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When to bring in (First week in he sub-40s)

So I awoke to 39 degrees out on the porch and a weather advisory telling me that it's just going to be colder. Apparently tonight it's going to be 29 as a low.

The highs for the week are staying in the mid 50s, and the weather service just issued a freeze watch:

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=83301

... Freeze watch in effect from late tonight through Thursday
morning for the upper and lower Treasure valley and the western
Magic Valley...

The National Weather Service in Boise has issued a freeze watch...
which is in effect from late tonight through Thursday morning.

Surface high pressure building in behind an exiting upper level
trough will lead to clearing skies and light winds Thursday
morning... allowing overnight cooling to be maximized. Low
temperatures through all valleys will be in the upper 20s to mid
30s from around 3 am to 9 am Thursday morning.

Precautionary/preparedness actions...

A freeze watch means sub-freezing temperatures are possible.
These conditions could kill crops and other sensitive vegetation.

Since I plan on putting my plants in the freezer for the winter, is it time to look at that, or should I give them one last week or two in those temperatures?
 
They can tolerate light freezes.
 
Yeah, I'm thinking ahead. I lost my first VFT because I left it outside... of course, around then the lows were in the single digits for weeks at a time, so... Since I now have some specialty cultivars out there, including the new D'Amato sarras, being a bit conservative.
 
I wouldn't bring them if they are going from ~30 F-> ~70 F. I'd move them to the garage or attic or fridge, anything that is still cool.
 
Moving them isn't an option, unfortunately -- I'm in an apartment. When's a good time to move them in, whent he highs are int he low 40s?
 
I leave my plants outdoors until nights are below freezing on a regular basis..usually early November..
if we have a few nights around 30 or a light frost, I dont worry about it or move the plants..
I figure a light frost actually helps the dormancy process!
a few nights slightly below freezing isnt a big deal..
but if it was a stretch of nights at say 25-30, then I would move them into the garage..if its still too early for "putting them away for the winter"

Since I plan on putting my plants in the freezer for the winter

I assume you mean refrigerator? not freezer? ;)

Scot
 
Mine stay outside as long as it stays above 25.
 
I am going to try with some junk plants to see how I get on in different places to see if some live or die..

Noddy
 
  • #10
I don't know why you are even wanting to bring them in at all. The people at Sarracenia Northwest are in the north and you should look at their pictures - they have sarracenia and VFTs in the snow and in pots with frozen water. You shouldn't bring them inside at all. If you can't find the pics on their website, let me know and I can try to post them. I will have to first get them in my photobucket and then post them though.
 
  • #11
I don't know why you are even wanting to bring them in at all. The people at Sarracenia Northwest are in the north and you should look at their pictures - they have sarracenia and VFTs in the snow and in pots with frozen water. You shouldn't bring them inside at all. If you can't find the pics on their website, let me know and I can try to post them. I will have to first get them in my photobucket and then post them though.

"In the North"?
so because Sarracenia Nortwest and mcantrell are both "in the North" that means they have the same conditions? :0o:

oh you wacky southerners..you just dont understand winter! ;)

"Sarracenia Northwest" is in Portland Oregon..Zone 8.
our friend mcantrell is in Twin Falls, Idaho., Zone 5b -6a.

not even remotely close..

Thats the same difference between Mississippi and Chicago..

Scot
 
  • #13
so because I'm in the south that means I've always lived here, and that I'm ignorant? Don't insult me. The poster is worried about temps in the 40s, not negative 0. Some mulching or special preparing certainly needs to be done when the weather is going to get below 20 and stay that way for extended periods, but these plants are a lot more hardy than people give them credit for if grown in the right conditions in the first place. If the plant is not healthy going into a dormant period it might not make it. But if it is grown right in the first place it will be fine with a little added mulching, or bring it inside during the worst of the weather, but I think that putting it in the refrigerator is a little extreme. Our winters don't stay in low temps for extended periods, but they get down into the single digits for sometimes up to a week at a time. I'm not an idiot. I've been doing this a long time. Certainly protect them in a blizzard or in dry freezing winds, but otherwise, they can handle conditions like in the pics below with no problem.
winter05.jpg

winter09.jpg

winter10.jpg

The reason I stand behind what these guys say is because they're right.
 
