My GH heater ran out of gas last night just in time for 26 degree temps. I actually think it dropped lower. My cups with cuttings in the were frozen. I know I lost my sun coleus. man it was huge and PRETTY. It also got my Gaint succulents but not the small ones. The crazy thing is my seedlings seem fine so far. I just transplanted them yesterday from the tiny hole seed flat. My huuby assured me in a agrumentive tone that there was pleanty of gas for the week. This morning he say i guess I was wrong. YA THINK! Well im off to get gas and pray my tropicals dont get to weak and I loose them all. It will hit 22 this week. Im wondering how long before I can see all the damage caused to my precious plants from las nights stressful event. I figure the sun heating the GH up to day will deliver me a worse blow. :( Brandy
How long before I know the damage?
Yikes. I hope your plants come out. It is possible that even plants that froze on top may not have frozen through the pot and soil. Rapid temperature changes will cause further trouble, I would let the sun heat it up and then slowly go up from there. Here's hoping you had some heat sunk in your soil.
Just judging what happens with frosts, it can take from a few hours to a few days to show the damage. I think I would be getting an electric heater or a kerosene that you can drag out in a pinch.
This message was edited Dec 29, 2009 2:52 PM
The damage can sometimes take a little while to show up--some things will show damage right away but others you need to wait a few days or even a week or two to really see the extent of the damage. Don't give up on anything that looks dead/damaged though--many times things will look really bad and even lose most/all of their leaves, but will end up putting out new growth in the spring. So don't throw anything out yet! I've had things that I thought were completely dead and they came back for me. Since the temps were only in the mid 20's and it was probably only a few hours exposure to sub-freezing temps there's a decent chance that some of the things that were damaged will come back.
That sounds hopeful. I went and got 2 small tanks filled. I will have to make due with the smaller tanks till I pay these killer truck and house taxes. I see a bit more damage on some other things but I am hopeful it just messed up my foliage. GLASS HAFE FULL!!!
Cheers with glass half full :).
Ooh, Brandy. I read the news. Fortunately in our area the lowest temps occur only for a couple of hours just before dawn. So it's not likely that the plants froze all night long. It doesn't warm up too quickly during the day either. That should be less stressful for the plants. Wishing you the best. We have never had constant 20 degree temps this early in winter like we're having now. I'm off on Friday, so I'll stop by.
I'm not asking about my you know what. My other one is in the garage just inside the big door. It gets sunlight when the door is open during the day and I'm sure plenty of cold exposure and has yet to shed it's leaves. I'm shocked. Maybe I should move the bouganvilla closer to the door for sunlight and maybe it too won't go completely dormant. I'll let the allamanda go dormant. It blooms on new growth anyway.
So I take it that the heat was on when the night began? If so, then the cool down was probably slower than the outside temp, and like Deebie said, the temps are only that cold for a couple of hours. It can take up to two weeks for some tropicals to show the distress. We had a freak snow and freeze in Nov, and it took a while for some of the plants to show it.
Debbie you you know what is fine. LOL A few of the Jewel of Opar werent happy at all. LOL What lives lives. I wanted it all but I have to be thankful for what I do have. I t just hurt my feeling because one plant that froze was a BEAUTFUL huge plant a lady from CAlifornia shipped me as a gift. I reLLYhope it recovers.
I'm so sorry about your beloved plant and hope it recovers. As for those Jewels, don't worry about them. The seeds spring up everywhere they aren't planted. So I'll find you some more and they grow quite quickly I might add. As for the sun coleus, I just said to myself today "oh I'll just get a cutting from Brandy". I think my glass is half empty. LOL.
And I meant to tell you, I did find my asters. The papertowel around them was still moist and they were still in a plastic bag which had fallen behind the plumeria. Whew, I nearly lost them. I hope to get some planting done on Friday or early next week. After that it looks like I'll be going back to work for a while.
I remember reading about an emergency plan to use candles & tin cans for heat. Something about using a 'church key' or punch can opener.
The candle is in one smaller can with the lid removed, then a very large can is inverted over that smaller one. That big one has several triangles punched in the top for ventilation.
Maybe a safer backup might be having outdoor xmas lights on a thermometer switch in the greenhouse.
Well I think I have things under control. I definatly suffered some loss but I will recover. I have started a ton of seeds. That might make me feel better. I didnt fair so well on some of my succulents and a couple of torpicals. But I"ll live and thanks to some of my friends here My spirts are High... You know who you are!!! Love ya my gardening Pals.
Yeah, I love ya too, Pal. I'm so happy for you. In the beginning, I was really worried. That's why I insisted on coming by. But you have things under control now. E-mail me.
Don't give up on any of your plants yet--it's still way too early to tell what's going to recover and put out new growth and what's really dead. Some things may bounce back quickly, but I've had some things not show any signs of life until May or June. Luckily I'm really lazy about throwing away "dead" plants, otherwise I probably would have got rid of a number of things that ended up coming back in the end.
your certainly right about that.