Freeze Casualties? What to do with the injured?

15 years ago

Well it was cold last night! It was 18 degrees last night. I was able to find a small heater. I also used the hot water bottle idea and plenty of coverings. My wife informs me that she doesn't think I lost anymore than I had already lost. I lost close to 50% of my plants in one building two nights ago. It was too windy to keep it warm enough,despite my efforts. Last night the wind was calm.

I know I have some that are still alive and don't show a bit of damage. I have some that are dead, stem wilted and laying flat on the ground. What about the ones that are still standing upright and some leaves are damaged and some are healthy looking? What do I do with these. I want to just pull them out and start over with new plants. My wife wants me to cut off any damaged parts and wait. Several years ago we had high winds come through a week after we planted out our tomatoes outside. Many were reduced to a stem. We left many of them and they started to grow again. I didn't notice a decline in production with them. Could/will this happen with the injured ones this year?

What is your experience?

Jay

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Comments (5)

carolyn137
15 years ago
With the ones that are upright with just some leaves damaged, just leave them alone. Don't take off the damaged foliage b'c you just expose raw wounds. They'll shed that damaged foliage naturally.

And I'll bet they do form new foliage. Dont fertilize or overwater them either. Just let them heal naturally.

I've had plants pretty much totally stripped by Colorado Potato Beetles and they came back.

And living in my zone 4/5 area I've had my share of frost/freeze problems in the past which is why I never, but never, put plants out until at least two weeks past the average frost date here, which is May 15th.

Carolyn
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jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
Original Author
15 years ago
Carolyn,

I agree with you. I put out my outside tomatoes after May 1, usually around the 5th. Since I market garden and I can get higher prices for early tomatoes, I plant them in my high tunnel as early as possible and sometimes I get burned! The forecast is for daytime highs in the 60-70's and lows in mid 30's to 40's. Inside my high tunnel, I can keep it in the 50's with row cover and get a big head start with them. This year just wasn't my year.

Here is an update on my loses.

Hoop building #1

102 Tomato plants in the building. 53 appear to be fine, 16 have some damage, but I think they will come out of it. 33 are TOASTED! I have about 20 extras to replant with, so I will have to buy around 13-30 new plants. Not a big problem.

Hoop Building #2

27 Cherry tomato plants. 26 appear to be fine, 1 with damage. This was really surprising. There was 3 layers of row cover and the hot water 2 liter bottles placed every other plant. That was a good idea.

