Three tips when frost threatens
Posted on | September 8, 2009 | 3 Comments
Here in Zone 5, September brings with it the perennial question: When will the first frost strike? If Accuweather is, well, accurate, this year our first frost in Lyons may well be Friday night, with temps predicted to dip to 31. Although that’s not a “hard frost” (when temps stay at or below 28 degrees for an hour or two, also called a “killing frost”), it would be enough to nip the remainder of this year’s basil, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchinis and peppers, as well as tender herbs and annual flowers.
Rather than curse Mother Nature for the apparent lack of Indian Summer, there are a few things gardeners can do to prepare when frost is imminent.
Hedge your bets – It may frost, it may not. If you can live with losing part of your crop, go ahead and pick as much as you can now and leave some to battle the frost. For me, that meant harvesting the tomatoes and peppers that I might otherwise have left on the vine a few days and leaving them to ripen the rest of the way on my kitchen counter, safely out of the potential frost. It also meant harvesting about half of each tender herb (basil, lemon balm, purple shiso, mexican tarragon, stevia) that I’m growing. I’d like to let them grow just a bit more — it has been a cool spring here — but I don’t want to risk the frost killing the entire plant. So my compromise is to cut half the plant, and the leave the other half to either get nipped by the frost, or grow a bit more in the warm days that remain.
Water deeply – Moist soil not only retains heat better than dry soil, but a well-watered plant can better withstand a light frost. So turn on the drip or drag out the hose to water things before frost.
Cover what you can – I keep a variety of old sheets and blankets around just for pitching over tender plants in September. Covering tender plants a few hours before sunset so that the blanket/sheet comes all the way to the ground — to prevent cold air from seeping in at ground level — can trap the last of the day’s warm air around the plant long enough to provide some protection from a light frost. Filling a few gallon jugs with warm water and placing under the blankets can offer some additional protection from heavier frosts.
As always, your local cooperative extension likely has some good tips that are applicable to your region. CSU has a very nice discussion of frost protection on its web site. The scientists among you may prefer UC Davis’s page, which really dives into the mechanics of frost.
Frequently that first killing frost is followed by relatively warm temperatures for several weeks, so even running through this ritual once can extend your harvest quite a bit. At some point, however, it’s time to throw in the towel and let the frost claim the rest of your tender plants. When that time comes, pull the tomato plants out by the roots and hang them in the garage to ripen (putting any tomato that has a blush of orange into a paper bag also works, for those with some space restrictions), clean your pots out for the winter and store them where they can’t be damaged by a hard freeze, and start dreaming about next year’s garden.
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About Terminal Verbosity
TV is the latest writing endeavor of Julie Artz, who has been blogging about just about anything that comes to her scattered mind since 2002.
Wife, mother, writer, gardener, flaming liberal, doesn't-know-when-to-keep-her-big-mouth-shut gabbergirl, obsessive reader, cook, appreciator of all fine food and bevies, Julie has finally reached Terminal Verbosity...
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September 9th, 2009 @ 3:14 pm
Excellent! They’ve changed the forecast and now they’re not calling for freezing temps until the end of the month. Whew!
September 9th, 2009 @ 8:27 pm
[...] that we’re all duly depressed over the upcoming frost, it’s time to start focusing on what the avid gardener can do to beat the fall/winter blues. [...]
September 24th, 2009 @ 12:16 pm
[...] If you know in advance that an early frost is coming, there are a few things you can do to temporarily ward off one or two cool nights. Take a look at my post on what to do when frost threatens. [...]