Re: question about wintering over

Connie,

I concur with Gene - his method works a treat.  Only time I ever lost
plants in mulch plunge beds was the year we had freak ice storms followed
by short warm periods that melted the ice in the pots but not in the beds,
so I couldn't get the pots out to dump out the water that was sitting on
their crowns.  This went on for about a week (alternating freeze thaw) and
many plants displayed their resentment to icewater baths by simply rotting
- esp. a whole bunch of lavenders who hate wet around their crowns in
winter.  In our normal winters, pots of all sizes up to about a gallon
sailed through fine.

The only time I've dug potted plants into the ground is when the pots were
5 gal or larger - before I had a greenhouse - and too tall for the plunge
bed.  Works OK with them.  Small pots, 6" and under are really too small to
successfully dig into the ground, they will frost heave among other things
and unless a "pit" drains like mad, you could end up with a winter bathtub
of icy water and few plants like that.  I've also buried big pots (3 gal
and over) in my rotting wood chip piles - also wintered B&B plants in
them....works fine.

Have had the same problem as Gene using Remay as a winter cover.  If you
are subject to ice/thaw periods, making 'A' frames out of plastic tall
enough for you to get your bod in there to tend and water works better
because they don't provide the cover rodentos like...leave the ends open
for air circulation; all you're using them for is protection from ice for
freeze/thaw problems.   You could also simply do a temporary hoop house
with open ends for this out of PVC pipe on 2x4 ground frame.  You could
cover it with metal window screening to keep out critters, too, if they are
a problem, and only throw plastic over it if ice threatens.  

One thing to keep in mind if you do want to cover plunge beds is wind...if
yours is a very windy location you have to anchor the covering *really*
well or it ends up in the next county.

Snow cover is good - no need to protect against that...it's ice storms that
make life for potted stuff difficult.

I've also used bagged fine chip mulch for more than one season, tho' it
will decompose eventually, if you can't get cedar chips like Gene does.

I've also used sand for plunge beds - works well, too, but your pots do
come out with sand on them.

You can make temporary plunge beds out of straw bales, concrete blocks,
scrap lumber (either nailed together or propped up with concrete blocks or
large rocks - anything that will hold the plunge medium, but since you're
doing a nursery, building ones like Gene has would be better in the long
run - believe me, you'll use them over and over again and all year
around....in summer plunge beds help keep the soil around potted plants
cooler and more uniformly moist than just having them sitting out.

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
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----------
> From: connie Hoy <coneh@uswest.net>
> Date: Wednesday, August 11, 1999 12:53 PM
> 
> Hello Gene,
> This is a timely and oh, so important subject to me..
> I am in the beginning stages of starting a  Home Nursery(local sales
only),so
> you can see this is of critical concern to me..Its not that I havent
> over-wintered container plants  before but now with the investment of 
time and
> money its critical to protect  my inventory  ..Your(and others) expertise
is a
> blessing for me.
> 
> Its cooling down here (a sign here in the far north that Fall is not too
far
> off)and with that  my concern mounts as to how best to winter over my
> (hardy)stock here in zone 5/6..(I have this sinking feeling this is
'gonna be a
> long hard winter,hope I'm wrong)
> 
> My questions for you and others is:
> How best to protect containered plant roots?
>        *Sinking the container to the rim in mulch  (i.e. is sawdust
better than
> Cedar)?
>        *Or dig a pit(gallon pot deep) and then back fill with the above ?
>        *Cut foliage down, after die back or leave and do in spring?
>        (and anything else that I might have missed)
> 
> I'm so nervous I feel like a newbie to all this,which I'm not, but guess
I just
> need reassurance that I'm doing all I can..
> With all the knowledge on this list,where technique abounds, one can
always
> improve on their own...
> All suggestions welcome.(and yes I do have 2 smallish unheated
greenhouses).
> 
> Thanks for any advise,instruction.
> Connie

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