Low temps but leaves are still green

remist17

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My area will be getting down into the low 20's at night but getting near 60 during the day. The trees still have green leaves. What precautions should I be taking? I think its to early to put them into winter storage.
 

Dav4

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I think it's still a bit early for you to be thinking about winterizing your trees...back when we had real winters and I lived in MA, I always planned on Thanksgiving weekend as the time to put my trees to bed. Low 20s F is cold, but not that cold. It's fine, even beneficial, to let cold hardy trees experience a few hard freezes before winterizing them as it actually makes them more cold hardy for the real cold they'll bed dealing with in a few months. The fact that your trees still have green leaves is a non issue. The cold weather will probably assist with their senescence.
 

remist17

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Sorry all. It would have been nice of me to advise what trees in question. Deciduous trees mostly elms,trident maples and japanese maples. I do have a cork oak that's good to zero so im a little nervous on that one.
 

coh

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People up here generally don't put trees into storage until Thanksgiving or a bit later (depending on the conditions each year). I have all my hardy stuff out where it spent the summer. We had a night down to 23 about a week ago and tonight it's already down to 27 (and probably heading toward 20). Established, fully hardy trees should be fine whether they've dropped their leaves or not. Recent air layers or cuttings (or repots) might benefit from some extra protection.

Chris
 

JudyB

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I would also err on the side of safety for anything that had a bad growing season, or is stressed.
 

remist17

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Great. Thank you all for the prompt responses as usual. Thanks and have a nice evening
 

remist17

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Good evening all. Quick question for you again. I had some tridents drop their leaves. These were purchased these this fall from a place in Washington. I put these in the mulch tonight. The rest are still green. All the green trees are ones that have been with me for three winters. My question is if the trees still have leaves after thanksgiving can I put them in the mulch beds?
 

Dav4

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Good evening all. Quick question for you again. I had some tridents drop their leaves. These were purchased these this fall from a place in Washington. I put these in the mulch tonight. The rest are still green. All the green trees are ones that have been with me for three winters. My question is if the trees still have leaves after thanksgiving can I put them in the mulch beds?

Yup...if they have been outside in your yard this growing season, they will drop their leaves when they are ready.
 

Eric Group

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Be careful with those Elms... Not sure what variety you have exactly, but some can be a little sensitive to hard freezes when In pots- the thick roots around the surface get real soft, especially if the tree was watered soon before a hard freeze. They will probably be fine as long as nothing touches the roots, but if not protected and you (or a dog/ squirrel/ kid/ falling pine cone...) touch that root, you can severely damage it! I had this happen to a Chinese Lace bark Elm I used to own... Never seen it since, but I read about it in a few books as well..

Best to error on the side of safety with them. The Maples ought to be OK- of course, I don't know anything about YOUR winters, here in SC I don't have to offer any winter protection to ANY trees except my Bouganvilla!
 

fore

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People up here generally don't put trees into storage until Thanksgiving or a bit later (depending on the conditions each year). I have all my hardy stuff out where it spent the summer. We had a night down to 23 about a week ago and tonight it's already down to 27 (and probably heading toward 20). Established, fully hardy trees should be fine whether they've dropped their leaves or not. Recent air layers or cuttings (or repots) might benefit from some extra protection.

Chris

That's what I was thinking Chris. All of my collected material, new pot ups this yr., freshly restyled trees, all went into storage. Heck, my jm's still have red leaves on them.
And btw, all the landscape trees in my backyard were green and healthy until the heavy freezes we've had since monday. This am, they are falling by the hundreds. Pretty interesting.

Warming up next few days so I'm going to have to cut off all decid. trees' leaves, spray with LS and de-weed. I'm off to H. Depot today to buy foamboard insul. for the hoop house. (upgrading from cardboard lol) But boy, what an early hard freeze for us here. I've put them away at Thanksgiving time before too Chris. Typ. that's a good time.
 

Dav4

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But boy, what an early hard freeze for us here.

