Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 16:17:34 -0800 From: Chris Teichreb <cjteichr@sfu.ca> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg560$foo@default> Subject: Outdoor bogs in temperate regions
Hi everyone,
I'm posting this information here for the interest of those people
who don't have the luxury of frost free winters and as such, must take more
precautions with their outdoor bogs. I recently moved into the interior
region of British Columbia where winter temps can drop as low as -20C but
generally range from the freezing mark to nightime lows of -10C for several
months. Once I arrived here, I built a small outdoor bog to house my
Sarrs, hardy sundews, plus a few experimental plants (vft's, Drosera
binata, cape sundews) to see how they would fare over the winter.
Following common gardeners advice, once temps started dropping
below zero at night, I covered the bog with plastic sheeting to help
prevent the frost from hitting the ground level. At this time, I started
to allow the bog to dry out to help prevent potential fungus build-up over
the winter. Once day temps were sufficiently low and the plants in
dormancy mode, I mulched with about 6 inches of dry pine needles, covered
the bog with plastic, and further mulched with collected leaves from the
yard. The main problem with the Okanagan region is that while temps may
drop, this doesn't mean that snow (an ideal insulator) will arrive and so
these mulching precautions had to be done.
Since November, I've pretty much crossed my fingers and hoped for
the best. Day temps are now getting up to +7C, but night temperatures are
still dropping to freezing levels. I have removed the layer of leaves
(which were quite soaked) and now have only the pine needles and plastic
layer over the bog. Of course, I couldn't resist the urge to peak, and the
results were somewhat mixed.
Despite allowing the bog to dry slightly, fungus is still visible,
though not in huge quantities. I am hoping that the larger plants will
rebound from this, and I'll see what happens with the smaller seedlings and
hibernacula of the Drosera. I believe the fungus was, in part, due to the
plastic sheeting which, one the upside, didn't allow huge quantities of
water to enter the bog and further promote fungus, but on the downside,
didn't allow the bog to "breathe". A burlap covering may have been a
better choice. Interestingly, the fungus was primarily on the section
where there was live sphagnum moss. This is contrary to what I would
expect, given that plants grown in live sphagnum have, for myself, always
been fungus free.
The good thing is that the soil in the bog is not frozen, and the
years previous leaves on the plants are still green and unaffected by the
fungus. Soil around the bog is still frozen, so the mulching obviously had
the desired effects.
At this point, I am still waiting for night temps to come up a
little bit. During the day, I am going to remove the plastic and leave the
pine needles on, hoping that the air circulation will help get rid of the
fungus. Once night temps only drop to freezing, I will remove the pine
needles, spray heavily with Benomyl (which I should have done in the fall),
and again, hope for the best.
Sorry for the long-windedness of this e-mail. I know there are
others out there who may be facing a similar dilemma, so hopefully this
information is helpful. Feel free to drop me a line if you want more info.
I'll let everyone know which plants survive once they start growing again.
Chris <http://www.nurserysite.com/clubs/pnwcarnivorous>
P.S. Temperate cp's that I brought indoors for the winter and stored in a
coolish basement with reduced watering are all coming back now (flower buds
on the vft's and Sarrs, new growth from the D.binata).
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:35:06 PST