Here I am In West Texas with temperatures outside hovering around 24 degrees. Last night, it got down to 21 degrees. The forecast is for continued freezing temperatures to remain until later on tomorrow morning. Then a warming trend begins. I presently have Cos, Endive, and Sante Fe lettuce in my garden. I also have 1015Y onions which have been in the ground for two weeks. Yesterday, I covered all of those with clear 4 Mil plastic. All of the plants looked great when I covered them. Today, we also have some very fine mist. What do you think? Does anyone else have a similar situation? How far down the temperature ladder can we go before onions and lettuce are affected. Thanks in advance for any comments.
JimC, West Texas
Onions and Lettuce
I don't have any experience growing veggies (shame on me), someone is likely to chime in in a moment. I'm surprised the lettuce survives in freezing temps, would think the leaves would freeze and get mushy.
I've been through Abilene four times in the last six weeks, on the way to and from NM. I always wonder as I drive through other parts of TX, what DG members are in the area. Now I know about Abilene!
:-)
Your 1015's should be OK. The lettuces have a chance - be sure the plastic isn't touching the plants as the cold would be conducted to them.
Peas will make it fine and most of the rest. The lettuce from what I hear will be ok to 25, row covers add a few degrees of warmth, I have also ran christmas lights under row covers to make it warner still - warning do not let the rowcover or the leaves touch the christmas light bulbs! Hope this helps... I am a little south of you in 8b so I have corn already out but I would think most everything should be fine. Lettuce really matters from type to type and sometimes year to year so I tend to plant half on MLK day and the other half on March 1st. That way if they all grow everything is ok and I have two crops but if one gets nipped I still have some! I have grown lettuce everywhere from Oklahoma City to Mexico City and we did it the same everywhere just added a few weeks time one way or the other.
Well, it's Monday morning, 9 AM, temperature 37 degrees, today's forecast -predicts a high of 65 degrees. I just pulled the plastic from my lettuce and onions. This after three days of freezing temperatures down to 19 degrees. Naturally, I was overjoyed to find my Cos, Endive, and Sante Fe Red lettuce, and onions to be very robust and seemingly unaffected by all of the cold weather. During the three days that I had the plastic in place, we received small amounts of freezing rain. I knew that lettuce and onions could withstand some freezing temperatures, but I firmly believe that the plastic protected the plants from serious damage, especially on those nights when the thermomenter dipped down to a least 19 degrees. Thanks for all of the comments.
JimC, West Texas