drastic weather changes

[dick benbow]

From my point of view, I'd like to see some serious discussion evolve on the topic of dramatic changes in the weather. Things we used to do in the various seasons, are not holding true anymore. What can be done to protect our trees with such severity?
One day it's cloudy and 60 degrees and 24 hrs later it's 21, windy and sunny? My friends in Florida tell me of the flowers in the yard blooming this time of year are way in advance of decades before and fear a hard frost will really reek havic.
greenhouses, cold storage, heeling into the ground, what is best where and what can be done to meet the new challenge in controling extremes.
Think it's about time the subject was explored.....

 

[drew33998]

I will second the flowers blooming. Azaleas seem to not know what to do. We have had maybe one day of frost here in Jacksonville this winter, when we typically have about 12-14 by this time of year. We are unseasonably warm this year. The past two weeks have seen us in the low 80's during the day. I am hoping that all my maples that just lost their leaves aren't going to start pushing out new buds soon. If we don't get a good couple months of cold things may get interesting...

 

[Cadillactaste]

I've seen a magnolia with several blooms opened up in town. Sad...because you know we'll have a winter and that trees buds are being spent way to early. Trying not to wig out...but, open my windows in the evening for the gazebo catching the cooler temps to help fight the warmer temps come day brake. (A wise bonsai lady gave me that advice Thanks Judy) It has helped me not stress as overly. At least I am able to keep them cooler than if outdoors.

My false Spirea has leaves opening...that it spreads from it's roots...I'm not overly worried...it should pop back up later in the spring...so I keep chanting to myself in my head.

 

[JudyB]

Very worrisome I agree. I have recently been thinking of adding a reefer freezer to my cold greenhouse. Currently I have ways to protect from cold, but not from overly warm for longer than the trees can go without breaking dormancy. I'll be set if I can find something like that to add. For those without a protected area, I would think that would be my first line of defense against the big swings.

 

[pbethune]

Wild Weather

This has been the discussion with my dear friends for the past three years. We keep watch over these things because it is something bigger than the weather occurring.
Matthew 16:3
and in the morning, ‘It will be wintry, rainy weather today, for the sky is fire-red but gloomy.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but the signs of the times you cannot interpret.
We will continue to observe these events until it can be concluded that we are indeed living in the last days.
I live in NJ and two days ago it was 62 degrees. I saw a wasp attempting to fly but was moving into the sun to gain warmth. How odd.

 

[pbethune]

Wild Weather2

However, I purchased a greenhouse off craigslist for only $50.00 it is 8x6x6. It will stop the wind and keep a true temperature I hope when it actually does began to freeze.

 

[M. Frary]

Looks like we're heading into the last days here for sure. The last days of fall that is.
I'm not sure about the rest of the country but here we have drastic weather changes all the time. Just live with it because you will worry yourself to death about things you can't control.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Looks like we're heading into the last days here for sure. The last days of fall that is.
I'm not sure about the rest of the country but here we have drastic weather changes all the time. Just live with it because you will worry yourself to death about things you can't control.

In Ohio...we've not had the warm temps as we were getting...people were wearing shorts OUTDOORS myself included...and that was while being comfortable...(I am always cold...just weird) glad to hear it though...I figured...we can only do what we can...and everything in the ground is going through the same phase of weather...spring might not be as colorful is what I am thinking...am I right in my thinking then?

 

[Eric Group]

Very worrisome I agree. I have recently been thinking of adding a reefer freezer to my cold greenhouse. Currently I have ways to protect from cold, but not from overly warm for longer than the trees can go without breaking dormancy. I'll be set if I can find something like that to add. For those without a protected area, I would think that would be my first line of defense against the big swings.

A reefer freezer? You live in Colorado or something?

 

[Smoke]

What can be done to protect our trees with such severity?

Move to San Diego?

 

[crust]

As I post it is minus 8 and outside on my empty bonzo benches I am freezing 8 gallon cakes of ice that I stash in with my stored trees to keep things even. Last week it was 38. Temperature variability in the spring is my bane--it seems nearly every spring is warm very early only to dip into single digits--and I have too many to drag back and forth to the GH. The longer I can keep my trees dormant the better.

 

[edprocoat]

As in everything under the sun weather patterns change constantly cycling from extremes on both the high and low sides. Makes one wonder how trees live so long without our help.

ed

 

[JudyB]

As I post it is minus 8 and outside on my empty bonzo benches I am freezing 8 gallon cakes of ice that I stash in with my stored trees to keep things even.

