Being completely covered in snow protects your trees from all the weather related issues- severe cold and drying winds- but potentially can damage branches from the snow load. If I lived in the MI snow belt on the west side, and I had a well developed A. palmatum, it would be under cover somewhere. The cold won't damage an A. palmatum if it's in a protected spot with the roots properly mulched.
With all sides covered by plywood up to 8ft high, a space heater kept the place at 40 deg. F with no issue last night. The hard cold is tonight.
Definitely not "well developed" by any means, I dug up all of the JMs from my dad's place within the last 5 years, and I'm still just growing out the trunks. I'll keep it in mind for the future though and add some snow load protection for them once I have more settled structure.
It can make the same sort of difference it does with big trees. Heavy wet snow can break branches, light powder won't so much.
Several days...ur lucky. My trees have been frozen solid for over a month
Not sure I'd use a trash bag. I did that one time and paid for it with a fungus attack that killed several trees in there.
Wet snow needs to be removed from the canopy as it accumulates. If it freezes solid, removing it will tear away small branches. The light fluffy stuff won't initially damage your trees, but it will start to thaw/refreeze and become more dense over time and be likely to tear away branching as it settles.
My "Rain Barrel" is a 275 gallon square plastic vessel. I put a drain about 6 inches down from the top to accommodate freezing and expanding.
I don't bother draining them at all. As the ice expands it'll go the path of least resistance, and just poke out the top. Can be problematic when snow starts to melt but your downspout is frozen solid and the water has nowhere to go, though. As long as you can manage something there you'll be fine.
Looks like we sent some of our weather down south.BTW, anyone had eyes on @berzerkules or @Alaskanrocket recently? Haven't seen much of either for a while, now that I think of it.
Came to mind because they would have have a very different perspective on the weather you're all panicking about.
There’s an interesting bell curve to this sort of thing based on frequency of icy weather. I grew up in SW Ohio where we had a fair few snow storms each year, but rarely the persistent ice roads of the north. Everyone drove quite cautiously in wintry weather. In areas I’ve been with tons of snow—mostly the upper Midwest, Colorado, upstate NY—people drive through the snow completely unfazed. Similar in areas with rare snow (Seattle, California), but I think those cases are more due to lack of experience than abundance/overconfidence.
Looks like Bob has a drink to warm him up.
wow, superb. in tropical zone like me doesn't know how to handle thisGot pretty cold here over the weekend
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Not too worried about it. I have been shoveling some snow onto the pots of my trees all winter now, so they have a nice layer of insulation for the roots.
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Been doing this for a few years now and it seems to work great.
