How do you move your trees in and out during early spring extremes

9 years ago

In my house I have windows that range from 7 layers glass, 5 layers, 4, 3, 2, down to 1 layer of glass to expose my plants to light intensity. Out side I place my plants on the north side of the house to get morning and evening sun only so I don,t burn the leaves.

This window setup has a single glass storm window backing up the triple glass rope, weight, and pulley windows of 1887 that came with my house. sensitive transplants or new grafts go on the shelf to get 3 + 3 + 1 layer of glass protection. My trees will go on the ledge and the window gets lowered to the pot rim. The air between the storm window and the ripple glass window warms 20F were my new citrus growth grows. The window to the right is plain quadruple glass top bottom.

In this window the sun passes through 7 layers glass to warm the rooting fig cuttings. The glass frame keeps the sun off the cuttings & buds.

When frost is a problem and plants must come in and out I will bag my trees up and place them in the much cooler air and in shade to drop the leave temperature much slower "15 minutes" then I un-bag the trees and move them into the sun. The temperate difference is much smaller in the evening so I can usually bring them into the mud room and into the house with out the bags.

Moved into the sun for photo and then un-bagged for full sun.

What tricks do you use to increase results during transition times.

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Comments (3)

tom1328732
9 years ago
The only thing you forgot was to give your plastic bag trees some sunglasses!

This might sound cruel, but I just haul their butts... err, trunks... out on the occasional warm day. If they burn, they burn. Based on past experience, I suspect my MH lights emit enough UV radiation to keep them conditioned throughout the winter. It also helps to do it periodically throughout the spring before the sun becomes very oppressive.

-Tom
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pip313
9 years ago
Most metal halides should not emit too much uv, the glass should absorb it. Key word. Should.
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tom1328732
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I don't have much faith in the cheap MH bulb manufacturers located in China. Two years ago, I left my fixture panes off for two weeks to see what would happen. Massive sunburning ensued.

Since then, I've left them in, although the side vents are uncovered because I don't have any fancy cooling equipment. I suspect that a good amount of UV escapes out of those and gets deflected/diffused down into the canopy.

-Tom
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