Thanks for this Tom, interesting reading. The ground is 5 degrees warmer if watered???

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Cheers Wendy

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tbell wrote:
On Wed, 17 Jan 2007 13:48:54 -0800, K Barrett wrote
(in article ):

I have been dealing (or not dealing) with the uncommon cold. As a
strategy I didn't water for many weeks, (Last time was mid October
IIRC). I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do or not, but
that's what I did. The GH is mostly unheated. I do have a heater,
and it kicks on to keep the GH at a min of 52 (or at least that's
what the min/max themoneter says the min has been the last few days.)

I didn't water becasue in the back of my mind I recalled a botany
prof talking about how in a freeze if a cell is full of water and
freezes, the ice crystals will cut the cell membrane, lysing the
cell when it defrosts. so I've been keeping the cells empty... *G*.

Sure I could turn on the heat, but the boyfriend yells too much so
I'd rather not face that argument yet again, so its adapt or die.
Touch wood, so far the catts are OK, Only a few leaves have been
lost, and I'll bet the cold dry rest will make the dendrobiums bloom
great next year.

Of course I broke down and watered yesterday, and it rained last
night and this morning every puddle outside was frozen... I haven't
even thought about going into the GH....

Its odd. During the day the swamp cooler kicks on becasue its
bright and sunny, at night it freezes. Since I didn't know which
way to jump I opted for not watering.

We'll see what happens next year (No soup for you!)

As to Mitsui et al, I'll bet they have heaters. Salinas isn't the
banana belt that SB is. SBOE has both outdoor shaded areas and true
GHs with heaters so they are probably OK too.

K Barrett

Hey, Kath, it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. My
min/max has been recording upper 20s outdoors for the last few
nights, but my cheapy heater has kept the GH in the low 50s at night,
and it runs into the 70s during the day. I've been watering same as
always - every 10-14 days in Winter - and everything looks happy,
including the dendrobes.
Here's a URL at Cornell that offers some thoughts about frost and
watering: http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/weather/frost.pdf

Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
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