mister_project
Seedling
I am a novice and just got through my first spring/summer with my young Satsuki azalea. It almost doubled in size, and it seems to have been a pretty successful growing season in terms of letting it get established in the pot. The tree has been outside on my patio for the whole season, so it got AM sun and was shaded in the PM. Now that fall has hit here I'm wondering about how to properly transition to dormancy. I have had a lot of issues with delayed temperature shock with my "easy to grow" wisteria bonsai, which oddly enough has been the most challenging bonsai I've tried yet... Anyway, I'm nervous about the process since I thought azaleas were supposed to be even a little more finnicky than some of the other trees I have. I live in the Seattle area and the forecast is that lows are supposed to start hitting 42-44F pretty consistently for the next week and will only get back up to 45-48F the week after that.
From my research, what I've been planning on doing is once temperatures starts dropping below 45F (now, pretty much) I should move the tree inside to a cool room where temps stay between 35F-55F. After the tree is dormant I should put the tree in a safe spot and mulch around it up to the rim of its pot for the winter. I'm trying to piece this together from online guides and have a few questions.
Dormancy transition step:
1) The cool room between 35F-55F sounds like my garage would work well. As I write this it is 47F outside and the garage is still at 56F. The garage gets afternoon sun, and since it is uninsulated it does tend to fluctuate in temperature a little bit more than an insulated room. Does the temperature of this location need to be relatively stable or are swings just like it would see outside still okay? This is just to let the tree still get sun and prepare for dormancy, so this is really just about keeping it above ~45F right?
2) I assume that good light is still needed for this stage since the tree still has leaves and is not yet dormant. The garage does have a small window, but again gets PM sun and it definitely wouldn't receive as much sun as it currently does. I worry that the change from AM sun to PM sun would be a shock to the tree. Is this or the amount of light an issue during transition?
Dormancy step:
1) The guides just said "safe spot." Does that mean leave the tree in the garage, move it back outside, or something else? Does it not matter since it has no leaves, and controlling temperature and moisture are really my only main concerns other than pests/rodents? I don't think light matters at all once in dormancy, but please correct me if wrong.
2) How will I know when the tree is dormant? Is it simply once all the leaves drop? I wonder if this was part of the shock problem I mentioned with the wisteria.
3) I assume that mulching the base is just to protect the roots from severe cold and probably to minimize the temperature swings that the tree experiences. Does this mulching happen even if the tree stays indoors or is this only done for the method where people dig a hole in their back yard, put the trees in, and cover it? And just to be doubly sure, I should NOT mulch up onto the tree itself right? The new wisteria info I have for this year says to mulch up to the first branch. I know these are different trees so I'd rather not make bad assumptions.
4) What should I be doing for watering during dormancy? For my wisteria I placed it in a shallow tray with water. This seemed to work amazingly well until it was time to bring the tree out of dormancy, at which point it had some sort of delayed shock and dropped all of its new leaves in spring.
I would prefer not to dig a hole in my back yard and winter the tree there if possible because we have dogs and all sorts of animals around that might mess with it. I'll certainly do it if that's what it takes, but if you can recommend practices that don't require that it would be ideal. I'm being picky, I know. Please feel free to set me bluntly set me straight if warranted. It's good for me sometimes.
Thanks for all your input and help! If you have tips for when/how to bring the tree out of dormancy I am all ears as well.
From my research, what I've been planning on doing is once temperatures starts dropping below 45F (now, pretty much) I should move the tree inside to a cool room where temps stay between 35F-55F. After the tree is dormant I should put the tree in a safe spot and mulch around it up to the rim of its pot for the winter. I'm trying to piece this together from online guides and have a few questions.
Dormancy transition step:
1) The cool room between 35F-55F sounds like my garage would work well. As I write this it is 47F outside and the garage is still at 56F. The garage gets afternoon sun, and since it is uninsulated it does tend to fluctuate in temperature a little bit more than an insulated room. Does the temperature of this location need to be relatively stable or are swings just like it would see outside still okay? This is just to let the tree still get sun and prepare for dormancy, so this is really just about keeping it above ~45F right?
2) I assume that good light is still needed for this stage since the tree still has leaves and is not yet dormant. The garage does have a small window, but again gets PM sun and it definitely wouldn't receive as much sun as it currently does. I worry that the change from AM sun to PM sun would be a shock to the tree. Is this or the amount of light an issue during transition?
Dormancy step:
1) The guides just said "safe spot." Does that mean leave the tree in the garage, move it back outside, or something else? Does it not matter since it has no leaves, and controlling temperature and moisture are really my only main concerns other than pests/rodents? I don't think light matters at all once in dormancy, but please correct me if wrong.
2) How will I know when the tree is dormant? Is it simply once all the leaves drop? I wonder if this was part of the shock problem I mentioned with the wisteria.
3) I assume that mulching the base is just to protect the roots from severe cold and probably to minimize the temperature swings that the tree experiences. Does this mulching happen even if the tree stays indoors or is this only done for the method where people dig a hole in their back yard, put the trees in, and cover it? And just to be doubly sure, I should NOT mulch up onto the tree itself right? The new wisteria info I have for this year says to mulch up to the first branch. I know these are different trees so I'd rather not make bad assumptions.
4) What should I be doing for watering during dormancy? For my wisteria I placed it in a shallow tray with water. This seemed to work amazingly well until it was time to bring the tree out of dormancy, at which point it had some sort of delayed shock and dropped all of its new leaves in spring.
I would prefer not to dig a hole in my back yard and winter the tree there if possible because we have dogs and all sorts of animals around that might mess with it. I'll certainly do it if that's what it takes, but if you can recommend practices that don't require that it would be ideal. I'm being picky, I know. Please feel free to set me bluntly set me straight if warranted. It's good for me sometimes.
Thanks for all your input and help! If you have tips for when/how to bring the tree out of dormancy I am all ears as well.