Hinoki Cypress First Winter

[MeconNH]

Lance, Lake Street is where this tree came from actually.

 

[MeconNH]

Hello again, it's becoming pretty warm here in NH. It almost seems like winter is pretty much over, it was over 70F today, and it's supposed to be 50-60F for the next week at least. I'm concerned about my tree coming out of hibernation because of the long period of warm weather. I'm thinking it might be time to take it out of the shed and put it back in it's usual location. It still gets rather cold during the night but I think it can handle it.

Is it too early or should I go for it?

 

[LanceMac10]

Try to keep things dormant, if you can.
My dwarf J. maples are moving.......early, but will need to be attended to....
should be a bit protected still.....don't get cocky

 

[Guy Vitale]

I had to move my trees out of the garage this past weekend as well, I have a couple deciduous trees starting to leaf out. No temps below freezing in the 15 day forecast in The Detroit area so I'm not too worried, but I may need to keep an eye on them and bring them in at night if it gets too cold.

 

[aml1014]

All my trees have been out for 2 weeks trying to keep them dormant but everything's awake and spring is here, my location is notorious for random freezes, Last night we had 31°and all of my repotted trees were just fine sitting out on the bench deciduous and conifers.

Aaron

 

[MeconNH]

OK, so what can I do exactly to keep it dormant? I didn't think it was something I had any control over.

 

[Guy Vitale]

Nope, unless you have walk in cooler, they will be sure to wake up. Keep them outside so the developing leaves get full sun and keep an eye on the cold temps especially at nite, you may need to move them back into the shed or garage. Conifers should be fine, they put on new growth much more slowly.

 

[MeconNH]

OK thank you all fort he responses. I think I'll be taking it out of the shed. I'll of course be careful to protect it in case of any cold snaps, but it seems like spring came early this year.

 

[Vance Wood]

Once dormancy breaks you cannot reverse the process without doing even greater harm. All you can do is watch the weather and react accordingly, if very low temperatures are predicted then move the tree out of the wind. Temperate trees are genetically geared to this kind of thing.

 

[coh]

All my trees have been out for 2 weeks trying to keep them dormant but everything's awake and spring is here, my location is notorious for random freezes, Last night we had 31°and all of my repotted trees were just fine sitting out on the bench deciduous and conifers.

Aaron

My experience has been that most hardy trees (maples, hornbeams, elms, etc) are fine down to about 28 or 29 F...even after they've budded or leafed out. 28 seems to be the threshold where some sensitive species get leaf damage. Of course, there may be other factors...for instance, if the temp gets down to 28 for one hour, it would probably be less damaging than if it sat at 28 all night.

I keep a max/min thermometer out with my trees and keep an eye on min temps in the spring.

The problem is if there's a night that is predicted to get down to 29 or 30, what do you do? Temps can sometimes drop lower depending on the microclimate, if winds are calm and skies clear, etc. I don't have finished trees, mostly trees in development or stock plants, so they are generally left out unless temps are expected to drop to the low/mid 20s. Then I will move the more sensitive/developed trees into shelter.

 

[Dav4]

Mid March is awful early to be moving anything onto the benches in the Northeast. Personally, I'd leave everything under cover, keeping them as cold as possible, until they're clearly breaking dormancy. Moving it into the sun will definitely break dormancy, and mild winter or not, you can get frosts or even freezes into May.

 

[coh]

Agree Dave, but the recent warm spell (combined with the winter overall being above normal) has pushed some trees along. I was just checking trees in one of my shelters and one of my kiyohime maples is starting to break buds and push leaves, the other has rapidly swelling buds. Those are most likely going to have to be going out soon as I don't think I can hold them back at this point. Also, some conifers can go out...ponderosa pine for example, maybe cedar...though if we get a real cold snap they might have to come back in. We can still get single digits easily in March.

For the bulk of my trees, though, I will be keeping them in the shelters out of the sun, and trying to keep temps there as low as possible. Will open things up at night when it's cold enough, and close them up during the day to keep the warmth out. It looks like the next 7 days are going to be pretty warm unforunately...too soon really.

 

[Dav4]

Agree Dave, but the recent warm spell (combined with the winter overall being above normal) has pushed some trees along. I was just checking trees in one of my shelters and one of my kiyohime maples is starting to break buds and push leaves, the other has rapidly swelling buds. Those are most likely going to have to be going out soon as I don't think I can hold them back at this point. Also, some conifers can go out...ponderosa pine for example, maybe cedar...though if we get a real cold snap they might have to come back in. We can still get single digits easily in March.

For the bulk of my trees, though, I will be keeping them in the shelters out of the sun, and trying to keep temps there as low as possible. Will open things up at night when it's cold enough, and close them up during the day to keep the warmth out. It looks like the next 7 days are going to be pretty warm unforunately...too soon really.

Back in the day, I would start doing that in February, usually once day time temps were getting into the mid to upper 30's