Frost

[jal_ut]

Had a light frost which nipped the squash and cucumber leaves. I have a few rows of corn that is just coming on, some broccoli, and some onions left. Its about over. Been a good year.

[rainbowgardener]

wow... mid Sept! I still have at least six more weeks....

[imafan26]

The only place I see frost is in my freezer. You still get a lot out of your short season.

[applestar]

I was worried about you James when digit_S/Steve posted about 30's forecast in HIS area. Hopefully warmer ground will keep things going for a little while longer.

[jal_ut]

I have some radishes I planted a few weeks ago. The leaves look good, but they haven't put on any nice root bulbs. I wonder what prompts the radish to make a big root? Temperature related? Day length related?

[Dirt Man]

James, it sounds like you need a big green house. We won't have frost here in TN until about Halloween and we may not have a hard freeze until Dec. We moved away from Michigan 53 years ago to get away from those long cold winters.

[ACW]

London has just had its hottest day of the year..with luck we wont see a frost for 8to 10 +weeks.Lots too do just too hot to do much .

[jal_ut]

Dirt Man: " James, it sounds like you need a big green house."

Hey, that would be nice, but unfortunately it ain't in the cards. I just had my 76th birthday last week. I am likely to be ramping down, not building up.

[applestar]

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!

[digitS']

Isn't that nice!

Mention a birthday ... and an HG moderator bakes you a cake . I hope you have a Good Year, James!

Timing, and a resource or two ... I have a small, backyard greenhouse. The bok choy seedlings I'd intended to transplant in there for a December harvest are tiny things. Last year, the intended December crop stayed out in a warmer than usual October. We ate them ...

I knew that I was late! Cool weather is slowing them. January is starvation time but seed sown in the greenhouse next month will give me February and March greens. November's will probably be out of the crisper drawer in the fridge ... we will have to see what we will see for October and these last 15 days of September. One day, one month, one year at a time.

Steve
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty-one,
Except for February ...

[rainbowgardener]

London has just had its hottest day of the year..with luck we wont see a frost for 8 to 10 +weeks.Lots too do just too hot to do much .

So how hot was your hottest day? I'm guessing not a number that would sound very big to many of us here..(even once translated into degrees F )

[ACW]

Just done a quick conversion of Centigrade to Fahrenheit and it hit 92 .Apparantley the hottest September day since 1911.
Yesterday was a few degrees cooler, followed by great rumbles of thunder and torrential rain .
The rain is very welcome as I over sowed some of the grass and the temperatures are now back to seasonal normal of 70 or so .
Much more comfortable, if the rain stops I will be planting some narcsissi for the spring and harvest a couple of portions of beans

[applestar]

Haha I think we have to concede that that WAS a HOT day.

I like your gardening plans

[Dirt Man]

92 .Apparantley the hottest September day since 1911.

Apparently 92 has nothing to do with global warming since is was that hot in 1911. I wish it never got hotter than 92 here. 70 every day of the year would be nice

[rainbowgardener]

"Apparently 92 has nothing to do with global warming since is was that hot in 1911."

That may or may not be true. It's the difference between weather and climate. Weather is always variable, climate not so much and not (until recently) on a fast time scale. So in 1911, there was a very unusually hot day. Now perhaps those very unusually hot days are coming a lot more often.

It's like the "500 year" floods. The definition of a 500 year flood is that it is so huge and extreme that something like that (without outside forces changing things) would be expected to happen randomly only once every 500 years, or to be more precise, the chances of that happening by chance in any given year are 1 in 500. In the past 12 months, the US has had EIGHT of them.

As surface temperatures of the ocean warm up, the immediate response is more water vapor in the air. As the air warms up, it holds more moisture. Warm air can hold a LOT more water than cool air. So then there is an atmosphere super-charged with water, just waiting to dump it somewhere and you get these rain bombs - several months worth of rain dropped in less than 24 hours.

[jal_ut]

Its ramping down.

[KitchenGardener]

So then what, James? Do you get to go inside and sit by a fire until Spring comes?

[ButterflyLady29]

Such a lovely view!

[Taiji]

Frost for me too at my higher elevation gardening spot Sept. 15 and 16. I was really surprised. Frost on windshields, roof, and birdbaths iced over. Looks like I will have short growing seasons here. I don't expect frost at my lower elevation gardening spot for another month, sometimes not til November 1st.

The squash leaves got nipped slightly, but tomorrow I am going to take all the squash anyway. Then I'll get areas ready for a cover crop! Tomatoes hanging on, but don't look very good.

This summer we had the hottest temp ever recorded in our town of 105. (for any date) Yet we had unusually cool spring with late frosts.

Happy birthday too James! Looks like possible snow clouds building over the mtns.

[jal_ut]

So then what, James? Do you get to go inside and sit by a fire until Spring comes?

Haw, haw! Well I will spend some time cleaning up then run the tiller over the area. When the leaves come down, they will be
raked and put out on the garden. Mow the lawn one last time. Find the snow shovel, and put the scarper on the tractor to move
snow.............. I used to spend some time hunting, but gave up the hunting a few years ago. Guess just bird watching now?

[jal_ut]

Its been an interesting season. My date for planting squash, corn and cukes is May 5. Usually that works. This year I planted as usual then on July 5 we had a killing frost, so starting over a month late. Some things like carrots did not want to germinate in the July heat. The squashes were late coming on and the vines got froze 6 of September, so not much in the squash department this year. Oh well, that's gardening, plant in good faith and hope. Take what you get.

