Trees: Natural Frost Protection
The Brilliant Homestead
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The following post was originally published at ThePrepperProject.com
Forbidden fruit has its allure.
As the Scripture says, “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” (Proverbs 9:17)
Sorry, can’t have, not yours.
No matter where we are in life or what we’ve been given… we always seem to want something we don’t have… or can’t have.
The same is true with gardeners – particularly ones who travel.
If you live in North Dakota and take a trip to Miami, you’ll see a wonderful world of plants that you can’t grow.
If you live in Miami, you’ll wish you could grow apples like they have in New York. If you’re in New York and take a trip to Arizona, you might start lusting after a cactus garden and home-grown mesquite wood for your barbecue.
One of the interesting things I’ve noted about gardening: where there’s a will, there’s a way. It’s not always an easy way… or a time-saving way… or even a practical way… but there’s a way.
I have no doubt that there’s someone growing vanilla orchids or mangoes in New York City somewhere. Probably indoors and under lights, but it’s there nonetheless.
As preppers we need to be a bit more practical in the way we approach the plants we wish to cultivate. It’s not about growing something that will impress the neighbors; often, it’s more about growing something the neighbors won’t recognize as food.
When I first started reading about microclimates and zone-pushing, I was fascinated by the idea of growing tropical plants in a non-tropical environment. (And yes, I have my own plan to grow coconuts outside of the tropics… I just need some money, a tractor, some giant pots and some sturdy framing…. ask me later!)
If you live in zone 6, you can only grow so much. If you could add some plants to your homestead that grow well in zones 7-8… wouldn’t that be great?
It’s possible – and the answer may be as simple as a tree.
If you grow your plants out in the open, freezing nights can be deadly.
I live in an area that’s marginal for citrus. We get nights that reach down into the teens. I know, some of you Northerners laugh at that (I’m looking at you Minnesota) and wish you had it so good, but for citrus the teens can be deadly.
Four years ago I planted two little orange trees; one was in the open, the other one was partly under the canopy of a large oak tree.
We got a frosty night that turned colder than expected. One tree froze to the ground yet the other suffered only minor frostburn.
Guess which tree did what?
You guessed it. The one in the open kicked the bucket.
My friend Craig Hepworth (a bamboo expert as well as being a permaculture guru) once told me that he’d been growing pineapple in his greenhouse for quite a while. He lives at the edges of zone 8 and 9… a place where pineapples are allegedly unable to grow, so he’d assumed they needed the protection on freezing nights.
The problem with his pineapples was that they were a pain to weed. If you’ve ever dealt with pineapple plants before, you know how spiny their sword-like leaves can be. After growing and harvesting them for a time, he decided to clear out a bunch to make room for less painful plants in his greenhouse. Craig told me that he simply ripped out the plants and tossed them around the trunks of some oak trees to deal with later. To his surprise, they grew and continued to bear pineapples despite freezing nights.
After hearing his story, I decided to do the same thing. I’d been growing pineapples in pots for a while and hauling them in and out of my greenhouse. (Getting some in the ground sounded nice. Interestingly, all the literature I’ve read on growing pineapples recommends planting them in full sun, not shade. Through experimentation, I discovered that they’ll fruit even in almost full shade.)
The pineapples have sailed through winter without a hitch and now I’ve also added strawberry guava, naranjilla and edible hibiscus plants beneath my oak trees.
At one point I thought the oaks were just a pain-in-the-neck tree that dropped limbs and took up space where I could be growing edible trees. Now I’m happy I have them.
Part of the way trees protect your plants from freezing is through capturing still, warm air on a cold night. Their canopies, even when leafless, hold back the cold of space above. Higher numbers of trees make an even bigger difference, sometimes having double-digit effects on temperature.
Tender plants in the middle of a lawn? Doomed. Tender plants under a bit of forest canopy? Better.
Another way trees provide natural frost protection to the plants around them: thermal mass.
How’s that?
Well, imagine a tree trunk as a column of water held in place by cellulose fibers. Water takes some serious energy to freeze and even in the winter trees are able to keep their sap from freezing through…
( Click here to read the rest over at The Prepper Project! )
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