Oh no Dawn that's terrible!

I hope everything makes it through okay.

Jo

Jo, Thanks. This is not unprecedented. We have had frost damage the first week in May for the last 3 or 4 years. That doesn't mean I have to like it though!

I really think I hosed off the plants quickly enough to prevent much damage. I'll know in a couple of hours.

Larry, I carried my flats of peppers back into the garage last night so they should be fine because it is very well-insulated.

The frequent late frosts here are why I always plant peppers a bit late. In recent years I've put them in the ground either the first week of May or at the very end of April. I used to plant them a lot earlier, but they suffered so much cold damage that I go later with them now and that seems to give me earlier, not later, production since they aren't exposed to cold nighttime temps.

All the little hummers were eagerly buzzing around the flowers and the hummingbird feeders. I imagine they didn't appreciate this mornings cool temperatures and frost any more than the plants did.

Dawn

Dawn, I am sorry to hear about the frost. Like you, my heart goes out to the flood and tornado victims. I don't have a lot, but I have a lot more than nothing.

I was a little uneasy last night also thinking I should carry in my peppers. They are still in my pup-tent and look OK.

Larry

Sorry to hear it Dawn. I was worried too, but unlike you, we live on a hill so cold air drains away. It often frosts in the valley a mile south of us but not here. We just had dew. Hope everything comes out of it good.

My plants all seem fine this afternoon. I think washing off the frost before sunrise must have helped. I suppose I had neighbors driving by on their way to work wondering why I was outside watering the garden with a hose when there's mud and standing water everywhere.

We have a similar night coming up next week. Grrrr.

Dorothy, I'm the fool who lives in the valley, and even down lower than that in a creek hollow in the valley! It was our choice. We looked at the hilltops here, but they tend to have white limestone and more of a caliche' clay and I didn't want that. (Not that I specifically "wanted" red clay either.)

Susan, That's awful. What is wrong with them and why don't they have storm warning systems? The south has tons of tornadoes.

I did hear that Tuscaloosa heeded the warnings of the NWS and weather broadcasters like The Weather Channel and local TV mets and most schools gave the kids the day off so they'd be with their families and not at school or on the way to/from school. Some employers gave their employees the day off or at least the afternoon off.

I wonder if most folks there don't have tornado shelters or safe rooms? I bet when they rebuild their demolished homes, they'll put in shelters and safe rooms! I was watching all of that storm craziness unfold on The Weather Channel and at times they had footage of tornadoes live as they were approaching towns. Watching them made my stomach churn.

I feel so bad for them. The death toll is just huge. I wonder if that's due to a lack of storm shelters? So many people lost pretty much everything they owned. I can't imagine starting over with nothing, but then, at least they survived and they have each other.

Dawn

I sure hope all your plants are okay, Dawn! No frost here where I am in the City, but it was just a tad brisk!

I really felt bad for the folks in Alabama. One of the news stations reported that they have no warning systems in place like Oklahoma does.

Susan

No frost here but way too much water on things. My spinach which looked fantastic two days ago after the rain has now just drooped down to the ground. The newest leaves are not all dead, but the outside leaves are wilted to the ground and I'm sure will rot. The lettuce doesn't look too good either, but I have 3 types of chard that appear to be holding up fine along with some chinese greens and pak choy. The ground is just too wet.

I gave a dozen tomato plants to a friend this morning who had lost of hers. I think I may have to replace a few as well but there is no need to do it while the ground is so wet.

Oh Carol, I am sorry to hear about your plants. There really is such as thing as too much water, unfortunately.

We sure have had our share of the weather challenges. We haven't had way too much rain at our house, but after four separate rounds of hail, everything in my garden looks bruised, broken and beat up.

Down here at our end of the state it is supposed to be hot and windy tomorrow, which ought to help dry out the lower part of the garden where is it still very mucky and muddy. I haven't planted anything in that lower part of the garden yet. Ever since 2009's April deluge, I wait until the first week in May to plant that low area since it drains so poorly. However storms are in our forecast for Sunday, so I don't know if the low area will have a chance to dry out or not.

