Topic: Protection from frost

[Paulines7]

Help please!!

I am going away on holiday for 2½ weeks and have a bit of a dilemma.  My son will be here looking after the cat and chickens but is not at all interested in my plants.  One year I lost all my bedding plants as he didn't water them so the following year I invested in watering kits, timers etc.    ;D

I am worried though about my outdoor tomatoes, aubs and cues.  This is my first year of growing them.  I can set up a drip feed for them but what if we have a frost?  If I put fleece over them all before I leave, will it do the plants any harm being under the fleece 24 hours a day for 2½ weeks?  The toms have small flower buds on them already.

I also want to plant out my squashes and courgettes before I leave and I can cover them with fleece but may not be able to use a drip watering system for them.  If I leave a sprinkler on the timer, will the water go through the fleece? 

[Mrs Ava]

I am sure the fleece will do no harm at all for 2 weeks.  Water will get through - I leave fleece on my carrots from sowing until harvest with no problems.

So, going somewhere nice?

[Paulines7]

Thanks EJ.  I have a huge roll of fleece so should be able to get everything covered.   ;D

We are taking our caravan to Scotland accompanied by our dog Meggie.   We will be staying at Killin, Bunree and Morvich.   :D

[SMP1704]

Pauline

Re the watering, I agree with EJ that enough water should get thro the fleece, but if you want belt and braces, how about this....

Cut the bottom off of a 2 lt drinks bottle, but leave most of the length.  Leave the cap on and punch holes randomly thro the plastic bottle.  Then bury most of bottle next to/nearby the squashes and fill with water - a slow release system.

I haven't tried but should work - in theory? :-\

[Paulines7]

I will try it SMP1704.  I haven't many 2 litre bottles but I have one 5 litre and about a dozen 1 litre.  I could put the 5 litre one next to my pumpkin.  ;D    I suppose when it rains, the bottles may well fill up again.   I could even stick a couple of bottles in my growbags which I will have outside with aubergines in.   I feel the holes will have to be very small though or too much water will be lost.  Perhaps I should make them with a fine needle.  I think I had better experiment first, using a bottle wedged on top of a bucket.   :D

Thanks for your suggestion SMP1704.

[SMP1704]

Pauline

For making the holes, I was thinking something along the lines of a metal meat skewer so it should then just steadily soak thro into the surrounding soil.

The bigger the bottle the better!

Now I have had the idea, I need to go and experiment............

[lorna]

Pauline. No advice but hope you have a lovely time. Don't forget pics. One of these days I am going to visit Scotland.
Lorna

[Paulines7]

SMP1704, I think a meat skewer would make the holes too big and the water would be through in less than a day even with the 5 litre size.  We will both have to experiment and exchange results. 

Lorna, I will certainly take plenty of pics whilst there.  Meanwhile, before we go I have almost two weeks to establish how big the holes in the bottles will need to be.   ;D

[jennym]

Pauline, you could try this method which has worked for me.
Fill a big bucket up with water, stand it next to the plants you want to irrigate, and put a thin strip of cotton rag into the bucket so it reaches the bottom (I put a piece of brick at the bottom of the bucket to hold the rag down) and trail it over the edge of the bucket so it comes in contact with the soil next to the plant, and poke it into the soil a bit. The water soaks into the rag and the rag acts as a wick and keeps the soil by the plant moist. Perhaps you can experiment with this and see if it works for you.

[Paulines7]

Thanks Jen, that seems a good idea too.   ;D    More experimenting I think.  The only problem with this method, Jen, is that I have used most of my buckets to grow potatoes in.    ::)  ;D

[Paulines7]

Pauline
For making the holes, I was thinking something along the lines of a metal meat skewer so it should then just steadily soak thro into the surrounding soil.
The bigger the bottle the better!
Now I have had the idea, I need to go and experiment............

SMP1704, this morning I made a hole with a darning needle and the water was out of the container within minutes.  I then used a very thin needle and made one hole.  This time it took a little longer but was empty by lunchtime.   ;D   How did yours go with the meat skewers?

[SMP1704]

Well, it's like this...........took a 4 lt bottle with 4 holes to the plot, but then had some issues with the horsetail and before I knew it, it was time to collect No 2 son and I hadn't done anything with the bottle :-[

Won't have a chance to get there tomorrow during the day, but might be able to squeeze in an hour during the Cub run tomorrow night.  I'll post after 9pm one way or the other - sooorrry