I Want June Back

[garden5]

It's supposed to freeze here tonight and tomorrow, we have a freeze warning so I am off to find as many sheets as I can to cover my stuff up in a few hours. I sure hope I don't lose any thing.

At least you're preparing! I was out while it was snowing last year, in the dark, in the mud, trying to get a tarp over my toms . Definitely paying more attention to the weather reports this year .

Let us know how everything turns out.

[stella1751]

It's supposed to freeze here tonight and tomorrow, we have a freeze warning so I am off to find as many sheets as I can to cover my stuff up in a few hours. I sure hope I don't lose any thing.

Do sheets work, Hispoptart? (While typing out your screen name, it hit me what it actually says. I don't know why, but I thought you were Greek )

Anyway, back to the question. I've never tried sheets. Quilts are too heavy for peppers; tarps, too unwieldy in the wind. Sheets are an excellent idea! I could probably even cover the little bed of tomatoes.

BTW, we are also slated for a possible freeze, with a forecast low of 33

[Gary350]

June will be here again in about 9 months.

[Hispoptart]

It's supposed to freeze here tonight and tomorrow, we have a freeze warning so I am off to find as many sheets as I can to cover my stuff up in a few hours. I sure hope I don't lose any thing.

Do sheets work, Hispoptart? (While typing out your screen name, it hit me what it actually says. I don't know why, but I thought you were Greek )

Anyway, back to the question. I've never tried sheets. Quilts are too heavy for peppers; tarps, too unwieldy in the wind. Sheets are an excellent idea! I could probably even cover the little bed of tomatoes.

BTW, we are also slated for a possible freeze, with a forecast low of 33

Yes sheets work as long as it's not to hard of a freeze, no freeze last night, but tonight was the one we are worried about most so I am gonna cover them again, just in case. I am not going to let mother nature have her way just yet.

[stella1751]

I just watched the local evening news. Our local forecasters are calling for a low of 28. I will definitely cover the peppers and one bed of tomatoes, but sayanara beans, cucumbers, pumpkin, and big bed of tomatoes if the forecast is right.

Thanks for the tip on sheets!

[Hispoptart]

It's 54 here right now and forecast for the low 30's so we covered as much as we could and we will cross our fingers . Hope you plants survive. NP on the sheet advice hope ya found enough old one to cover up what ya wanted to.

[stella1751]

As I type this, the temperature outside is 30 degrees. Generally at this time of the year, the temps continue to drop until 6:30 AM or thereabouts. I suspect the local forecasters will prove on the money this time. I think we'll drop to 28 by the time all is said and done.

Which doesn't necessarily mean that it is 30 outside right now. It feels and looks like 30, but there's a huge variability in this area, well, I suppose in any area, right? Duration of freeze also matters. It was 32 an hour ago. What really bites is that the high today is forecast to be in the mid-80s

I covered the peppers with tarps and tossed sheets over the small bed of tomatoes. I couldn't cover them completely, but I suspect the sheets will help somewhat. I will probably lose everything else.

(I'd be less than honest if I bewailed the loss of the cucumbers. Those plants have been producing like mad, putting out 30-40 pounds a week for the last five weeks. I'm a little tired of watering cucumber beds, picking cucumbers, and driving around town to deliver cucumbers. Never again will I plant two beds of this vegetable!)

Here's a question: Up here, when freezing weather is forecast, gardeners scramble to harvest everything, covering their counters and filling their fridges with green tomatoes and the like. Even as I followed their lead, I always wondered why they do this. Won't the tomatoes and such still be good in the morning? Doesn't it take more than a leaf-killing freeze to totally ruin the fruits? If you pick everything and then it doesn't freeze, you have compromised the quality of the produce. It seems to me they could be as easily picked in the morning.

[Hispoptart]

It's 6:10am right now, wunder ground says it's 32, Yahoo say's 37 and so does my thermometer outside, so looks like we have made through. I here you about the cucumbers, I gave up on those a long time ago. As for the tomatoes still being good, I would have to agree with you on that. But I don't know for sure. Since I keep them covered till I am ready to let them die, pick all the green ones, then just let them go. I hope your plants you covered survived. Because you are right on how long it stays below freezing makes a big difference. As long as you got the majority of the plant covered and only a bit of it gets bit, you plants should be just fine and pull through.

[Hispoptart]

Ok take that back, just went outside to look at my plants, what was not covered is frosted, so now I am really happy I covered them. I have to go to work in a few, so I will leave them covered and come home in about 2 hours to take the covers off.

[garden5]

Ok take that back, just went outside to look at my plants, what was not covered is frosted, so now I am really happy I covered them. I have to go to work in a few, so I will leave them covered and come home in about 2 hours to take the covers off.

Let us know how everything comes out.