Is there any form of weather we haven't had here in Oklahoma since January? If so, don't mention it y'all. We don't want to give the weather maker any ideas.

Larry, I don't think you're that old yet, but it does seem like you and yours have had your share of illness this year. I sure hope things start getting better for you.

Even if you were serious, it made me laugh. Carol

I cant remember my garden being any wetter.

My wife wanted a flower bed made and planted today. I told her it was too wet but she is antsy about her upcoming trip to Scott and White so I made a flower bed. I used some reclaimed soil from the garden. It was like wet cement so I mixed enough potting soil in it to make it a little like soil. It smelled like a hog pen but we put flowers in it anyway. She tried to help but was not able to do much. She told me "next year you can plant sweet potatoes in this bed also".

Its tough getting to the age when you go to the Doctor or a funeral almost as often as you go to the grocery store.

Larry

Carol, DW and I are doing rather well, sorta like an old car, we run good when we run, we just spent too much time in the shop.

I am 67, Madge is 72. I have parents in their 80's that I try to look after and I run a little short of time quite often. To make matters worse I'm so blooming slow it takes me all day to fall down.

Larry

Dawn odd that you were colder than we were Thursday morning. Sat night through Monday nights are supposed to be in the low to mid 30's here. I had decided it was going to be a warm spring and have a few large plants. They are holding in the cold frame. I need to pot up the last trays. The problem is where to put what I pot up. The lean to greenhouse should arrive today. Not sure how much I can do on it with the winds 25-30 gusting higher. I'm off next Wed to help with the last track meet. Wed morning plants are going in the ground regardless. I will try to get a few Wall O Waters up to start warming up. The problem is that some of my plants will be to the top already. The later plants will probably be about right. I was pushing them feeling they would be late. Will go back to a 16-8 cycle on the lights now probably. Hope everyone survives the next cold spell. I had a tall plant in the frame get bit when the top was touching the glass. So had to dig out a little for it. In the end I may get plants out 7-10 days before last year. The potatoes that got hit 2 weeks ago haven't shown much regrowth. The late potatoes are still small enough I can cover them if the wind doesn't blow off the mulch. Jay

Jay,

Our odd weather irritates me! It isn't fair that with an average last frost date for my county of March 27th, there I sat with frost on the morning of April 28th, is it? Our forecast for Sunday night is for 44, and I bet I have frost early Monday morning too unless that forecast changes. I'll be ready this time and will either cover up tender vegetation or have the sprinkler in place and ready to turn on briefly in the early morning hours to wash the frost off the plants.

You know, I wouldn't mind the odd weather so much if we were 5 or 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding area in summer, but sadly that doesn't happen.

Our first August here, we had a heat wave where the highs varied from 108 to 111 (113 in nearby Ardmore) for about a week....and Tim's relatives from Pennsylvania were in town visiting and they were just dying in the heat. In Fort Worth, we rarely got above 105, so 108 to 111 was a huge shock. Then, we had an "early" hard killing freeze before the end of September. Yet, some years we don't have a killing frost until mid-December. If any of you can figure out my weather and explain it to me, please do so!

Y'all are burdened with the wild wind lately, aren't you? Does the wind ever stop blowing there?

Gordon Graham, who you might remember as the grower of the world's largest tomato on record, used to stack two Wall-O-Waters on top of each other to protect tall plants. If I remember correctly, he put wooden surveyor's stakes inside the first WOW, hammered into the ground, for support. After the first WOW was filled, he'd place the second one on top and then fill it. Although it didn't say (that I can recall) in his little "how to grow large tomatoes" booklet, I always assumed he used 3' tall stakes so that they would give partial support to the second WOW and keep it from collapsing inward on top of the plant.

If you have Marvin Meisner's "Giant Tomatoes" book, which is the best book I've read on growing tomatoes in general whether you want to grow large tomatoes or normal ones, there is a reprint of Gordon Graham's little booklet near the end of the book.

My potato plants that got bit back a couple of weeks ago have finally shown some good regrowth. I was starting to wonder if they would. Chalk it up to the weather that see-saws wildly from one extreme to another. I'd be confused if I were a plant too.