  • #14
I don't know why you are even wanting to bring them in at all. The people at Sarracenia Northwest are in the north and you should look at their pictures - they have sarracenia and VFTs in the snow and in pots with frozen water. You shouldn't bring them inside at all. If you can't find the pics on their website, let me know and I can try to post them. I will have to first get them in my photobucket and then post them though.


From my grow log:

Update 4/15/09: New plants: Di. muscipula "Gold Strike", Di. muscipula "Red Pirahna", which was a gift plant from the store I got the Gold Strike from. The outside pitchers, except for the very large and overly healthy S. purpurea, appear dead. The small S. purpurea (My "undead plant") is inside as well, with the hope that it will recover. That means I had 1 survival out of 7 plants on the porch, and that one that survived only technically lived. The upcoming winter will require a serious rethink of my outside growing strategy.

That one last plant died later under the grow lights. So of my plants I left outside on the porch, in 8 degree F weather, none of them lived.

Basically I have no way to winterize my plants effectively, or at least didn't last winter. This winter I figure I'd rather just put them in the fridge for the rest.. I'm in an apartment with very limited outside light (frankly, I should move everything inside, but I don't have grow lights capable of keeping my Drosera Filiformis 'Tracyi' or Sarras in.

---------- Post added at 01:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:45 AM ----------

Also: As an aside, those are really cool pictures. :) (Insert Rimshot Here)
 
  • #15
I'm in the same boat as Mcantrell, just wondering how long I should wait before bringing them in and 'fridge em. We have rain/snow mix today but maybe 60s tomorrow... up down, up down... Eventually it will be as cold as -30*F.
My VFT look fine standing up, petioles firm, they've just closed their traps and haven't opened them in a couple weeks.
 
  • #16
back2eight, take it with a grain of salt. Internet message boards can be rough :) I was amazed when I saw the pictures of Sarracenia NW (saw them in the E book). They have all kinds of frozen and snow covered plants, and they seem to pull through just fine.
 
  • #17
Yeah, I posted on another thread about my overseas shipment from Borneo Exotics getting lost, found again, and then misdirected to a wrong address in another state. Finally it is on its way to me. The thread somehow got way off track into why am I buying overseas when there are plenty of US companies I could buy from. They kept naming wel-known retail businesses, and I couldn't seem to get the idea oif their head that I know about all those places - I'm buying wholesale. Stupid people aren't reading the whole thread and are just wanting to be argumentative for no reason.
 
  • #18
I just leave my sarrs, flytraps, and temperate Drosera out until I get low temps down into the twenties Fahrenheit for about a week straight. At this point I figure the plants are about as winterized as they will ever be, and then I bag some of them up for the fridge and haul the rest of them over to my parents garage. Seems to work quite well.
 
  • #19
I don't know why you are even wanting to bring them in at all. The people at Sarracenia Northwest are in the north and you should look at their pictures - they have sarracenia and VFTs in the snow and in pots with frozen water. You shouldn't bring them inside at all. If you can't find the pics on their website, let me know and I can try to post them. I will have to first get them in my photobucket and then post them though.

"In the North"?
so because Sarracenia Nortwest and mcantrell are both "in the North" that means they have the same conditions? :0o:

oh you wacky southerners..you just dont understand winter! ;)

"Sarracenia Northwest" is in Portland Oregon..Zone 8.
our friend mcantrell is in Twin Falls, Idaho., Zone 5b -6a.

not even remotely close..

Thats the same difference between Mississippi and Chicago..

Scot


so because I'm in the south that means I've always lived here, and that I'm ignorant? Don't insult me.

dude..it was a joke..lighten up. :crazy:
if you dont want to be insulted, (which you werent) then at least spend 2 seconds on google before posting useless advice.. ???

not my fault you were wrong..
im just helping the original poster by pointing out that what some nursery in Portland Oregon does has no bearing on what he should do in Idaho..sorry if you got all offended..but well..itwas lousy advice..
thats just a fact..

Scot
 
  • #20
To be honest, if I winterized them they'd be fine. ... Maybe. I have some foam pots now for them, which in theory will keep them safer, and could put them down on the ground (right now they're on a rack about 4 feet into the air) and close to the building... maybe dig a small pit for them and half bury the pots.

One problem is we don't get snow here, so the natural winterizing effect of a layer of snow doesn't happen.

Right after posting that (almost literally so) I discovered my callcenter is closing, and my job is toast. So the winterizing thing goes on TOP of moving in with new roommates in a smaller space and all that entails. Going to be a busy week or 3.
 
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