Our warmest night for the next 5 days is 35 and we are a few degrees colder than the forcasted weather because we're in a valley. WE do have one night in mid 20's friday night.
I have already made arrangements for covering the tomatoes and squashes . I was wondering if newly sprouted beans would need protection. And arugala , do I need to cover that? I have red giant mustard seedlings coming up. What about them? I have plenty of plastic and heavy guage wire for making frames fast, But don't want to be doing it at dark 30 tonight, so PLEASE if you can tell me if I need to cover these crops , please let meknow, if they need covered for 32 and which needs to be covered at 25 degrees. I so didnot expect this cold front .
kathy_ann
FREEZING TEMPs ,CROPS, ASAP
I would say the beans need protection but personally I'd let the rest tough it out. Someone else will post with more information soon, I'm sure.
I would cover the beans. The arugula and mustard should be able to handle it, if mine are any indication. A very light cover like a sheer curtain should be enough to protect them, and you won't need frames to support such lightweight fabric. Good luck!
The summer before last, we had a freeze around May 8th. I don't put much out without protection anymore. Good for you for being so prepared.
Keeping my fingers crossed for you. This is the kind of thing that makes me ashamed of griping about the heat down here.
How about cabbages and lettuce? Our temp here is supposed to go down to 23 Saturday night. I have laid newspaper over my lettuce. Is that OK? How about cabbages?:=(
That can be hard on the cabbages. I would cover them. Where's that Farmer Dill, anyway? :)
I'm not worried about the cabbage, cauliflower , brocolli, peas, spinach, brussell sprouts etc....
They are cold weather crops and I have grown all inthe winter time. But the beans arejust now sprouting and the arugula is very young and tender as with the lettuce, just coming above ground well, it's about 2 inches tall, and I got the seed off the internet, andwon't have time to replant. So I think i will cover the lettuce and the arugula, which I have already gotten them ready to cover, will work on the beans then, andmake sure they get protection. Here'a pic of what I have done so far.
you can see the black pots for the tomato plants already to go and jars for the squash and black pots for them that are too big for jars. I'll make little row covers for the beans and just drape plastic over the fence of yard long beans. and weigh the plastic down with t posts or rebarb.
i've been working my but off.
still have all the plants in the back yard to move to the garage still
thanks for all the help
another view
another view of the cold stuff. Peas are really spaced out, alot of the seeds didn't germinate. I may replant, not sure yet.
I've got most of my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash and cukes covered. But like you I'm worn out. I've got both corn and beans sprouted a few inches high but I'm going to let that die since it's easy to replant.
I've had both lettuce and arugula survive 20 degrees ok this winter.
Jeff
I would too if I hadn't gotten the seed off the internet, at baker creek, don't want to have to wait for them to come to me again.
I'm about to go out and cover up all the cropsnow
I hear ya Kathy. I hate to let any of this die since I grew it all from seed but I'm out of plastic and milk jugs so I have to prioritize...
Jeff
Wow
Seems like we are all hustling. I covered all mine with plastic pots and then I covered the whole bed with heavy black contractors plastic.
Luckily I didn't plant my peppers of eggplant yet. All the flats went into the garage. They should be ok shouldn't they.
BB
as long as it's above freezing in your garage , they should be fine. I've got over 200 pots of plants in my garage with just enough room to walk to the door. It's horrid I tell ya LOL
Well, I've got all my Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant, Cukes, Squash, Melon covered and I the extra plastic I ordered showed up on my front porch today so I was thinking of covering the corn, beans and potatoes tomorrow. So I checked all the internet weather reports and watched the tv news and I'm pretty discouraged. They're predicting mid to low 20's this weekend now. This will set records here by a good 6-8 degrees if it happens.
I'll keep covering and fighting it until the bitter cold end, but I'm begining to think I need to order some new transplants.
Jeff
My temperatures are supposed to go to 19 tonight and 16 tomorrow night. I did something really extreme. I dug up all my tomatoes (15 plants) and peppers (12 plants) leaving the root ball intact and put them in a plastic tub in a well-lighted but unheated storage space in the house. I figure that at those temperatures, they were going to die anyway, covered or not, so they just as well die with me doing something to try to save them. It seems this cold spell will be finished in about four days anyway. Maybe some plants will survive with this method. Guess it's worth a shot anyway.
what about young dwarf fruit trees that have young fruits?
peaches, plums, apples, blueberries.
