At what point do you have to protect from Freezing?

[bkay2000]

We've had our usual up and down temperatures. We've been at 60 and 70 during the day with sunshine and 40's at night for most of the last month or so. Wolverine broke ground 2 weeks ago, with the fragrants following closely behind. (By the way, I only grow in pots.)

Tomorrow afternoon, it's supposed to drop into the 30's, be about freezing overnight and followed by a 29 degree night, then a 27 degree night and a 30 degree night. Monday, it's supposed to sleet and rain.

Obviously, I'm moving all the ones with well developed pips/leaves to the garage for the duration. A lot of the non-fragrants have a 1/2 inch or so of pip showing. I used not to bother with protecting those, but last winter, we had a 16 degree morning at about this time and most everything I had was cold damaged. (I moved those showing well developed pips to the garden shed and covered with sheets last year, but it only helped a little.)

I can leave them where they sit. I can move them to the unheated garden shed. I can move them to the garage, which is not heated, but attached to the house, so will not get really cold. I can move them under the porch overhang. I can cover with row cover or sheets or both.

What would you do? Am I just overly cautious because of last year?

bk

Last year's damaged S&S which was not in the shed

[Chris_W]

All that moving sounds like a lot of work, but I'm guessing they aren't all that developed and you would only be moving some of the collection? If that's the case, I would go with the safest route and put them in the attached garage. 27 is getting a bit too cold to take chances, as sheets tend to only help with frost, and this sounds like a good freeze. Normally I don't worry about pips until they are elongated quite a bit, but if you can move them then it might be worth it.

Good luck and I hope that you only have to deal with this once!

[bkay2000]

Do you mean all of the hosta, or only the ones with pips showing?

bk

[Chris_W]

Only the ones with elongated pips where the twisted up leaf formations would be damaged. Like I mentioned, hopefully that is only a few.

[ken_adrian]

hey bk

pips are winter proofs ... leaves are not ...

so once they leaf out.. they need protection from frost/freeze ...

as to a specific magical temp ... when damage occurs ... well .. as you know.. that is a called a micro climate ... and varies wildly ...

if your are on pavement.. that will retain accumulated heat .. and radiate it back to the plants on a cool night.. i am willing to bet my shiny penny.... that you will withstand a much lower temp.. than i might with pots on grass ....

make any sense ...

[tsugajunkie]

With your plants being in pots, and not the cozy ground, I would think temps getting near 20°F would be the at risk time for 1/2" pips or less. Your climate and being in pots means even unseen pips are starting pump themselves up but just under freezing or even down to 25°F or low 20s you should still be ok for a night at a time. Below 25° for 12-18 hours would be another story for pots.

[bkay2000]

It's been a tough spring. We've had rain, freezing temps, snow, sleet and freezing rain for the last two weeks. Everything that was showing pips went into the garage that's attached to the house two weeks ago Sunday. The minimum temp is about 40 to 45 in there. It's dark, though. Tonight is supposed to be 30 overnight, with warming temps after that. I'll take them out tomorrow afternoon.

I moved everything else to the covered porch on the shop, so they could dry out. I began to worry about rot. You know how rot, cool temps, rain and spring time seem to go together. It's amazing that we've not had a morning above freezing temps for two weeks and I still have pips coming up. I noticed yesterday that Birchwood Parky's Gold was putting up pips. I'm thinking, "What's wrong with you guys? Don't you know it's cold?"

bk

[Diana]

Hey, Bkay- This past winter for me has been the warmest and I don't know if many of mine will survive. Some are slowly showing pips and a few are leafing out. After 20 years of playing with hostas, I might just be ready to cave.

You OTOH, are dealing with such weird fluctuating weather, I question your sanity on trying to grow hostas at all! My Diamonds are Forever is coming up and I am SO looking forward to that one, and a few others, so I do understand your perseverance under less-than-desirable-circumstances.

There are a few of us out here on the fringes of hosta growing...what a fine lot we are.

-Diana (Babka)

[bkay2000]

Once they come up, you'll be hooked all over again. It's like that every year.

I'm not sure whether Diamonds are Forever is coming up or not. All the ones in the garage are under the DH's ping pong table, so I'm not sure about anything except Wolverine and So Sweet. Both are up several inches. I knew exactly where DAF was, but with moving some to the garage and others to the porch, I've lost track of everything. Many are without ID's again. Cleo likes the sticks and so do the squirrels. I have several greens that come up with yellow edges that are hard to tell apart early in the season.

bk