RE: Fall planting

I'll chime in quickly, as I'm hearing chimes in the background.... My
only concern would be heaving due to a frozen hole with a soft medium
in it holding the hosta.  yes we should know better than to simply drop
the pot in the hole but... as we dig that $100 hole to hold the hosta 
we still have the hosta sitting in a softer medium than the ground 
around the hole.   Since the hosta has no time to laydown roots... you
run the risk of heave.   Up Nort' here, it's becoming a bigger problem
as our winters are less stable in the more moderate states with a
constant freeze thaw pattern it might become more of an issue.  Not 
sure, never lived in a moderate climate.

Mike
Milwaukee

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hosta-open@hort.net [o*@hort.net]On
Behalf Of Chick
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 10:20 AM
To: hosta-open@hort.net
Subject: Fall planting


I always get a few questions this time of year about how late you can 
plant hostas.  I usually give some standard advice about a month before 
the first hard freeze or whatever, but it occurs to me that I don't know 
why there should be any reason not to plant as late as you want. 

With our plants anyway, which are all grown and shipped in containers, 
and if we don't sell them, survive perfectly well sitting in pots all 
winter in frames, why do they need time to adjust to planting before 
winter?  They're essentially dormant, or will be before they can do much 
in their new site anyway, so what's the danger in planting them the day 
before the ground freezes?  It seems to me that any changes involved in 
going from pot to ground are all to the plants benefit, assuming that 
they are planted in well drained soil - more insulation for the roots, 
less variation in moisture level, and there is probably less freezing 
and thawing below the soil level than there is in pots. Since we have 
very few losses in pots over winter, which seems like a much harsher 
environment, why would it be risky to plant late?

I suspect that the vast majority of losses over winter are caused by 
voles or poor drainage leading to crown rot.  Seems to me that would be 
just as big a problem the second winter as the first, so what difference 
does planting time really make?

Comments and opinions are invited.

Chick

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