bk,

I believe only evergreens grow in the winter when temperatures are above 50 degrees. I don't see how deciduous trees can grow when they have no leaves as leaves are required for photosynthesis. Evergreens retain green needles all year long for photosynthesis. The green portion of any leaf or needle is chlorophyll which is necessary for growth of any part of any plant.

Jon

What you say makes sense. However, the radio guy has a masters in horticulture from Ohio State and his dad was a professor of horticulture at Texas A&M. He pretty well seems to stick to established facts. I'll see if I can get an answer from him. He does facebook, but I don't.

Maybe I can call him next Sunday while he's on air.

bk

focus BK ...

nothing grow in frozen soil ... its prima facie dormancy ... defined as ON ITS FACE .... and most trees have all their roots in the frozen part .... the first foot or two of soil ....

so.. lets then look at the source of the knowledge..

what the hell does the guy in TX know about frozen soil .. lol ...

and the OSU guy ought to have qualified his comment.. subject to location.. though noting.. his radio audience was TX ... so for TX.. i agree .. dormant trees grow roots ...

BTW .. i said such in the last hour or so.. in another post.. was there really a radio guy.. or was it the hosta voices in your head.. lol ... [we all have hosta voices.. so dont get offended... lol]

i totally agree with him .. that i swear i have arbs ..... conifers.. like green giants.. that grow from the minute the soil thaws in late march.. until it refreezes in dec or so ....

finally .... all those hosta that come in boxes from bigboxstore... are dug up.. and refrigerated in dormancy .... and the mass wholesaler friend of mine from years ago.. never mentioned that they hosta roots continued to grow.. while in storage.. and that is the kind of weirdness that would have come up in the conversation ....

soooo ... we are down to you in TX.. and whether your dormant hosta continue to grow roots ... all winter long ....

and i vote for no .. they are not trees/conifers .... .. dormant is dormant...

thats my vote..

ken

ps: now all we have to do.. is figure out an experiment.. for you to prove this.. any interest in unpotting one of your plants.. measuring it all up.. repotting it.. and doing the same the minute they start coming out of dormancy ...????

Here is a link that might be useful: link

There are warm season growers and cool season growers, varying from one genus to another. Spring flowering plants are cool season growers and those grow roots when the temps are colder. Summer and fall flowering plants tend to be warm season growers, putting out new root growth during the hotter times. There are some that will put on roots just about any time and others that are pretty strict about their growth cycles.

Hostas are fairly strict warm season growers. They put on roots during warmer weather and in the fall/winter their energy primarily goes to developing eyes but they don't put out new roots then.

Spring flowering shade plants like bleeding hearts and pulmonaria like to be planted now and will put out new roots before flowering in the spring. Hostas planted now won't put on new roots until after the soil warms up and the first set of leaves have emerged. You might have lots of new eyes come spring, but the roots will be the same as the previous year.

Ken, actually it was Neil Sperry. He's the radio guy. His specialty is Texas, even if he graduated from OSU. He's never said why he transferred to Ohio State from A&M, I just assumed that being the son of a faculty member was difficult. He mentioned the trees growing roots during the winter on his Sunday program last week. (He's also the guy who says you can't grow hosta in pots.)

Yes, I read your post. That's why prompted my question. I assumed hosta would not grow roots in Michigan during the winter. I wondered about Texas.

Yes, I would be willing to do an experiment, but measuring would be the difficult part. You'd have to have a good deal of growth to be able to measure it. What if the roots got fatter instead of longer? What if some of the shorter roots grew longer, but the longest didn't change much?

Thanks Chris. That makes sense.

bk

BKay, if it is in soil, would you make a glass pot and watch through the glass.....like observing an ant farm in a small aquarium or something like that? Of course, for the purpose of experimentation, having it done like the beans we grew in first grade, between blotters, but that is a dried seed actually, and the roots come out. But then you'd be able to see the roots.

Not that good a scientific head on my shoulders to design an experiment. You have such an inquiring mind, and you seek answers to all sorts of interesting stuff!

What if you just wrapped the roots with something (like a paper towel, but maybe a little less likely to break down) that the roots could grow into but could be easily removed? That way, when you placed it in the grown and the roots started breaking the surface and growing into the wrapping, you would know there was growth. No surface break, no growth. Does that make sense?

I have used water retentive clear gel beads to show my kids how roots grow from cuttings...it might be a good medium for watching hosta roots grow during the growth season. As if we lunatics need any more obsessive hosta watching behaviors!