28 F in the city

on flatlands/open spaces I'd worry about temps at 30 (and lower).

A sheet/plastic/whatever you got/buckets

The Metasequoia I'd worry about, yes. The larches too. Picea's I wouldn't worry about or firs. All your maples though, yes, take care of those. Pines, don't bother with those, either. Cedrus, I wouldn't worry about that either.

Good luck Eliot,

Dax
p.s. those #'s are based on my family's gardening experience over many years spanning a few generations.

Dax-

Thanks for the advice...I'll get on that as soon as I get home tonight...Never thought of buckets...good thinking...

3 acres no closer than 5 files as the crow flies to city limits, so a ways out in the country... Northwest Ohio is about as flat as Iowa thanks to a couple of big ice cubes a few million years ago...

Plenty of protection from west winds thanks to a woods, but thats about it.

The Metasequoia was my biggest concern...to expensive to lose already...or ever!!! I'll get the Larch, only about 6 of those around the yard...and the Maples, same deal...I lost a very large 'Tamukeyama' last spring with a late frost...That's what has got me thinking about protection this year.

Thanks.

Eliot

bed sheets will trap the soil heat.. and add a few degrees..

but arent you going to knock off the buds on most plants ... with a sheet laying on them ????

but i understand the need to do something ....

see eliot.. buy small and they are easier to cover... lol ...

to sum it up.. mother nature is a cruel mistress [i meant something else.. but GW wont allow it].. no two ways about it..

lose some sleep ... cross your toes and fingers.. pray.. kill a goat for a sacrifice to the pagan tree gods ...

WELCOME TO MY WORLD ....

i will say a small prayer for your plants ...

good luck

ken

ps: i have found.. the easiest way to avoid the stress .. is not to walk around and look at them all too early.. you get too attached.. if you just stay away.. then a few weeks later ... you can claim no idea what happened.. and that provides a source of many post to GW ...

Thanks Ken...always adding a little humor into a situation! :-)~

Gonna try something for the Metasequoia at least...Do you think sacrificing a rooster would work??? The neighbors have a couple of those blasted things as pets (PETS for crying out loud) that like to wake me up at 5 am all summer long...

It's windier then heck here today...and they aren't calling for frost till Friday night...so I think I'll wait till tomorrow night to throw a bed sheet over it...

Can't wait till I start hearing the comments from my neighbors Sat. morning!

Eliot

No dilly dallying around.:)

Dax

Of the conifers, the only one I'd worry about would be the Metasequioa, and that only because I have less experience with it than with the others. IMO, larch will take a cold night in stride. It is completely normal for them to commence growth before pretty much anything else-in the conifer world-and as such, they have evolved to handle late frosts/freezes.

We're forecast for 28 F. tonight. My larch up north-where it may actually be a couple degrees colder-are starting to bud out. I'm not the least bit concerned for their welfare...as far as this weather event.

+oM

Set up a low output rainbird impulse sprinkler on a tripod that throws some water on the plants that need protection. The water releases some heat as it freezes and protects the tender foliage from any frost. If a coating of ice forms, that is no problem and probably won't happen anyway if it stays in the high 20's. It works for citrus growers.

Bob

ssssooooooooooooooooooooooooo????

what happened??

ken

It's a beautiful, if brisk Spring morning...No frost last night...Lots of dew though...The threat looks to be subsiding for tonight as well...

Weather channel has tonights temps at 34 up from 28...So we'll see...They still have the frost/freeze warning out though...The weather map has it extended all the way up past you Ken.

I checked out the Metasequoia again last night to make sure and it has definitely leafed out...So I'll toss the sheet over it again tonight. I was real careful and used a ladder so I didn't disturb it much...Thankfully the wind died down last night about that time...

Bob-thanks for the suggestion, sounds a little to complicated for my simple brain though! I had thought about the low tech approach of burning oil around the tree as the citric farmers do though!!!

Eliot

kay serat.. serat ... though you are probably to young for the obscure doris day reference.. lol ...

spelled properly.. and translated.. what will be .. will be ..

too many to worry about.. new stuff is hidden in the garage ...

ken

Got me on Doris Day...But, Roy Orbison's "Shahadaroba" would apply here as well I believe...

"Shahadaroba, Shahadaroba, Fate knows what's best for you"
Shahadaroba, Shahadaroba, Face the future and forget about the past"

Eliot

I had a Larix laricina 'Craftsbury Flats' that was killed by a late hard freeze after the plant had broken dormancy. I thought this unusual since Larix laricina is hardy to zone 2 or more. In the spring when woody plants are breaking dormancy, a hard freeze can do a lot of damage.
Good luck!

Right, but I didn't see this as that caliber of event.

+oM

3 years ago April 13 in Kansas City temps went to 16F. Most everything deciduous regenerated with 2nd flush. Pine candles froze off with no growth that year. Acer palms. took the biggest hit. There is no way you can protect against that event which they say happens every 100 years give or take.

Dave

Hey, similar question. Metasequoia and a pseudolarix here. I'm going to throw a sheet over the redwood (I'm not really concerned about knocking the buds off. If a few get bumped off, a few get bumped off). What about the pseudolarix? Guessing I should protect that too?

Low's supposed to be 31 although it's windy.

Creativity amccour... I start looking in the garage and then the basement... then I get to thinking about the woods and all the loose branches on the ground -

(2) 2x4's cut on a chop saw at the same (opposing angles) screw the tops together and drive a few 1 foot 2x4's sawed off like a pencil tip on one end, into the ground, and then screw your longer 2x4's to those. Ya know... things of this nature. ...An old bolt to hold some branches together and screw those into a few 2x4 stakes after you hammer them into the earth.

Dax

... Huh..?

Anyway, I threw sheets over the pseudolarix, redwood, and magnolia. Problem with the conifers, though, is that they're still pretty young and bending a lot under the weight of the sheets. Will that be okay overnight?

Don't worry about Pseudolarix, they're more frost resistant than larix .....I know that's hard to belive, considering their home range!

Mine only get protection when they're small enough I can toss a sheet over the chicken wire fence around them. After that they better be tough enough. I have a recurring nightmare of growing a non-hardy plant up to 60ft tall and having the fire department over every year to use the big ladder to put tarps over it.

Well we got a minor frost last night...When I went out this morning it was already burning off pretty good. I got two very small and exposed Acer pal. covered with 5 gal. buckets (Thx. for the idea Dax) and the Metasequoia with a bed sheet again. 20-30 mph winds all day, but they really died down again last night to a minor breeze.

I just carefully wrapped the Redwood in the sheet and then ran some string around it to keep it from flapping around in the wind. I was going to get a pic, but couldn't find the camera battery this morning...

amccour-you're from this area right? do you know what it got down to last night?

Toronado- I love it...I'm cracking up laughing...ONLY because I can see myself actually going thru with it!!! Two of my neighbors and good friends are Firemen and the one would steal a truck and go home to do some of his own trees!!!

Eliot