got down to 26 here....so far looks like the plants held their own.

We had SNOW in West Va yesterday morning (didn't stick, but came down heavy). I don't have any sensitive crops planted yet -- waiting until the end of the month for that.

The crazy spring frost was predicted all the way down into Virginia. Virginia!! You're supposed to be able to plant tomatoes a while ago there.

Global weirding for sure.

Got a few potatoes nipped.

A few potatoes nipped here too. I had them covered but the cover collapsed. I went out at 8am, and the container was still in the shade and there was ice still on the towel I used to cover them. One tomato plant got nipped also. I covered my strawberries and blueberries well though......they are in full bloom. They did good.

All veggies came through well, except the potatoes got nipped a little even under straw. It was 30 here in my frost pocket. I was most worried about my sourwood tree, now some 12 feet tall, and always very susceptible to late frosts/freezes when it's leafing out. I was out there spraying it with the hose as the sun hit it. It has some damage on the tips of leaves, but otherwise it's okay.

No frost here. Thanks, ocean!

Here in NW (Seattle area) we were having summer like weathet up untill last Friday , with night lows over 50F, days His near 80F. But thathas changed . Now night lows are at mid 40s and daytime His 57-61F. So what this means is that cole crops are fine but tomatoes just hanging there. It will be probably another two weeks from now to see night lows around 50F. So far we have had an erratic spring, with more rain in April that has ever been recorded.
... today mostly cloudy with rain showers, high around 58F...

Brought the tomato and pepper flats inside and put the random veg flats on the porch. Due to the endless rain of April I didn't have anything but some spinach and lettuce seeds planted. Generally don't plant toms and peppers until Memorial Day. We have a sneaky May frost too often to bother with planting before then.

Was supposedly 36 the past 2 nights, I had all the berries covered (and threw burlap over the kale and spinach seedlings I had just set out on Friday). Temps were 39 both days at 6 am so it probably was mid-30's and not the 32 they had been predicting (no frost on lawn), but it's hard to tell since we're colder than center of town - even the closest Weather Underground station is a few miles away and 250ft lower.

Blueberries and strawberries are in full bloom (even have berries forming on the strawberries), I have to pull the straw/hay back from them later today but I think all survived - when I pulled the tarps off the hoops this morning it looked like a few leaves just on the edges that hadn't gotten mulched may have gotten frostbitten a little but ones in the middle (where there was air space between them and tarp) looked OK from what I could see through the straw. I have to check the apple trees too.

What we have been suffering from is lack of rain - got barely 1" during April, now we've had that in the past week and more predicted today, end of next week so hoping this summer won't be as dry as last year.

Tomorrow we start hardening off tomatoes, peppers will wait another week or so. I plan on transplanting the tomatoes (app 120) over the course of the last week of May, and peppers (50 or so) following that.

Last year, I learned to protect strawberry blossoms. That's where I deployed the old sheets I use instead of plastic tarp, that can do more harm than good.

Strawberries made it fine, tomatoes lost a few leaves where touching the cover (these are the really big plants, will be finally putting out the "normal" ones this week), and potatoes got nipped. I think the only casualty might be a tiny fig tree that was finally starting to leaf out. Who knows, maybe that has hidden reserves too. Sounds like everyone was pretty well prepared. :)

I lucked out and found 10 x 12 ft Dupont frost blankets at Lowe's on major discount... under $3.50 each... a couple of weeks ago. So, I purchased a bunch of them just due to the price, and I'm glad I did... i covered everything with them, including my strawberries that are in full bloom, and everything did great.

I had the sheets on the blueberries ;-) But just pulled all the mulch off the strawberries before it started to rain, they look good, there was only 1 leaf cluster that looked a little weird (light and kind of puckered?), no black centers (how long after frost does it take the damage to show?) and some berries forming.

Just came in for lunch - guess I'm not going to get anything planted today, or put anything outside to harden off. I'm not complaining, we need the rain, I'll just have to work outside tomorrow when it's sunny and high 70's (weird weather)!

@howelbama - Lowes has frost blankets?! I even called burlap manufacturer near me the other day, they sell shade cloth but no frost blanket. I've never seen any of the big-box stores carry anything like frost blanket or row cover, and the nurseries don't seem to either. Do you have a SKU?

ajsmama, some of the ones near me do, but it's probably not a nationwide stocked item.I don't think they were a big seller at this store, which is probably why they were marked down so much. I will see if I can find the reciept with the sku when I get home this evening.

Thanks. I searched their website for "frost blanket" but all I got were water heater blankets. HD has some but only 5x10ft (and the store near me is the smallest in the state so that's why I can never find anything - they don't even carry chain link fence).

In south central PA, my grapevines got toasted, so did the kiwi and some younger shade tree leaves. On some plants it was hit and miss. I'm reading these posts from PA north of me and CT and think even in my area, trending borderline 7, I don't set out tomatoes until after the last frost date (around or after Mother's Day). Cold tomatoes just sulk and with the up and down temps, there are often chill winds. I just won't do it.

I'm not sure the zone OP is in, at 1000ft I was a little surprised myself at corn and tomatoes but PA is quite a bit south of me. Now, there was only 1 person in zone 5 (NY) who mentioned a tomato - and I'm assuming he had it in a WOW or something? Rest of us in zone 5 are talking about hardening off, not planted.

I have had some of the tomatoes out for a little bit of air on 75 degree days (we had 78 on Friday before the freeze Monday and Tuesday nights) but really won't start hardening off until tomorrow, hopefully after 10 days I can start planting on the 25th. I like to plant tomatoes out the last week of May and peppers the beginning of June, weather permitting. I've been tempted to plant at Mother's Day, might have done that a few years when we were in RI, but it was warmer there.

We started experimenting with early planting of corn, zuchini, and tomatoes a few years ago here in PA. I know it breaks all the rules, but it worked out so well that we kept doing it. Early to mid May for the zuke and tomatoes, and even earlier for corn. I will post my experience separately on the corn story in case others are interested in experimenting. I never could wait for sweet corn and I picked some last year on July 1.

This year we had to fight some serious frost, but it looks like we made it again. One day we will pay for our rule-breaking, I am sure.

Frank

It got down to 33 here -- slightly higher than the prediction of 29. I had most of my tomatoes and peppers covered with floating row cover, and some newly planted roses and peach trees done up in burlap. Everything survived quite well except for the one tomato I forgot to cover. I lost quite a few young leaves on that mater, though the bigger leaves survived unscathed.

I planted everything out just a week ago when the forecasts were calling for lows in the upper 40s all throughout May for our area. Silly me to trust the weather man. We've just moved to NH from NYC, so I can see that next year I will need to seriously adjust my seed starting and planting out dates. Live and learn.

This post was edited by galiana on Wed, May 15, 13 at 19:51