Getting winter jackets ready.

[jcrossett]

Okay so I was in the shed today and the celling is kinda wide open. So I was thinking to myself wtf am I going to do with my tropicals (bougainvillea, ficus and rain tree).

Okay so here's what I found. I'm putting the facts out I'm asking for others tried and proven knowledge.

Bougainvillea ,ficus, and rain tree min 40°.

And this is with a grow light since the need "sun light".

The true issue is I also have fruitless olive, and live oak.

The live oak should be okay outside matched up all winter. Says in va they have survived -10° same zone as me.

The olive says a low of 22° but under 50° for winter.

Now could I turn my shed into a grow box with a timer for a light and a small heater to keep the tropics and the olive say ummmm 45-48° with a light or is that pushing it for both.

Now this is basicly a what if incause I'm not allowed to bring them in. If i can bring them in i haven't been ferting with fish so the should be allowed in the house and I will put the tropics in my bed room with evening sun and an grow light.

And the olive could get its own insulated shed. That SHOULD stay ideal. Last year we only hit single dodgers a hand full of times other then that we were upper teens. So with the sun baking the shed all day it would stay okay.

I'd just like to hear what others do and others thoughts if this becomes to much of a pain I may be looking to trade for some pines elms or junis.

Or hell with it any thing that will grow in my area pain free. And some thing other then the 20 species I already have. Lol.

 

[aml1014]

I generally lean towards treating my subtropicals like I do my tropicals. Tropicals go in the greenhouse in October heated to 65°f, subtropicals stay out until Thanksgiving to give them a short dormancy, then they also move in the greenhouse.

Aaron

 

[JudyB]

I would not chance the raintree outside unless you have ability to keep it over 60. The olive could be kept alive in the 40's as long as you don't allow it to stay too wet. I can't imagine the ficus would do too well unless it could be above 60...Don't know about the bougie. Live oak will need some sort of protection, but I don't know how much.
If you get into the single dodgers again, then you will need something pretty solid to keep trees like these outside. (How does your bedroom get evening sun?)

 

[sorce]

How about them Brooklyn Dodgers!

Sorce

 

[GrimLore]

I would not chance the raintree outside unless you have ability to keep it over 60.

Bougainvillea ,ficus, and rain tree min 40°.

Judy is spot on and for the record the three you mentioned will also need 60F. The bougainvillea more so then one is led to believe.

Grimmy

 

[jcrossett]

I would not chance the raintree outside unless you have ability to keep it over 60. The olive could be kept alive in the 40's as long as you don't allow it to stay too wet. I can't imagine the ficus would do too well unless it could be above 60...Don't know about the bougie. Live oak will need some sort of protection, but I don't know how much.
If you get into the single dodgers again, then you will need something pretty solid to keep trees like these outside. (How does your bedroom get evening sun?)

Sun raises behind my house and sets in the front.

Okay so I need to plan for 60° + all winter so then need to be inside the house.

I've been reading the oak doesn't lose its leaves in the winter so does this mean it needs sun all winter long also ?

 

[aml1014]

Sun raises behind my house and sets in the front.

Okay so I need to plan for 60° + all winter so then need to be inside the house.

I've been reading the oak doesn't lose its leaves in the winter so does this mean it needs sun all winter long also ?

Not as much as summer but yes, live oaks need some degree of sun in winter.

Aaron

 

[jcrossett]

Okay well just retough this. If the wife don't let me my dad has a section for his trees inside.

But also willing to let them go.

 

[rockm]

Sun raises behind my house and sets in the front.

Okay so I need to plan for 60° + all winter so then need to be inside the house.

I've been reading the oak doesn't lose its leaves in the winter so does this mean it needs sun all winter long also ?

Don't know what kind of live oak you have, but no they mostly don't lose their leaves in the winter willingly. Here in the mid-Atlantic area, you will have some issues with overwintering live oak, especially if they're small. I tried repeatedly to overwinter Texas-collected live oak (a colder hardy subspecies of Southern Live oak Quercus virginiana) here in Va. The collected oak was about two inches in diameter and I'd chopped it to about two feet tall the year I brought it back here to Va.

I mulched it heavily in the back yard after a summer of rampant growth. It was in morning sun under a foot of hardwood mulch for the winter. When I put it under in November, It had dozens of new promising ten inch to foot-long branches.

There was a typical winter, with a deep Feb. cold spell. The leaves turned olive drab in color (not a good sign on a juniper and the same goes for live oak). The following spring, ever last branch was completely dead. No new buds, nothing. I was preparing to throw it out. Noticed dozens of new buds on the trunk. Put it on the bench. Wash--rinse--repeat for five years. Every single year, its branches froze off completely. Frustrating to say the least.

I did all this realizing that my big established collected Texas live oak had withstood a few winters in my back yard under mulch with not much issue. I switched to paying to keep it in a cold greenhouse, however, realizing I really didn't want to subject it to chance.

So bottom line, yes, your live oaks will need light during the winter, keeping them in the house like tropical plants isn't a very good idea. If they are Southern live oaks (or possibly California or even European Cork oaks) They are not tropical, or even subtropicals. They are temperate zone trees. Southern live oaks, and others require a winter's rest with days below freezing, just not necessarily below 25 F.

Smaller trees aren't as cold hardy as larger ones, in my experience. Younger live oaks can't adapt to our climate very easily. Older stock, like over ten years old, established in a container, can.

 

[jcrossett]

Don't know what kind of live oak you have, but no they mostly don't lose their leaves in the winter willingly. Here in the mid-Atlantic area, you will have some issues with overwintering live oak, especially if they're small. I tried repeatedly to overwinter Texas-collected live oak (a colder hardy subspecies of Southern Live oak Quercus virginiana) here in Va. The collected oak was about two inches in diameter and I'd chopped it to about two feet tall the year I brought it back here to Va.

I mulched it heavily in the back yard after a summer of rampant growth. It was in morning sun under a foot of hardwood mulch for the winter. When I put it under in November, It had dozens of new promising ten inch to foot-long branches.

There was a typical winter, with a deep Feb. cold spell. The leaves turned olive drab in color (not a good sign on a juniper and the same goes for live oak). The following spring, ever last branch was completely dead. No new buds, nothing. I was preparing to throw it out. Noticed dozens of new buds on the trunk. Put it on the bench. Wash--rinse--repeat for five years. Every single year, its branches froze off completely. Frustrating to say the least.

I did all this realizing that my big established collected Texas live oak had withstood a few winters in my back yard under mulch with not much issue. I switched to paying to keep it in a cold greenhouse, however, realizing I really didn't want to subject it to chance.

So bottom line, yes, your live oaks will need light during the winter, keeping them in the house like tropical plants isn't a very good idea. If they are Southern live oaks (or possibly California or even European Cork oaks) They are not tropical, or even subtropicals. They are temperate zone trees. Southern live oaks, and others require a winter's rest with days below freezing, just not necessarily below 25 F.

Smaller trees aren't as cold hardy as larger ones, in my experience. Younger live oaks can't adapt to our climate very easily. Older stock, like over ten years old, established in a container, can.

Okay what about wintering them outside until it gets really cold as in 20° or lower then shed and bringing them inside say Feb to get an early jump on spring summer. This guy is small like not even a foot tall.

Btw the wife gave me the okay to bring inside so now do you guys use a humidity tray or water in the "sink " wait for run off the back on the bench.

O I plan on building a bench for the sliding glass do to keep my son away from them