Operation: Overwinter (As coldfolk)

[cockroach]

I love it when a plan comes together.

 

[HorseloverFat]

They need you on the living in the wild tv shows. You’d be a hit on the show Life Below Zero.
It’s quite an interesting structure you’ve built.

Incorporating the “soil component” of the design will be fun!

Thank you!

 

[papkey5]

Hello from Logan, UT! Another marvelous temperate zone (5a to 5b depending on the severity of Jack Frost.)
I am following Mike McGroarty’s method found on his website.

https://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2013/11/over-wintering-protecting-plants-for-winter/

From having read this several times I would recommend you consider how to keep a humid environment inside and the wind out. Especially since you plan to have access throughout winter.

 

[ShadyStump]

It looks a little like the first chicken coop I ever built, only better.

Trying to work out my own set up for winter. Can't decide; closer to the house where it's warmer but less protection, or by the shed where it's colder, but more protection?

 

[HorseloverFat]

It looks a little like the first chicken coop I ever built, only better.

Trying to work out my own set up for winter. Can't decide; closer to the house where it's warmer but less protection, or by the shed where it's colder, but more protection?

Look for an existing corner!

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Hello from Logan, UT! Another marvelous temperate zone (5a to 5b depending on the severity of Jack Frost.)
I am following Mike McGroarty’s method found on his website.

https://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2013/11/over-wintering-protecting-plants-for-winter/ .

That’s a mighty cool cold frame @HorseloverFat ! I had a similar ‘cold frame a few years back’. Sadly mine partly collapsed due to the impromptu nature of its half assed construction. Also one of our retail coldframes collapsed due to snow accumulation. This year I’ve moved up quite a bit. Sadly I cant find any photos to share.

Yet a decent cold frame works really well in most scenarios, especially if it’s a bit drafty.

A couple comments on the reply above. The article posted in the reply has a basic flaw, the author doesn’t appear to distinguish between a Greenouse, that isn’t heated except by the sun and a Hothouse which isused to grow-year around , which is what the author is actually describing.

I use both a drafty quarter assed cold frame and also small cold greenhouses. They are mainly for protection from the elements, each extend the growing season somewhat being able to trap a bit of heat each day. Both work well for certain bonsai trees and cuttings. The rest are on/in the ground in the open here. btw The light actually is for lighting, not growing.


Finally while white plastic will actually reflect the visible light from the sun, I doubt the infrared part of the spectrum will be reflected too.

That said, I’m really looking forward to seeing Horsefat’s filled up cold frame!

cheers
DSD sends

 

[ShadyStump]

Look for an existing corner!

Well that's about as helpful a drinking straw full of peanut butter.

I have an almost perfect spot for the deciduous, but I'll have to fight the dog for it.
My pines will need somewhere sunnier, and that's where the problem comes in.
Still time to figure it out, though. We're having a proper real autumn this year (first time in years the big trees weren't denuded by a sudden snow storm in the middle of an Indian Summer), so no hard freezes yet, and none expected for a couple weeks at least.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Well that's about as helpful a drinking straw full of peanut butter.

Those make excellent police dog distractions!

Yeah.. you still got time, it seems.

 

[ShadyStump]

Those make excellent police dog distractions!

Pics or it didn't happen.

 

[sorce]

Actually filling a drinking straw with peanut butter would be a bitch, dare I say, a waste of time. Lol.

But seriously, what are you keeping in there that needs such protection?

I abrandoned just cussing and calling you a Romenema, a Cathlaxitive, if you will, a Poope at the VatiCan!
(That's for @just.wing.it and dare I say, most of us! )
But that peanut butter thing really got me going and I know you like building forts anyway!

Sorce

 

[HorseloverFat]

Actually filling a drinking straw with peanut butter would be a bitch, dare I say, a waste of time. Lol.

But seriously, what are you keeping in there that needs such protection?

I abrandoned just cussing and calling you a Romenema, a Cathlaxitive, if you will, a Poope at the VatiCan!
(That's for @just.wing.it and dare I say, most of us! )
But that peanut butter thing really got me going and I know you like building forts anyway!

Sorce

Haha! No protection kills Rubrums and platenoides in containers up here.... i need to protect..EVERYTHING..

 

[HorseloverFat]

I abrandoned just cussing and calling you a Romenema, a Cathlaxitive, if you will, a Poope at the VatiCan!

What’s all this? You know I don’t pay attention to any news media.

 

[Shogun610]

I’m in 6B , and still only have my stuff on the ground unprotected until it gets below 25F constantly, next week it won’t go below 36 at night… might be a mild winter. But nice set up, all I’m doing is mulching in on ground behind house with pallets as windbreak on cold nights , or just taking inside for a night or 2

 

[HorseloverFat]

I’m in 6B , and still only have my stuff on the ground unprotected until it gets below 25F constantly, next week it won’t go below 36 at night… might be a mild winter. But nice set up, all I’m doing is mulching in on ground behind house with pallets as windbreak on cold nights , or just taking inside for a night or 2

Yeah.. i had to slow waay down on construction.. just wanted to get MOST of it “up” before it gets unbearably cold to work for extended periods outside.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Pics or it didn't happen.

