Is there a good indicator as to whether or not a potted tree has survived a recent freeze? I’m specifically wondering about American persimmon. I have some in 4x14" tree pots that I’d like to plant next week. I stuck them in the unheated part of the barn but the roll up door doesn’t close all the way (1-2" from closing at a corner) so I’m not sure how much good this did. We had a -2 over the weekend.
Is it possible to tell so soon if the roots are damaged? And how can you tell with the black persimmon roots?
Thanks!
nick the bark with your fingernail. If it’s green under, it’s alive. If there’s no green color it’s dead.
As a side note, I keep potted trees in an unheated hoophouse. It’s gotten to -17 twice, -15, and God knows what else here. While I’ll lose some, the majority will skate right thru this.
Great. Thanks! You’re right I’m sure they’re probably fine. Just me overthinking as usual. I just wasn’t sure how quick a change of cambium color might occur… if it would be a next few days type of thing or could take longer. I also didn’t know if significant root damage could do a slow kill that wouldn’t be immediately evident.
Cambium change isn’t going to happen overnight… that’s for sure. What does happen is you plant your tree and it up and dies when you don’t expect it to (maybe next summer, maybe this spring, maybe the next fall). Damage usually isn’t seen. It’s the same with grafting wood that has sat too long in the fridge. You may pull it out and it looks healthy when cut into, but later it dies. It’s very easy for me to know that because of my high percentage graft takes. I can see across the board which cultivars died (all of them usually.)
Same with root damage. You won’t know until later. You can clip the roots now and they’ll be white inside showing the roots are healthy (at the moment).
So, you just don’t know. If it lives it lives. If it dies it dies. I don’t know the science very well. But each Species and their genus have thresholds. An old conifer book I rented from the library once, many years ago… talked about exactly that. Wood was entered into a chamber and temperatures were introduced and then the wood was dissected as were the buds. All the values were shown for what Genus/species temperature did damage and just how much.