Dawn,

I was expecting low 40's. I went out at 6:30 and found heavy front on the car windshields and started spraying my garden. I then went inside to get my gardening thermometer and set it up out side, it will record highs and lows. At 6;55 it was 34.4, by 7:20 it was 32.4. The 34.4 may have beed a little higher because the thermometer had been in the much warmer house. The sun was coming up about 7:30 and in a few minutes it was 35.5.

I am resting easy now, I dont think anything was damaged.

Larry

well, it looks like i did OK! the tomatoes are a bit cranky where they got squished from the wool blanket i hung over them, but nothing they won't recover from. i found an old vintage tablecloth to throw over the peanuts (i only have 3 plants) and the peppers are just fine. and as i was out checking things, i noticed that the radish seeds i planted on friday had sprouted overnight. growing food is so cool :)

When I left for work @ 7 this morning, my car thermometer said it was 32. I didn't scrape the windshield, but I did let it warm up to melt the frost. There was frost all over the ground. DH went deer-hunting this weekend and emptied his ice chest by the driveway last nite. It was a frozen chunk this morning. All the cattle I saw were huddled up and laying down. It was still 38 on the west side of the airport when I got to work.

Is this frost for my area a sign I can go ahead and dig my sweet potatoes?

Paula

Larry, Whew, that was close! I am glad your garden escaped damage. Mine did as well. I think we got lucky with the patchy frost.

Dody, The tomato plants would be even crankier if they'd had frosted leaves! And, yes, growing food is immensely cool. I love putting food on our table that we grew ourselves and which we know was raised organically with no chemicals. I also like knowing our food is 'local' and that no one used fossil fuels to transport it halfway across the country or from some other country.

I also love the miracle of growing things....going from a tiny tomato seed to a small plant to a big plant to oodles of tomatoes harvested, all from that one tiny seed we planted.

Radishes are so easy and are ready to harvest so quickly. I sow a dozen or two seeds weekly so we'll have a continual crop....you don't want 200 or 300 radishes all at once.

Paula, Did Ken get a deer? See any deer?

You can dig the sweet potatoes any time you want. They don't actually have a specific point at which they are ripe or mature, but rather can be harvested anytime they reach a usable size as long as you harvest them before soil temps hit the low 50s. Once soil temps drop below about 50 degrees (Gary may have a more specific temperature he uses, I just use '50') the tubers can experience chilling damage.

I usually start checking my sweet potatoes when they've been in the ground 100 to 110 days to see if they're sizing up but I haven't done that this year. Since I know some of the trial varieties need a long growing period, I've just left them alone to grow as much as they can.

In general, though, I like to leave them in the ground as long as possible, weather permitting, so they can continue to size up and produce the largest possible crop. I should go out and check them right now since I don't have to fear finding a snake in the foliage since the air temps are in the 30s.

OK, now that I've mentioned soil temps, let me go and find a soil temp map and link it. I believe my soil temps are still in the 70s, but I don't think I have looked at soil temps in the last 4 or 5 days either.

While linking the '3-day soil temp', I looked at my current soil temp at 4" and it is 59 degrees right now courtesy of the cold night, but my potatoes are under about 4" of mulch so I'm sure they're warm and happy.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: 3-Day Soil Temp At 4

Low 37, no damage, high and dry in Mwc...