This question is kind of a beginner question(I'm not that much of a beginner anymore), but was wondering what you all do, when late frosts come?

we're supposed to only get down to a couple of degrees below 0 C this comming week, but some of my trees were repotted. In the past, when it got really cold, I put them in a shed that I could prevent from getting under 2-3 degrees as a buffer, because unless you have a really expensive thermometer, the margin of error sometimes is 3 degrees. would you put the trees in the shed at night just in case, or let them tough it out.. all of my repotted trees are growing. Just wondering.

My hardy broadleafs is in an unheated greenhouse all winter from first frost until they are actively growing in spring. Now as late in spring I dont think minus degrees reach the trees. But we have had a few very cold nights in march that got the greenhouse to minus 5. Some of the trees was allready repotted. I havent bothered any special care.

The main problem is not having been re potted it is the buds opening, the buds are tender. I have put a few of mine in the shed for the night, but the rest have to stay where they are. It is not late for frosts we had frost in mid May last year, and also to years ago. That did real damage.

m5eaygeoff wrote:

The main problem is not having been re potted it is the buds opening, the buds are tender. I have put a few of mine in the shed for the night, but the rest have to stay where they are. It is not late for frosts we had frost in mid May last year, and also to years ago. That did real damage.

so you protect them if it gets cold, if they have opened buds? what temperature do you consider to be dangerous? if it only gets down to -1 or -2 and not for very long that isn't as bad as -5 right? some also depends on the species of course.. just trying to get a feel for what you all do.

I repotted a whole bunch of trees, actually, most of my trees, in december/january. THen in Feb they received -15. I have 1 tree with bark damage. The rest is fine.

This week we expect -2 too. I will put recently separated airlayers, as I think they have few reserves to recover if they loose their foliage. I am undecided on the rest. I do not feel like lugging all my growing deciduous into the shed. Pines, juniper and taxus stay in any case. But probably most of my maples will stay outside too. Main risk at the moment will be damaged foliage, at those temps.

leatherback wrote:

I repotted a whole bunch of trees, actually, most of my trees, in december/january. THen in Feb they received -15. I have 1 tree with bark damage. The rest is fine.

This week we expect -2 too. I will put recently separated airlayers, as I think they have few reserves to recover if they loose their foliage. I am undecided on the rest. I do not feel like lugging all my growing deciduous into the shed. Pines, juniper and taxus stay in any case. But probably most of my maples will stay outside too. Main risk at the moment will be damaged foliage, at those temps.

I have a few less trees than you.. but I get what you're saying.. I have a couple of trees from more mild zones.. a satsuki azalea and a crape myrtle, which I might put in... on the nights where we will get frost..

I think I should be more concerned about my koi pond than the trees.

If your koi is in water, they will not experience any negative c temperature:)

Tropfrog wrote:

If your koi is in water, they will not experience any negative c temperature:)

I know..... it was 20+ degrees here last week.. which meant the water was up to 14 degreess... we're going to get a cold snap for a few days.. which means it will probably fall to under 9 or 8 degrees.. cold blooded animals don't like large changes in temperature.

Wow, that is amazing temp swings. Mine never change more than 1-2 degrees in a week.

Back to bonsai

Here in central Alabama temperatures swing wildly this time of year from high of 85F/30C and lows of 65F/18F to highs of 45F/7C and lows of 27F/-3C two days later. We are used to it. We joke about having four seasons in a day. When it hit that low two days ago I took the few trees that had swelling buds into the garage. The rest of them are used to it.

A couple of years ago teaching the statistics class I took about thirty years of weather data and found that most highs and lows for March 26 fell more than two standard deviations from mean, which means weather is really strange here.