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Bonsai coldframe-greenhouse

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JimLewis
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杰遨-jie
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Post  杰遨-jie Sat Sep 25, 2010 6:06 am

Hello dear friends, Im new to this forum and I wasnt too sure about where to post this but here it goes^^
I currently live in MN and I will be moving to NC sometime soon.I have a small collection of decent tree's and some are not winter hardy so I winter them over at my teachers bonsai nursery here...I am planning on building a coldframe-greenhouse in NC just in case there is a freak winter and the temp drops too much...I have never built a coldframe before and Im 17 years old and have to keep it in budget(parents budget) Evil or Very Mad My teacher told me about PVC pipes and plastic covering but from what I found on the net it said that too much snow can collapse it to the ground Shocked His coldframe is metal and PVC pipe i think and its extremely sturdy and really big!...well should I build it part pvc and wood or just pvc or just wood?...hmm Im alittle lost scratch thanks for taking time to read this lol!



jie
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Post  Billy M. Rhodes Sat Sep 25, 2010 9:49 am

Where in NC? The snow load for an area can be found on the Internet, but some parts of NC don't get much.
If you make it with a curved shape and there is any heat inside at all, the snow should melt off.
I lived on the South East Coast of NC and never saw snow. Our daughter lives in Chapel Hill (center of the state) and gets some and of course the Western Mountains get the most.
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Post  杰遨-jie Sat Sep 25, 2010 5:44 pm

I think somewhere around Charlotte not too sure yet... im just worried that the first winter I will run into some bad luck Evil or Very Mad but most things should be winter hardy there right? such as shimpaku?
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Post  JimLewis Sat Sep 25, 2010 7:10 pm

All juniper and other conifers stay outside all winter long throughout NC -- except, perhaps, high in the western NC mountains.

Ficus and Bougainvillea and those kinds need indoor protection. Podocarpus will survive outside in the Piedmont and coast, but aren't happy about it. Here in the foothills I cover mine in the coldest nights.
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Post  Joe Hatfield Sun Sep 26, 2010 3:23 am

I am very used to sustaining this bonsai habit on the cheap so, I might be able to help a bit.

Let me ask..

How much room are do your trees take up? How many are there? etc? You can get away with some really cheap and sturdy options. Some manufactured mini green houses make fine cold frames, for example I have one that cost around $60 and it can house 15 or so trees of the right size.

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Post  杰遨-jie Sun Sep 26, 2010 5:16 am

I have about 17 tree's(medium sized and some smaller) now and a bunch of tropical plants and bonsai^^ my tropicals take up a small sized room and my outdoor's take up the whole patio(im in an apartment now)...bad place to do bonsai! Mad Ohhh i thought about buying a mini greenhouse but it didnt seem very sturdy here in MN...we have such heavy snow falls here!~ But i guess down in NC the snowfall isnt a problem...i will have to take a look into those already assembled greenhouses^^ I plan on having a collection of about 100 tree's and im getting into making some larger bigger ones too! Suspect
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Post  JimLewis Sun Sep 26, 2010 12:24 pm

Snow won't hurt your plants. I live in he NC foothills. Here is my Podocarpus.

Bonsai coldframe-greenhouse Snow_310
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Post  irene_b Sun Sep 26, 2010 4:56 pm

Why not place them at a Bonsai nursery for the first year?

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Post  AlainK Sun Sep 26, 2010 6:19 pm

Hi,

I live in zone 8 and we have occasional low temperatures of -10° C, or even -15°C though it is rather exceptional (this must be between 14 and 5 Farenheit), but we can have several days, sometimes two weeks in a row of temperatures below zero, generally no colder than -5, -8° at night.

I keep my smaller trees covered with dead leaves a little above the rim of the pot, and for most "temperate" species, this is enough.

I have a cold frame for more touchy species (like the olive trees and other mediterranean species I would like to get rid of because it's too much trouble keeping them healthy here), it's made of wooden planks with a "bubble" plastic top. I think the problem with cold frames is that trees can get dry if you are not careful, and they are more prone to diseases and rot.

As for the snow, it protects the trees from too much cold, just like an igloo. You just have to shake the excess from the branches when it gets too thick and might break a branch.
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Post  杰遨-jie Sun Sep 26, 2010 8:05 pm

irene_b wrote:Why not place them at a Bonsai nursery for the first year?

its too expensive^^
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Post  杰遨-jie Sun Sep 26, 2010 8:06 pm

JimLewis wrote:Snow won't hurt your plants. I live in he NC foothills. Here is my Podocarpus.

Bonsai coldframe-greenhouse Snow_310



haha i know^^ i encourage snow cause it insulates them very well till spring Very Happy nice pic too!
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Post  杰遨-jie Sun Sep 26, 2010 8:13 pm

AlainK wrote:Hi,

I live in zone 8 and we have occasional low temperatures of -10° C, or even -15°C though it is rather exceptional (this must be between 14 and 5 Farenheit), but we can have several days, sometimes two weeks in a row of temperatures below zero, generally no colder than -5, -8° at night.

I keep my smaller trees covered with dead leaves a little above the rim of the pot, and for most "temperate" species, this is enough.

I have a cold frame for more touchy species (like the olive trees and other mediterranean species I would like to get rid of because it's too much trouble keeping them healthy here), it's made of wooden planks with a "bubble" plastic top. I think the problem with cold frames is that trees can get dry if you are not careful, and they are more prone to diseases and rot.

As for the snow, it protects the trees from too much cold, just like an igloo. You just have to shake the excess from the branches when it gets too thick and might break a branch.


yeh! it seems that cold frames are tricky but very needed at the same time!~I have a larch forest that i might give away cause i think its too warm in NC for an arctic plant...but Im thinkiing i will bring it with anyway and see what happens Shocked if you put a huge pot of water in the coldframe it could increase the humidity but then again all the plants have a very high chance of rot and infection.I feel that having a cold frame is a good idea just incase the winters get too cold...just like in florida last year the winter got too cold and some tropical growers really got hit hard!...
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Post  NemusStipes Thu Sep 30, 2010 11:11 pm

How ironic, I was about to post the same question with fear of the 2010 blizzard repeating itself. (I'm in NJ) But I was more concerned with the snow crushing my poor little trees. (we got about 8 inches last winter if not more)
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