Foghorn, the air temperature determines how cold a plant can get; the wind or the windchill determines how fast it gets there. That is, if the air temp is 0 degrees, a plant can cool to 0 degrees and no lower, but the plant will reach that 0 degree point much faster if there is a wind. In my garden, I think windchill is of no great consequence. My roses seldom get damaged early in the winter or late in the spring. The real damage occurs in the coldest spells which occur in late January or early February here. If the winter low is 0 degrees or above, I'll see minimal damage to most of my roses. If the winter low is -5 degrees, I start to get serious cane damage and if it goes to -10 degrees, most of the canes will die back to within inches of the ground. I think windchill is a more important factor in the milder zones. Most plants, even very tender ones, have mechanisms for dealing with mild low temperatures. These mechanisms take time, perhaps a few hours, to operate and if wind speeds up the rate of cooling, more damage can result. As near as I can figure, that's why spraying citrus crops in Florida with water, tends to decrease the damage of a cold snap. The coating of water slows the cooling rate of the plant by a few hours and the plant has time to adapt (probably by shifting water out of the cells, thereby lowering the freezing point of the cell liquid).

I must admit that you guys seem like a happy group for people that admit that they bought a less than quality product but decided to make the best of it AND MAKE IT BETTER. That is why AMERICA will always win. We never quit. I personally grew up on an Island, connected to the mainland by a bridge, granted, but the nearest town of any size was 42 miles away and it wasn't all that big either. My father could make ANYTHING FIT or WORK and I can recall time and time again when he did just that. I am very pleased to acknowledge that I have those genes running in my veins. The Oreintials (read China) might be able to make it cheaper, but WE make it BETTER. I absolutely LOVE to read how y'll have improved and strengthen those little flimsy, twisty pieces of left over beer cans and made them into things of beauty and STRENGTH. Long live Reynolds Wrap and Alcoa as well. Give me another beer would you. In a bottle if you please 1eyedJack and the Dawg Stay tuned for the upcoming saga of "The Greenhouse from Hell"

Frank, Thanks for going back and looking, but the year which had the earliest bloom was 2012, not 2006. I probably didn't write that clear enough earlier. Hman, You're right. Jan and Feb had a little higher temps than normal in 2012, but March was quite a bit warmer. From the Website you linked, Jan. 2006 was the warmest Jan (I moved the location to Kansas City-much closer to me) since I've been keeping bloom records. That year, the ave. high temp for Jan. was 52F, while the normal high temp for Jan is 40F. The ave. temp for Jan. 2006 was 43F, while the normal ave. temp for Jan is 31F. As Frank mentioned March 2006 started off warm that year but then dropped pretty quickly. My records show a peach bloom of March 30 for 2006, which is about normal. My take away from all this is that Jan. temps haven't seemed to affect fruit bloom (at least in my area) which was your point. I suppose the real danger of warm Jan. weather may be premature de-hardening of wood before winter is really over. The warm Jan. weather this year has caused maples to start to bud, but maples come out very early anyway. Of course waking up early doesn't seem to hurt them. This post was edited by olpea on Sat, Jan 31, 15 at 8:57