Is it really early? I know the last few winters have not had "real" winter cold, but I would think the Chicago area would get their first frost in early to mid October, and a hard freeze would usually follow in the weeks afterward. In SE MA, I'd expect hard freezes by late October as a rule...
 

coh

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We had a "surprise" freeze last night...temps were predicted to stay in the mid 20s but my thermometer read 17 this morning (which tied record low for the date). Some trees were moved inside but many are still out unprotected. Hope that wasn't a mistake!
 

remist17

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Thanks all. I will work on putting more to bed this weekend to error on the safe side. The elms are mostly Chinese elms that have been with me for two seasons. what’s confusing for me is the temperature swings. 22 this morning and tomorrow low is 40. The end of the week its back up to 60 during the day and low of 40. So I don’t want to put them away to early but afraid of getting hit with deep freezes. I’m just putting them in mulch below the current bench locations so they are not going into buildings or anything special
 

GrimLore

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We had a "surprise" freeze last night...temps were predicted to stay in the mid 20s but my thermometer read 17 this morning (which tied record low for the date). Some trees were moved inside but many are still out unprotected. Hope that wasn't a mistake!

I lived in the Buffalo NY area, the Chautauqua Lake area, and the most upper portion of NY 52 miles North of Lake Placid for a LOT of years before I moved to South East PA. I have never depended on weather forecasts or anyone to tell me when to winter plants... I use a rather primitive method and it has worked well for years. I keep four climbing roses in 5 gallon pots in the north south east and west of ANY property I live on. They tell me when to mulch, protect, and leave alone any outdoor plants I have at any given time... They are far more dependable then any weather report or theory and acclimate without any bull(*^).

Simple system for complex minds...

Grimmy
 

coh

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I lived in the Buffalo NY area, the Chautauqua Lake area, and the most upper portion of NY 52 miles North of Lake Placid for a LOT of years before I moved to South East PA. I have never depended on weather forecasts or anyone to tell me when to winter plants... I use a rather primitive method and it has worked well for years. I keep four climbing roses in 5 gallon pots in the north south east and west of ANY property I live on. They tell me when to mulch, protect, and leave alone any outdoor plants I have at any given time... They are far more dependable then any weather report or theory and acclimate without any bull(*^).

Simple system for complex minds...

Grimmy

Well, come on now...you've got to tell us more about this system! Since I don't for one minute believe that you have talking roses, what clues do you rely on?

Chris
 

GrimLore

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Well, come on now...you've got to tell us more about this system! Since I don't for one minute believe that you have talking roses, what clues do you rely on?

Chris

Four Climbing Roses can tell you a LOT more then you think. Our climate changes quickly in the North East and Roses adapt by the HOUR. I can walk around at look at four plants on a daily basis and by the color of the extended branches what/why/how they are trying to adjust to. NO ROCKET Science - it just appears the branching changes color FAST depending on weather and once they stay "dark" for a week it is time to close shop and put your babies to sleep for the Winter. Roses do not lie - when the branches go dark for one week solid and need pruning it is time to put all else to sleep. I am not a Botanist, I just learn by observation and I have NEVER been challenged with this "Experience" NOT "Theory" :p

Grimmy
 

fore

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Is it really early? I know the last few winters have not had "real" winter cold, but I would think the Chicago area would get their first frost in early to mid October, and a hard freeze would usually follow in the weeks afterward. In SE MA, I'd expect hard freezes by late October as a rule...

Well this is only my fourth winter here. But we seem not to get the heavy freezes till around Thanksgiving. We stay warmer here in the city, than the w. suburbs. But obv. I'm still no winter expert lol.

btw, I too have sev. trees still with green leaves...a pyracantha's leaves looks as green as in the summer, a dogwood, and wisteria/though wilted now. Even my jm's leaves are still red w. early signs of some dying. The pyra. is a harvested air layer from Aug. so I want to treat it tenderly. So should I just cut off all the leaves, or leave it outside for mid to high 20s at night this week? I'm thinking of putting all the others outside to help with their leaf demise as they have healthy roots.
 

coh

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My pyracantha (mentioned to you in an earlier thread, I dug it this spring with almost no roots) is still green. It's been exposed to some fairly cold nights (down to 23) but was in the barn for last nights 17 deg reading. My plan is to leave the leaves alone but keep it protected this winter...near or above freezing for the most part. Some of them keep most of their leaves through the winter, so I figure if it wants to keep them...I'm gonna let it. But it will be in a completely wind-protected location.

Chris
 
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