Hi, I am sure I have read about this somewhere, but I am drawing a blank. I searched the site, but could not find the topic. Anyway, I have 2 maples ( orange dream and fairy hair) that are in the advanced stages of bud swell. They will probably leaf out in a day or two. Our nightime temperature tonight is forecasted to reach 27 F. Is this temperature harmful to the leafing buds? Should I move those trees inside the garage? The orange dream is in a very large and heavy container, and will probably break my back moving it into the garage, but I do not want to risk killing it or setting it back. thanks for any information. xman
Posting your temperature in standard measures (°C) will help people understand your question and answer it better.
Wow X it's colder in TX than in PA. My plants get snowed on nearly every year when they are 1/2-3/4 leafed out. (Should i convert that to metric?) No problems. "Standard measures" sounds like a cooking term. Micheal, FYI in US Celsius has little currency. Gil
hi Xman, I'm a little more south of your location, but I had been dealing with the same issue than you with half of my JMs. Last november I ordered several new specimens ('first ghost', 'tsuma gaki', 'Shirasawanum Aureum', Shirasawanum autumn moon', AS 'Aconitifolium'), they came from WA and OR (cold in that time); but due our warmer winter here, the 'fist gost', AS 'aureum', and 'tsuma gaki' began to bud swell in december and for end of the year they were with almost full leaves. I decided to keep outside with mildy cold but last two months I have been dealing with moving inside/outside during cold days (30-40s). Except for the Aconitifolium (is 15 Gal pot) all of them are in 2 Gal and 5 gal containers, so it wasn't difficult (for my back) to keep this task done, because I don't want to lost the leaves in this maples. for planted in ground or bigger/heavy containers I also took the prevision to cover them with a plastic blanket during windy/cold situations. All of them are doing fine (until now). See the link http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=34039 Later I will put some updated pics.
Poetry to Burn, Thanks for your input, that is encouraging. We did get a couple of inches of snow last night. This is the first time that we have had snow in TX in march. We did not have even a snow flurry all winter, and now in march 2 inches of snow. nelran, That is a lot of new trees that you have got. Hopefully our TX weather will be kind to us this year. xman
I hope so, Xman, but I feel that this year I will be in better position than the last one, when I began with the whole garden from scratch. Also, I almost finished a pretty good patio cover in my backyard, so at least, now I can provide some shade to my JMs next summer. (just in case :-). Regards, nelran
This has been a year without winter in Western Europe. As a result 1/3 of my maples are already in full leaf and another third have the buds open. Since where I live it could still get down to -5°C (20-23°F) until mid-April, I am most concerned by the subject of this post. Holland is farther north and growers there are exposed to this problem more often than I do, so I asked them. The consensus among maple growers is that down roughly to -3°C (26°F) for a short time span (a night) the maples are ok even leafed out. Below that they need protection. In addition the feedback from maple enthusiasts in North America (as recounted in the different Maple Forums) who suffered the freeze of April 2007 seem to confirm this. Gomero
Gomero, My issue now is that due alteranting several cold nigths and sunny days are affecting the "older" leaves, not with damage instead, they're changing colors from lemon green (in the case of AS 'Aureum') to sligthy red and the "new" leaves are staying green. Pretty unusual behavior for this time of the year! Nelran
With changing climatic conditions like that it is small wonder that your trees do not know what to do
Does anyone have any knowledge or opinions about triggers for bud opening. Is it temp, daylength, what? I ask because listening to these posts about leaves being open with cold weather is kind of what I worry about each year in my zone 5 neck of the woods. I have to bring my maples out of the garage where they have been all winter, early (they are out now) because the buds start to swell and I am hoping by getting them into cooler weather it will slow down the process. We have had 35-50 F. daytime temps and lows in the 30's F., but the next few nights will be down to 26-27 degree F. range. I am so envious listening to everyone talking about leaves, but I know that it's way too early to want them to leaf out. Kay
I think it is mostly because of temperature. My zone is 5 also but I live so far north I might have some snow on the ground still for a month from now yet the day lenght will be considerably longer then than most of you others. Is there an english phrase of a "temperature sum" or similar term? Vegetative growth usually starts when average temperature exeeds +5C and those exeeding temperature averages are totaled. My area is only 1200 Celsius decrees but amount of light is a lot although I do not live in "endless sun" area. These days I have shoveled snow around my maples although we did not have much this winter. I believe when snow melts it still can keep logal temperature "micro climate" low enough that leafing out delays some. Snow reflects sun rays off from roots and when it melts roots also get constant moisture. Snow also prevents ground freezing too deep during winter.
I would tend to agree. This year my maples leafed out earlier than usual due, I think, to the warm January and February months we had. Gomero
That makes sense because this year we had a really normal, cold, but not extreme winter (at least, so far). Things stayed snow covered and once the snow melted it still stayed cold, no freeze thaw cycles, and now it is steadily getting warmer. The buds are swelling, but not breaking yet. If it will continue along this way, it has been a perfect winter, perfect spring. I'm scared, sounds too good to be true:) Kay