[applestar]

What a bummer! I suppose you have to get creative with immature squash then, or did you till them in? Eh but then you might end up with all those volunteers next spring....

[jal_ut]

The crooknecks and zucchini came on fast and I got plenty of those, Some of the pumpkins made a small fruit. The rest of the squash were pretty much a wash out. Oh well, there is always next year?

Its interesting that here at 5000 ft elevation, the so called 100 day varieties take 110 days here to mature. I have high mountains on both East and West sides so the sunshine hours are less than they would be in flatter country.

[rainbowgardener]

Killing frost on July 5??? I can't imagine how you do so well farming in a climate like that. Jeez!

[jal_ut]

We usually get June, July and August frost free with maybe 5 or six days on both ends. Somewhere around 105 to 110 days frost free. People fuss around with hot caps, and row covers and starting indoors or in greenhouses for later transplanting.

That July 5 frost was a bit unusual. I have seen frost every month of the year here at this location though.

[pow wow]

We usually get June, July and August frost free with maybe 5 or six days on both ends. Somewhere around 105 to 110 days frost free. People fuss around with hot caps, and row covers and starting indoors or in greenhouses for later transplanting.

That July 5 frost was a bit unusual. I have seen frost every month of the year here at this location though.

I think I would feel right at home in your area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfXib9DJL0A

[jal_ut]

Walked through the garden this morning. There are some cucumbers still putting on fruit, the winter squash and pumpkins about ready, I picked the last of the corn a few days ago. Saw a few red tomatoes. Weird season, but we still got a harvest. We had a frost a while back that nipped things, but didn't totally kill the plants, so many of the cukes, squash and pumpkins still trying to make it.

Picked a handful of Lemon cukes and a couple of crookneck squash.

[digitS']

James, it sounds like my garden! I must be 500 miles north and 3,000 feet lower in elevation. Yes, weird season - kind of extreme, at times. But, there was fair production ... I don't feel that I put in the resources and was, somehow, cheated.

Lemon cukes are good! They run a little late even with early planting and one year, we nearly missed a harvest.

Here's an odd question, DW gave a couple of nice zucchini to a neighbor. Her husband grows crookneck every year in the 10+ we have known them. She asked what they were. She is from southern Idaho; he's from northern Utah. I bet there are plenty of Americans who wouldn't recognize something commonly grown in gardens, elsewhere. Okra and collards come to mind, probably those lemon cukes, although they might not be "common," anywhere. However. Familiar with crookneck squash?! But doesn't know ... zucchini?!

Steve

[jal_ut]

Well, my father never planted zucchini, but he always planted crookneck. So it was much later in my gardening years that I first planted some zucchini. Turns out they are a pretty versatile squash. Many ways to use them and recipes abound for zucchini "this 'n that".

[applestar]

Ooh, so it really might be a regional omission in the vegetable selection? That's interesting.

[pow wow]

It's been snowing all day here in Calgary.

[jal_ut]

No snow here yet. Supposed to get some storm mid week. I went out and picked up what squash and pumpkins were left and got on the John Deere and tilled the plot. Let 'er snow!

[Dirt Man]

Growing up on the farm in Illinois everyone in the family grew crookneck squash. No one every grew zucchini squash. I learned about zucchini after moving to TN 1977. I did not grow zucchini often back then but now I think zucchini grows better than crookneck. This year I planted 4 of each 1 crookneck died early then 2 more died then the last one died they get some type root rot that kills them. Zucchini grows much better than crookneck so next year I will plant only zucchini but I like to eat fried crookneck better. Zucchini grows so fast it is hard to know what to do when 8 plants all have squash to harvest at the same time. Squash turns into mush if I can it in mason jars so Alice froze several bags this year. It is good fried with or without onions or potatoes and makes good bread also good on pizza. This year I learned to make zucchini smoothies.

[jal_ut]

I plant both crookneck and zucchini. I like the young crookneck sliced and fried with an onion. They get all hard and knobby if let to get large. Not much good for anything but decorations. Zucchini on the other hand is good when small for frying, or as it gets larger it has been used in many ways. Do a google search for zucchini recipes.

[digitS']

We could probably put our feet up and do some remembering ... and bore the younger gardeners .

People had dinner parties that featured spaghetti in the '50's. I still remember when I had my first slice of pizza, after the first pizza parlor opened in town. Maybe zucchini arrived with those and attracted attention because of it's Italian origin .

Freezing this morning by 3:20am.

Steve
who remembers when a picture of an Early Girl tomato first showed up on the front cover of the Burpee catalog.

[jal_ut]

Nice day here. 59 degrees, clear blue skies, gentle breeze. I went out and picked a bucketful of yellow apples, then brought them in and sorted through them and picked out the nicest ones and polished them up for market. Now here I sit playing on the computer and eating fresh apples.

[jal_ut]

Hmmmm...... lessee if this will work?

[applestar]

Oh yummy!

[jal_ut]

Just cut up a bucketful of yellow apples to go in the dehydrator.

BTW, that is my sister's apple crisp recipe.

[Taiji]

It has frosted here (over 5500 feet) the last few nights lightly. I have some volunteer potato plants coming up from this year's crop; must have missed digging a few small ones. Funny thing is, the frost is not hurting them. I think volunteer plants are stronger than sown ones. Some are actually getting up to about 15 inches high and real bushy.

Could I possible get a second potato crop in the same year from volunteer plants? That would be something. Maybe at least some small new potatoes! In this zone and at this elevation that would be unusual.