Protecting a Collected Juniper from Winter

[drew33998]

Here is the question. I collected, and by that I mean picked out of a construction dumpster where it had been sitting for most of the day in june, a parsons juniper. Very nice base. I placed the root ball in a plastic ball with a good bit of water until I could get it home. It was then potted in a concrete mixing tub with bonsai soil. It spent the summer declining gradually under an oak tree. I misted it at least twice a day. Once the heat went out of the weather about 4 weeks ago I placed it in morning sunshine. It responded with one of the three massive trunks shooting out new growth. The other two appear to be dead. It is still actively growing and the cold is slowly starting to creep in. My question is should I throw some clear plastic over it and/or take other measures to keep it growing through out the winter and keep the cold or frost from getting to it? Only a small portion of the foliage is growing, say 20%. Thoughts?

 

[Dav4]

Here is the question. I collected, and by that I mean picked out of a construction dumpster where it had been sitting for most of the day in june, a parsons juniper. Very nice base. I placed the root ball in a plastic ball with a good bit of water until I could get it home. It was then potted in a concrete mixing tub with bonsai soil. It spent the summer declining gradually under an oak tree. I misted it at least twice a day. Once the heat went out of the weather about 4 weeks ago I placed it in morning sunshine. It responded with one of the three massive trunks shooting out new growth. The other two appear to be dead. It is still actively growing and the cold is slowly starting to creep in. My question is should I throw some clear plastic over it and/or take other measures to keep it growing through out the winter and keep the cold or frost from getting to it? Only a small portion of the foliage is growing, say 20%. Thoughts?

No, I'd leave it alone. Unless you're going to get serious cold, like below 25 F, the tree will be fine on the ground under the tree. That new growth isn't all that susceptible to frost and will harden off eventually.

 

[rockm]

Dude, you're in Florida. It's not going to get cold enough to do anything to the plant.

 

[M. Frary]

Up here it would be a goner.

 

[augustine]

I'd keep misting but make sure the foliage is completely dry by sundown.

 

[Arcto]

I would definitely not throw clear plastic over it, especially in FL. A lot more bad than good can come from that.

 

[rockm]

If you HAVE to throw something over it when it gets cold (and if it stays above 25 F that's not really necessary), throw a piece of burlap sack or cloth bedsheet over it. Here where we have actual winter, we mostly know that using plastic sheeting is about the WORST thing you can do for trees in a freeze.

Plastic forces condensation to form on the interior of the sheet, which freezes to foliage. That damage can be avoided if you use cloth. Plastic is also too thin to offer much protection from temperature drops. In covering a plant you're looking to insulate the plant and trap some of the residual heat from the ground. Cloth blankets/sheets are thicker and have air space in the fibers that helps more than a monolithic plastic sheet.

 

[drew33998]

 

[GrimLore]

That bark looks very dark mostly black on the photos. If you don't have shade cloth make a quick burlap tent for it not touching the foliage with the burlap and if it going to make it, it will be just fine. If that bark is black in midsummer and the plant appears otherwise happy treat the bark with Copper Fungicide.

Grimmy

 

[drew33998]

It actually hadn't grown at all until the weather started cooling off here. Happy to see that something I picked out of a dumpster might make it, versus ones that I have spent hours breaking my back lifting out of the ground. We shall see