edprocoat
Masterpiece
This fall I put my tropicals in an enclosure underneath my bench, its part of the bench actually, I made it by enclosing the base area with a commercial grade of clear vinyl used for screen rooms windows and installing a small flourescent grow light. This same light has kept my plants fine through many years of cold fall weather and they actually put out much growth.
This year however I did not have any reflectix insulation on the walls of my enclosure. I assumed that the heavy grade plastic and the light would suffice, but I was wrong. My Scheffelera and my 5 Ficus all froze. I noticed it after returning from some work in Ill. I was gone for 3 days and when I returned there was ice on the inside of my enclosure where the humidity usually builds up. I brought them inside to let them thaw and they all started the leaves turning brown and dropped in a few days.
Oddly enough they all resprouted new growth, my ficus came back with a bang in just a few days, my Scheff took a week. I watched happily as the next two weeks all seemed to return to normal. I arrived in Florida and the sun was shining and the weather fair, and over the next 3 weeks watched as 4 of my ficus died ! The only one that has any signs of life is the small stump that I cut down, my nice cascade is dead, my fallen tigerbark is dead and most depressing my oldest Tigerbark seems to be dead.
I think the Scheffelera being taller than the others may have got more warmth from the light overhead, at least enough to not bite the dust. Then again the little stump was the lowest and it was solid frozen to the point the trunk cracked a little but its holding on so far. I suppose the flush of new growth was the last hurrah for the other ficus and they were hurt so bad they just could not sustain it. I still have the oldest one, my Tigerbark as most the branches still are flexible, its the one seen in this thread, I am hoping for a miracle http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?6801-Taiwan-Ficus-in-its-old-blue-pot
ed
This year however I did not have any reflectix insulation on the walls of my enclosure. I assumed that the heavy grade plastic and the light would suffice, but I was wrong. My Scheffelera and my 5 Ficus all froze. I noticed it after returning from some work in Ill. I was gone for 3 days and when I returned there was ice on the inside of my enclosure where the humidity usually builds up. I brought them inside to let them thaw and they all started the leaves turning brown and dropped in a few days.
Oddly enough they all resprouted new growth, my ficus came back with a bang in just a few days, my Scheff took a week. I watched happily as the next two weeks all seemed to return to normal. I arrived in Florida and the sun was shining and the weather fair, and over the next 3 weeks watched as 4 of my ficus died ! The only one that has any signs of life is the small stump that I cut down, my nice cascade is dead, my fallen tigerbark is dead and most depressing my oldest Tigerbark seems to be dead.
I think the Scheffelera being taller than the others may have got more warmth from the light overhead, at least enough to not bite the dust. Then again the little stump was the lowest and it was solid frozen to the point the trunk cracked a little but its holding on so far. I suppose the flush of new growth was the last hurrah for the other ficus and they were hurt so bad they just could not sustain it. I still have the oldest one, my Tigerbark as most the branches still are flexible, its the one seen in this thread, I am hoping for a miracle http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?6801-Taiwan-Ficus-in-its-old-blue-pot
ed
