Just some feedback on my overwintering - We had a decent freeze the other day and I decided to take a tree out of my mulch pile to see what's going on. I had to chisel the pot out of the mulch as it was a frozen block. There's about 2 inches of mulch on the trees and the pots are buried. Removing the frozen "donut" of mulch from the pot, the soil underneath was not frozen and moist. The mulch surrounding the hole where the tree was sitting was also not frozen and there were worms just a few inches down happy and warm.
My garage is a POS (holes and such) and, with a tent set up in the garage, the temps never got below freezing as far as I can tell (there's a thermostat in there with a reading showing in my house).
I seem to like the mulch system for overwintering (something about being outdoors, as opposed to a dry, dirty and dusty garage), and only use the garage for those trees that have opened/been repotted and need to shuffle. I'm going to invest in a large plastic greenhouse to protect from wind for next season. At some point, I will likely move to a more temperature controlled setting - at least something that I can heat when temps are frigid and cool when things are unseasonably warm.
I was pleasantly surprised how well the mulch performed and have much less anxiety about winter (it's still winter, though). The trees will survive in the mulch pile. On inspection of my trees, however, I am finding a fair amount of die back on the tips of branches. Right now I don't really care, as all of my trees are in development. As my trees develop branches I want to keep, I feel I will need to be more vigilant and perhaps a more controlled environment.
Question - What do folks do with all the old mulch? If I just leave it in the yard, my yard will be a few feet higher in a few years.
My garage is a POS (holes and such) and, with a tent set up in the garage, the temps never got below freezing as far as I can tell (there's a thermostat in there with a reading showing in my house).
I seem to like the mulch system for overwintering (something about being outdoors, as opposed to a dry, dirty and dusty garage), and only use the garage for those trees that have opened/been repotted and need to shuffle. I'm going to invest in a large plastic greenhouse to protect from wind for next season. At some point, I will likely move to a more temperature controlled setting - at least something that I can heat when temps are frigid and cool when things are unseasonably warm.
I was pleasantly surprised how well the mulch performed and have much less anxiety about winter (it's still winter, though). The trees will survive in the mulch pile. On inspection of my trees, however, I am finding a fair amount of die back on the tips of branches. Right now I don't really care, as all of my trees are in development. As my trees develop branches I want to keep, I feel I will need to be more vigilant and perhaps a more controlled environment.
Question - What do folks do with all the old mulch? If I just leave it in the yard, my yard will be a few feet higher in a few years.