Frost - a VERY close call?

[bigcheef]

Well Mater,

As you know, I’m just across town and I thought the plants would be okay at 38 degrees. This was not the case but I have to say I learned an interesting lesson. It was not a great loss with only 5 plants succumbing to frost damage. Since I planted everything last week, I had only had time to cover half of the garden with news paper and wheat straw. Surprisingly, these were the plants most affected by the frost! The other plants that were just in the dirt with no protection made it through the frost completely unscathed. I also had 2 plants in containers on the deck that had no problem.

The only think I can think of is that the straw must have held the moisture around the plants allowing it to frost rather than evaporating in the early morning. Go figure, but I guess it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I did cover the plants for the second night of cold weather but I think I just did that for piece of mind.

Another discovery was made quite to my surprise this morning when I realized my Kimberly had set its first 3 fruits during the cold snap!

Heck of a pursuit, this tomato thing. I learn something new every year.

RIK

[elkwc36]

NWS and Weatherunderground are both saying 38,36,38 for the next 3 nights. After that looks like I can relax. The long range is 44 up and that puts me past the 10th which should be safe. So will cover what I can in the cold frame. Going to go ahead and pot up some tonight. May set them in the kitchen floor tonight then out they go. What a spring. Our average last frost is April 16th. The last 3 years have been late. Oh and to think I grow tomatoes to relax and relieve the stress. JD

[Bitwise Gamgee]

bigcheef, I suspect that your newspaper/straw insulated your plants from the ground that was warmer that the air. The plants on the bare ground benefited from the warmer ground radiating its heat into the air around the plant.

I am going to replace 5 or 6 out of my 45 due to leaf damage. The cover I placed over the plants protected them from actually receiving frost; but, they suffered from the cold (34 degrees).

- Bitwise

[barkeater]

bigcheef, frost also hits in seemingly random patterns, taking out a plant here and there. I've seen flats of flowers where 10 or 12 plants out of the 60 were hit, and the rest are fine.

[bonekittyslug]

This past Monday night I had frost damage to a few leaves on a few plants. As best I could tell the nightime temp never got below 45. It was that at 5:00AM when I awoke.

What's up with that?

Gives me even more to worry about...

[Worth1]

Its hard for me to explain but just because your thermometer said 45 doesn't mean your plants weren't below freezing.

This will explain better than me

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost

Worth

[bonekittyslug]

Thanks, Worth!

The explanations do make a lot of sense.

I had never experienced frost damage at that air temp. Wish I had paid more attention to the other atmospheric conditions present, i.e. dew point, wind speed, humidity, etc.

Live & Learn, Learn!, Learn!!

[elkwc36]

We hit 36 this morning after a predicted low of 38. And now they are saying 32-33 tonight. So everything not in the cold frame will go in the house tonight. Hopefully will be the last one. Hope everyone makes it ok. JD