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Re: Secrets of Great Gardeners By Doreen


Doreen Howard wrote:
>
> Be careful using bubble wrap.  If any part of the plant touches the
> plastic, and the temperature drops below freezing--that part of the
> plant will die.  I had a friend use bubble wrap to insulate her lemon
> and kumquat trees when a freeze threatened, and she lost both.  The
> plastic transfers the cold directly to cell walls in the leaves and
> causes them to rupture.
> Doreen
>
        I wonder if it was so much the bubble wrap as her method of wrapping?
Citrus trees die from the cold not because the leaves freeze but because
the thin bark on the trunk freezes. If she tried to protect the leaves
but let the trunk exposed the tree would wilt the very next day.
        Bubble wrap should be a good insulator because of the many dead air
spaces. The plastic itself is a good insulator and if she used two
layers it should have worked for a normal freeze. Subzero temps would
call off all bets.
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