Mulching For Winter?

[big rockpile]

Let's go about this different.

Got several plants that I need to Mulch for Winter.

We had a one night Freeze. I had some plants I'm going to Mulch. Have some ready to Mulch.

It turned off very warm and the plants started to Sprout.

Do I wait until it looks like it is going to stay cold and redo them and then Mulch? Or something different?

It's supposed to get in the 80's next week.

big rockpile

 

[nao57]

What you are looking for is the night low temperatures. Those tell you what you can do. IF your night lows are consistently below 50 degrees then not much is growing even if its not being killed. So you can pull up those temp forecast readers that show you the hour by hour and track how its going on the days. Then watch how many hours of the night you are getting below 50 degrees (Fahrenheit by the way). 50 degrees F is easy to watch for on a Fahrenheit thermometer...

If the time below 50 degrees isn't very long then you may have some time still and delay things. But most plants follow this except for leafy greens. Some leafy greens can be all right with the cold too a point, but most of the good stuff producing a lot doesn't do well when the night temperatures drop.

And I would suggest, forever after you watch the low tempertures a lot particularly in the fall and near winter, and spring. Now in summer and peak heat months I don't even watch the low temperatures then. But that's a different story.

Good luck!

 

[Charlie 001]

So it’s getting harder and harder to make these judgement calls a without knowing things like soil type, the actual plants and of course weather norms. For my own situation the issue we have is winter wet and plants rotting and pest and disease that comes with it.
Mulching is always good anytime but will it hold in the damp give shelter to pests etc etc. these are things only your experience can guess at
so with uncertain temperatures. My best advice is horticultural fleece.
just keep plenty of fleece nearby and keep an eye on the weather. If it looks like a frost is due overnight just rush out and cover what you can
good luck with it. And don’t be too upset if you loose a few plants

 

[big rockpile]

Just found out we don't know if my Banana Trees are cold hardy so if their not then it is a waste of time.

Got Elephant Ears I might lose, Cannas I'm not sure on.

I was told you can take Cannabis and Mulch after being cut and it will come back. Makes sense you can do a bunch of cutting to get it to produce more.

The Banana Trees are strange you have to mulch them plus make sure they will be dry through the Winter.

Seen one guy just cut the leaves off and mulch all the way up.

My whole yard needs mulch then trying to get Lowe's to get my Mulching Kit right I might as well be talking to a wall.

big rockpile

 

[Charlie 001]

Cannas can be dug up and stored indoors frost free. Bananas if wrapped up well with straw and fleece should be ok if they don’t get too wet

 

[nao57]

Just found out we don't know if my Banana Trees are cold hardy so if their not then it is a waste of time.

Got Elephant Ears I might lose, Cannas I'm not sure on.

I was told you can take Cannabis and Mulch after being cut and it will come back. Makes sense you can do a bunch of cutting to get it to produce more.

The Banana Trees are strange you have to mulch them plus make sure they will be dry through the Winter.

Seen one guy just cut the leaves off and mulch all the way up.

My whole yard needs mulch then trying to get Lowe's to get my Mulching Kit right I might as well be talking to a wall.

big rockpile

Banana trees as far as I've ever heard if are not cold hardy. :O Although I've heard of people putting them in heating units or indoors to get them through winter... that would be a lot of work though. Good luck.