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Jeff Layman[_2_] · 22-12-2011, 03:25 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On 22/12/2011 10:11, wrote:
In ,
David WE wrote:

Tub should be fine - olives are quite hardy.
Probably quite a big tub so there is less chance of a quick freeze getting
to the roots.
Warmer here (coastal Suffolk) but our olive is out all year and seems fine.

Like all of those plants, they hate waterlogging, which kills more
than frost. I don't know exactly how hardy they are, but my guess
is that you will need to stop the tub from freezing - in Cambridge,
that would mean moving it into a building, at least.

I lost my pomegranate last winter, but my feijoa survived without
trouble. Both were outside in pots, and had survived the pots
freezing before.

My Acca (Feijoa) survives quite happily in Sussex clay. It suffered a
bit last winter, but came through eventually, albeit with some damage.
It regularly flowers (sparsely this year), but has only set fruit once
or twice in a dozen years.

The smart money is on waterlogging causing trouble, but I am not sure it
is so clear-cut. I do wonder if a short period of waterlogging would
protect the plant from dehydration due to cold, desiccating winds far
more than if it were in a free-draining compost. And as water has a
higher latent heat than anything else, a pot full of water will freeze
more slowly than anything else (mind you, once frozen it will thaw more
slowly than anything else, too!). So damage due to root hairs freezing
is less likely in a very wet pot, but perhaps fungal damage is more
likely. Maybe someone has studied this and there is a definitive answer
for certain plants.

--

Jeff