I am not suppose to plant/transplant until the first week in June. We have been having a lot of hot weather, so I decided to jump the gun and get an extra month of cherry tomatoes and California peppers, so I transplanted.
Problem, tomorrow is suppose to dip to 30F. I may have to replace all my plants.
To water or not to water? Which is best in this circumstance? Guess moist soil would not spur bacteria growth that would warm it above freezing? Like wet hay?
no old light blankets, sheets? buckets, pots, or pans?
if you are really worried you can heat up some rocks and put them in there. though you have to be sure not to fry your plants too.
i don't have any experience with watering to save from frosts. i have one experience with putting things over plants and it didn't matter much as the peppers dropped all their leaves anyways, the tomato plants seemed a bit more tolerant but i wouldn't count on that. what happened after that the pepper plants regrew their leaves and the tomato plants survived and we had a decent crop all around.
i don't plant early, except things i have extra seeds and can afford to risk it. 3 weeks is way too early for warm season plants IMO.
we have frost in the forecast for later this week. perhaps my first planting of peas won't make it or not. we'll see...
All of my cherry tomatoes survived. They were within 6 feet of the house.
The pepper plant closest to house is quite happy, but the remaining 9 are all wilted. But four of remaining nine did not fare to well with the prior transplant shock.
Maybe I should wait another couple of weeks before replanting the peppers.
Glad to hear that you had some survivors. I've noticed that the side of the car parked next to the house is often clear when the other side is covered in frost. I guess the heat leaking from the house warms the nearby area. W e're pretty much past the frost threat in our area (Maryland north of Balti more and near the bay).
the car parked next to the house is often clear when the other side is c overed in frost. I guess the heat leaking from the house warms the nearby area. We're pretty much past the frost threat in our area (Maryland nort h of Baltimore and near the bay).
And I just got my first tomato flower!
It will be interesting to see if any of the peppers recover whilst I wait to buy new ones
Here in SE VA we usually have just set out the warm weather plants or are about to do so. My plants are a little behind this year due to not having fresh seeds for everything and having to re-start several varieties.
Turns out it's a Good Thing I'm behind because the weather radio this morning informed the region that a there is a possible frost warning for Saturday night with temps dropping into the mid-30s. Yikes! This is just about unheard of and about a month after the usual average last frost date.
Farmers are probably scrambling as are many home gardeners.
But all of my plant "customers" are still waiting for me to hand over the plants, so we're safe. Whew!
I finally got bed #4 cleared and planted two days ago when it was actually spring-like weather. Green beans in that bed and they should be okay since they haven't had time to emerge yet.
The rest of the planted beds are all cold-lovers like peas, broccoli, and lettuce. The one flower bed is close to the house and should be protected enough to come through okay too.
Geez, what a year!
Nyssa, who had planned on starting to clear another bed or two but rains along with a 20 degree drop in temperature put that idea to rest quick-like
It was snowing in northwestern Pennsylvania this (May 6) morning. We're supposed to have some chilly nights coming up here in Maryland but hopefully above freezing.
In the winter of 2010, we had two major snowfalls in a three day period. When the snow eventually started melting, we noticed a kale plant sticking through the snow. It went on to grow on through the spring and summer.
i'm going to see how certain types of peas will weather these over night cold snaps.
it is a shame i'm so tired from doing things that i don't really have much time to do good observations and measurements. i don't even have a proper weather station.
the raised bed they are in is surrounded by some rocks and slabs of concrete so perhaps those will hold enough heat in.
i've already been surprised by how quickly the peas did sprout so perhaps they will all be ok.
good thing it was only a sacrificial round of planting which i had no idea if they'd do ok or not.
If the mass can be increased, it's possible to have an improvement. The specific heat of concrete is slightly less than most soils, so as far as material properties it's no magic :( -f
i think it will be ok, but we'll see what happens... the coldest forecast is for this evening and the peas are just now sprouting so they're not at a flowering stage.
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