Planted out today

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by newatthiskat

The county agent suggested planting out on March 15th for tomato plants.

This is my 4th year gardening here.

* March 22, 2006 we had a frost or near-frost. I had to go all out with blankets.
* April 7, 2007 we had a frost or near-frost. I actually built a box around each garden bed and covered the whole thing with plastic. Incredibly labor intensive but my plants loved the humid 70's temps inside while it was ~45 outside.
* We didn't get a frost in Spring 2008 but Suze in Elgin, TX got close I believe.

In 2008, I lagged behind and planted some plants on March 12th and the rest on March 16th.

Keep in mind that those "cold snap" days were often surrounded by temps in the 60-80's, which are prime tomato growing weather. It was mid-70's yesterday, it got down to high 30's last night, and it will reach mid-70's again today. You'd think I'd moved to the high desert! (usually the Gulf effect parks warm, moist air over us during the night)


Based on all of this, I've decided that as long as I can protect my plants with row cover (which I have subsequently purchased 2 rolls of), blankets, and/or large pots which I can put upside-down on top of the plants (with a brick to secure), I am going to plant on or around March 8th.

I do realize that protecting plants can be labor intensive, and folks have jobs that might prevent them from being so vigilant through the month of March. That's why I spend a lot of time thinking about easy ways to protect my plants that take less than 15 minutes to install.


There seems to be no benefit to waiting until March 21st or April 1st as we have had frost or near-frost AFTER those dates. And since we are getting a mixture of 70's and 80's along with these cold snaps, I might as well take advantage of all the warm weather I can and plant March 8th. That's when Suze plants in Elgin (18mi E. of Austin) and that's when Suze planted when she lived in Ft. Worth.

In a perfect world, I'd build a greenhouse with removable panels which I would partially remove on 80 degree days and completely remove in May. I've seriously considered it. Unfortunately I have nowhere that I could store such panels.

[newgardener_tx]

I went out at 9:30pm to protect my plants last night. This morning I found 5 of 10 big plants died. All baby plants survived. Those died were in more open area. I covered them with a coffee can and plastic bags. May them rest in the heaven.

[jungseed]

Kat, we don't really hate you guys, it's just the green eyed monster rearing it's head. Spring envy.
I'll feel better in July and August when I'm sitting in the yard under a shade tree and it's only 75 degrees there. With a nice breeze off the lake. Everything is so blue and green it almost hurts your eyes.
Is that as cruel as you guys planting outside when it was 6 degrees here this morning?

[Mojo]

Not sure it got down to 30s at my house, but they are predicting that for Sunday night. Tilling will begin in 20 minutes around here, but I will wait until Monday or Wednesday to put plants in ground, since I don't have raised beds and covering everything can be a royal pain.

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by newgardener_tx

I went out at 9:30pm to protect my plants last night. This morning I found 5 of 10 big plants died. All baby plants survived. Those died were in more open area. I covered them with a coffee can and plastic bags. May them rest in the heaven.

Very unfortunate. Sorry to hear you lost half your plants.

I know you probably couldn't due to schedule, but I found if I protect my plants after dark, then I am not trapping any warm air with the plants so they will probably freeze. Protection in the morning or during the day might have helped more, I don't know.

Also I think the metal coffee cans are a conductor of heat and cold so may not have been able to block the temperature changes going on outside the container. Plastic is a poor conductor of cold and heat and thus a good choice for protection, as long thin plastic such as a plastic bag doesn't touch the leaves. That will burn the leaves.


I don't think we got below 38 here last night, so I count myself very lucky. I also realize I am very fortunate that I have the schedule to spend a lot of time on my plants especially during the day. I know that most people just can't.

Once I have ~30 plants in the ground, I'll have to resort to the more labor intensive row covering that I bought from Charley's Greenhouse online which other people may not have the time to deal with.

[Mojo]

I'm wondering this: if one were to go out around 4:30 or 5 in the morning and gently water one's plants with warm (98.6) water, would that be enough to stave off frost damage?

