To cover or not to cover...
I have expected over night lows of 36 tonight and 38 tomorrow. (This was NOT supposed to happen this late in May). EVERYTHING (Tomatoes, peppers, squash etc.) is in the ground already and has been for a few weeks since what was supposed to be our last cold snap. NOAA is not predicting an actual frost, just chilly temps. Can I get away with not covering? I wouldnt mind covering things up except I have to leave for work at 5AM and wont be around to uncover them before the sun starts to beat down on everything.
Will the daytime temperatures really be that warm? Will there be that much mid-day sun? A upturned pot covered with a shovelful of soil protected my squash & pumpkin seedlings recently. The pots sat over the plants for a couple of days and nights.
I didn't want to use the, mostly, white plastic buckets thru the hours of sunshine on the much taller tomatoes. If they had been smaller seedlings, a stake beside the plants and both plant and stake wrapped in newspaper could have afforded some protection without much danger of overheating on a sunny day.
Do you have a timer for your hose and be able to use a sprinkler for your garden? If it is only a light frost, the "warmer than freezing" sprinkler water should be able to protect the plants. There should be adequate soil moisture for plants in danger of freezing, also.
. . . just some ideas. Here is Wishing You the Best of Luck!
Steve
I didn't want to use the, mostly, white plastic buckets thru the hours of sunshine on the much taller tomatoes. If they had been smaller seedlings, a stake beside the plants and both plant and stake wrapped in newspaper could have afforded some protection without much danger of overheating on a sunny day.
Do you have a timer for your hose and be able to use a sprinkler for your garden? If it is only a light frost, the "warmer than freezing" sprinkler water should be able to protect the plants. There should be adequate soil moisture for plants in danger of freezing, also.
. . . just some ideas. Here is Wishing You the Best of Luck!
Steve
I had a similar problem this past weekend, starting thursday thru sunday...
I had 15 tomatoes a number of pepper and pumpkins in the ground, I had probably another 15 plants in my portable greenhouse that is not heated...
I covered all my plants that were in the ground, and the ones that were in my greenhouse, I left alone thinking they would be ok since the greenhouse was covering them...
I came home from work friday afternoon to find all my plants in the greenhouse dead, the ones that were covered outside survived with only minimal damage, some leaves look dead, I'm assuming it was because of the blanket sheet being on the leaves, and the frost hurt the leaves that were touching the sheets...
I was shocked actually that all the plants in the greenhouse died, all the leaves drooped over and looking dead...
In my opinion if your plants are important to you, cover them, yes its a pain to cover them, but its more of a pain in the butthaving to go out and buy plants because they died on your part, you wouldnt have to replace them if you just cover them...
Nine times out of ten if you roll the dice with mother nature, you will get the loosing hand.... she usually always wins
I had 15 tomatoes a number of pepper and pumpkins in the ground, I had probably another 15 plants in my portable greenhouse that is not heated...
I covered all my plants that were in the ground, and the ones that were in my greenhouse, I left alone thinking they would be ok since the greenhouse was covering them...
I came home from work friday afternoon to find all my plants in the greenhouse dead, the ones that were covered outside survived with only minimal damage, some leaves look dead, I'm assuming it was because of the blanket sheet being on the leaves, and the frost hurt the leaves that were touching the sheets...
I was shocked actually that all the plants in the greenhouse died, all the leaves drooped over and looking dead...
In my opinion if your plants are important to you, cover them, yes its a pain to cover them, but its more of a pain in the butthaving to go out and buy plants because they died on your part, you wouldnt have to replace them if you just cover them...
Nine times out of ten if you roll the dice with mother nature, you will get the loosing hand.... she usually always wins