Snow Thread!

Brian Van Fleet

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Well, it happened. Much pomp and some circumstance. Here are some shots from our annual snow in Birmingham. Share your show-covered bonsai too!
 

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M. Frary

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I would but they're more like bumps in the snow. Not very interesting at all.
I feel bad for all you people that aren't used to all the cold and snow though.
 

Dan W.

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Beautiful pics you guys!
Have all of your wives made it home safe?... this year
 

Cadillactaste

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Beautiful...thanks for sharing...curious...how cold did your temps go down to? Pots outside in the elements without being mulched in...and snow boggles my mind. Though we had -22F without wind chill figured in this winter...I just have to ask...at what point is there cause for alarm?
 

Dav4

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Beautiful...thanks for sharing...curious...how cold did your temps go down to? Pots outside in the elements without being mulched in...and snow boggles my mind. Though we had -22F without wind chill figured in this winter...I just have to ask...at what point is there cause for alarm?
My trees stay on the benches all winter long as a rule. They go on the ground if it's going to fall into the mid teens...and they get a poor man's mulching of oak leaves if it's going to fall into the single digits and stay below freezing for an extended period...I never bother mulching the big pots, though.
 

Cadillactaste

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My trees stay on the benches all winter long as a rule. They go on the ground if it's going to fall into the mid teens...and they get a poor man's mulching of oak leaves if it's going to fall into the single digits and stay below freezing for an extended period...I never bother mulching the big pots, though.

Thanks Dave! The snow on the trees has always amazed me when in pots on stands or tables. Thanks for answering my question.
 

Dan W.

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lol!! :rolleyes:
I couldn't remember whose wife got snowed in at work for several days last year. :)
 

Brian Van Fleet

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Beautiful...thanks for sharing...curious...how cold did your temps go down to? Pots outside in the elements without being mulched in...and snow boggles my mind. Though we had -22F without wind chill figured in this winter...I just have to ask...at what point is there cause for alarm?
Mine stay out all year too. If it gets down to around 20, I may move trees in nice pots to the garage to prevent cracking.
Below 15 and I'll bring in trees I've wired in the fall.
White pines, red pines, spruce, junipers, and natives will not get protection.
 

Brian Van Fleet

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lol!! :rolleyes:
I couldn't remember whose wife got snowed in at work for several days last year. :)
That was Dave's wife.
Though, Last year, I was out of town when we got snow here, and Mrs. VF was shut in with the kiddos.
 

Nybonsai12

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been staring at this for over a month. Many, many trees buried under there.
 

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Cadillactaste

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Mine stay out all year too. If it gets down to around 20, I may move trees in nice pots to the garage to prevent cracking.
Below 15 and I'll bring in trees I've wired in the fall.
White pines, red pines, spruce, junipers, and natives will not get protection.

So...if they don't have nice pots they sit where they always have...with no winter protection...in a pot. At 15F they are still safe of the kill zone factor I keep reading about? Interesting...
 

Brian Van Fleet

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So...if they don't have nice pots they sit where they always have...with no winter protection...in a pot. At 15F they are still safe of the kill zone factor I keep reading about? Interesting...
It's not so absolute. But, normally, I am far more concerned with pots breaking than trees dying in my climate.

It's important to know how much cold a species can tolerate, and respond appropriately. RMJ can handle -40 easily, I wouldn't subject a kishu shimpaku to -40. JWP can handle much colder temperatures than JBP...white pines are high mountain trees like our bristlecones, black pines are coastal trees like our loblollys.
 

Dav4

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So...if they don't have nice pots they sit where they always have...with no winter protection...in a pot. At 15F they are still safe of the kill zone factor I keep reading about? Interesting...
There's no hard and fast temp that will kill roots across the board. A few things to understand- just because it says 15 F on the thermometer doesn't mean that is the temp of your roots...everything in the pot needs to cool down to that temp before the roots get there...and water releases heat as it freezes, so it usually takes a while. Placing the pots on the ground will keep them from getting too cold, because the ground really doesn't get much colder then 32 F, even up north. Finally, different species have different cold tolerances...a Japanese maple would likely suffer root damage if its root temps ever did fall into the mid teens, but a healthy juniper wouldn't mind at all. Oh, yeah, one more thing...good pots can handle frost so there's no need to protect them...unless they're very old and hard to replace. The trees I showed are all in good pots...frozen solid.
 

rockm

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If you're North of Ga. and Ala., don't take overwintering advice from Southerners ;-). The sustained cold we've had here in Va. and north in the last few weeks is VERY dangerous for unprotected bonsai. South of here, cold temps don't last very long and things warm up to some extent in the day. With sustained temps below freezing we've had for the lasts month, especially temps below 25, you have EXTREME danger for trees not protected by DEEP mulch, a garage, or a cold greenhouse.

Big pots will freeze all the way through in a day or so in such conditions, putting them in danger also. Broken pots are the least of my worries here. I'm worried about losing specimens, including Bald cypress and cedar elm, even under ten inches of hardwood mulch. The mulch piles froze through long ago in the first sub-zero weather jag. Thank god we got some snow cover, which helps insulate from the worst, but even with that single digits and below can hammer cold into the ground. The ground itself here is frozen two feet down--I saw it when I had to thaw out my water meter in the manhole near my house.

I won't know until spring if I've lost a lot of stuff.
 
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