North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[tanis grif <tanisgrif@yahoo.com>]

I've found pine needles are good for this kind of insulating mulching.  They 
don't
pack down to a soggy sheet when they get wet.


--- Hans Brinkmann <> wrote:

> Hallo Goeffrey,
> your "chicken-wire-leaf-mulch method" is really excellent - if 
> properly/right used!
> In any case this is the method No. 1 which is used from ALL Botanical 
> Gardens (temperate zone)
> around the wold. If they leave their plants outside...
> Sometimes the wire and/or the mulch/leaf are modified, but the system is 
> always the same!
> Some special plants (e.g. banana trunks) like it additionally, if we put 
> a water proof roof material on top only.
> 
> It is right, Styrofoam is not good, because of no evaporation/diffusion.
> 
> Ciao
> Hans
>  
> 
> 
> 
> Jim Fruth schrieb:
> > Goeffrey wrote:
> >       "Another technique that I've read of is to put a chicken wire cage
> > around the plant then in-fill with leaf mulch. This can provide several
> > different types of protection at once. I believe that this has been used
> > with hardy bananas in zone 5."
> >
> > Goeffrey,
> >     Don't try that technique for winter protection.  My mother used to 
> > raise 
> > 200 Hybrid Tea roses and every year she and Dad used to bury them using a 
> > technique that came to be called the "Minnesota tip."  When she heard 
> > about 
> > the chicken-wire with leaves in it, she tried it and lost every one of 
> > her 
> > prized plants.  By the way, those styrofoam plant covers are equally 
> > worthless for winter protection.
> >
> > Jim Fruth
> > Brambleberry Farm
> > Pequot Lakes, MN  56472
> > www.bberryfarm.com
> > (218)568-8483 [Store]
> > (218)831-7018 [My Cell]
> >
>


 
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