How do you protect your trees from rain?

Tieball

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Yea, haha. It takes about as much dedication and patience as Bonsai. If you ever wanna get into it, I recommend getting a cheap outfit, and going to local ponds with blue gill if possible. Sun fish in a pond are much easier to catch than trout in a river.
I have to learn how to not get all tangled up and fairly close to a targeted cast first.
 

SubJeezy

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I have to learn how to not get all tangled up and fairly close to a targeted cast first.


Haha, the tangling part is just a part of fly fishing. I'd say I'm high intermediate, and I tangle up regularly. So do my fishing buddies. A Rouge wind gust is all it takes. Fortunately you don't need accurate casts with pan fish. An entire school has, collectively, 1 brain cell. A tasty looking top water fly anywhere near them and instinct kicks in.
 

Weaponman

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Its been a very unusually wet and cloudy spring here in Colorado 5a. I want to get my trees outside more, even on cloudy, rainy days. Unfortunately my south-facing window real-estate is very limited, Room enough for 2 of my trees but the rest arnt getting as much light ad I'd like. On top of constantly taking them inside then outside between rain bursts. If it was every other day it would be fine, but its daily, intermittent showers, and Im away from home most of the day light hours . How do you guys keep your soil from getting soaked on outside trees? I was thinking about building a little A-frame roof from clear material over my humidity tray, but am open to ideas.

2 Fukien, a Schefflera and a Mimosa.

The Mimosa is looking particularly sad with such little light exposure.
Sounds like you need a little green house or cold frame. Those tropical like moisture but, it’s a little cold at night to expect a ton of growth. Fukien teas are sensitive to drastic changes, so slowly adapt it to any new setting.
 

Baku1875

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Another thing you can do to help with waterlogged pots is to put them on a wedge to help them drain better
View attachment 492095
I have the same pots, I do that all the time. Sometimes I use the neighboring pot to get a tilt as well. A reassuringly large amount of water always drains right out vs when it's flat lol.

I was concerned about too much rain last year when I had junipers in potting soil and a few other trees that arent exactly swamp friendly species and we had almost 4 straight weeks of heavy rain.

Going heavily inorganic on mixes now so I'm not worried and everything is loving the rain. If it picks up for too many consecutive weeks, I remove sphag and/or bark top dressing.
Ahhh, I like that idea. Thanks!

Tropicals in Colorado sounds like a cold frame/greenhouse mandatory situation. Either that or go with more cold hardy species.
 

It's Kev

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do what @bonsaichile said, i have an olive that gets me worried when i get loads of rain. i put it's pot on top of an empty seedling tray so it doesn't touch the ground and tilted to get rid of excess water more quickly
 

ShadyStump

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Tropicals in Colorado sounds like a cold frame/greenhouse mandatory situation. Either that or go with more cold hardy species.
People think of the high country, and skiing and dog sleds when they think of Colorado, but that's mostly the tourist brochures. Summers are hot and dry. Most of the state is semi-arid, and the eastern 2/5 is plains that make Kansas look rugged.
To give you an idea, during the Pike's Peak Or Bust gold rush days of the 1850s the people traveling to the territory would write that on the sides of their wagons and handcarts after a day or two of traveling since spotting the snowcapped mountain on the horizon. They would think they'd made it, but they were still two weeks of buffalo grass and cactus away. The CO/KS border was drawn roughly where Pike's Peak could first be spotted.
 

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I use an open, inorganic soil mix that is impossible to overwater unless it's under water.
 

ShadyStump

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You have to drill a hole in the side then?
Not if there's a drain hole on the lower end already. When you tilt the pot all the water runs to one side. This effectively increases the height of the water column at that point. It's the same effect as if the tree were in a narrower, deeper pot of equal volume.

Say you have 2 pipes, both of 200 cubic inches volume, but one is tall and thin, the other shorter and wider. If you turn on the spigot on the bottoms, the tall pipe will empty fast because all the weight of the water is stacked vertically right on top of the spigot. The wider pipe will drain slower because the water and its weight are more spread out.
Tilt the pot, and it's the same as tilting the big drink cooler to get all the coolaid to one spot above the spout.
 

nuttiest

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I think tilting the pot means tilt it back and forth, like water is stuck around the screen... but not leave one side full of water.
 

ShadyStump

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Nope, just one side up, and stay like that.
I've heard of it before, seen it recommended in videos and by other people here, but it's not an issue I've ever run into before, so I completely forgot about it until now.
 

Tieball

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I’m left to wonder…..If there is so much concern about the the temperature and the rain then why take the tropical trees outside in the first place?
 

bonsaichile

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I think tilting the pot means tilt it back and forth, like water is stuck around the screen... but not leave one side full of water.
Never do this unless you want to damage new roots in your bonsai
 

Ugo

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Hi!

To protect from rain I use a pergola with a retractable tarp.
I mostly use it to protect Azalea's in flower as I dont want much water on the flowers.
If it wasnt for that there will be no real necessity.
I do use it once in awhile when outside temp. gets really high to "cool" down the area but that's about it.
For water drainage tilting pot works wonders.
 

SubJeezy

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Hi!

To protect from rain I use a pergola with a retractable tarp.
I mostly use it to protect Azalea's in flower as I dont want much water on the flowers.
If it wasnt for that there will be no real necessity.
I do use it once in awhile when outside temp. gets really high to "cool" down the area but that's about it.
For water drainage tilting pot works wonders.
Yea, that's pretty much the consensus I've gathered from everyone. Thanks!
 
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