每日吃瓜

I have several pre bonsai, none of them older than 5 years. They mostly survived the winter last year in pots in an uninsulated shed, I'm concerned that they might not make another winter and a couple have had root damage from winter and haven't put on much growth this year (japanese larch, might be stretching my zone 4b). I live in North Dakota and am wondering if I should plant them in ground and this winter protect them with mulch and burlap. The species all live in my zone; silver maple, norway spruce, chinese juniper, siberian larch.?

How do you know they had root damage from the winter? Did you re pot? I would not plant in the ground now, you should have done that in the spring. An unheated shed should be fine as long as you do not allow them to dry out.

The post makes no sence to me. Topic:field grown bonsai. Question: should I plant the tree in ground in winter? Totally confusing. Trees do not grow in winter.

I think Geoff responded on weather it is good to plant in ground right now or not.

But I actually think that the question itself is the clue to what TS wants to know, not the topic. Without seeing pictures of the trees or roots as of today I can just answer in general.

I think that it makes sense in some climates to dig the trees into the ground during winter to protect the root ball from freezing longer than necessary. Prerequists is very cold and fairly dry winters with no or very little snow. If you have wet coastal type climate it will not be the cold that kills them but the moisture. In that case a shed is better to keep them fairly dry. If you get a lot of snow there are no reason for digging. Just put the trees on the ground and cover in snow.

The species makes a difference as well. I have a hard time thinking anyone can kill a Norwegian spruce in temperate climate. They grow naturally from the Coast of Norway where there is massive winter rains and relativelly mild winters all the way over the whole russian taiga which is comparably dry and extreamly cold winters. They grow on top of rocky mountains in pour to really bad soil all the way down to the side of wet bogs and other bodies of water. Silver maple I don't know much about, but they seems to be native where you are which suggest that no winter protection is needed. Chinese junipers can tolerate extreamly low temperatures, but like to be on the dry side in winter. So a shed may be best. Siberian larch is extreamly though more so than the spruce. But they need a very cold winter. Do not atempt to protect them from any cold, but sinse they are from areas with fairly dry winters they may benefit from overhead protection in wetter areas.?

North Dakota is rather extreme for winters, and I don't know how much help most of us can be for those winters, so the best advice is to find a bo sai group real near and see what they do.

The unheated shed would probably be good,? maybe even slightly heated. There is a guy in northern New York who keeps his trees in his shed at 27F/-3C, but that area is probably not as cold as yours.