My cucumbers are pretty much done as well. So far, the temps are cooler, here, but no sigh of any frost and the day time temps are in the 60s, so it's all good.

[stella1751]

We're up to 37 now. I just wandered around outside and can see I definitely lost one bed of cucumbers. I guess I won't know for certain on anything else that wasn't covered until the sun is high and warm. That's when the frost-damaged leaves generally decide whether or not they can make it.

I'm feeling good about the peppers, though. If the uncovered beans aren't showing obvious damage, not yet, anyway, then I'm betting the covered peppers survived!

[Hispoptart]

Well the butternuts did not fair well even though they were covered. Not a complete loss so I am hoping they still get what they need from the vines. pepper plants did ok, just the tops of them frosted, and a few of the leaves on the tom's. So all in all I guess the garden came out ok considering the cold.

[stella1751]

Sorry to hear about your butternuts, Hispoptart! You're right, though. It could have been worse, considering the cold.

Oh. One word on the sheets: I draped them over the small tomato bed, and they got damp. By this afternoon, wherever the sheets had touched the tomatoes, the leaves had turned black. I just went out and chopped off all the black tops. Truth be told, I had been toying with topping my tomatoes this year, anyway, so it wasn't a hardship to snip off the top 6" to 8". Nevertheless, I did learn a good lesson from that: If you use sheets, you must make certain they don't touch the plant.

The one cucumber bed is dead only on the top. I went out and picked a bag full of cucumbers for my cousin, and I could see live growth under the blackened top leaves. I left a few of the biggest cukes on the vines. I'd been hoping to get seeds from that variety, just because it is crazy prolific and because I am having a seed-saving-experimentation year. I might still get seeds from them if the plants survive, and right now it appears there's enough live growth for me to think they have a chance.

Interesting thought: The taller the plant, the better the chance of survival. My 6' tall pole beans and tomatoes and my 7' tall cucumbers are all pretty much unscathed. The short cucumbers all had their tops blackened. Go figure.

[garden5]

Glad to hear both of you made it through!

I kind of figured that the butternuts may still suffer a little bit since squash seems to be a little more sensitive to cool temperatures.

Peppers, on the other hand, seem to be tough. They can many times weather the first frost, if it is a light one.

[franktank232]

June? no way... I want Feb. That is when I start seeds. By June you better have everything put together or you're too late around these parts. By then you need melons to be flowering, tomatoes with fruit already growing...

[garden5]

June? no way... I want Feb. That is when I start seeds. By June you better have everything put together or you're too late around these parts. By then you need melons to be flowering, tomatoes with fruit already growing...

That's a really good point. For many of us here, there are only a few months that there is nothing garden-related going on. Even after frosts, many of us are still harvesting our fall-planted root-crops. Once the show and cold put an end to the garden, we pour over our catalogs, planning out next year's garden, order our seeds, then plan again . Once the seeds get here. It's only a few weeks until the early crop seeds are sown: onion, lettuce, ect., then the warm weather plants: tomatoes, eggplants, pepeprs. Caring for all these seedlings keeps us occupied until the snow (or heat, if you're in the south) is gone, the ground is workable, and everything starts all over again .

[Hispoptart]

I had the same problem with the sheets, I guess it was just to cold for to long. But atleast it saved the majority of the plant.

[garden5]

From what I understand, when you cover a plant for the frost, to part should be touching the cover. If it is, it'll catch frost bite.

[stella1751]

I had the same problem with the sheets, I guess it was just to cold for to long. But atleast it saved the majority of the plant.

Ditto that, Hispoptart! It actually worked out very well for me. I had been toying with topping my tomatoes, honest, and that got me started. I now only have five out of twelve left to go. I should have done this over a week ago, when I saw what kind of a fall we were going to have

BTW, here we go again. According to weather.com, tomorrow's high will be 67; the low tomorrow night is supposed to drop to 38. Weather.com was off by 6 degrees the last time, so it looks like it's time to cover again

[Hispoptart]

Yep our forecast is lows between 25 and 35 tonight. so I will cover again. I only have 8 qts of toms canned. I'm not ready to quit just yet.

[garden5]

I had the same problem with the sheets, I guess it was just to cold for to long. But atleast it saved the majority of the plant.

Ditto that, Hispoptart! It actually worked out very well for me. I had been toying with topping my tomatoes, honest, and that got me started. I now only have five out of twelve left to go. I should have done this over a week ago, when I saw what kind of a fall we were going to have

BTW, here we go again. According to weather.com, tomorrow's high will be 67; the low tomorrow night is supposed to drop to 38. Weather.com was off by 6 degrees the last time, so it looks like it's time to cover again

Actually, it's considered a good idea to top your tomatoes towards the end of the season as it allows the plant to focus more on ripening the fruit it has rather than to set more.

