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Freeze/Thaw

16 years ago

I'm approaching the most dangerous time of year for hosta. Slugs and snails will make a hosta ugly but not kill them. Freeze/thaw cycles will kill a hosta dead, you'll see roots that look alive and crowns no longer attached to the roots and that little baby is gone.

It is not to late to mulch; the best defense against freeze thaw or the problems associated with early emergence and the damage or death caused by these conditions.

Mulch is the best defense against the vagaries of spring weather!

PS mulch does not cause southern blight, which is a soil borne organism or crown rot that is the result of an attack by bacteria or fungus on damaged crowns or roots. Often this damage is from freeze/thaw cycles on dormant hosta or freezing of emerging plants.

Also, do not start watering early that can contribute to freeze/thaw problems. Later there will be endless threads about virus, slugs, thugs, nematodes, etc, all these combined will not kill one tenth as many hosta as freeze/thaw and early emergence.

Mulch is your friend.

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Comments (4)

Hosta_Haven
16 years ago
So funny your timing, EO....I was just wondering last night what was the date last year that we had that late freeze that hurt so many hostas, especially for our southern forum members...I'm thinking mid-April?

I remember last year in early April during an early spring thaw, scratching around my beds looking for eyes and then later being so thankful none of them decided to surface until ~April 20. Then they all starting popping up! I vowed then never to dig around before THEY signal me and certainly not before May 1. I told my hubby to leave all the leaves from the trees on the bed in fall and will not pull them back until May. We also mulch heavily with woodchips.

What I'm trying to say here, folks, is... listen to EO. He knows what he is talking about when it comes to mulch!

Char
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
16 years ago
char said: I told my hubby to leave all the leaves from the trees on the bed in fall and will not pull them back until May.

i ask .. why EVER pull it back???? the hosta and the trees are creating a FREE natural mulch .... and we are [used to be .. for me] inclined to remove it ... why i ask.. why ....

the only reason is for slug control .. and you can control them without removing such .... unless you have the ninth plague of the bible.. and then.. well its war ...

also ... i have lost... over time.. most of my fancy plantiginea hybrids.. not momma .... from hard late frosts ... these plants are very susceptible to the freeze/thaw that ester talks about ... ... they often never recover ....

ken
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hosta_freak
16 years ago
You're talkin'to the one who knows,Char! It was the first week of April,Easter week. I was scrambling to get my hostas covered,because most of them come up in March,down here. While I didn't lose any,a lot of them were very small all year long. I,like you am leaving the leaves and mulch around the hostas,until they put their little pointy heads above the leaves. I already found my montana Aureomarginata,above ground,and I don't mean heaving! It is staying under leaves,if I have to keep piling more and more on it. Let's hope the freezes are gone before hosta season this year! March 23 is Easter this year,and so far winter isn't going away down here. Phil
hosta_freak
16 years ago
I know why the hosta eyes are pointed,Butch! I have seen them come up in hard-baked red clay,and just bust through! For anyone else who read my post about montana Aureomarginata,it is now 2" above ground,but I re-covered it with more leaves! Phil

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