I'm excited that you'll be getting your plants in the ground soon. It never feels like spring is really here until you're out slaving away in the garden planting your tomatoes. That's when I feel winter truly has ended.

I hope this week's cold spell is the last. However, since we had June type temperatures earlier in April, who knows what the weather will do next?

We've never had frost or freeze damage here after May 3rd or 4th, so I'm eager for those days to get here so I can stop worrying about it.

Dawn

I'm wondering if I need to construct little temporary greenhouses for my transplants. We haven't been getting frost, but the 40 degree lows night after night can't be good for them. The wind's not really helping, either.

They were nice and green when I planted them on Saturday, and now they're looking a little yellow and sad. They've been getting water, so now I can only guess that it's either not enough fertilizer or that they're getting too cold. They got their first dose of Miracle Grow yesterday, but the wind today is probably doing a number on them. Poor things. :(

miraje - They sometimes look weak when they first go in the ground but if you will watch the very top of the plant, green will start to appear and you know the roots are taking up nutrients. Blocking the wind might help them.

I have had some wind also but mine have been hurt more by too much water than by too much wind

I do think the slight yellowing is probably just more of a sign of a tiny bit of transplant shock plus maybe the "wind abuse". Newly transplanted plants often look a little unhappy the first week or so they are in the ground and then they perk up and begin putting out new growth.

If you have tomato cages around your tomatoes, you can wrap the cages with 4mm or 6mm clear plastic. I buy it in rolls at Lowe's or Home Depot. I just wrap it around the cage and tape the plastic together with duct tape. It isn't very attractive but it blocks the wind.

Normally I only wrap the cages if very cold weather--near freezing--threatens because I have a lot of tomatoes and it is a lot of cages to wrap. Once I've gone to the trouble of wrapping them, I don't unwrap them until I feel the risk of a cold night has passed. I'd rather leave them unwrapped if I can because the wind movement helps them form big thick main stems.

There are other ways to block the wind. You can cut the bottoms out of black nursery pots (or cat litter buckets or 5-gallon-buckets) and partially sink one into the ground around each plant). You have to sink each bucket or pot into the ground 3 or 4" deep so the wind cannot blow them away. If you use cat litter buckets or 5-gallon buckets with lids, you can put the lids on them at night to keep frost off the plants. They'll block the plants from wind until the plants are tall enough to grow out of them. Paula has flashing wrapped around hers for wind protection---I noticed that while admiring her new raised beds today that Ken built beside the house.

Once the plants are large enough that the foliage touches the plastic, you have to be aware that if freezing temps occur, any part of the plant touching the plastic likely will freeze even if the plants inside the buckets have a warm air pocket around them. I've lost the tips of branches that touch the buckets even though the rest of the plants survived.

If the weather would just behave itself, we wouldn't have to worry about our plants! I am expecting frost one or two more nights in the next 5 days, and then my plants should be home-free, if they survive. And if they don't survive, I'm going to be a really unhappy camper.

Oh, and when I say I am expecting frost, I don't mean it in a meteorological way. I'm not that technically gifted. I mean that my forecast shows one night at 44, which in our creek hollow likely will be 37 or 38, and one night at 39, which likely will be 32 or 33. Based on recent history, my last frost (for the last three years prior to this year) has occurred around May 3rd-4th, so these cold nights in the forecast seem to be hinting it will happen again here for the fourth year in a row.

This is not the weather I expected with an ave. last frost date of March 28th, but nevertheless, it appears that it is the weather I have.

Dawn

It looks like I am in trouble also with two consecutive nights of probable 39. I thought our nights below 40 were a thing of the past for this Spring but I guess not. I think Mother Nature is off her meds.

My temporary solution was to tie rubbermaid bin lids up against the rabbit fence/chicken wire around the tomatoes. It doesn't block all the wind and isn't all that attractive, but it helps. I'll probably find something else tomorrow since we're supposed to be so cold the next few days. I have some big plastic ice cream pails that should work nicely.