minimum temperature? oh sigh

rainbowgardener · Wed Apr 22, 2015 4:24 pm

Most of my tomato (and pepper!) seedlings have been outside full time for more than a week already, enjoying warm rainy weather. Tonight it is forecast to get down to 35 degrees, with frost possible in some areas. Do I have to bring them all in or would it be enough to cover them?

applestar · Wed Apr 22, 2015 4:39 pm

I'm looking at the same forecast for tomorrow night -- 39Â°F tonight, 35Â°F tomorrow, and 37Â°F night after. Most of my tomatoes have been inside since Sunday night due to heavy rains (soilblocks won't stand up to those). Back to square one.

sweetiepie · Wed Apr 22, 2015 4:42 pm

You already know whats going to happen. If you leave them outside it will get colder than the 35 and cause problems and if you bring them all in, it will stay in the 40's.

I would have to bring them in, mostly because the wind will not stop blowing here, so my luck they would come uncovered. I haven't been able to set anything even outside yet because of the wind.

rainbowgardener · Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:43 pm

Yeah I have two nights of this also. So ten trays of tomatoes, peppers, basil, salvia are now occupying most of the free space on the kitchen floor. I used to use the office floor which was more out of the way, but it has just recently had brand new w2w carpet put down as part of our home renovation for resale. My partner would have a fit if it got dirt, etc on it. As it is, we are still finishing painting etc in the kitchen and all those plants will be a pain, since they have to stay there until Friday some time. A bunch of other stuff is under the table on the deck with a big heavy tarp over the table down to the floor and weighted down. It was pretty windy here today too, so stuff was already suffering.

Where is global warming when you need it?! Our average low for this date is 45 deg.

Maybe after I am retired, I will just buy plants like everyone else!

digitS' · Thu Apr 23, 2015 5:02 am

You know they appreciate you, RainbowGardener.

You paid attention to their needs up until now. You would not want that to go for nothing.

A cup of tea in their green company this morning and you will probably continue to be standing shoulder to leaf with those plants, defying the elements.

I now have too many plants for my greenhouse so the temporary hoop house with its casual heating system has caught the overflow.

Steve
should be frost here in the early hours, after several days of pleasant weather. sure hope to get back to that soon.

applestar · Thu Apr 23, 2015 7:53 am

Don't say that, Rainbowgardener. I'm looking forward to hearing about your new gardening discoveries and adventures at the new place as you adjust and adapt to the climate and seasonal conditions.

Maybe you'll find or build a greenhouse there.

pepperhead212 · Thu Apr 23, 2015 12:03 pm

Sorry to hear about that. Hope you have enough covers for all of them!

Almost a sure possibility of frost here tonight. This is why I always tell people not to listen to that 4-15 Ltd, as that is a median number - half before and half after. Not something I want when putting my plants out!

applestar · Thu Apr 23, 2015 12:26 pm

I'm more worried about my peaches, nectarines and cherries which have all bloomed or are in full bloom.... Amelanchier too.... I've heard of running the sprinkler during the critical temperatures until after dawn, but I don't know if I should be doing that after all that rain we've had....

I have some strawberries that have green fruits -- they were under a low tunnel and I can covere them back up again. I think the blueberries might be budding.... {insert wringing hands emoticon here}

rainbowgardener · Thu Apr 23, 2015 4:25 pm

I did have some peppers and tomatoes in the ground already. I didn't even bother trying to cover them. Probably end up pulling them and replanting after this is over. I always do rush the season a bit. Some times that pays off and sometimes it doesn't.

pepperhead212 · Thu Apr 23, 2015 7:24 pm

If you're wondering what I meant by 4-14 Ltd, it was supposed to be LFD, or last frost date. The stupid cell phone changed it, even though I THOUGHT I had turned the spell check off - the reason I figured it did this. And I couldn't edit it, for some reason.

I never plant peppers until about 2-3 weeks after the LFD, since they also like warm soil. I tried some peppers, as well as eggplant in wall-o-waters years ago, and the peppers were actually behind the later ones in development, even though I started the seeds and planted them 3 weeks early, and I figured this had to be the cold soil. Eggplant didn't get behind, but I didn't get any earlier, either, as I did with tomatoes.

Good luck with all of the plants at risk, and hopefully the forecast will be off a few degrees. If that wind around here doesn't let up that will be good, as frost usually doesn't form in windy conditions.

digitS' · Thu Apr 23, 2015 11:44 pm

Well, the wind fell below 10mph this morning but, strangely, that meant blowing fog at 4am! It was like living on the coast!

It didn't quite freeze. The Weather Service said 35Â°f and the wind picked up through the afternoon (making for a not very pleasant few hours spent in the garden).

Probably because of the continuing wind, we may not skate quite so close to freezing tonight, the WS says. The little hoop house isn't very resistant to heat loss, especially if it will be windy and below freezing! I have another small electric heater so there could be two ...

Steve

skiingjeff · Fri Apr 24, 2015 8:50 am

Well, last night it got down to 32 degrees and its going a little lower tonight

I can't believe it is practically the end of April and this is the weather we are having. It actually snowed yesterday. And the winds have been 20 MPH for days now!

When will this end???? Can't wait for nights in the 40's even!

It certainly has been a challenging season for gardeners in the Northeast and elsewhere.

rainbowgardener · Fri Apr 24, 2015 11:13 am

All the trays are back out, soaking up sunshine. Sun and Mon the nights are predicted for 38 and 39, but everything is just going to have to tough it out, I'm NOT doing this again. After that through the end of the 10 day forecast all the lows are in the high 40's and low 50's, so hopefully that means we are DONE with this.

digitS' · Fri Apr 24, 2015 11:49 am

Rainbow Gardener,

In a week or two, you will be glad you took this extra care.

I have plants now in the garage. Years past, I laid plastic on the utility room floor and covered the washing machine, dryer and floor with plants. These are not a very good options. Neither is having more than the greenhouse can hold but I did wait as late as ever to start seed. Now, I'm delaying up-potting some of the plants. Going from 48 in a flat to 18 ... what's that mean? ... nearly 3 times the space!

The current option for me is to just pump more heat under plastic film but it looks like it will only be for a few nights. The final step, for the oldest plants, will be little hoopies on the lawn. Electric heaters won't be safe if it freezes. I've covered the hoopies with tarps but I have this weird idea of carrying out gallons of hot water if push comes to shove.

Steve