Has anyone had long-term success with wintering in a refrigerator?

[Graft]

How about using evaporation as a way of cooling. It might work. Build a big box. Cover it with a porous material. And water the material. Place the box in a place with good airflow. In theory the temperature inside of the box should be at least 10C less than the air outside. You would have to spray the material several times a day as it will dry out very quickly, so you would probably have to use some type of auto sprinkler system. I am only basing this on how an evaporative cooler works. And I don't know your climate. Just an idea!

 

[leatherback]

How about using evaporation as a way of cooling. It might work. Build a big box. Cover it with a porous material. And water the material. Place the box in a place with good airflow. In theory the temperature inside of the box should be at least 10C less than the air outside. You would have to spray the material several times a day as it will dry out very quickly, so you would probably have to use some type of auto sprinkler system. I am only basing this on how an evaporative cooler works. And I don't know your climate. Just an idea!

yup. This is the sort of fridge we had in a research camp out in Kenya. THe work you need to do to cool is substantial though.

 

[Graft]

yup. This is the sort of fridge we had in a research camp out in Kenya. THe work you need to do to cool is substantial though.

I would guess that if the material could absorb the water quickly enough you could place each side of the box in a reservoir so it would suck up the moisture as it was evaporating it? or put the reservoir above it with holes in so that gravity would help.

 

[Graft]

Or even better, have a pump in the sump at the bottom feeding the reservoir at the top, so you would have kind of a continual gentle waterfall. you would only need one side of the box to be the waterfall facing into the wind, the rest could be made with insulated plywood. then drill some holes in the opposite side for air flow. Or is this now getting too extravagant!!

 

[penumbra]

Two years back my small fridge was filled with trees waiting for spring. I had about 6 different plants but most notably I had many trident maples. I had no problem at all. A few trees pushed some leaves in the fridge. I remember the sweet birch did that but I just cut them back a little and they did fine. The tridents were not planted until late May / early June and they all did well.

 

[SouthernMaple]

This thread on refrigerator overwintering really piqued my interest: https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/refrigerator-dormancy.10325/

I'm currently in Minnesota cold and plan to use an unheated garage to keep trees from dying in the crazy-cold weathers. Seems doable, and I've had success with "experiment trees" before (given, they're native and not Japanese Maples). But it seems like I might have another problem when I move to Palo Alto, CA (near the Bay Area).

Has anyone who's lived in a Zone 10-ish area had success with refrigerator-induced dormancy long-term for Japanese Maples? I saw an article from Brent of Evergreen Gardenworks about it.

Really curious to see if anyone's actually had long-term success. Please share your setup!

one of my mentors at the Asheville club told me that when he lived in NYC in the 80's, he winterized all of his bonsai in the fridge. He said his wife didn't mind because it gave them a reason to eat out all the time.

 

[leatherback]

all of his bonsai in the fridge

Hm.. one hell of a fridge. Of very few and small trees!

 

[leatherback]

The domestic refrigerator is now a standard household device, with very few households in the developed world not possessing one or more refrigerators to store chilled foods.

Interesting point of resurrecting an old thread.
In fact, what is the point again?