Frost/Ice

[bigpinks]

I have 29 plants in the ground. 30 degrees forecasted for fri nite/sat morning. Rain predicted fri as well. If I cover with straw in the rain before the cold nite would that be better or worse? Maybe just wash off 8:00 Sat morning?

[KarenO]

Originally Posted by bigpinks

I have 29 plants in the ground. 30 degrees forecasted for fri nite/sat morning. Rain predicted fri as well. If I cover with straw in the rain before the cold nite would that be better or worse? Maybe just wash off 8:00 Sat morning?

I would try to cover them
KarenO

[rxkeith]

i don't know how big your plants are.
covering them with paper bags, jars, or buckets could be done. paper doesn't do good in rain though. boxes could work.

i remember when florida citrus growers would spray their trees with water to protect
against frost. maybe cover wet?? wait for someone else to answer before you take
my advice. in the past, i covered my plants with whatever bag, bucket, or box i had available when we had a
late june frost warning once or twice. plants survived.
i don't remember if it got cold enough to frost or not. frost in late june????
c'mon. thats how it is here sometimes.




keith

[kath]

I feel your pain. I would try to cover, too. Avoid any close contact with plastic near the leaves from my experience. Newspaper, cardboard, paper bags, blankets, sheets, straw...
Supposed to be 32-34 here depending on which forecast you listen to. Going to cover my potatoes with hoops and heavy duty row cover but I don't start tomatoes early any more.
Hope they come through ok- but fyi, I sowed new plants on May 16th one year and still got lots of fruit from them.

[bigpinks]

Big frost today, birdbath froze. At ten till seven I doused them all with sprinkler caan and could see the frost washed away. Pretty sure they will be OK. But three more frost warnings in next few days. It only took ten minutes to wash all 29 plants. Didnt see neighbor who had over 400 out so he will lose many. Sun was up bright but low when I went out. Coldest May in a while but I did have frost once on May 20 so its not like I didnt know better and I have 60 nice plants in the garage.

[SQWIBB]

Cold spell here too but low is supposed to be 35°F not bad but from experience I usually estimate a 3° swing either way to be safe.
I'm going to let it ride, tossing the dice lol.
If everything dies, I'll be putting in berry bushes, fruit trees and more perennials next year, I'm getting too old for this $hit!

[wildcat62]

Had our plants/cages covered with garbage bags. Looks like I lost 30 out of 36 at least.

[slugworth]

I had 1 tomato plant in cement blocks that made it ok.

[BakedIn]

I also had about 30 plants in that were fairly well established. Got down to 32 degrees here last night. I had went out and covered up sprinkling them with hay last evening. It didn't stay that cold long, maybe a couple hours. A few of the Opalkas look droopy, I'll probably pull on those. Overall didn't come out too bad. Tobacco plants not bothered at all.


Do little blasts like this hurt later fruit production?

[SQWIBB]

Got to 33 around 6am, rained last night, most everything looks ok, got another low of 35 tonight, which means 33 in my garden.
It's funny, I'm at the point where I really don't care anymore, never thought I would get like that.

[pipefitter508]

600 tomato plants in ground temperature tonight going 33 to 37 depending on which news station
I have had heavy grow plastic fabric down for a month I also have my sprinklers ready to go
Remote thermometer is in the middle at plant night
I have done all I can
Bob

[taboule]

My tomatoes are still in pots and trays hardening, I resisted putting them in this year. Last year I was in the ground by now. Will gather them all and bring them inside for tonight.

lettuce and cabbage already planted and growing nicely. they'll be fine.

I drove by the local market basket earlier and saw peppers plants out for sale, blowing in the wind. Same at the big boxes, they bring them in too early.

[elight]

I have 9 tomato plants and a variety of other things in raised beds. Saw forecasts as low as 29 but I think it only got to 33 or 34 last night, and probably the same tonight. I covered them with tarps (anchored by bags of mulch that I haven't spread yet) and a lamp underneath to hopefully produce a tiny bit of heat. They looked fine this morning and I uncovered them for the day but ended up covering them again because it was 40 and windy. I'm thinking one day without sunlight isn't as bad as whipping around in cold wind.

We also had some snowflakes here and there in the early afternoon. Just crazy.

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[JRinPA]

Windy, yeah it was. Just a bit...I was up around fogelsville most of the day. It might have dipped below 20 mph for a couple minutes this afternoon. Flurries much of the day.

It definitely froze down my way last night. At 930 AM when I went to check how the lettuce and spinach fared, the agribon was still frozen to my hold down sticks. The forecast was for 31 and it was windy and rainy/snowy, about 20 degrees off horizontal at times.

I don't have any tomatoes out but for some reason I chose this year to try to beat the SVB by getting the summer squash out early like some locals do. So they were topped with plastic bins last night. Seemed okay this morning. Then I let the wind have at them all day. When I got home tonight I put the bins back on and added some water jugs in there with them. Forecast tonight is for a low of 30F. I'm not much for the heat, but I hope this is the last cold worry.

[bigpinks]

34 and frosty along the Ohio River here this AM. Prob gonna move back my seeding time next yr by ten days and then it wont frost after mid April. I have some very tall seedlings in the garage hungry for the soil.