Potted trees and freezing

[Mahindra3016]

I have sold around 20 potted trees and will be getting them to people next weekend. This week looks like, freezing temps at night and daytime highs in the 40s some nights into the mid to lower 20 's. This morning just the top inch was frozen, should I bring them into my unheated basement for this week untill I get them to people? I really dont want to take the time to bury the pots just for a week.

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[cavey]

I would at least put them in a garage (deeper in and not by the door); I am far from an expert but I think your trees' enemy while potted is freeze/thawing cycles ... I heel in pots every year with little issues, those pots freeze but are in the ground and are insulated from repeated freezings and thawings. I would guess that just getting them into a garage if you have one would keep them from freezing up more and would be a more stable temp till you can get them gone. I wouldnt heel them in either - not for that short of a time. But I wouldnt leave them outside - just potted either. I half thought about telling you to just pack a tarp around them (pots) but if your ground is already cold and or frozen that wouldnt work good either.

 

[Mahindra3016]

Thanks for the advice, Most of the trees are dormant, would storing in my 50 degree basement for a week be a problem? I have told the buyers to plant or bury the pots after receiving.

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[cavey]

No I dont think it would be a big problem at all... I would say it is more about what temp they have been at recently; we just also dumped into a cold spell as well... but It had been decent before that so your not talking about real temp extremes if you keep them out of the recent cold temps. A week at 50 wont hurt them, but I would be careful about taking 50 degree trees and planting them into frozen ground. Hopefully things will come up a bit in temps. Trees are tough but we dont want to put them through to much stress. I am not an expert - I have just learned not to - on my own, put them through any added stressors. Mother nature does that enough on her own.

There are a bunch of people on here far more knowledgeable than me and maybe they will voice in. I would just bring them into my garage where the temps would be above freezing but if the house is the only option then I would opt for that over keeping potted trees from freezing and refreezing - hypothetically if they froze and you got them into ground that was equally cold I would believe they would be fine but you cant predict what others will do with them and Im sure you want to get them to them in the best condition possible.

 

[DrDirtNap]

If you have them all together all you need to do is throw a bunch of pine straw or wheat straw around them and they will be fine. You shouldn’t need to move them indoors.


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[yoderjac]

I have sold around 20 potted trees and will be getting them to people next weekend. This week looks like, freezing temps at night and daytime highs in the 40s some nights into the mid to lower 20 's. This morning just the top inch was frozen, should I bring them into my unheated basement for this week untill I get them to people? I really dont want to take the time to bury the pots just for a week.

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If the roots freeze, you will kill the trees. You can flirt with 32, but 20's are a big problem. Depending on climate, folks burry or mulch the containers. I have a cold room I use. I've mulched them in successfully in my climate (zone 7a). 3 gals did very well, I lost a few 1 gals but they did pretty well. I no longer mulch but use the cold room instead. I also found it advantageous to transplant from 1 gals to 3 gals before overwintering rather than waiting until spring. The trees take up more space, but the added mix around the root ball acts as insulation.

My cold room is just a room in my basement that I close off from the rest, close the heating ducts and open a window. Temperature varies but it doesn't get warm enough for long enough for trees to break dormancy. 50 degrees won't be a big issue.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I don't know if this helps you or not. I kept seedling hawthorns in a 5 gal. bucket all winter last year in my unheated attached garage and they greened right up this past spring. All I did was give them a little water about every 3 weeks - not much - only about 1 cup at each watering. Bucket was almost full of good dirt.

 

[greyphase]

Maybe I've just been lucky but for the past 4 years I've overwintered potted trees just by grouping them together and surrounding them with hay bales. We've had some nights and days in the single digits but I've not lost a tree yet to freezing.

 

[cavey]

I dont think freezing in its self is completely the issue. The minimum frost depth for footings here is 42" and none of us plant anything that deep its not uncommon to have the ground frozen to that depth; I have had potted plants that I thought were goners or just undesirables left out over winter and they came back without issue (they were just not in an area of direct sunlight), all my heeled in apple tree pots are already likely frozen solid roots and all or soon will be - just heeled into the shallow ground and I have many that are still potted from multiple years. Im pretty sure if you keep them - being the roots, in stable temps whether frozen or not that that is the key. Repeated thawing and freezing of the roots breaks them apart and causes injury/death to the tree ... and Im sure that grayphase's trees surrounded by bales likely keeps the pots frozen/insulated from extreme temp changes. Either or any way if Mahindra puts them in the basement or even a garage they will be fine for a week I think we would all agree that having them frozen before delivery would be less than optimal.

 

[Mahindra3016]

Thank you for all the advice guys!

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