I have a Persian lime that hasn't flinched this year - going through cold down to low 40's here, then rain. However, it is it's 2nd year and loaded with fruit. I am assuming that they can take it. But - if I am buying a tree, I think I would prefer that it not have too many small fruit - because that would indicate that it was heavily fertilized in the nursery. Not especially a good start for such a small tree. Then it would also have some transplant shock as well. Hope it will survive. Think I'd try to keep it warm to see if it will perk up a bit first. Bejay

I agree. Go to SBOE (Santa Barbara Orchid Estate) and ask them personally what sort of orchid will be suitable for you area (if you intend to grow your orchid outside). 100 degrees is tolerable (if you provide shade cloth and perhaps a mister). But most orchid available will not tolerate below freezing temps without some sort of protection, i.e a greenhouse. Or you have to bring in the plant inside the house during the winter. When I lived in Chicago, I would grow my orchids in my windowsill during the winter and summer them outside. Temps in the midwest would get very hot and humid, but the orchids like it outside. Better than being cooped up inside and getting cabin fever. As I did. Even in Chicago, I couldn't grow Bletias because our winters would get to negative numbers. Laelia anceps and cymbidiums will tolerate cool temps. Sometimes down to freezing. But if you are talking about 20 degrees for long periods, even anceps or cymbidiums may freeze.

You don't say which gentian, not all are warm/cold/warm germinators. If you've sown any of the jacobs ladder other than Polemonium carneum, I think you could just leave the containers outside without the warm period - those should germinate when the cold temps begin to warm up. It probably would not hurt to bring the monkshood in for a couple of weeks then put it back out. You don't need to provide additional heat other than room temperature or light for the seeds. Truthfully though, I don't always have good luck with aconitum/monkshood unless sowing very fresh in early Fall, but that could be me :) "Is moist vermiculite in a baggie a satisfactory method for warm stratifying?" Yes, I use just a teaspoon or two of either moist sterile sand or moist vermiculite, then sow the entire contents of the bag when I'm ready to winter sow and place outdoors. (this is not the same as the baggie method for germinating seeds, it just meets the requirements for those seeds that need warmth and moisture before the moist chill). Alternatively you can sow them, leave the pots indoors for the required warm period but that takes up more space. You can also sow, place outdoors in late summer/early Fall for Spring germination. Some extra vermiculite, grit, or potting mix may be necessary to further cover the seeds once you've tipped them out of the ziplocks and sown them -

Yes, tire pressure read less when cold. In the vicinity of this temperature and pressure, air closely follows perfect gas behavior. In other words, P1 x V1/T1 = P2 x V2/T2 Where P1, V1. and T1 are pressure, volume, and temperature at initial conditions and P2, V2, and T2 are pressure, vloume, and tmeoerature at some other condition. IMPORTANT: Temperatures must be in absolute degrees, ie, measured from absolute zero. Absolute zero for celsus is -273 C and for Farenheit, it is -460 F. Over a working range of 30 to 50 psi, automotive tires do not change volume by a significent amount. We have the following relationship: P1 V1/T = P2 V2/T2 For our tire problem, the volumes effectively cancel leaving: P2 / P1 = T2 / T1 Solving for temperature change given the pressure change: Shuffling the preceding equation gives: T2 = (P2 / P1) T1 For example, assuming that you tire was 60F (520 R) when cold, and given that the 2 pressures were 33 and 35 psi, we have T2 = (35/33) 520 R = 1.0606 x 520 = 551.5 R or 91.5 F [ add 460 to deg F to get absolute temperature.] [ add 263 to Deg C to get absolute Temperature on the celsus scale.] As you can see, pressure does vary with its temperature. In summer, I assume that the cold temperature is 60 to 70 F and inflate to the standard recommended pressure. When the tire is hot, the pressure will be higher. Knowing how the pressure changes with temperature, we can expect the pressure to fall in cold weather. The pressure change from 60 F to 20 F is 0.923 P1. A tire inflated to 33 psi at 60 F would read 30.5 at 20 F So, should you inflate to full presure in winter? Maybe. It all depends. If you expect the tire to go up to 100 F in operation. then inflate a bit on the low side. However, it has been my experience that properly inflated tires do not gain a lot of temperature in winter. At 30 F, I inflate my tires to near the recoomended pressure ( That's the pressure on the door sticker, not the max. pressure on the sidewall of the tire. The max. pressure on the sidewall of the tire is not its working pressure, but is the max pressure the tire should ever see. Some tire shops will take the tire up to its maximum pressure when mounting a tire and as soon as it has seated on the rim, the pressure should be reduced. When the tire has been pressurized beyond the sidewall marking, it can be damaged and sometimes this damage is not apparent, but may show about 6000 to 8000 miles later. Broken or stretched belts may show as a worn out center portion of the tread. Often, the tire shows unbalance at highway speed and the tire shop will not be able to balance this out becasue the tire changes shape at speed. Its a dangerous tire and should be discarded.)