I get some one year old chestnut and hazel seedlings (~9" tall) in tree pots. They are dormant in my attached garage. The lowest forecasts for near future are about 17F. I just wonder if it is ok to put them outside my garage. They will be sheltered behind shrubs.
So I just wonder how hardy those seedlings are. It seems they are pretty hardy. And no wind to worry about.
I moved 3 American Chestnut seedlings to one gallon pots in October…been out all of Nov-Feb.
I expect them to live, but you never can tell.
The trees are hardy since I’ve planted them in ground. I’m sure the tree pots will be frozen solid in 17F.
I do have several 2 gallon pots outside under trees, covered with inches of leaves. They did survive past winters. But I never left small tree pots outside.
exposed roots in pots are 2 zones less hardy than the tree so the trees/ bushes are at least hardy to z4 so in z6 they should be ok. id stiil try to bury the pots in something to be on the safe side.
I’ll probably just wait for night lows go up to 25F or so. Then the roots are not complete frozen at night.
I left several peach seedlings in tree pots outside (side flat on ground) and covered with several inches of leaves. Unfortunately a single vole destroyed them all and also my 4 years old inch thick Chicago hardy fig. I trained the fig tree with very low branches parallel to ground. I checked the tree pots in last couple of days. The trunks of the peach seedlings were gone but the roots are lively.
So it’s doable but probably should go gradually with temperature change.
