My root cellar book says around 32° (of course we know not to freeze them) and 80% humidity and higher. 40° halves the time they'll keep and 50° halves it again. And at the higher temperatures you need higher humidity. Refrigerators are not supposed to be good because they remove humidity. Which explains why I've never been able to store my Arkansas Blacks anywhere near what is claimed for them. But now I have a new fridge with humidity control on the bins and I doubt if the little dorm fridge has anything that removes humidity other than frost. So maybe this year I'll be able to try again. My plan is to put a pan of water in with them, and I know this fridge kept garden lettuce for a very long time. Sorry, no personal experience other than they don't last long in a cheap not so old fridge that bragged about moisture control (removing it) and probably wasn't kept as close to freezing as the one I have now. I would guess if yours got dry the problem was the humidity. My Blacks shriveled in the moisture control fridge, I didn't bother tasting them after that.

Hello Barbra, I also agree with Jen and Dave. I dont bare root any of my trees. All of my trees have the annual cutting of the leaves before i bring them inside my house to "winter over" in the back bedroon. They dry out for a couple of weeks, get sprayed down with insecticidal soap or something else to make sure i dont bring in any critters!!! They stay in a unheated room with the blinds closed for the winter. The temp usually stays around 60 degrees or slightly cooler but not much cooler than that. I also give them very little water like Jen. The larger containers maybe more per month, but the smaller containers much less. I water every three weeks or monthly. I think the hardest part is to try and forget about them during the dormant phase. We think that they need attention, but they really need that time so "sleep" . The door is closed and i try and not to bother them..LOL Its hard to do but it works for me.. This year with my green house, i will keep a few smaller trees growing and see how that goes. The trees that i did keep growing last year under lights kept getting spider mites and i really didnt like that at all. Those little buggers only attacked the Plumies and left all of my C & S alone. The Desert Roses i keep in my great room and let them be as well. They do require more water than the dormant Plumies, but they do seem to drop the leaves as well for me. Everyone has a different way to get their Plumies ready for the winter. It depends where you live and the climate that you have. I wish i could keep mine outside and place them on the southside of my house, but it gets way below freezing here and even gets into the mid 20's at times during the winter. So....inside they go!!! Good luck with your trees..I see that you are in a zone 9!! How nice!!! Hope this helps with some of the ways we all prepare our trees for the end of the season. Take Care, Laura in VB

We have a one story. The attic space over the garage could be a bonus room if we finished it. We access the attic with a set of stairs at the back (inner) wall of the garage. Thae back wall has an entrance to the house, door to the understair closet, landing and then door to the stairs and door and closet for the water heater. It all lines up at the back of the garage so there isn't an awkward space. It is easy access to the attic.

I know everybody is advocating transferring your tapes to DVD, BUT... As a computer geek/guru, I must tell you that the lifespan of "recorded" DVDs is unknown, but probably much shorter than everyone assumes. One highly regarded computer security specialist recently stated that they may be good for 2-3 years, possibly 5 years, but should never be used for "critical" data beyond that. Yes, I realize your tapes are probably not "critical data", but bear with me. I think someone would consider their wedding video to be critical data. Commercial movie DVDs are stamped out. It's a physical process, like embossing. "Recordable" DVDs use a dye, which changes its reflectivity when "burnt" by a laser. The longevity of this dye is questionable. The lifespan of a VHS tape is another story. If kept in a temperature-controlled, humidity-controlled environemnt (not a garage!), maybe 10-20 years before deterioration. The answer? There is no good answer. The original Declaration of Independence is fully legible after 230 years. A copy of it on a DVD or VHS tape 230 years from now: probably unviewable. Another question: will anyone have a VHS tape deck or a DVD player 10 or 20 years from now? Will analog TV signals be playable, since switching to digital TV is mandatory in just a few years? How many of you have a 5 1/4 floppy disk drive? See the problem? This is an enormous problem which librarians are facing now. Microfilm machines? Microfiche? How about a disk from a WANG word processor from 20 years ago? An 8" floppy disk? I know I've gotten a little carried away, but all electronic media need to be copied to a new format every 5-10 years, because the formats fall out of usage. Got any out-of-print 8-track tapes? If it hasn't been reissued, then once that tape dies, IT'S GONE...FOREVER. I'm sure glad that the Declaration of Independence wasn't written on a word processor!