|
|
Kick Start Your Landscape With Winter Gardening Tips
Winter Gardening TipsWinter can be a bleak hard time of the year for the grower ofnursery stock. The days are short and the nights are long. Yetgrowing plants is a year round activity that does require thegrower to be performings tasks. Watering plants can be be on your list. The ground may not befrozen and plants still use water. If the ground is not frozenyou can still water if the ground will accept the water. Mostplants are dormant so the amount of watering is not as high asin the hotter seasons. Evergreens lose water through theirneedles in the winter. So if one keeps watering as long aspossible into the winter, seedlings and plants will suffer lessstress. Winter drying of evergreens is a major stress factor ingrowing seedlings and potted stock. Snow and ice on your seedlings and liners can be problematic.Starting with a more developed plant is the best solution tothis problem. Tall thin seedlings that have not been root prunedand transplanted are not as sturdy a plant. They tend to bendunder snow loads and may require staking later to train themstrait. If your seedlings have a light amount of snow coveringthem you may ease the snow burden by lightly sweeping the snowwith a broom. Don't shake them, they are like babies ... theyget shaken baby syndrome. If snow or ice is frozen to thebranches, allow it to melt rather than attempting to correct. Ifany branches are broken, you probably don't need to do anythingunless there is a split in the trunk. If the breakage of theplant...
|
... is sever, the seedling or liner shoud be discarded. Thelabor to correct is not worth the value of the plant. Also apoor quality seedling will probably be a poor quality matureplant. There is a market for such plants however, we have hadmany customers who want, " Charly Brown Trees" or stunted treesfor unusual customer needs. Warm spells in the winter occur. Suddenly, there can be days ofwarmer temperatures. This should not be a problem. If you havecovering on or over the plants, you may need to ventilate. Wenormally open the doors to our greenhoses and this is usuallyall that is necessary. Cold frame temps may rise so ventilationwill be helpful. Close up as nightfall arrives as thetemperature will fall. Note that when sunlight intensity ishigh, plant tissues become active. Water loss at this time can'tbe replaced if the root balls are frozen. This is called plantdesiccation. Also if there many freeze-thaw cycles, the crown ofthe plant will be heaved up exposing the roots. Root systemshave a lower tolerance to temperature extremes and can killed byfreezing low temperatures.A common way to prevent desiccation isto screen plants in exposed areas with Burlap . Varmit control is important in the winter. Mice and rabbits feedconstantly . Their teeth grow constantly and they love to chewon tender plants. We spread rat and mice bait about every two tothrees weeks as long as we see it being consumed. Try and placethe baits in a place where its easy to moniter, dry, andaccessable only ...
...to the varmits. When the snow gets deep micewill feed up higher on the plants. They don't like to dig in thesnow for food. They take the easy to reach food first. Thustracks in the snow are an important sign to watch for. Mousedamage is usually not correctable. You may not see root feedingdamage to stock till spring, so over baiting is the bestsolution. Care should be taken that the baits are only availableto the target varmit. Ordering seedlings early in the winter is your best way toassure a supply. We can ship many of our seedlings durring thewinter but we recommend that you have them shipped after thewinter weather is over. This will vary according to yourlocation. If you get the seedlings and you can't plant them uponarrival, keep them in a cool place in your house or barn. Yourbasement may be an ideal place. Keep the roots from freezing. Itwill be hard to get your order filled in April because growersdo sell out. What we dont sell, we line out for our nursery,Highland Hill Farm. We sell all sizes of plants from seedlingsto large caliper trees. We also have our free use planters foryou to use when you buy seedlings and liners from us. You cansee more articles by Bill Hirst at http://www.seedlingsrus.comhttp://seedlingsrus.com/Arborvitae.htmlhttp://seedlingsrus.com/FreeFencing.htmlhttp://seedlingsrus.com/Winter http://zone5trees.com/Hedgeshttp://zone5trees.com/PlantingInstructions.htmlhttp://zone5trees.com/ProfitsGrowingTrees.htmlhttp://seedlingsrus.com/GrowingRhodies.html
|
