Hibernation???

During winters, I keep my bonsai in a humble, dark and humid cellar without glass in the window. The temperature is always 1-3 degrees.
If frost, I cower the window, and close the door.
If frostperiodes, also my evergreens is kept there. Last winter, as we had the same sort of winter as now,
my pines vere in this cellar for 4 monhts, I was really scared, but they vere all fit for fight in the spring. So, I can assume they dont need that much light in winter.

What I find interesting is the fact, that the treeroots grow, all winter, not only the roots of the evergreens, but also deciduous trees.
I send a photo of the rootball of an apple, this tree lost the leaves in oktober....
in late january the white roottips will be at least dubble the lenght of what they are now.

My bonsaitrees have their roots frostfree, just like the trees in the nature, So, again I must assume, trees in nature only apparently hibernate..
Schould bonsai be kept diffrent?.

Kind regards Yvonne

Hi Yvonne,

bonsai is tree - no diffrence in this connection

I Have read many articles suggesting that roots are allways capble of growing if the conditions are met ( temp, moisture,..)
for example :
http://www.canr.msu.edu/vanburen/rootgrow.htm
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/nov/28/tree-roots-grow-during-winter/
http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/what_do_tree_roots_do_in_winter

but never saw it in my eyes - have you seen this ? do you have a picture of before after root growth during winter ( in your post your'e saying that in the spring the roots will grow - but do you have pic of last winter growth ?

Hi Theballance

This photo was taken yesterday...Only new roots who grows, have compleetly white tips. I have no photos of roots in february.
But I have seen this ower many years. I have made bonsai for 20 years.

Kind regards Yvonne

Yvonne,

in order for me to keep my Trident maple healthy in the tropics, I place the wet rootball in a plastic bag, tie the head of bag around the trunk zone and place the tree into the crisper section of an old refrigerator. This happens sometime around the last days of January and the tree stays there until April 1st.

I do check every two weeks to see if the rootball is moist. Most of the time after about a month in the fridge, I find big thick white roots growing. The top is fully dormant, but the roots are active.

From late October, my yard where the maple goes into shadow and with rain stays cooler. The trident naturally stops growing and leaves begin to fall, but never really turn colour. [ Had the maple as a whip since 1994 , same for the Gingko, Hackberrys since 1980 or so ]

I need to stop being so afraid of training my tree however.
Khaimraj

* I do not see this root growth with the American Hackberrys or Gingko.

Hi Khaimrad

Thanks for shearing what you do in the wintertime.. I know close to nothing about how your climate works.

But, also my trees have dormant buds, when the roots are growing during the winter. In my country will the trees also have bright fallcollours. As far as I remember does all my trees grow roots during winter. And I expect this is what they also will do in the nature.
And then I think, maybe it is not good to expose bonsai in pots to frost, as it will set them back.
Just a thought.

Kind regards Yvonne

Yvonne,

tropical island, but small enough to have easterly breezes, that modify the climate, so you would have to go into a deep valley of heavy forest to get the humid situation of say Miami.
In fact our mountain [ hills - all under 1000 m ] ranges align so the breezes pass through them, hindered only here and there.

Eastern sides are cooler than the other sides.

August to September [ usually about a week, but can occur in either month ] is the humid like Miami period. By September to October it's cooler and then colder.

But ha ha, this is in terms of 33 deg.c to 19's [ rare] and very rare [ 15 deg.c ]

Work in windchill from December to March's end. Rains from April/May/June until generally the beginning of December.

So if you are visiting come by January to March end.

I get buds to the end of March. I tried to base what I do on what happens up North. I spent a good deal of time checking temperatures of Hong Kong, Miami, India, Mainland China and the UK. Newspaper's carried the daily temperatures.

Always happy to see your thoughts in black and white.
Khaimraj