I have a second refrigerator on my back porch where it got down to 10 degrees last night, and I forgot that I had put some C. mas scions in that fridge until this morning. It probably didn’t get quite as cold inside the fridge, but it definitely froze, because the damp paper towel I had in with the scions was frozen this morning. How bad is it to let scions freeze like this? How bad is it to let C. mas scions, in particular, freeze?
I had that happen to me a couple times last year as my “new” scion fridge seemed to have a hard time maintaining a constant temp… I didnt have any negative affects from the freezing that I could tell. Not saying I am reccomending it! Just dont think it is anything to lose sleep over.
So is the verdict “Don’t lose sleep over” or… time to go look for some more scion wood? Has anyone had some real time experience with this and can talk about the results. I have read some others talk about this however, it wasn’t clear what the results were.
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No real first hand experience here but gleaned from other threads and my thoughts. The scion wood that I collected last week was frozen many times this winter on the tree so I don’t think it would cause any cell damage unless it is a sensitive species, like my pakastan mulberry. I think freezing of cut scion wood might cause it to freeze dry, which would not be good for it.
I routinely let my peach scion wood freeze in the fridge. The only problem I’ve had is when I let it freeze for a long period of time. In that case the wood will freezer burn. I combat this freezer burn by allowing the wood to thaw about once a month. Sometimes I run it under water to thaw it. I find these mild (emphasize “mild” not below 30F) freezing conditions preferable to allowing wood to stay to warm in the fridge, which will start the process of pushing bud growth in the fridge, which is generally undesirable.
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