Cold night tonight!!!

[feldon30]

I really need to buy a weather station with a remote that records the daily high and low temps.

I do not think it got below 36 here. Anyway, I did not lose a single plant that I can tell.

It is 48 degrees outside, but my tomato plants are enjoying mid-80's in their greenhouses. I opened a little bit of each greenhouse to cool them down a bit so it doesn't cook the plants.

I may take some good advice and connect the two beds so that I can make the whole thing one 30 foot long temporary greenhouse and then I can put an electric heater in the middle to warm the two beds.

Here's the pictures:




Added cages


Paint, Measure, Cut. OOPS! Re-measure, Re-cut!


A rarely seen angle of strawberry and tomato beds.


Almost finished!


A little duct tape'll do ya!

P.S. The pool is actually almost warm enough to swim in. And no, I'm not filling it in with dirt!!!

[duajones]

good work Feldon. After closer inspection, I do have some damage.A few plants have some crispy foliage. Most look ok. I guess I will know more in the next couple days. One of the Bush Early Girl plants took the worst of it. And it was in the middle of two other plants that seem to come through it ok. I guess I will remove the damaged foliage and hope that they will be allright.

[Rena]

What a job Feldon!! WOW fantastic, (clapping hands)!! Great pics!

We made a tent over and set a heater in the middle. It got much warmer then projected for today so, I will rest a little better. I also wrapped frost blankets, towels anything I could get my hands on. I used about a thousand clothes pins LOL

[duajones]

The more I look the worse it gets. Most of my plants have at least some damage with some worse than others. Since I have no experience with this, I am wondering if the damage will change the plants growth pattern. Maybe stunt growth or whatever. What should I expect?

[Worth1]

Nice job Feldon!
the apparatus looks top notch.

My plants dont look any worse for the ware and we had none of the wind that others are talking about.

The young tender growing tips look as freash as a daisy.

PS I wouldnt fill in the pool either.

Worth

[Ruth_10]

No tomato plants in the ground yet, but my sugar snap peas have some brown leaves. We are supposed to get below freezing again tonight, so stay tuned. I haven't looked at the strawberry plants under the Reemay yet. I think I'm afraid to look. The asparagus stalks above ground got frozen and some groundcover by the house suffered damage.

The fruit orchards and vineyards around here have been devastated. The place where we get peaches says they were wiped out. This cold snap wouldn't have been so harmful if it hadn't been so warm the previous few weeks. Everything was about a week ahead of normal, and paid the price.

[Rena]

Yes, Remove damaged leaves and go on.
Rena
Counting her blessings and her baby tomatoes.

[natural]

very nice Feldon. I just purchased a remote indoor/outdoor therm with min/max feature for $15 at Home Depot. Cheapest one I've found for those features. It works great!

[Gimme3]

whats that ol song....that says..." losers cry ...Deal again " ?...))) an whats that ol sayin about keepin ya powder dry, or ya feathers numbered ?...)))

There will be a Ceremony of congratulations ...tommorrow afternoon...to the Igloo Ice Chest Company....and to the cultivar known as Druzba. Them two together, survived a brittle cold night an lived to talk about it...in-ground...))) One...outta 36...)))

I hung a digital min/max thermometer in a Kiefer pear tree, Friday evenin. Friday night...it said the minimum was 27.3...i believe. This mornin...it said the minimum was 22.7. Thats mighty dam hard to save any tender plant in. I believe...the weeks to come..are gonna show...the real curse...that March was...on many fruiting trees. Its a Year to Mark down, an never forget.

Thru the Grace of many good traders here, and a little greenhouse that i built last Winter...plus...basically playin around , but keepin a Whole lot of powder dry...it aint no Sweat...but it sho does....Teach...

I told my uncle today...if i ever see another March like this one...i'll curse it. March is gonna wreak havoc...for a Season...on Fruit an nut trees. It burned off the top of a beautiful Celeste Fig tree here, it looks like it got sprayed w/agent orange...yet another one, growin on the border of the Woods...is Smilin. One can learn a lot about air currents, by observing trees and plants, at this very time.

[Ruth_10]

Awww, Gimme--one out of thirty-six. I' so sorry. Happy to hear you kept some powder dry.

[feldon30]

duajones,

Sorry to hear you may have lost some.

I don't even have much fruitset, but I was fanatical (hysterical) about saving my plants. Now that the frameworks are in place, I think next time I can protect the plants in just an hour or two of applying and stapling the plastic. I need to find a non-ridiculous method of the plastic being rolled up or stored somehow so that it can easily be applied or rolled out. If I had such a setup, I'd grow peppers from July - February.

[dcarch]

Originally Posted by feldon30

----- ----- I need to find a non-ridiculous method of the plastic being rolled up or stored somehow so that it can easily be applied or rolled out. If I had such a setup, I'd grow peppers from July - February.

You may try using Velcro to fasten the fabric to the frames. You can buy Velcro in large rolls on eBay.

dcarch

[PaulF]

With the last 5 nights at 20 or below, my plants are still tucked away in the basement under lights. I am getting tired of the cold temps. I want to get outside into the dirt except all my dirt is still frozen. With the late spring for all you southerners, I hope you don't go right into blistering hot summer.

[nctomatoman]

My plants went into the garage mid last week, and won't come out until tomorrow morning after it warms beyond the mid 30s. They are looking pretty good, and I am hoping that the roots have been progressing, ready for reemergence into the sun and a burst of growth! Looking around our property, the blooming azaleas and emerging growth on Crepe Myrtles and Butterfly Bushes fared the worst with obvious damage. I will uncover my reemay covered lettuce and chard this morning and check out my sugar snap peas and see what they look like.

[gardenmaniac]

I am so sorry to hear about everyone's losses.

Looks like we really lucked out. We only had two cold nights to deal with. The first one was hardly cold at 45 and the second night went to 33. I had left everything covered from the night before with hopes to trap as much heat as possible. It looks like my towel and sheet approach worked. If it was any colder, I might not have been so lucky. The wind was pretty bad too, so the covers kept everything from getting battered. The good news is that my apples didn't freeze and the buds on the kiwis and blackberries were not bothered. One or two degrees lower and things might have been different.

One trick we didn't use this time, but really works is setting those larger outdoor Christmas lights (C4?) in a clump around the plants under plastic. They put out a lot of heat and the heat rises. They will burn your plant if they touch it, however. We make PVC cubes around our citrus for winter and string the trees with the lights making sure the lights are facing outwards. Then cover in plastic and anchor with roofing spikes and plastic tent spikes. They are very pretty. When I get home tonight I will look for a picture to post...

Tiffanie