I live in Central New York (just outside of Syracuse) and for the past 2 years we have had no major frosts to speak of. Our killing frost dates can occur around 9/15 or about.

In fact I think I left my tubers in the ground 2 years ago into Nov and last year to late Oct.

A number of my plants were damaged in the severe windstorm from "the remnants of Hurricane Ike".

I cut the blown overs down to two or three feet from the ground. I covered the exposed stem openings with plastic to prevent rain water intake that could rot the tuber.

My question is, they have a great deal of new leaf shoot growth and look very healthy.

How long do you think I can leave them in the ground with any hard frost or freeze. Or, with the somewhat below abnormal wet and cold 50'ish degree weather we are getting now will the tubers be OK for a few more weeks or days if we don't get a freeze or heavy frost?

TY in advance.
Jim

I talked with a man from central Ohio who didn't dig his tubers in the winter. He piled leaves about 2' deep over them and they didn't freeze.

If not you can employ my extremely difficult method - lift the tubers and put in brown paper bags and write the name and color. I don't clean them - I just store them. You can put a few handfuls of peat into the bag. Then I lay all the bags into a box and store in my garage up off the floor. My garage rarely freezes in the open air - so the box remains around 40-50 degrees. If its a cold winter I wrap it in bubble wrap or double box it. I lay in a wheelbarrow and pile tarps on top or something to insulate.
I've had good luck with this very low end technique last winter and didn't split my tubers last yr, so I may have to next yr.

Huey - whoever kept tubers in the ground in any part of OH must live in the city and have a super protected spot. Our ground freezes 6" deep or farther depending on the yr.

I've left tubers in the ground in here in Zone 5 - same latitude as Syracuse and they are mush as soon as the ground starts to freeze.

Poochella also gave me the tip of sprouting tubers in plastic bags in the early spring inside the house. I put a couple handfuls of potting soil, a tablespoon or 2 of water and lay the tuber in the open bag, I lay them out on plastic trays from the Dollar Store in a sunny warm window.