watering during winter

remist17

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Can you please go over watering during winter for me? I plan on sinking my pots in mulch up as far as I can to the first branch. My question is once the pots are under mulch how frequently should I water during winter. I normally sunk pots in dirt and would not water until I took them out. This year im using mulch with pots above ground. Im not sure if I should water once everything freezes up.
thanks
 

lordy

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during dormancy, the tree's needs are far lower moisture-wise than when growing. They cannot dry out, but wont use much water. Usually rain or snow will take care of things if kept outdoors. If they are frozen, no water is used so watering is not needed at all.
 

JudyB

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If you get warm dry periods, I would suggest putting long wood skewers into the pots before you mulch them. Then you can pull them out to check moisture levels without disturbing the mulch bed. I do this even in my cold house.
 

coh

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I lost 2 nice trees (or potentially nice trees) last winter due to under-watering...
 

Tieball

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Outside....or sheltered storage?

I lost 2 nice trees (or potentially nice trees) last winter due to under-watering...

Were the 2 trees outside in the winter elements able to have snowfall cover them or in some storage device like an unheated attached garage or similar. If placed close to a home's foundation I've experienced that snowfall or natural winter watering does not reach the tree because of roof overhang shielding. The trees near the foundation just get cold unless I manually shovel and pile up snow. Just curious as to your experience.
 

coh

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They were in the garage, where I winter many trees. Just somehow neglected those two, may have assumed they were moist enough...lesson learned.

Chris
 

GrimLore

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All of our plants will be protected from wind and have been mulched in. Until the ground stays frozen in the pots I give them all a light watering every 2 weeks and then nature takes over until Spring.

That has worked well for 6 years now. The reason I added protected from wind is a few years ago we lost a few maples and since adding wind protection have lost none.

Grimmy
 

remist17

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Ok not to much different than what I did when I sank them in the ground. Thanks all
 
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