Its BACK... South Louisiana weather, dont you just love it?! After a mild stretch of weather for the last 4-6 weeks, we are expecting temps in the upper teens to lower 20s overnight. So what do you do about your plants when freezing weather invades our area? Below are the basics on cold protection. To determine which of your plants are most endangered, call or come into one of our locations with a list and one of our experts can help you. Or do a web search for your plants and find its cold hardiness zone. If your plant is zone 9 or 10, these plants are considered tropical. If it is zone 8 or lower, your plant is not endangered and should be fine without protection. Move any outdoor tropical plants in containers inside the house or in a covered area. Remember that the north and west sides of your house will get colder than the south or east sides. For any plants in ground or large container plants, it helps to have the roots dressed with some type of mulch or pine straw. This will help to insulate the roots from a hard freeze and also can protect the crown of the plant. If you add extra mulch or straw around the stems/trunk before the cold arrives, make sure after the cold is over to pull away the extra mulch or you may get stem rot when the temps warm up in early spring. Most important - Make sure all plants are well watered going into a hard freeze. When water freezes it gives off heat calories. Many times, cell damage due to dehydration can be avoided if there is plenty of water available for your plants. Optional - Cover plants with a dark colored sheet of visqueen, a cloth or a blanket. Secure the cover from the ground over the plant. In our stores, we use a white cloth material called Frost Cloth. It helps insulate the plants while allowing them to breath. These cloth material covers can be left on for several days, until the cold weather is gone. NOTE: If you cover with clear visqueen, you MUST vent the sides the next morning and then uncover soon after or you will create a greenhouse effect under the visqueen. The temperatures can rise dramatically as the sun is out and your plants can/will get burned.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 01:27:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015