Not just experimenting... I've never put trees in the garage. The tropicals + my pomegranates and my coastal redwood come into the house and spend winter under lights. Everything else is outside all winter, pots on the ground and mulched in on the north side of either the garage or the house.
When Do You Remove Trees from Winter Protection?
- Thread starter DrTolhur
- Start date
Flowerhouse
Chumono
My hardy trees are dug into the dirt on the north side of my house. Last year, the ground was thawed enough at the end of April to unearth all of the trees, this year likely the same. We continue to get frosts and snow though May, last frost date is June 15. Because the trees are hardy here, and were outside without protection through the winter, I don't need to protect them from those last weeks of frost and snow.
Deep Sea Diver
Imperial Masterpiece
Interesting experiment. This brings up a whole sea bag of questions. Why these folks would consider putting their hardiest trees inside… unless they were living in northerly areas? How did the participants measure the greater position and reserves…. and others…
@Cofga can you please post the name of this episode? Quite a few of us are Bonsai Mirai members.
cheers
DSD sends
WNC Bonsai
Masterpiece
Here are the links. There are two very similar, Winter Preparation, and Winter Care and I can’t remember which of the two it was, but this will get you to them.
and
and
Yikes, I thought IL sucked. I think our last frost date here is April 15th, although last year it snowed on April 21st.
Deep Sea Diver
Imperial Masterpiece
Wire @Carol 83 !
You just gave me a flashback to the Good Friday storm when I was a kid in Chicago in the early’60s not as bad s as the big guy in’67! Glad I ran away to the sea for 21 years after that!
Cheers
DSD sends
GreatLakesBrad
Chumono
(Michigan 6a) My tridents and a few newly purchased Japanese maples are the only ‘hardy ish’ trees I have in my garage/inside (other than tropicals/coastal redwoods) - the rest are mulched in and wind protected and do great year after year. I typically take deciduous out of their mulched sleeping quarters when it’s time for repotting or significant pruning. At that point I’m forced to shuffle anyway. Tridents in containers are just on the edge for fear of winter temps for my zone. Found they do fine planted in the ground though. Late March/early April is bud push time here typically, starting with larch and Dawn redwood and Amur maple.
Scorpius
Chumono
For me I'm more worried about my tree's roots with temperatures below 20 degrees than I am worried about the rest of the tree. Winters in northern indiana routinely dip below zero and sometimes 10-20 below zero at times. Hardy or not most of my trees would be damaged by this type of temperature.
Lol. Worst I remember was the 21 inches we got in one night in 1982. I got stuck at my future in laws house for three days. I was never so happy to get home!
JudyB
Queen of the Nuts
I feel you on that one!
sorce
Nonsense Rascal
I've read things about that green cambium we foolishly find ourselves scratching for being green for photosynthesis.
Even if that is untrue, sunlight and fresh air is such a different environment than indoors anywhere, in regards to other things that may stifle health, fungals, bacteria, etc..
I hold this, "keep what can be kept wintered simply on the ground", philosophy.
I feel if one "must" have something that needs further protection, one must provide full climate control, or find themselves failing. This failing usually occurs years down the road, with an early freeze, or a hard prune a little late.
I witness what @Deep Sea Diver posted of, in my approach as close to the natural as possible.
The difference, the "confusion" of unnatural environments, is that a pot off the ground is going to warm at the same time as the tree, going outside of the natural cycle.
I believe this is why there is still even the question of when to Repot in spring, because the best answer is in summer, at least in the most natural cycle.
I found the problem with spring repotting to be in this fact that, the ground was still too cold to place them back on. Elevated in the sun the pot would be warm enough but then at night it would be too cold again, with no where warm to go for freshly cut roots.
So if Repotted causes death, even just moving them causes disruption.
Your pickle I believe is, to get light, you must move the pot to a colder outdoors.
Seems like a snap back into the natural cycle it would have been better off feeling itself into from outside, connected to the fungal network, on the ground.
So I appreciate the fact that you included the pertinent information of where they are being moved from. However, I think the introduction of the "moved from where" question is the one that leads to the unanswerable questions. Too many variables.
Better to just.....
Sorce
Leo in N E Illinois
The Professor
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I bring trees out of my well house when we hit about the 50% point for "last frost" Lately for Chicago that is May first. I do start checking in the well house, if it gets too warm, if the soil warms above about 45F, the trees will start sprouting in the dark. If they are sprouting in the dark, they all come out. Then it is outside during the day, and inside if frost threatens. Remember, if the night time temp is predicted to be below 38 F or so, just before sunrise there can be a "dump" or "spill" of below freezing air stirred down by the temperature changes caused by the rising sun, resulting in a short intense below freezing episode in the hour or two at sunrise and as the upper atmosphere warms in the sun. So even if the night time low is predicted to be a degree or two above freezing, don't trust that a down rush of cold air won't happen on still, windless, clear sky mornings. You will get frost patches in open areas where the cold air spilled down as the sun rose. If there is a steady breeze over 5 miles per hour (over 9 km/hr) this sudden cooling won't happen.
Generally if ground temperature is over 45 F, you are not going to get any more hard freezes. Pots set on the ground, if the ground is 45 F or warmer, will not freeze over night. A thermometer stuck in the ground several inches is another way to determine whether it is time to bring the trees out.
I also bring my trees out when I notice the maples are about half leafed out. Look at the landscape trees, when the leaves have emerged from their buds and are about half expanded is about the right time to bring trees outside. For my location this is about May 1, but using the expansion of Acer leaves can work regardless of how far north or south you live.
Generally if ground temperature is over 45 F, you are not going to get any more hard freezes. Pots set on the ground, if the ground is 45 F or warmer, will not freeze over night. A thermometer stuck in the ground several inches is another way to determine whether it is time to bring the trees out.
I also bring my trees out when I notice the maples are about half leafed out. Look at the landscape trees, when the leaves have emerged from their buds and are about half expanded is about the right time to bring trees outside. For my location this is about May 1, but using the expansion of Acer leaves can work regardless of how far north or south you live.