Man, you are getting pretty wide day and nighttime temp spreads! Hopefully Frankenchili will make it through another night. Perhaps it's getting close to the time to pot it and bring it inside.

[stella1751]

Actually, it's considered a good idea to top your tomatoes towards the end of the season as it allows the plant to focus more on ripening the fruit it has rather than to set more.

Most of my local gardening friends do top their tomatoes in August. I am an optimist. There was a year, I can't remember how long ago, but it was a while, that we didn't have a killing frost until November. Honest. I keep thinking it can happen. Not this year, though. I have come to accept that.

Man, you are getting pretty wide day and nighttime temp spreads! Hopefully Frankenchili will make it through another night. Perhaps it's getting close to the time to pot it and bring it inside.

I think this weekend, after the freeze, I will pot the one in the pea bed. I can't dig up my big producer, though, until its first two peppers mature, and it's in too close a proximity to the other plant for me to dig that one up. So, I will keep covering until I decide I must give up the ghost and get no seeds from those peppers. I think a forecast low of 25 would make me rethink the importance of those seeds!

Poor Hispoptart. You have my sympathy.

[Hispoptart]

Awww Thanks, I am so just not ready for this. Hope your pepper pulls through. I was thinking.....OH NO now were in trouble LOL, No but really, maybe when using sheets to cover the plants we could put in some wood stakes to drape them over so the don't touch the plants? I have a bunch so I might try that tonight. Then instead of using rocks to hold in down I will bunch some of the sheet around the stake then put a rubber band around it.

[stella1751]

I just watched both local weather forecasts for tonight: One station says the low will be 38; the other, 35. If they'd both said 38, I wouldn't have bothered covering. Unfortunately, 35 is too close for comfort, so I will cover the pepper bed, anyway.

Interestingly, one of the lead news reports was the publication of the 2010 Old Farmer's Almanac, particularly its listing of the top five cities in the nation for the worst winter weather: 1) Syracuse, 2) I can't remember, 3) Casper, Wyoming, 4) Detroit, and 5) Cleveland (I think).

What are the odds? I guess I didn't see that coming.

[stella1751]

Whoops. I meant 2011

[applestar]

I'm sorry I hadn't been keeping up with this thread. My comments now appears to be too late for the two of you...

But doubled covers make a big difference in frost covers -- especially when heavy frost/subfreezing temps are expected -- because often just the top layer gets the frost, there's a pocket of thin air that benefits from the freeze/thaw heat generating thermal dynamics ( hope some one can explain that, cause I can't ) and provides insulation AND keeps the frost from actually touching the plant. I think that's why quilt is often used.

I imagine sheets then plastic tarp would keep the sheets from getting wet.

[stella1751]

That makes sense, Applestar. It would be like a dog's coat. The top layer takes the cold and can be tipped with frost on a cold winter day, but it covers the hair layer next to the skin, which doesn't become cold and serves as a layer of insulation. I'll see one of my dogs playing outside in sub-freezing temperature, his coat white with frost, and he seems as comfortable as can be.

[garden5]

Here's all about [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermodynamics]Thermodynamics[/ulr].

I personally think that the pockets of air help to insulate the underlying plants. The outside air has to get cold, then it has to make the pocket of air cool, then it can start working on making the air under the sheets cold. At least, this is the way I see it.

[Hispoptart]

Guess I will have to hit up the thrift store for more sheets so I can double them up next year. We have frosted last night and the night before and looks like it's not going to end soon. The toms and peppers are doing fine, but I am really beginning to wonder if the buttternuts will ripen before the cold comes to stay.

[stella1751]

I am sorry to hear about the frost! We appear to have made it through the cold for a while. The nine-day forecast is for 70's, with lows in the 40's. Day ten looks bad, but nine days without having to cover plants and with lying awake at night, wondering which, if any, will survive, feels pretty exciting at this time of the year!

Even the cucumbers that froze during the last frost are struggling to stay alive, now that the weather has turned. They look a fright, with the decaying upper layer, but the lower part of the plants are green, and I might just get the seed cucumber from them I was hoping for.

I'm starting to accept that the joy ride is over. The September 6 frost was too darned soon and seemed pretty unfair, particularly in light of the June we were denied. However, once we pass our average first frost date of September 22, I will be better equipped to reconcile myself to the end.

This just in: [url=https://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/la-nina-likely-to-bring-weather-extremes-to-us-this-winter/19624977?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%7C170028]"A Winter of Extremes? Maybe, Thanks to La Nina"[/url]

It looks like we're all in for a long winter

I'm crossing my fingers that your butternuts ripen in time!

[Hispoptart]

I'm glad to hear you in for some better weather. Looks like we may be to. I am really worried about the butternuts to. So far it looks like one really small one is just about ripe enough to pick. I will check it this afternoon after work. Maybe we can atleast get a taste one one.