Questions for Michigan/Northern Growers, or An

[JudyB]

Alex, you are welcome for all the info, I figured even if you can't take advantage of it now, on down the road it may be useful to you. I didn't pour a foundation, just used concrete pavers. We built a frame dug it into the slope and filled it with gravel and sand, then laid the pavers down on that base.

Yeah, it's not the exposure to the sun that will damage the trees, it's the fact that after they go dormant, they don't want to wake up early.

We are in Needles CA tonight, loaded up the backpacks, so off we go tomorrow. I'll check back in a week or so!
Cheers.
J

 

[crust]

I have a GH that faces directly S and gets too much sun. I wish I had faced it E, maybe even NE. Besides adding moisture, which facilitates the removal of heat by making ventilation way more effective, adding reflective shade cloth really helps. I use Aluminet shade cloth which shades and reduces heat build up. I keep a hardy collection of natives and no longer overwinter anything in a GH. most bonsai plants never go there except for staging outdoors or for repotting.
Here in zone 3 I got tired of having cool trees zapped by our fickle springs when I am too busy to run things in and out so it is all hardy stuff for me and no J maple or trident either. If I kept them in the GH they would overgrow. After struggling with odd ball storages I finally built a cold house to house my collection in the winter. It is a standard shaped gable structure divided length-wise by a partition. one half is GH, one half cold storage. The cold storage section has just one window and is very heavily insulated on all walls and ceiling. I selectively ventilate to keep it from 20 - 35 (this is the best range for my plants). I shut it up to retain the cold in spring--especially during the day. It has worked great and has changed everything for me. Big plus is you can walk in and easily pull a tree to work on anytime of the winter.