In a message dated 11/14/2003 11:41:41 AM Eastern Standard Time, writes:

What's a cold house? It's recommended for some plants
like dwarf pomegranate for over-wintering. I live in
an apartment without a balcony so it's probably not
possible to build one.


Shireen:

Simply do the following to winter your hardy trees on the balcony.

1. Acquire wooden boxes large enough to accommodate the size of your bonsai pots.

2. Place cedar mulch in the bottom of the box.

3. Water the root pads with landscape fabric.

4. Place the trees in the boxes.

5. Bury the pots with mulch up to the first branch.

Be certain to insert chopsticks into the root pads. These can be used to monitor water consumption. Simply, remove the sticks on a daily basis and touch the portion that was in the soil. When it is almost dry, rewater. Importantly, when the trees freez
e, do not water.

Lastly, construct a wind breaker so that your trees do not get freeze dried by the cold winds of winter. Burlap can be secured to adjoining structures on the balcony and meet this shielding requirement.

Cordially,

Michael Persiano
http://members.aol.com/iasnob/index.html

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