I may try this! What do you make them in?

In my search for a reefer cooler, looks like the easier thing for me would be a walk in cooler chiller.

 

[crust]

I may try this! What do you make them in?

In my search for a reefer cooler, looks like the easier thing for me would be a walk in cooler chiller.

I have been tempted to do the reefer thing but never have. You are probably right on getting a regular new cooler unit. I use round 8 gallon black rubber calf feeders. I silicon the inside but a little torching pops them out too. I will get a pic today.

 

[grouper52]

" . . . the topic of dramatic changes in the weather."

I was surprised by this when I first moved here not far from you a dozen years ago, and was talking at work about it one day. My co-workers merely pointed out that the old timers here, hearing this complaint all the time, like to quip, "It's not usually like this here," meaning the weather here season to season is quite unpredictable year to year. That unpredictability IS the climate here. I've since found this to be quite true. Old time bonsai guys I've talked to have confirmed this as well. I think it simply behoves us to be nimble and flexible in tending our herd.

 

[Deleted member 17828]

I've thought it would be fun to build a greenhouse with a temperature control system to winter trees in. My thinking was that a thermostat could turn on a fan/vent when the temperature was too warm and if the temperature was too cold, the thermostat would engage a heater. Maybe something for humidity would also be good too.This way, winter could be near worry free.

I also realized that its probably completely unnecessary, but oh well... I still think it'd be a fun project.

 

[RedRav]

Thank you Mr Benbow !! Ccccccold over heeeere. . .

From my point of view, I'd like to see some serious discussion evolve on the topic of dramatic changes in the weather. Things we used to do in the various seasons, are not holding true anymore. What can be done to protect our trees with such severity?
One day it's cloudy and 60 degrees and 24 hrs later it's 21, windy and sunny? My friends in Florida tell me of the flowers in the yard blooming this time of year are way in advance of decades before and fear a hard frost will really reek havic.
greenhouses, cold storage, heeling into the ground, what is best where and what can be done to meet the new challenge in controling extremes.
Think it's about time the subject was explored.....

Am new to this site and not sure if I did this reply correctly. I thank you for posting this and totally agree with you - I posted last night about how cold my area is getting these nights and asked for suggestions on how to protect my beauties. ~

 

[fourteener]

The construction of my large cold frame in my garage is helping me through one of my greatest winter fears...-10 with no snow to insulate my trees. Luckily all of my best trees are in a shelter for the first time this winter. I am struggling to keep it below 32 because of all of the warmth we've had. My hope is that the struggle to lower the temperature in the fall will be my reversed problem in the spring. Like Crust I am trying to freeze as many containers of water as I can to keep the room cold all the way to May 1 if possible. I have also found that a good blower can pump in a lot of cold air at night to try and get things or keep things cooled down.

 

[RedRav]

Reefer Freezer? Cold greenhouse?

Very worrisome I agree. I have recently been thinking of adding a reefer freezer to my cold greenhouse. Currently I have ways to protect from cold, but not from overly warm for longer than the trees can go without breaking dormancy. I'll be set if I can find something like that to add. For those without a protected area, I would think that would be my first line of defense against the big swings.

Hi - Thank you for keeping the thread on temperature for our trees going. Sorry I am such a novice in this area, but am unaware of a 'reefer freezer' and a 'cold greenhouse'. Am in California maybe that is why, but still wish to know what these things are - we are experiencing some major cold evenings (for us) these days! Is there a place on Bonsainut that is a glossary or the like? Thanks for any info ~

 

[coh]

The construction of my large cold frame in my garage is helping me through one of my greatest winter fears...-10 with no snow to insulate my trees. Luckily all of my best trees are in a shelter for the first time this winter. I am struggling to keep it below 32 because of all of the warmth we've had. My hope is that the struggle to lower the temperature in the fall will be my reversed problem in the spring. Like Crust I am trying to freeze as many containers of water as I can to keep the room cold all the way to May 1 if possible. I have also found that a good blower can pump in a lot of cold air at night to try and get things or keep things cooled down.

I was just commenting to someone in the area about how glad I was that we were finally getting some sustained cold. While I certainly enjoyed the 40s/50s that we had over the past week or two, I was starting to get worried about trees in my shelter waking up too early. Looks like we're going to have a couple of weeks of relatively cold weather (teens/20s, nothing extreme) but after that it could warm up significantly. I may give the "ice block" method a try.

Chris