under cover when the snow flies. Heavy, wet snow will freeze into a brick and will be there until the thaw comes. If this happens early on in the winter, you may be waiting a while, and subsequent storms may be dumping much more snow on the trees. When I lived in MA, after a particularly snowy winter (probably had 5-6 feet of snow that year), The receding snow drifts revealed 2 mound shaped Japanese maples that had all of their branches torn straight down by the compacted snow as it settled over the winter. The trees survived, but were horribly disfigured for years after.

Agreed, I always remove the snow from the canopy of the trees as soon as possible. I’ve gone out in the middle of the night during heavy snow to make sure it doesn’t pile up too much overnight. Usually just removing it the next morning is fine, but if it’s allowed to thaw and refreeze it can definitely damage branches and trunks. I’ve had a big ponderosa trunk get snapped by heavy snow.

 

[Maiden69]

I've been curious to try one of these out. I know some people are using them (on youtube) to keep tropical plants at 65 degrees and that's nowhere near the same as us keeping plants right around freezing, but when I heard someone in a video say they go through $100-200 of propane every two weeks to a month I completely ruled this out for myself.

I don't know if we are thinking about the same thing. MrCool is an all electric mini-split, there is no propane used.

 

[elijah_moncrieff]

I don't know if we are thinking about the same thing. MrCool is an all electric mini-split, there is no propane used.

Oooh, sorry, you are right. I was thinking the Mr. Heat blue flame propane heater. That being said, do you notice much of a change in your electric bill using something like this?

 

[Maiden69]

Oooh, sorry, you are right. I was thinking the Mr. Heat blue flame propane heater. That being said, do you notice much of a change in your electric bill using something like this?

No, mini splits are very economical. With that said, the weather here is very different than yours.

 

[elijah_moncrieff]

No, mini splits are very economical. With that said, the weather here is very different than yours.

Very true, But thank you for the info! The thought of being able to set a thermostat and allow the machine to do the work does sound really nice however. Once I get vent fans installed in my greenhouse this spring, I’ll have something similar.

 

[Mikecheck123]

The 15 year old trunk lives!!