Does anyone know if my brugs in gallon pots would freeze if I just stack them all vertically under a cypress tree? Our temperatures are going to drop to about 25 Thursday night and I just don't have anywhere to put these. Would laying them down and covering them with leaves keep them from freezing better?
HELP 25 degree low
Yes mam, will kill them deader than a door nail. at 25 degrees, I wouldn't trust nothing outside to protect them.
Do you have a garage or storage building? either would work better than storing them outside laying themd own and covering them with leaves.
Our garage gets really cold but I don't think it ever gets below freezing out there, and they'll stand the temps down to freezing point, but I woulnd't trust anything below that.
kathy_ann
I had it go down to 28 degrees here 2 winters ago. I think it depends on how long it stays that cold that really matters. I had the top leaves get freezer burn, and I had some branches die back. But the main trunks were fine.
On the potted ones, I laid them all down flat and covered them with sheets and towels and even a few blankets. I had no damage at all.
I recently read though that it is actually colder down by the ground. I thought it was my tall ones that had no protection in the cold air so high up that would be subjected to colder temps.
I think here it only dips down for short periods though. So if your temp goes down and stays down for hours, your brugs probably would be in big trouble. I would take cuttings as insurance. Then I would lay them down and cover them with blankets. I would leave them under that tree or an overhang. Every little bit of protection helps a few degrees.
I think I have also read it is better if the roots are wet in a freeze. I could be wrong. Does anyone else know? Or is that roots in the ground not in pots?
Please let us know what you end up doing and how your brugs do!
GOOD LUCK!!!
Hi
We (my DIL) have our Brugs mulched in the ground here in z7b in Georgia. I don't know if you can set your pots into the ground, at this late date, and then mulch the heck out of them but it's an idea.
Course, we always take in cuttings into the greenhouse/house, to make sure we don't loose our three varieties, but have had good luck with the ones outside. It got down to 9 degrees for one night, and many continuous days of just below freezing, last winter. They all came back from the roots. Anything above ground gets killed by the cold. One of the Brugs was over 12' high by the end of the year and had hundreds of blossoms through November.
The mulch has to be thick and you have keep checking in the Spring to pull back when it's warm enough. This has worked for us so far.
Good luck with your beauties.
Brenda
Hi all,
I checked the weather again. Its actually going to get to 27 but feel like 20! We should start freezing (31) at midnight and will not get back above 32 until 6AM so we are looking a several hours of this. Yikes! I hate winter!
I had a local friend tell me to do as Kell suggested. It always rains here right before a freeze so the brugs are nice and wet. I have about 300 in gallon pots. So I've laid them all down on top of each other. The tree they are under is right up against my wooded 8 foot fence so I'm hoping this shields them also. I will then throw blankets on them and pray for the best. I've taken cuttings of the ones in the ground because I will lose about 3/4 of the tops anyway...no sense in having good cuttings go to waste.
Normally I would have the garage to put the extra brugs in but I did a very dumb thing...purchased a 2 year old Husky at the SPCA so I have to let him sleep in the garage tonight. I don't worry about him when its above freezing...he seems to really love it. So potted brugs and 2 year Huskys don't mix.
Thanks all. Will let you know how it pans out.
This message was edited Dec 8, 2005 4:10 PM
300! I can see now why you couldn't take them all indoors. I hope your temperatures didn't get down as far as ours did. It got down to 17ºF last night with at least 1/4" of sleet. My small orchid green house barely stayed above freezing. I have an electric heater in there funning continuously. My Brug greenhouse got down to 37 before I noticed that the heater must have run out of propane. My poor DH ran out and changed the connection to another cylinder.
The next 2 or 3 days aren't going to get much warmer.
Wonderful news!!!! It got down to 26 last night and the brug pile is alive and well. I didn't get to cover them with anything because I could stand the cold any longer. But all brugs survived on their own heat.
I did not heat the two green houses I have....everything in them are fine. Whew!
Thanks everyone.
No leaf burn either? How GREAT!!!!
That's great news!!
No leaf burn! Its really hard to believe that I suffered no damage from the freeze. But happy! I will check them again tomorrow to make sure that the damage was not delayed.
That's great Daisy !! I am so happy for you, we have had temps down around 32 a couple nights and so far I'm okay. Tomorrow they all get either moved into the greenhouse, my LR or get cut down to 6 inches, lol. I agree the key is not staying below freezing for very long.
I am soooo longing for Spring !! God bless, Margo
I've inspected the brugs carefully and there were a very few that got leaf burns. But these were at the outer edge of the pile. It appears that the ones that were to the east of the tree were sticking out of the pile and not right under the canopy of the tree. I think it is safe to say that the brugs were spared by the canopy preventing frost from falling on the them. Its hardly noticeable so I'm happy.
I left some out but I did not do it right. How did you prepare them for winter? My leaves are all burned. I live in 8a. I did not cover them or mulch them but I will in the morning and should I cut of the damaged part? Thank You, Joan
Read Kell's instructions. They are fool proof.