I realize I'm a tad late, but nothing says wintertime in the south like a big sheet over your plumie, lol
Happy Holidays
Most of my potted plumies still have their leaves, although ratty. I put most in the garage but this Irma Bryan is outdoors in a huge container. Too big and heavy to bring in. I'm hoping the pineapple guava shrubs around it will offer some protection.
I have two noid plumies that are inground and they come back but don't get big enough to bloom. Only time will tell.
Vossner, that sure is a funny sight. Will you keep it on all winter, or was it just temporary for a day or 2?
My plumies are dormant in the basement.
With this crazy weather we've been having in Houston, golly don't think you'll have to keep the sheet on for to long :) Looks like you have a nice large yard behind your plumeria, looks nice and neat. Well good luck to you and Irma Bryan :)
Carolyn
Houston, TX
hello. I haven't uncovered this one, primarily because it's kinda hard to do. I have a neighbor that once she covers plants, the cover is not removed til March. I've always thought that would surely kill plants,no sun, no air, etc but the fact is she still has those shrubs.
I may experiment and keep some covered and others put on/take off as needed. Don't know yet.
i have my plumies in metal cages that i covered with canvas material. the material is both translucent and breathable. that way sunlight and air flow still reach the plumie. mine are staying covered until springtime, too. the material doesn't come in contact with the plumeria.
would love to see a pic
In my list of things to do, I plan to saw the sides of old queen sheets to make them like giant pillow cases for winter protection of my tender tropicals. I would add string to tie them at the base. I guess I could take this further and try to find some frost cloth wholesale and make my some different sized pillow covers, so to speak.
This is item 1,000,032 in my list.
i'll take one of the covering when i get home. here is one of the cages on its side. i hope to have a friend sew the fabric together to make a tent that i can just slip over the top. also, i need to have my other friend that made the cages add a pitched roof.
wow, that is fancy, I am very impressed. I would offer to sew fabric but as you can see, my very own project is #1,000,032. You'd have a very long wait...
yeah, i didn't want to jerry-rig any support structures so i had my friend build the cages. they are about 6' and light because the tubes are hollow.
unfortunately, the canvas material doesn't go down to the ground. it reached 28 degrees under there last week. i put a 90w spot light on the ground inside the cage. it raised the temp to match that of the covered patio. that's all i am doing for supplemental heat. i don't want to waste money to keep these things alive during the winter. i will only turn on the spot on the coldest of nights. i have a big concrete block right in front of the light that heats up from the spot.
here is one of the plumie cages w/ covering.
this is what it looks like inside. the plumie still gets enough light. i cleared mulch away so that the ground could radiate its heat. i piled mulch around the base of the trunk to protect it from cold temps since the covering doesn't go all the way to the ground. 90w spotlight shines on block and heats it and increases the air temp in the cage by 4 degrees.
haha! not really hetty. only overhead protection (well surround sound - LOL) and one spotlight. they have gone down to 28 degrees already. however, surface temps on the plumeria were warmer by several degrees. just goes to show you that overhead protection goes a long way. the surface of plumeria w/o overhead protection get colder than the air temps. at least that's what my pyrometer measurements have show me. helps with the bigger picture. so this is as much protection as they will get. no heater! just nice to know that i can grow some in the ground now...
I am really impressed with your setup. Agree w/ Hetty, those babies are pampered and your extra attention will pay off with incredible plants and frag. You've done good.
:-) You used a sheet with leaves on it so your neighbors would think it is one of your new plants right? LOL
smart gal
fortunately, they are in the backyard. however, if they were in the front i'd still cover them. the neighbors would just have to deal with it. LOL
TP, wouldn't it be more efficient (eg, possible to use a lower wattage bulb) if you brought the covering down to the ground? I think you'd still get plenty of net air circulation, since the fabric itself is somewhat porous. And with the soil around the base of the plant protected from direct cold air flow, I'd think you could accomplish with a 15 watt bulb the same as with your 90 watt --great idea to have the bulb within a reflector, heating up a concrete block, in any case.
i am not sure.
cept maybe a tarp over a fig tree up north ;)
about two more degrees of head added by bringing the covering down to the ground. now i'll try the lower wattage bulb and see what happens.
