Overwintering Acers.

Hello all. I have 6 Acers in pots. The largest is a skeeters broom. Last year I kept the plant outside over winter. This year I noticed a lot of stem damage so had to cut quite a bit off the plant and this reduced its overall size. Oddly, a small acer didnt suffer this. Anyway, I brought the skeeters broom closer on the patio and mixed in some specialist compost ( it was initially in vegetable compost as I picked up the wrong bags in the garden centre- I paid for expensive compost at the till but picked up bags of vegetable compost in error at self service on my way out and didnt return it as there was no way of confirming this as its self service! The shops great and probably they would have taken my word but I didnt go back to return the vegetable compost), and fed it with a feed that was labeled feed for acid loving plants. The plant has grown very well this year with lots of new growth to compensate and is quite large now. I assume it was the harsh winter that caused the stem damage. The skeeters broom does not suffer from wind scorch like the others do. Perhaps its because the other 5 are much smaller?

I want to put them all inside the garage this year as our winters have been bad for the past few years.

My question is. Should I water them lightly over winter in the garage. Im not sure and would appreciate some guidance. Thank you.

 

If you can post some pics of the stem damage it would help people advise what has caused it

You will still need to keep the compost fairly moist but not waterlogged. I still water my containers outdoors in autumn/winter if we haven't had enough rain. I am careful not to water when it's likely to freeze though. Don't know what the temperature is like in your garage but be mindful.

In what sort of position are your Acers? They don't like wind so a sheltered spot near a wall is preferable, which may be why your Skeeter's Broom is doing so well now it's on your patio.

 

Thank you for the reply.

My other Acers are close to the house, but they do get some strong wind when it comes. I try to position them closer to the house when its very windy and cold. We get a lot of that here in outer london.

Ive taken a picture of the stem damage. I removed nearly all the damage stems ( a fair amount ) You can see from the picture , by choice,one remained as it still appeared to have some live part. That was a very long healthy stem once and I had to cut it back, hoping some of the stem would send out new growth. This part didnt but the other cut back stems did, and very well too. The whole plant was very disappointing around February this year as I had cut back quite a bit. Thankfully, it revived.

You can see from the picture the bad stems went white. Thank you.

 

Hi everyone. From the picture, could anyone say this could be anything other than wind/cold damage?
Id be very interested to know. Many thanks.

 

My only thought is that plants in pots means that their rootball gets a LOT colder than if in the ground / greenhouse,a s the cold is all around the pot, whereas in the ground the cold is only "above"