Jack Frost Nipping

[barkeater]

Forecast for West Glover,VT:
"Clear. Widespread frost with patchy fog after midnight. Cold with lows 25 to30. Light and variable winds"

80% of my tomatoes are still green, and I haven't picked a ripe Brandywine yet! Most years I'm awash in Tomatoes and would have 15-20 qts. put up. None yet this year, except for the bloody mary mix...oops, I need more. ;-) Spent the last hour covering my tomatoes, sweet potatoes and hot peppers.

JF can have my cukes, I'll have 35 qts. of pickles total after packing what I just picked.

[carolyn137]

Bark, lows here for tonight just a couple of hundred miles south of you are for 30-32F and half of my plants never set fruit and the rest are greenies except for five varieties, those 3 hybrids I'm trialing, 1/12 from Reinhard and 1/10 from Andrey and two others of which I have ONE fruit off one and 3 fruits off the other one.

Horrible season.

Freda picked everything she could when she was here yesterday, so what will be, will be.

[cecilsgarden1958]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Bark, lows here for tonight just a couple of hundred miles south of you are for 30-32F and half of my plants never set fruit and the rest are greenies except for five varieties, those 3 hybrids I'm trialing,....

Carolyn, how to you make out with the frost? Barkeater too?
Carolyn, what three hybrids are you trialing?

CECIL

[tjg911]

just had a second scattered frost saturday morning. this is twice in the same week and it's a bit early even on saturday for frost. both on sunday and yesterday my garden has escaped any frost which is good as i still have peppers that need to turn red, basil and butternut squash the latter ususally being harvested by 9/15 but this year i'm trying to get it to ripen before frost/freeze.

i've been fertilizing the butternuts and some cabbages that are just starting to form heads every week hoping that speeds their growth. the cabbages are shaded by broccoli plants and don't get sun until just after 10:30 so they get about 5 to 5 1/2 hours of very weak sun a day, when the sun shines. it seems hard to believe that cabbage seeds with 50 dtm started on 8/1 are struggling to mature today.

the foliage is turning a good 7-10 days early around here. it's surprising how many sugar maples are orange and red a week ago. the peak should be before columbus day which is typically the peak here.

tom

[barkeater]

This is the normal time for first frost here, and I'm all prepared with frost blankets. But, like Carolyn says, it has been a horrendous season in the northeast. Most lost them to late blight a month ago, and the rest of us are looking at green tomatoes that won't ripen.

I thought the 4 weeks of warm, dry weather in August would catch us up, but it didn't. Hopefully, since it is a new moon, once we get by tonight and tomorrow, we got 2 more good weeks before the full moon and the next best frost date. Good luck Carolyn, we need it!

[mjc]

I'm actually fairly hopeful...it is not going to dip lower than the 50s for the next couple of nights...that should be 'safe' enough for the next two weeks. I've got a boat load of peppers that are slowly finishing up, tomatoes were a bust...what the deer didn't decimate, finally succumbed to a host of disease problems (there are a couple hanging in there...but it is looking like green tomato relish or something).

[tomakers]

Well, this is one year I don't have to worry much about frost, as all of my tomatoes have fallen victim to LB. Only a few cukes and summer squash to protect. Got down to 33.1 in my garden, but our cranberry bogs had temperatures down to 27 before the sprinklers were started (cranberries have some frost tolerance at this time of year, as the sugars, etc., lower the freezing point below 32).
I can't wait until I can start over. This is the worst year I have had for tomatoes in 50 years of gardening. I got just one large tomato, a Carbon, and it was delicious. I still have plants that look almost ok, but the fruit get moldy before ripening. Thank God the glass is almost always half full for me. If it wasn't, I'd be hanging myself from a tomato cage.
Tom

[tjg911]

when i went to bed last night at midnight it was 42 down from 50 at 8 pm and the air was dead still. i heard about the frost too late and did not want to go out in the dark to cover squash and peppers. heck 9/20 is too early for frost. well this morning i had scattered frost in the yard. it was near the garden but from the house it does not appear it landed in the garden, all the brown soil areas are brown so i'm figuring all is safe. close call! it's going to be warmer now this week but by late week cold returns. next full moon s/b around 10/2 and frost often occurs in may during full moon so look out.

tom

[desertlzbn]

It was a 100 today, and I am wishing the heat breaks soon. Looks like high temps for the next week, but at least the evenings and nights are cooling off.

[AZRuss]

It's NEVER going to cool off in Tucson. That's what I've decided. The long range forecast into the first week of October is high 90's+. I see "jack frost nipping...." and I want to get onto the first plane to wherever that is.

[desertlzbn]

LOL Russ, It will cool off around November. That is fine by me because that just means a nice mild winter unlike the one we had a few years ago where it was 12 degrees in the mornings (yes 12 degrees is VERY FRIGID for my thin desert blood). Also the extended heat means that I will get more time for my tomato plants to produce.

[hmacdona]

We had our first frost last night..and by the looks of the cars out my window...a very heavy frost as well (still dark outside

Thankfully we were warned so I was able to cover tomatoes at mine and my mom's house. The rest of the week is supposed to be beautifully warm...close to 29c some days. What's with this crazy weather?

[montanamato]

Frost here last night...I had not payed attention as lows had been in the 50's night before...I could have easily brought containers into the kitchen, but I thought we had lots of room before frost....
It must have just touched 32 briefly as the eggplant and peppers are fine, and about 80% of my toms are fine...Just a few tops of the larger indeterminates on the south edge of the roof were affected...I pulled in some fruits that had frost damage....
Luckily the cuke patch was under row cover...
Weather will be back in the 90's by wed....

Jeanne

[Tormato]

Thirty-four degrees here. I finally picked a ripe watermelon, and put it in the fridge to warm up.

Tormato

[Blueaussi]

Originally Posted by tomakers

. Got down to 33.1 in my garden

Originally Posted by tjg911

i had scattered frost

Originally Posted by hmacdona

We had our first frost last night..

Originally Posted by montanamato

Frost here last night...

Originally Posted by Tormato

Thirty-four degrees here.

Yeeesh, will you people please stop using such vulgar language!

*curls up in a corner, rocking and chanting*

We WILL have a late first frost this year! We WILL have a late first frost this year! We WILL have a late first frost this year! We WILL have a late first frost this year! We WILL have a late first frost this year! We WILL have a late first frost this year! We WILL have a late first frost this year! We WILL have a late first frost this year! We WILL have a late first frost this year!