Will 25 degrees kill the youngins. or will a trashbag tied over the tree protect the young fruit? Just seems like a Freeze is goin to freeze them no mater what i put over anything.
And the poor Rose Buds. Have roses blooming and 7 more bushes putting out buds.
I was goin to put a Trash Can over my rose Bushes.
I did not start my garden yet cause I know there is Always a Blackberry winter around Easter. It never fells. So our planting date for gardens is April 15. I start most of it from seed and grow in 6 inch pots til then except for the big crops like beans, corn, and okra.
Happy Gardening, Chin UP
Cricket
My roses are all budded, ready to bloom, so I guess the cold will kill the buds. My peach trees had already finished blooming, so I guess the peaches are lost. I have been told that covering plants in cold weather only raises the temperature about 2 or 3 degrees anyway. I guess what doesn't survive we'll have to start over.
I know, I think we'll loose alot of fruit and so will those fruit orchards, our weather guy said this is the first freeze this late in the year since l989 . I knew I wasn't putting things out too early, it was just a fluke that this happened. LOL
WE have 6 pear trees about l5 feet tall, i'll never be able to cover them, have apples, peaches, plums, we'll just have to let them go I guess.
Be careful covering anything with plastic sheeting. Dew condenses on the underside and will freeze the plants if the plastic is touching them.
I will have lows down to the low teens and not much to cover plants with. Probably one sheet over the lettuce and big tree size black plastic tubs for the tender peony shoots. The rest will be gonners.
ITs not just the cold... that darn wind wants to blow my covers !
charlotte
This isn't so helpful now, but for future reference, Peaceful Valley (and I'm sure, other vendors) sells frost blankets that go over trees: I believe they are for 8 F degrees of protection. You just clip them underneath the branches at the trunk. They have three sizes. You can get five little ones (7'x7') for $20, two 14'x14' ones for $30, or a 26'x26' one for $50. A little pricey, but re-usable. As I'm putting in young fruit trees this fall, I'll invest in some of these, as well as some bulk row cover material.
Search for "frost blanket" at www.groworganic.com.
Whew, just went out in the light snow to put big pots over my peonies. Nasty out!
Zeppy, good to know about frost protestion for fruit trees. I hope to get a mini orchard started this year or next. Thanks.
I guess we won't be having English peas this year - LOL! It got around 29 degrees -- thought they'd be OK:
Even the onions weren't happy - the spinach & most of the lettuce was OK:
I know what you mean, I did cover the squash and tomatoes with doubled black pots, but I think I lost all of them. All my heirloom squash I started in the gh will have to be replanted, I think I still have plenty of time to plant the seeds directly into the ground when this frost is over, I ordered more squash seed today
the eggplant doesn't look like it's going to make it either, but my onions are still ok without being covered.
Same here. Tomatoes, Eggplant and Peppers pretty much dead. Some squash and Cukes were holding their own, but it's going even colder tonight...
Eggplant doesn't like cold at all. Even if your plants were to survive, they are highly unlikely to produce after this cold spell. It's 19 degrees outside as I post right now. The plants that I dug up and put in the storage room in the house are actually looking good. Now lets see if they survive replanting on Tuesday. Our weatherman said the previous record for low temperature on this date was 28. Boy, have we blown that out of the water!
I lost about 40 plants most of which I have replacements for. I have about 400 seedlings in the garage (Eggplants, Maters and Peppers)
This has been a learning experience. We actually have some tomato plants that did very, very well in the cold of last night.. The ones that are healthy were covered by black nursery cans. We moved straw mulch from around the plants, placed the pot on it and then heaped the straw around the pot. And then bed was covered with a layer of 6 mil black contractors plastic. You could feel the heat come off of it when we uncovered them this morning.
Th ones we lost were under clear plastic and we lost almost every plant at the end of the beds. Didn't have enough overlap on the beds at the end.
Jeff: Did you lose everything or do you have some seedlings in reserve?
BB
I have no seedlings set out yet except a 9-pack each of spinach and leaf lettuce, which had grown enough to make 2 large salads when I cut them 2 days ago. What has turned to mush is perennials emerging (like hosta and heuchera) and of course flower buds on the shrubs like lilac.
I need to start some tomato seeds this week, and my order from Dixondale should be here mid-week.
