Wintering In Zone 6

gnosis

i live in new jersey and i have only had one winter with a tree and it was a juniper. it died but im not sure if i did everything right or wrong because it had bad non-bonsai soil that gave it root-rot. so im not to confident in what technique to use for winter protection. the trees that i have now have better soil and i want to make sure they make it. what does everyone else who live in zone 6 (a or b) do for winter protection.

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Will_Heath

I live in zone 6b michigan and I can only state from my personal experiance.

I have a garage with three windows but these are glass blocks and the garage is not attached to my home. I have overwintered my decidious trees on shelfs in this garage for a couple years with no winter losses.

I have a privacy fence around my property that cuts 4' away from my potting shed which leaves me a nice area since the fence there runs east to west and I can store my pines on the south side of the fence in the 4' wide by 10' long area. I had cut three pieces of plexiglass a couple years ago 2) 4'x4' and 1) 4'x8' that I use to enclose this area. I pre-drilled holes on the edges of the plexiglass so I can screw them onto 2x4s, this way I can assemble it in the fall and take it apart in the spring to store.I drilled a few 1' holes in the 4x4 pieces of plexiglass for vents and my pines seem to do quite well in here throughout the winter.

When the weather gets above freezing I check the soil to make sure that they do not dry out. I only water when it is above freezing and the soil is mostly dry.

My tropicals I bring inside the living room where they sit on a stand in front of a picture window that faces south.