Frost - what do you do to deal with it?

[Jarrod]

Hi All,

I have just recently moved to a new house. I fear that i may get some heavy frosts here and I would like your advice about what you do to prevent frost getting on your trees. I was thinking having shade cloth over them would suffice but i would be interested in other people’s methods.

Main species that i have are Maples, pines and some natives. I know I will have to protect my boug which is fine, but what other trees need the protection? Figs? (i hate figs )

I am in the process of building the benches for my trees and will update this thread with the photos of what I come up with and the process of making them.

Thanks in advance,
Jarrod

[rawhide]

hey jarrod
I live just ouy of launceston and we get some realy good frosts the pines and the maples will love it you will get some great colours on your maples ,just dont do any heavy prunihg in autum as you will get die back ,my experience anyway figs hate frost i lost 2 when I moved down from QLD and a bouganvillia I keep my 1 and only native under shade a tasmanian myrtle so cant give you an answer about your natives .get a big wood stack or take shares out in the power company

[kcpoole]

Put a bench ( or posts) along a wall of the house and it will tend to keep the frosts away ( at least in Sydney), or locate them under other trees

Ken

[bodhidharma]

Now my friend has a great setup. He has built a small shed out of laserlite and along the bottom of the wall facing the sun he has put a tier of black plastic 20 litre chemical bottles, two high, filled with water (easy to get from the tip) and they heat up during the day. Now i went in there at dusk when it starts to get cold in Victoria and it was as warm as toast. I was amazed and i will be implementing the same setup for my figs. Free heating, talk about ingenious.

[Jarrod]

So it is just a matter of getting some cover over the top, or some warmth from any source. interesting. I think I will get the shade sails made up by a friend and see how well they do. I will also monitor the frosts over the next week to see what we get at the new house. I haven't seen yet but I have friends around that are adament that the frosts in the area are bad!

Thanks for the responses so far keep them coming.

[anttal63]

Hi All,

I have just recently moved to a new house. I fear that i may get some heavy frosts here and I would like your advice about what you do to prevent frost getting on your trees. I was thinking having shade cloth over them would suffice but i would be interested in other people’s methods.

Main species that i have are Maples, pines and some natives. I know I will have to protect my boug which is fine, but what other trees need the protection? Figs? (i hate figs )

I am in the process of building the benches for my trees and will update this thread with the photos of what I come up with and the process of making them.

Thanks in advance,
Jarrod

i just wear a jumper scarf and beanie to bed. shade cloth wont work, was discussing that with miyagiman on the weekend. bring my figs into the garage at night. Must get a hot house though. bet figs are your favourite, probably your best tree. ya just in the closet about it.

[Scott Roxburgh]

I have one fig...it lives inside over winter, other than that I don't protect my trees.

If there is going to be a particularly bad frost you could get up early and spray your trees with water that will reduce the risk.

[Matthew]

spend $7500 on a hothouse with heating and humidity control like i did and than think how many nice maples i could of bought for that. I must love my willowleafs alot!!!!!

[FlyBri]

Gday Jezz & Co!

Here's a semi-successful frost protection measure that I tried. (I can't recall if I've posted it here before... )

A few years ago, Hurstbridge moved into the 20th century and got natural gas on tap. We had a couple of blokes install central heating and - for the most part - it worked. I noticed that on the North side of the house that the vent for steam/CO2/CO was unusually low, and wondered whether this was legal (or if it might be useful to me ).

First is the pic of the vent as installed by the "professionals":

Heater_Vent.jpg

Now, here is what I thought might make things better:

Heater_Vent_02.jpg

But what if I used the steam to protect my trees from frost?

Heater_Vent_03.jpg

I have said that this measure was 'semi-successful': this arrangement prevented a number of pre-trees from getting frost damage in the past few years. On the down-side, I lost a number of pre-trees because I forgot about the trees on the heating-vented North side of the house (they were safe from frost, so they must be OK, right?). If I had paid more attention to my treelings, I'm certain that the vent idea would have worked better.

Good luck, and thanks!

Fly.

[Chris Sirre]

Hi Jarrod,

When I grew my bonsai in Europe we always had heavy frost (-10C or more) in winter. I had my trees on a stand which I could cover with clear plastic to leave enough light in and to keep the heat in longer as it was placed in full sun. I had all my trees wrapped with hay. The pots were still frozen for most of the winter period but never cracked a pot. Every now and then I watered the trees. I never lost a tree. My tree were mainly Larch, Juniper,Maple, Horse Chesnut.

Well that's my of advise.

Cheers,

Chris

[Jarrod]

Ant, not a closet anything mate.... i let it all hang out, you know that. I guess the only thing shade cloth might do would be to reduce the dew that falls.

Scott, i have read that spraying water late at night before the frost sets in would reduce the risk. and i will leave the two or three figs at Dads in the hot house he has, then i dont have to look at them very often

Noah, $7.5k hothouse is not an option at this time... probably best, cause then I might have to get more figs

Interesting concept Fri, but i dont have one of those sticking out of my house so not an option, but very clever!

Chris, That might be the solution, clear plastic coverwhich ca be swapped for shade cloth in summer.

C
Keep your solutions coming people, even if it is "i do nothing, just let the trees deal with it" i would be happy to hear it.

[MattA]

Hey Jarrod,

I dont give any of my trees frost protection apart from keeping them closely packed on the benches. The larger trees help give a buffer to the smaller trees & they all wear whatever nature throws. Even figs & Bougs... Dont get the frosts here like I did on the Wimmera & the only protection my trees had then was being under a big euc. The odd tree gets a bit burnt but nothing too major that wont regrow the coming season.

If you run misting sprays over night they will prevent frost damage... It works fantastic especially on large areas.

Fly wrap a poly house round that vent & WOOHOOO

Matt