Cold Death!

[foxd]

The past several weeks of warm weather horribly came to an end today as temperatures dipped to below freezing and predictions of much colder weather for the rest of the week.

I quickly ran around this morning and dumped some leaves on the four bamboos that were planted last year. The rest are well enough established that they should survive. (Though two are small enough that I probably should cover this evening.)

Plants I had set outside, I brought inside before it got cold.

I figure the bamboos that will take the biggest hit will be the various Phyllostachys.

[Iowaboo]

Scary topic title, I hope my bamboo distance themselves from such discussion.

[mantis]

I have in-laws from Minnesota that were staying at my house last week (they went home on Sunday.) I saw what the weather is supposed to be this week in Minneapolis and started laughing. Sorry.

[Iowaboo]

That would be torture, going from sugarland temps to northern tundra. The 17F this morning felt horrible because I was getting used to the above-normal temps we've been having.

[mantis]

On my way home from work yesterday it was 87*

[boonut]

Cold front coming in Wednesday night... should get down to 59F... man I'm scared. I may have to put long pants on for the weekend....

[mantis]

Looks like we bottom out around 51* Sunday night, but by the middle of next week we are back in the 80's.

[rfgpitt]

Yesterday about this time = 78*f
Today = 41*f (windchill feels like 32*f)

Now I'm kinda happy that no shoots came up yet on my Phyllostachys.

[sporkandbeans]

crap. will my new shoots be okay when the temperature drops a few degrees below freezing? Some of my yellow groove shoots are over a foot high --too high to cover with leaves. I can probably lay a blanket lightly over the new growth..

Mother nature's a bee-otch sometimes

[Eastlandia]

75 of my buckets I made last month are shooting. I picked each one up and over several hours jammed my greenhouse full of them. I hope they will survive. Bissetii, Aureosulcata and "alata" are all shooting. Iridescens also has a few shoots now that my dog has uncovered the entire grove of soil in an endless search for moles.
Hang tight, I think the ol' bamboo can handle things....as for flowering trees...

I hate spring catastrophes.
-eastlandia

[mito0]

yep, we'll be getting into the 20's this weekend and all but a couple of my boo have sent up shoots.
what makes it worse for me is that my bletilla orchids are going to bloom for the very first time this year and i'm afraid this freeze might put an end to that.

[needmore]

75 of my buckets I made last month are shooting. I picked each one up and over several hours jammed my greenhouse full of them. I hope they will survive. Bissetii, Aureosulcata and "alata" are all shooting. Iridescens also has a few shoots now that my dog has uncovered the entire grove of soil in an endless search for moles.-eastlandia

Brian, I don't know if you have electricity close enough, but there is a 100' extension cord and a little space heater in my garage that you can borrow. I upsized my heater but the little one kept my greenhouse above freezing with temps in the upper teens. It would surely keeps your shoots alive and well. Let me know and I can tell you where to find them or have Susan set them out for you. I might have to have her switch mine on if we really get near 20, but generally I don't need heat above 20 at night.

[weretable]

Sigh. My Phyllostachys aureosulcata has at least one hundred shoots 1-3 inches above the ground. The nigra and rubro both have one visible shoot breaking the ground and I found a few more just under the (thin) mulch. I was really looking forward to seeing what the boo did this year as last year several culms topped 20 feet for the first time in my aureosulcata (it is now seven years in the ground from a 3 gallon pot) and I gave it a lot of extra attention last year.

It is going to freeze tonight but it is not going to be a long, hard freeze. But tomorrow night it is forecasted to hit 25F and Saturday night they say 19-23F. Would piling anything I can find on top of any visible shoots do any good or should I just accept that they are goners and forget it? This is the first freeze I have dealt with after my bamboo started shooting.

[Eastlandia]

Brad- Thanks for the offer, but it would be well over 300 feet to reach the greenhouse, and I don't think I have enough cords. What I really need to do is put a double layer of plastic back on the roof. It keeps about 10 degrees warmer right now.... I just hope that's enough.

Weretable- I covered up some of my shoots in 2005 when we had a late freeze, and all of them either died or were broken due to the soil on top of them. I don't know what happens, but I would take the risk and leave them exposed.

Good Luck to everyone. I'm sitting here right now and feeling huge radiant drafts of the 25* weather outside.
-eastlandia

[sporkandbeans]

It is going to freeze tonight but it is not going to be a long, hard freeze. But tomorrow night it is forecasted to hit 25F and Saturday night they say 19-23F. Would piling anything I can find on top of any visible shoots do any good or should I just accept that they are goners and forget it? This is the first freeze I have dealt with after my bamboo started shooting.

I'm in the same boat. 26F tonight and 25F tomorrow night.

I'm thinking about loosely covering my Phyllostachys aureosulcata with some landscape fabric (weed blocking fabric on a roll). Maybe I can stake it up so that it resembles a tent that keeps the frost off the shoots, but doesn't lay on top of them.