Luckily I kept some flats in the house so I'm going to be replanting this week. It's still discouraging to lose them though. They were very large, nice healthy plants and I've been babying them along for so long. As you say though, it's a learning experience. Next year I won't start any until well into February.
Jeff
ITs not just the cold... that darn wind wants to blow my covers !
charlotte
I hear Ya, Charlotte. I tried to save my baby redbud (just leafing out) by covering it with remay type cloth, and it was more damaged by the wind blowing that around than I think it would have been had I just left it. Of course, the Saturday night freeze pretty much did it in....:((.
Margo in Pelzer
I guess we won't be having English peas this year - LOL! It got around 29 degrees -- thought they'd be OK:
Hmmm. We got down to 24 (or less) Saturday night, and while my peas don't look real happy, they are still standing up. They're not very tall, though (about 4-5 inches) so maybe that's part of it. Oh, wait, these are Sugar Snap Peas, are they that different? I have so much to learn.....
Margo
Just took a wander though the devastation out there. My peas were planted 7 weeks ago and were only 2" high, (something wrong there), now they are brown and dead. My "stand" of beets might make one meal if I'm lucky. They're about half an inch high and were planted the same time as the peas. All the coles are freeze burned. The entire swath of blueberry bushes that were loaded with blooms is dead looking. The lettuce and onions look shocked but OK. The rhubarb is flattened and flaccid. The potatoes are gone. The roses looked shocked but seem like they will be fine. The clematis is drooping but still green. All the lilies are gone too. But on the bright side, ha ha, the chick weed and the henbit are looking great. I hope this isn't an omen for a poor gardening season. At least I still have my tomatoes plants indoors.
your potatoes should come back from the ground, and the clematis should be ok, I wouldnt' cut anything back, after a frost, you just don'tknow what will recover or not. I have damaged squash out there, but way up under neath I see a tiny bit of green, so i'll plant seeds inbetween each squash plant to make sure I have enough. I too replanted my peas, but because they just didn't come up this time around.
Lots of fruit loss this year i'm affaid, all the blueberries, pears, apples, etc... we lost. but they'll be back in full next year, I suppose.
I guess we just have to look on the bright side .
oh forgot to say what the bright side was, If this is blackberry winter. Then we'll have gobs of blackberries LOL
I won't know which if any of my "sticks" (new raspberries, blueberries, etc) survived for a bit yet. Hostas bewly emerging are mush, lilac buds toast,,, yada, yada...
I didn't plant anything outside in the ground until today...snap peas. I covered that with clear plastic mainly to keep cold rains off them until they are first starting to come up.
This freeze has been especially hard also on plums, peaches, and perhaps some raspberries and blackberries.
I transplanted my tomato seedlings into individual pots. Later I will transplant them into quart containers. Broccoli and such will need to be set out by next week .
Roseone,
A wander through my garden seems to be about the same as what you're experiencing. I spent the day today removing plastic and inspecting the damage. I was a bit shocked by the cole damage. I have been keeping coles alive all winter and quite a few were burned close to the ground by this cold snap. Most of them only had the outer leaves destroyed and the inner leaves still seem alive so I'm rooting for their recovery. It actually cheered me to see the chinese cabbage frost burned because they had aphids all over them pre-freeze.
When I took the plastic off the eggplants, the bottom level of leaves (under straw) were alive although every thing above it was dead. I'm rooting for them still.
Almost all of the tomatoes(200+ plants) were dead but I had a couple dozen Brandywine plants still showing quite a bit of green so I'm hoping they shake it off. The wind took off a lot of the row-cover on the tomatoes so they were completely unprotected.
When I took off the plastic on the peppers, oddly enough, a lot of the hot peppers made it while the sweet peppers are all pretty much dead. They're on the north side of the garden somewhat shielded by forest which I think made a difference.
My Taters were also bitten back to the ground but I've read they will grow back from that so don't give up on them yet!
Plant some more, eventually the weather will cooperate. I put out 18 tomatoes, 48 peppers, 2 eggplant today (all I had left) and 14 Brocolli (They're lookin bad too).
Jeff
This message was edited Apr 10, 2007 10:32 PM
This message was edited Apr 10, 2007 10:33 PM
Is it safe to plant out yet?
Weather forecast doesn't appear to call for any more freezing temps