The Closest thing I have to an ACTUAL relevant personal experience is a story I heard from a guy I was in AODA with...

He had crashed his car, drunk, and was fleeing the scene through some wetlands... the dogs were right on him.. he told me he remembered trying to soothe, “Nice Pooch, gooood Pooch!” Right before the pooch took him down. A little under 50 stitches, I believe, but can’t recall the exact number.

...If only he had one of those straws!

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

A pot in contact with the ground gets the benefit of heat from the ground. Seriously folks, many of you are working too hard protecting trees that are hardy in your climate zone. I winter a large number of species just setting on the ground. I even winter a Chinese elm from Brussel's Bonsai simply by setting it on the ground. Three winters, no problems. I'm zone 5b. I think many are just working too hard to protect species that are hardy. Nobody in the lower 48 of USA should be putting a spruce or a juniper in any kind of structure for winter. On the ground and forget it should work fine. My 'Itoigawa' and 'Kishu' have spent 20+ winters here simply set on the ground. Japanese Black Pine are not reliably hardy in zone 5b, so I protect them, but all other pines I own winter outside on the ground.

I do have an unheated well house for Satsuki and other "tender" not quite hardy species. The space is 5 feet below grade, think cold frame with the floor 5 feet below soil level. It hovers around 32 to 40 F, or 0 to 4 C. Once filled and closed, the cracks in the block wall allow water to seep in. So humidity is quite high. I run an extension cord and a small fan into the well house. I leave the fan on 24 hours, 7 days a week in the well house. Have had no problems with rots once I added a fan. Without a fan I'd have high mortality, especially trees that still have green leaves when I put them in (satsuki, JBP, pomegranate), adding the fan, mortality from rots dropped to zero.

Haha! No protection kills Rubrums and platenoides in containers up here.... i need to protect..EVERYTHING..

I doubt the cold killed these. Were the containers in contact with the ground? On a shelf or bench they would perish, but they should be fine if the pots were in contact with the ground and lightly mulched in. I winter Acer rubrum and platenoides with this method and have not had any trouble. Key is they must be in contact with the ground. That little bit of extra warmth does the trick. In a shed, with the wooden floor off the ground, they would get colder than if in contact with the ground. Something to keep in mind.

 

[HorseloverFat]

A pot in contact with the ground gets the benefit of heat from the ground. Seriously folks, many of you are working too hard protecting trees that are hardy in your climate zone. I winter a large number of species just setting on the ground. I even winter a Chinese elm from Brussel's Bonsai simply by setting it on the ground. Three winters, no problems. I'm zone 5b. I think many are just working too hard to protect species that are hardy. Nobody in the lower 48 of USA should be putting a spruce or a juniper in any kind of structure for winter. On the ground and forget it should work fine. My 'Itoigawa' and 'Kishu' have spent 20+ winters here simply set on the ground. Japanese Black Pine are not reliably hardy in zone 5b, so I protect them, but all other pines I own winter outside on the ground.

I do have an unheated well house for Satsuki and other "tender" not quite hardy species. The space is 5 feet below grade, think cold frame with the floor 5 feet below soil level. It hovers around 32 to 40 F, or 0 to 4 C. Once filled and closed, the cracks in the block wall allow water to seep in. So humidity is quite high. I run an extension cord and a small fan into the well house. I leave the fan on 24 hours, 7 days a week in the well house. Have had no problems with rots once I added a fan. Without a fan I'd have high mortality, especially trees that still have green leaves when I put them in (satsuki, JBP, pomegranate), adding the fan, mortality from rots dropped to zero.



I doubt the cold killed these. Were the containers in contact with the ground? On a shelf or bench they would perish, but they should be fine if the pots were in contact with the ground and lightly mulched in. I winter Acer rubrum and platenoides with this method and have not had any trouble. Key is they must be in contact with the ground. That little bit of extra warmth does the trick. In a shed, with the wooden floor off the ground, they would get colder than if in contact with the ground. Something to keep in mind.

They were under tables, right next to ALL the elaeagnus that also all never woke up... but my “ground”.. is cement., and I did not mulch them in with anything except snow. Whoops

 

[HorseloverFat]

We have that “climax” which ends up being 4-6 days of -10/-15and lower... some years LONGER and colder.. but never LESS.

The guys from BABS say to just protect it all.. because most WILL need protection up here.. they use parvifolia as an example of a “what people who DON’T live here will tell you.”

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Actual local knowledge is always the best trump card!
Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I don't think our climates are very different. Having trees setting on concrete is not the same as setting on the ground or healed in to the rim of the pot on the ground. But if other Green Bay area growers tell you to protect, then you should protect.