Frost - a VERY close call?

[tomatoguy]

When I woke up a few minutes ago, the outdoor thermometer was registering 36 degrees. However, as you can see in the picture, there is definitely frost on the hot tub cover as well as my car and my work truck. The plants look okay so far. No apparent damage at all. I will have a look at them later to be sure. They certainly don't have the appearance they did last year after a 22 degree overnight temp. After that they were lying flat on the ground and had the consistency of melted candle wax. I have a grand total of 1 backup plant, the one intended for my jobsite. All of my co-workers' and friends' plants are in the ground so I am keeping my fingers crossed for them as well.

mater

[bonekittyslug]

Congratulations on a bit of good luck!!!

Weather says it's gonna be 39 tonight here. I'm scared.

As I grow in containers, I will be bringing 3 or 4 inside. The other 7 or 8 will get Christmas lights put on their cages this evening. Never tried this before, couldn't hurt, I suppose. We shall see....will look weird in any case!

[feldon30]

Can't stress enough the importance of checking Weather Underground or the National Weather Service. WUnderground predicted 38. TV stations are notoriously inaccurate.

[rnewste]

Morgan,

Thanks very much for the link. Far more detailed information on my ZIP 95008 than I am able to find from other weather sources.

Ray

[Worth1]

I went through a scare about 2 weeks ago.

With plants at the 4 foot stage it got to 34 here and I was nowhere around to do a thing.

I looked at weather underground for about 4 days to see what was going on.

Worth

[Bitwise Gamgee]

mater, I'm not very far from you. We had frost this morning also ... I had covered my plants and they came out fine. I'm a little more concerned tonight as the NWS has a “Freeze Warning” out for our county! Hoping for the best ... -Bitwise

[GIZZARDFARM]

I too am not far from you guys in TN and i too had a light frost, which is rare for blackberry winter but after last years big freeze i swore to wait until the first weekend in May to plant maters,beans, okra and squash plants glad i did. Hope yalls plants make it. Gizzard

[Bitwise Gamgee]

I hear you Gizzard, most everyone around here that has been gardening for a while says to wait till May. Some years I do wait, some I don't. I had my eye on the forecast last week and really thought an early start would be safe this year. Oops! I have replacements still in cups ready to go ... just not exact variety replacements.

- Bitwise

[Ruth_10]

We got down to 33.5 F based on our recording thermometer on the deck. There was frost on the grass. I think my stuff is alright but another day or two will tell the tale. I always put a few tomato plants out early "at risk" and sure enough, they were at risk! I do have plenty more that are sitting it out in the sun room, waiting for the real spring to start.

[jenn_sc]

I'm really worried this morning. I planted out the rest of my tomatoes and all of my peppers YESTERDAY and last night it got down to 38F.

How stupid of me not to check the forecast before planting! It's almost May and this is zone 7 for goodness sakes! Arghhhh....now I'm afraid to go look.

I planted deep and mulched really well, so maybe it won't be so bad. In a few minutes I'm going to go survey the damage....

Jennifer

[jcmorse33]

Forcast was for 38 degrees here last night. I brought all of the plants in pots that I could carry into the garage and put old nusery pots, garbage bags, and light weight floating row cover over the plants in the ground. Looks like I didn't need it though... no sign of frost anywhere when I got up in the morning.

[elkwc36]

Hope yours made it. I had toted plants back and forth for the weekend. But got a cold frame built for most but just left a few under the awning. Everything said a low of 44 for here. Weather underground is almost indentical to the NWS service site here. We showed a low of 36 but had light frost on the windshield when I ran the wipers. As I can't come home to remove the covers of the cold frame and was 89 yesterday I had to remove them before I left. Think everything made it ok but a few had curled leaves with purle undersides last night. They should pull out of it in a few days but then they are saying mid to upper 30's this weekend. I may start dropping a few in. I put the plastic buckets around them and with it supposed to be 90 today the soil temperature should be fine.And will be easier to take care of. My direct winter sown ones are jumping now. Wish I had done more. Best of luck to all with the freezes. JD

[harleysilo]

36 at my house last night. Frost this morning but I won't know how everthing looks till 5:30 tonight. I'm dieing to know!

[GIZZARDFARM]

Another light frost last night....whew....appears to have been the last though looking at the 14 day forcast the lowest im seeing is 47...Im putting mine out this weekend.... Gizzard

[JimmyWu]

I feel your pain... we too had frost last night. Tonight is supposed to get down to 43 F. we'll see.

-Jimmy