A skirt of black plastic, below where light needs to get through, would probably add some supplemental heat .
not quite understanding that...
poor explanation on my part, sorry...
Instead of moving the light fabric down to the ground, as you've already done, I was thinking you could wrap a length of black plastic around that lower, otherwise open section. Or use four black bags, one for each side, and let them extend out a bit onto the ground. At the bottom of your column, this dark material would not block any light that the plant needs.
The dark color would absorb heat from any sunlight. The warmth would result in some warm air flowing upward off the black plastic, at least some of which would provide a bit of warmth inside.
i am not really concerned about warmth during the day. i really don't want it to get too warm in there and cause the plant to break dormancy. looking for more heat during the night though. i actually used frost cloth that i had laying around from last year. it sure will be nice to have covers that are all one piece. thanks for the suggestions.
I see your point --and why your approach of heating the block is so good. Your light transfers heat into that mass which releases into the enclosed airspace when it's most needed.
Maybe paint the block black so it absorbs more heat...
black buckets or trash cans filled with water ;)
Like many of you who live in milder climates, we still need to cover a few plants. The aggravating part is that we are faced w/ covering and uncovering plants, because the weather fluctuates so wildly.
I noticed my neighbor covers her tender plants in Dec and she doesn't uncover until mid-feb. Her plants look great. I always thought the lack of sun in the warmer days would be detrimental but it didn't affect her plants. I decided to experiment with some plumies and other tender tropicals and was pleasantly surprised. The dwarf plumie retained all its leaves, the regular plumies, including the one shown in the very first post of this thread, lost all leaves but branches were firm. Small tropicals were mostly OK, with only the top leaves damaged.
I think that in the future I will do like my neighbor and cover for the entire winter season. I did not use any heavy blankets, just light colored bed sheets. I don't know if this will work for you, but if you get tired of the cover/uncover bit, you might want to experiment with a couple of plants next winter and cover long term.
Here is a pic of my sea grapes. I hadn't protected in the past and it died to the ground. This year I covered long term and this is how it looks today, about 8" tall with only the top leaves damaged.
Big sigh here Nery, my variegated sea grape looks bad. I could not cover it; it was just too large and it is obviously not a happy plant right now. It lost all it's leaves and the branches I have scraped are brown underneath - a very bad sign. I've been afraid to scratch the main trunk.
Wow I didn't know there was a var. sea grape. Of course, I googled it immediately and I'm in love. I'm afraid for you that it won't come back but as a good friend that I want to be, I will cross my fingers really tight for its return.
Last fall I just HAD to have a sewing machine so I bought one. To this date it remains in is orig. package. I have been thinking about making huge pillow cases that I can use to cover plumies and other stuff now that I'm ready to do the long term cover routine. Some of the plants come back reliably but if I covered them, they wouldn't have to start from scratch each season. This is item 1,000,098 on my to do list.
I hope your plant comes back, too beautiful to lose. You guys had the craziest weather this winter!
i haven't uncovered the cages. i will most likely wait until next month. covering and uncovering and then covering again can be a pain!
It is w/ sadness and embarrassment that I post my beloved 5 yr old plumie is DEAD. I mean hollow to the graft.
My great idea of covering with a sheet didn't work after all. Was the material too thin? Did I remove too soon? who knows, but it is DEAD. So please, do not consider this as a safe option for your precious plumies. The dang things need to be dug up (if planted inground) or the pots dragged to the garage or basement.
that's a bummer!
i think it's safe if you supply supplemental heat under the tent. you essentially create a greenhouse that breathes. it also might have to do with the variety or the duration of cold weather. mine went down to an air temp in the high 20s and they are fine. the stem and leaf temps were warmer than the air though.
I was thinking about you when I discovered the gruesome facts. Wondered if you had uncovered yours. I will not plant another one in that spot. I will likely go w/ a citrus. I will keep mine potted from now on and resign myself to do the hauling bit, sigh.
i uncovered mine about a month ago. the yard still get into high 30s. warming up again...aaargh!
My condolences Nery. Interestingly I have a large plummie in a pot that I moved it to a little niche corner on the SW side of the house. It did lose it's leaves but other than that it is fine which surprised me as I did not cover it. Next year all my tropicals get moved to this corner.
ardesia - what's the coldest temps you had this winter in your yard?