[feldon30]

I believe Suze has saved plants from frost by misting her plants. This can be labor-intensive and/or interfere with a job, but hey this is tomatoes we're talking about.

Row Covers are rated for their frost protection. Some are labeled for preventing frost down to 28 degrees, some as low as 22 degrees.

[Suze]

Originally Posted by newgardener_tx

I went out at 9:30pm to protect my plants last night. This morning I found 5 of 10 big plants died. All baby plants survived. Those died were in more open area. I covered them with a coffee can and plastic bags. May them rest in the heaven.

Sorry to hear that. I would not pull them right away, unless you have replacements. They may regrow, depending on how bad the damage was. If the central stem still looks good, maybe...

As Morgan said, next time, try to protect/cover at least a couple of hours before the sun goes down to trap some heat. Also agreed with him that coffee cans (metal) would be more conductive of cold or heat than a larger plastic container, so not a good choice. They are also small and wouldn't be able to hold in much warm air. Sheet plastic can be a good covering, but the plastic needs to be fairly thick, not touching the plants, and sealed up at least a couple of hours before the sun sets to trap some heat as I mentioned above.

Originally Posted by Mojo

I'm wondering this: if one were to go out around 4:30 or 5 in the morning and gently water one's plants with warm (98.6) water, would that be enough to stave off frost damage?

It depends, probably not. Depends on how cold it gets and how fast it gets cold. If the temp got down to a damaging range *before* 4:30 or 5, I doubt it would help. As Morgan mentioned, I have been known to get up in the middle of the night and start misting my plants. I suggest misting (the foliage) instead of watering the soil, in order to keep actual frost from being able to form on the foliage. I have saved plants with little/no damage down to 29F by staying with them through the night and periodically misting until the sun comes up and temps get out of the danger zone. They sulk for a couple of days and slow down, but then pick right back up. I've had to get up and mist at least once after I have planted for the last two years running, and that is with a plant out date of 3/7. Edit/add - me waiting until, say, 3/15 would not have helped either year, as those cold nights happened late March, and in '07, I even got a close call the first week of April!

Another point that should probably be mentioned is that frost can form at temps above 32F.

[newgardener_tx]

Thanks for the nice words. Tomato people! You guys are right. The one not died are covered by big plastic pots and all the ones died are covered by coffee cans. Man I did spend almost 20 years at school. Sorry for my basic/general/advance/thermal dynamic physics professor. Or I am just good at on the paper not in the simple real world.

I got some 14 plants today. Plan to put in after Tuesday.

[feldon30]

Growing tomatoes in Texas is almost heroic. Crushing defeats and triumphant victories. If the second part doesn't happen, show up at SETTFest with empty bags (grocery and ziplocks). Last year there were many whole and partial tomatoes.

[duajones]

Very nice light rain falling right now, perfect timing. Im hoping it gives my plants an early boost

[Mojo]

I retrieved the rest of my Gulf States market seedlings from my friends, who spoiled them with fish emulsion and growlights, and potted them all out. I was going to put the big ones from the other week in the ground, but with sub-40 temps looming tonight and tomorrow, I decided it was less work to let them stay in the pots two extra days and put out everything Monday afternoon (that's over 4" tall).

I lied earlier: I counted my slots and I have room for 22 plants, and that's only going every other row. Only have 6 zukes now, so will see how things look at mid-March.

Varieties going in:
Black Krim
Persimmon
Gulf States Market
Early Goliath
Moonglow
Chadwicks Cherry
Gregory's Altai
Cherokee Purple (not by choice; my friends were literally dumping them on me)

[bryanccfshr]

I miss my texas weather. I am now at 6k feet and still freezing at night. My plant out date won't be till the end of May

[duajones]

Evidently it got colder Saturday night than I thought. Noticed some crunchy leaves on a few of the outer branches on several plants. I thought about covering the plants since they had only been in the ground 3 days but based on the forecast I thought they would be allright. They look like they will recover and I sure hope so. Hit my backups even worse probably because they are still in small containers.

[feldon30]

Ouch. Weather Underground let you down?