This year's late freeze/frost survivors.
October_Gardens
7 years ago
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bella rosa
7 years agonicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Blueberries and late frost
Comments (6)SteveABC, are you in Dallas? I just checked the weather and the lows are in 40-60 for the next 10 days. There is no way it could be a problem. Even if there is brief overnight frost, the leaves should be fine. Now assuming a worst case where all your current leaves are gone, new ones will come out and you won't notice a difference by the end of the year. People worry about frost damage only on flowers since they are more sensitive and you only get them once a year. If flowers are gone, you don't get fruits for the year. But otherwise you don't need to worry about frost....See MoreAnyone REALLY save fruit crop from freeze w/ frost blankets?
Comments (4)I saved persimmon with a tarp and 1500 watt heater against 24F. This is a pretty big tree, about 7ft wide and tall. So it takes a big tarp. Two nearby unprotected trees lost all fruit and leaves. I saved grapes from the same freeze by covering and heat. Saved 15 inch tall sweetcorn by heavy covering without heat. A very few leaves were frost marked. Was covered with cardboard, blankets, and refectix insulation, three layers overhead and two on the sides. It would have taken very heavy and many layers frost blanket to save this crop from 24F. Wrapped one jujube graft breaking bud with three layers of row cover. It was killed by ~28F and hasn't sprouted back. Other jujube grafts covered with heavy black barrels survived 28F but not 24F later on. It took blankets and another layer to save those. I think the frost blanket by itself is effective only on low growing veggies with warm soil close at hand. I think fruit trees are too high to benefit much from frost blanket. An air tight covering has usually worked for me with sufficient heat inside. 750-1500 watts for medium size tree and 100-250 watts on a small tree....See MoreCicada or late freeze, Whats worse for trees?
Comments (0)(I have also posted this in the tree forum) Two years ago we had a very late freeze after all of my trees, except for the beech, had leafed out and last year we had the 17 year cicadas. To my surprise the cicadas seem to have done far more damage to some of my trees than the late frost did. All of my 4-8' japanese maples, kousa dog woods, stewartia and american holly have significant damage with many losing over 50 percent of their branches. I have a 7' x 7' 'Gold Star' kousa that is almost dead and several others that will look terrible for years to come. It seems like the cicadas damage the plant's smaller branches enough to cause desiccation of the branch. Because the cicadas like pencil size wood only smaller trees seem to have been effected to this degree. Very small younger plants and plants with thin banches such as acer palmatum Murasaki Kiyohime were also unharmed by the cicadas. Did any one else see a similar pattern of damage? David...See MoreFrost/Freeze Warning from NOAA
Comments (30)It was very cold here and we had a very hard frost....the kind that looks like white snow on the grass. It was 34 degrees here at 2:00 a.m., and I didn't check the temperatures any more after that because I knew it was going to be worse than expected.....and, at that point, the only issue was how much worse than expected. (G.M., When I saw our temps. at 2 a.m., I checked Carter County's on the internet and y'all were showing 38 degrees at that point, so I'm betting y'all ultimately went down to at least 34 to 36.) Pretty much everything in the garden survived and most were not damaged. I have two tomato plants that probably won't make it, but that's not bad considering I had 58 in the ground. There's about another 10 that show some damage. I probably could leave them alone and they'd bounce back, but I might replace them anyway. I have back-up plants to replace them with, so it isn't a big deal. The damage to the tomatoes was hit or miss, and might have been worse on those whose flower pot/bucket was smaller or more lightweight than those on the other plants. Everything else tender was in the house, the garage or the screened-in back porch so they all are fine. All the perennials are fine. The roses that were blooming look fine. The iris flowers look kind of pitiful. The water lilies are unharmed. Depending on how cold it actually got, and how long it stayed there, the fruit on the fruit trees may not survive. We have one more cold night tonight here in southern OK, with "patchy frost" expected. If you believe the data from the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, the "average" last frost in Love County occurs in the March 22 thru March 31st timeframe. However, we ALWAYS have at least one freezing night significantly later than that, and usually more than one. Here's the last frost date for the years we've lived here: 2007: 32 degrees on 4-15-07 2006: 23 degrees on 4-23-06 2005: 32 degrees on 4-24-05 2004: 32 degrees on 3-31-04 2003: 28 degrees on 4-10-03 2002: 27 degrees on 4-05-02 2001: 32 degrees on 4-24-01 2000: 31 degrees on 4-17-00 1999: 31 degrees on 4-18-99 So, the OCS data doesn't seem reliable for us, but it is based on 30-year averages, and we've only been here and watching the weather here for 9 years. One frustrating thing about the "late" freezes is that, even though they predictably occur in mid- to late-April, they often follow anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks where we've had really nice warm weather and only a couple of cold nights. Randy, I think your wind will be worse than ours. We're only expecting winds of 15 to 25, which seems mild compared to the last few days. It is relatively wind-free here today, and that is nice. Kirts, I hope your ground dries up soon so you can rototill and prepare to plant. We have another round of rain forecast beginning around Thursday. I hope to get the rest of the veggie garden planted this week, except for the real heat lovers like okra and melons. My soil is still pretty wet just a couple of inches below the soil surface, but it is getting better every day. Dawn...See MoreOctober_Gardens
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agonicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis
7 years agobella rosa
7 years agonicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agobella rosa
7 years agonicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis
7 years agobella rosa
7 years agobella rosa
7 years agonicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis
7 years agoOctober_Gardens
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agonicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoOctober_Gardens
7 years agonicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agohokierustywilliamsbu
6 years agonicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis
6 years ago
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