I don't know about the rest of you, but here in central PA (Harrisburg), the
weather has gotten ridiculously warm.
For the past week the temps have been in the mid 50's (13 C) every day,
dropping to low 30's (1 C) every night.
These temps are expected to last for at least another week.
Hardly winter weather for Zone 6.

I have a number of deciduous bonsai(maples etc)that think spring has
arrived!
Most are covered with buds that appear months ahead of schedule.
All the deciduous trees in my landscape are also pushing up buds.

When the inevitable happens, and it drops back into freezing temps and snow
covers my world, will the newly formed buds suffer ?

What's my next step ?

Mark Hill - Harrisburg, PA - Zone 6 (where it feels like Zone 10!)

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Thanks Chris

Other than sticking them into the freezer, I have no idea how to convince
them that winter isn't over!
Even completely burying them in mulch won't force the temps back to where
they normally should be.

I'm afraid my trees are coming out of dormancy, and sooner or later they'll
get a rude awakening.

Mark


-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Cochrane ]
Sent: Monday, December 29, 2003 10:56 AM
To: Mark Hill
Subject: [IBC] This is winter ??

snip

Try to keep them cold so the buds don't open

/snip

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Mark:

I'm about 2 hours east of you so we're getting the same weather. Today
it's already approaching the 50's and extremely sunny. I guess after
last year's 5-month arctic winter we can't complain too much.

I keep all of my outdoor deciduous and evergreens in an unheated garage.
I did check them yesterday and they seem OK at least visually. The
tridents seem to have formed some larger buds but nothing close to
opening. When it gets like this I tend to keep the garage windows
covered to at least block some of the heat generated by the sun. Beyond
that I don't think there is anything you can do short of having a huge
refrigeration room available.

I dump snow on them (when we have snow) and many of mine still have some
snow on them which I thin helps insulate and stabilize the temps. I
have heard of others that use a heavy mulch to keep the temps even but I
don't have an area to do that in my garage. I've also heard of others
that if the tree breaks bud they try to simulate summer by bringing them
indoors. I don't do that either since I subscribe to the theory that
since this happens in nature then mother nature will take care of it. I
would say if they break bud or look very close to that you may have to
protect them from any hard freeze nights until spring.

Knowing your location and guessing that you probably bought some of your
trees from Nature's Way I'd say you should drop Jim an e-mail and ask
him what to do, maybe with a specific tree you got from him. He always
answers my questions.

Good luck. I suspect our winter will be mild this year...and again
after last year when it dropped into the teens in Nov. and never came
out until almost April I'm not complaining.

Wmcorcor

PS As far as I know Naka only has BT I and BT II and they are classic.

== Subject: [IBC] This is winter ??
==
== I don't know about the rest of you, but here in central PA
(Harrisburg),
== the
== weather has gotten ridiculously
==
== Mark Hill - Harrisburg, PA - Zone 6 (where it feels like Zone 10!)

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Jarbas Godoy ++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++

Thanks for the suggestions Bill.

A number of my trees where purchased from Jim, a few more acquired at a the
Susquehanna Bonsai Club auction in late summer, and a few more collected
from my back yard.
I've got the entire lot in an unheated shed, that unfortunately gets far too
much sunlight.
A few weeks ago I checked them over critically and there wasn't one bud on
the works.
Yesterday, while wandering about my yard, I noticed my landscaped
"Bloodgood" was covered in swollen buds.
I immediately checked my bonsai collection and found they too where sending
out new buds.
If this keeps up, I'm willing to bet both my landscape trees and bonsai will
be sending out leaves in a few more weeks.

The "weather guessers" here in Harrisburg are predicting mid 50's for the
foreseeable future, but I'm willing to bet that sometime in the next month
or two, we'll be covered in snow and my trees won't be happy.

I guess the only thing I can do is to place them in complete darkness and
hope for the best.

Mark

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************************************************** ******************************
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