A late winter storm took out my tomato crop -PICS-

stephenk · April 27, 2013

The comments about planting too early are fair. But, I was prepared for normal spring frosts after the final frost date, which is generally the most you can expect this time of year.

Kansas State University has the average final frost date at April 20th for my community. The last two years I planted around that date. One year I had to cover the plants one or two nights. I was prepared to do that again this year if needed.

Unfortunately, we had a freak late storm that was ice and snow, not just a normal frost, so there was really not much I could do to protect the plants.

Long story short, I planted because I was prepared to deal with frost if I needed to and I wasn't too concerned about losing plants because I had extras. It just turned out we had an unexpected storm that was unusually severe and cold for this time or year.

Oh well. We'll plant our replacements soon and forge ahead.

April 27, 2013	#18
stephenk Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Plains Posts: 5	The comments about planting too early are fair. But, I was prepared for normal spring frosts after the final frost date, which is generally the most you can expect this time of year. Kansas State University has the average final frost date at April 20th for my community. The last two years I planted around that date. One year I had to cover the plants one or two nights. I was prepared to do that again this year if needed. Unfortunately, we had a freak late storm that was ice and snow, not just a normal frost, so there was really not much I could do to protect the plants. Long story short, I planted because I was prepared to deal with frost if I needed to and I wasn't too concerned about losing plants because I had extras. It just turned out we had an unexpected storm that was unusually severe and cold for this time or year. Oh well. We'll plant our replacements soon and forge ahead. Last edited by stephenk; April 27, 2013 at 01:10 AM.