Hazel, With fungicides, it is hard to know what to do. It seems smart to spray them before the rain occurs as that gives them added protection from fungal spores that might be splashed up onto them during the rainfall, but then if it rains heavily enough, the fungicides may get washed off the plants anyway. I sprayed one plant with Daconil because it had the beginning of some black mold on it a couple of days ago, and then I got paranoid and sprayed the plant beside it and the one across the road from it. I didn't spray the rest. As little rainfall as we received here, I expect the fungicide I sprayed still is on the leaves. If you got more than an inch or two (and, really, the speed with which it fell means more than the amount because I expect a hard, fast rain would wash off more fungicide than a slow, gentle one), the rain probably washed your fungicide off the plants. I don't like spraying anything on the plants, but sometimes it is necessary. I don't think I'll ever be one of those people who sprays fungicide regularly throughout the growing season because I'd rather eat food that wasn't sprayed. I think the most I've ever sprayed fungicide on the tomato plants was 4 times in one year, about once every couple of weeks during the worst of the high heat/humidity part of the tomato season, which at our house occurs in June most years. I am thinking it will be earlier this year. You can add a sticker-spreader product to the fungicide to make it adhere better to the foliage. Some folks just add a couple of drops of soap (not detergent, but actual soap) to their fungicide spray to serve as the sticker-speader. I do not know what the rest of you are looking at in terms of temperatures next week, but at our house we're looking at highs in the upper 80s by mid-week. In combination with wet soil and high humidity, that will give us prime conditions for fungal infections to occur on plants, and likely some bacterial infections as well. Then, there's more severe weather likely at the end of next week. Must be Spring! Rebecca, I find it amazing how much rainfall can vary even over a relatively small area. Often, our three rain gauges vary a lot--a half-inch to an inch, for example, and they are in a relatively small area. A few times we've gotten 9-12" or more in one day while our Mesonet station, clearly missed by the heavy rainfall, showed 2-5" fell at the same time. Sometimes we compare notes with friends who live within a mile or so of our house and often we have a difference of an inch or more from the same storm. Alexis, That's too much rain! We have been sporadically wet, but our last really good wet month here was January, so have been veering towards being too dry in recent weeks and I've had to water the garden a bit. We had good rainfall about a week to ten days ago, and by good, I mean a bit over an inch I think. Clay soil holds moisture forever, so even an inch or two of rain means we stay wet, wet, wet, wet and wet. Then, we have one perfect day when the soil is just wet enough to make pulling weeds easy but not too wet to work, and then the very next day we are dry, dry, dry and the ground is cracking. I have to really watch the soil to ensure I take advantage of the one perfect day. Otherwise, I avoid working wet soil. If you've ever seen the big clods formed by breaking up wet clay, you understand why I behave myself when it comes to working in wet soil. Maybe your neighbors will let you come dig up your amaranth and flowers and transplant them back to your place when they start sprouting? Our rain runoff from our place runs right into our creek, which then empties into a bigger creek up the road, which then empties into the Red River. So, when my seeds wash away, I figure they're gonna end up in the river. I think your forecast low up there in central OK ought to stay around 40-44 because your forecast lows in central OK are often the same as mine, and my forecast low has been fluctuating back and forth between 42-44 for tonight and slightly warmer for Sunday night. I don't think it is fair that our place gets as cold as areas 100-150 miles further north, but that's what we get for living in a low-lying microclimate that tends to run cold late in the year on cool Spring nights. People outside the OKC and Tulsa metro areas may drop colder than those in town by a few degrees since we more rural folks don't benefit from the heat island effect caused by all the warm, heat-retaining concrete found in cities. I do think the further north and further northwest in the state one lives, the more likely that tonight's lows may be worrisome. Once we get past this cool weekend, we are headed into the upper 80s by midweek, so I just hope my plants can tolerate two coolish nights without sulking too much. I believe that we will have strong enough overnight wind down here to keep any patchy frost from settling on the plants so I don't intend to cover up the tomatoes and peppers...or the sweet potatoes, squash , cucumbers, southern peas or corn either. I do reserve the right to freak out around 4 pm this afternoon and run out and cover up plants if they drop our forecast overnight low down to 40 because we have had patchy frost at 38 degrees before. My garden thinks it is mid-May, based on the weather we've been having, and I would like for it to be allowed to go on thinking that. Today is going to be cold and windy, with wind chills making it feel colder than it is, and it is too muddy to work in the yard or garden, so I am planning on doing all the grocery shopping and errand running and such today in the hopes that maybe tomorrow the grass will be dry enough to mow. The good thing about grocery day is that we'll be going to CostCo, which takes me very close to Marshall Grain Company and Mike's Garden Center, so guess where I'll be going while we are out? One nice thing about rain is that when you know you cannot garden, it frees you up to do other things that need to be done, like housework, laundry, grocery shopping, running those errands you've been putting off and, my favorite, garden shopping. One onion bolted yesterday. It is a red onion from the Dixondale Short Day Sampler, so I guess that means it is the Red Creole variety. I wasn't shocked to have it bolt as a lot of the onions I received were way too big this year and I expect bolting from those. Really, I'm more shocked that I haven't yet had a lot of bolting. I still do expect for the bolting to occur, especially among the short and intermediate day length types. My long day types and the storage variety were more the normal planting size so may not bolt. Dawn