All in all, I am out about $15-25 to buy some new plants. This is depending on the price. Could be less or it could be more.
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I lost one of my Confederate roses, cannot remember which one. It never grew very tall last year, but the other one ended up at 8 feet. And that other confederate rose is coming back slowly from the roots. I lost a lot of my aloe vera which had endured forever in huge pots beside the west facing driveway. Some of the asparagus ferns bit the dust, but most are coming back, even the ones in the hanging baskets I left in the flower beds with straw heaped high over them. My two huge split leaf philodendrons which I thought were dead in their tubs are showing some sign of life. But not the bananas, nor some of my colocasia and alocasia. I think I saw a sign of the Black Magic poking its head up though. So far I see no growth on the coral vine, but it is always late starting. I also lost all of my geraniums. HOT LIPS salvia is already blooming though. The canna lilies are coming up great, including Phaesion and the grean/cream striped one, mmmmmmm, Pretoria I think it is. In fact, they both spread out. ALL of my heucheras survived, in small pots outdoors. My lovely hybrid heuchera has magnificent orange-red tall spikes on it, and they've been fresh looking for TWO WEEKS now. The other heuchera mostly have lovely peachy or maroon-backed leaves and not fancy flower spikes. Then the other show stopper this year was the ajuga. wow!! And now my lawn is full of wild violets and I don't want to cut them down. We bought a small strip of land from our neighbor behind us, and have not had a chance to clear off the "back forty" from all the overgrown brush and briars and seedlings YET. We've spent this spring working on the house interior. Oh yes. I was planning to jerk the Zepherine Drouhan roses flanking the gate under the privacy fence arbor, because it did not bloom a single time last year. Well, this year it is absolutely LOADED with those big hot pink roses, and healthy leaves, and NO THORNS, so it earned a place in my garden. It is hard to stay indoors and work on the house when the garden tells me it needs my attention.
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Daffs - limp, but look OK overall. The flowers that were already nearly fading will probably do so, those that are still in bud or just opening may well surprise us. Lilacs - don't expect blooms. They'll re-leaf, but won't bloom. Roses - no issue. The new buds are surprisingly resilient and each bud has an auxiliary bud next to it. Tulips - may look tattered but will probably still bloom. Maples - don't expect many of the "helicopter" seeds this year. Apples - probably OK. Pears - Marginal - might do OK. Peaches, Cherries, Apricots, J. Plums - toast. Will leaf out but don't expect much fruit. Just my $0.02.
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The lantana is probably fine, just died back. I'd be surprised if it was completely dead as it normally dies back for me (oly last three years, not this year, was it evergreen). Ixora might be fine too but I have less experience with them. The only one on your list I would consider a possible groundcover in FL is juniper, most of the others here are cool season plants only. I'd recommend Homestead verbena (or Biloxi blue verbena), Dwarf Hybrid Morning Glory 'Blue My Mind' (not a true morning glory). Both of these are easy to propagate to fill an area. I'm also experimenting with Coreopsis 'Nana' which I have heard good things about. Mexican/False Heather and of course dwarf lantana varieties can also work (but these tend to be a little taller than the other two I mentioned). For dwarf lantana get the Chapel Hill series [I like Chapel Hill Yellow] or New Gold or similar, they are more sterile which means they flower more and fruit less. Also are more hardy. I like Salvia sinaloensis and partridge berry (native) for shade groundcovers. I really like dwarf yaupon, it's tough and environmentally friendly, but I would not consider it a groundcover except in certain sites as usually it's a tidy 3ft -5ft shrub depending on pruning regimen. My favorite groundcover is actually Turkey Tangle Frogfruit but most gardeners wouldn't want that anywhere near their plantings LOL it's a bit of a native weed that grows extremely fast but it forms a dense 1 inch high mat and is a butterfly hostplant (and I don't have a backyard lawn so I don't have to worry about it taking over one). My last advice is to pick a theme and also think in terms of what goes with your house. If you have a light-colored house maybe darker flowers are best but it really depends on the effect you're going for. If you want tropical and lush look for plants with larger leaves, brighter leaf color (bright green not gray-green), deciduous temperate plants like 'Hearts of Gold' redbud and Red Buckeye can match this, doesn't have to be just tropicals. If you want stately and formal, cooler greens and more monochromatic flower palette are good ideas and yaupon can serve as a Florida-friendly boxwood. Oh and lawn pesticides are a scam :P you mostly just need irrigation and mow them 1/2-1 inch higher than everyone else. My lawn looks better than everyone's on the street and 0 chemicals go into it. Having a tree helps too because most of FL has a shady turfgrass, St. Augustine grass. Edit: also varieties of thyme and marjoram can work as groundcovers here. I grow mine in containers outside and they didn't get damage even from the 27 F frost
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anney
15 years ago
JRS

Glad you came through the freeze without too much damage. I'm sure others are checking their situation out right now and will have their tales to tell!

You'd better buy those plants pronto. Lots of people in your area may be in the same boat and have to replace theirs, too!
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digdirt2
15 years ago
Jay - reseed now - there will still be a market when they are ready because of the losses to others in your area.

Even with the heaters and me sitting up all night we still lost a couple of trays and re-seeded yesterday. Some 20-30 with some semi-serious damage but they'll come back eventually. Had to trim some leaf damage off several others. Biggest loss was to my NAR's I was growing for myself. Too close to the heat lamps and I fried them. :(

Dave
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jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
Original Author
15 years ago
Dave,

I agree with the reseed now. I have 400 more tomatoes and peppers coming up right now in the house. I had planned to do this. They are under lights and they will be ready around May 5th, our first market in May 9th. I will be selling them at the Farmers Market. I have never tried to sell seedlings, last year I sold potted plants and they sold good.

I need to count up my losses by variety, but it looks about equal across the board.

Most places don't have seedlings out yet. In order to buy bigger starts, I am going to have a limited variety selection.

Jay
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Freeze Casualties? What to do with the injured?

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carolyn137

jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
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jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
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Freeze Casualties? What to do with the injured?

Comments (5)

carolyn137

jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)Original Author

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anney

digdirt2

jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)Original Author

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jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
Original Author

jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
Original Author