Topic: anyone get caught by frost?

[strawberry1]

I am anxiously sitting here and waiting for the temperature to rise. The outdoor air sensor says 1.6 but there is frost on the car and on 2 of my small greenhouses. The forecast said 5 minimum last night so I put fleece over the plants in my greenhouses but I may have been caught. I have 6 greenhouses, 3 are small polycarbonate and 3 are larger. Doh I have everything crossed.

[Ellen K]

Where are you?  It has been a cloudy night here in Leicestershire, temp now about 5 C.

[strawberry1]

somerset and it is very mild, indeed hot during the day, where I live. I have been out and checked and all plants are looking good, including courgettes. Phew, I am grateful that I put double layers of fleece directly on all the plants yesterday. Its amazing but I have 3 small polycarb greenhouses and one was against a wall. That one had no frost on top at all. My other two are going alongside that wall tonight. I use a weather station giving me max and min temeratures, min was 1.6 last night but frost must have rolled down from the surrounding field. It is 6 degrees already, in the shade

It seems as though a good layer of fleece on top of plants and inside an unheated greenhouse is pretty good protection and I am finding that re-assuring. I feel that the small houses are most vulnerable as there is a lot of insulating air space in the bigger houses

[Ian Pearson]

It's worth checking any thermometer's manufacturers data. Often, rather shockingly, the accuracy tolerance is only +/- 1.5 degrees. A digital display showing one decimal point precision can be highly misleading.
Glass thermometers that are attached to a separate backboard with the scale printed on it can easily be well out.

[saddad]

I was a couple of weeks ago but not since...  :-X

[Ellen K]

A plotholder had some of his tomato seedlings slightly burned by the cold when I went over there today and like Saddad many took a hit a few weeks ago when we had a really cold night.  

Still about 3 weeks to go before you can reasonably expect frost free nights here in the Midlands.

[small]

Ellen, I'm only a few miles north of you and I have regularly had frost the last week in May - I cover up anything vulnerable till 1st week in June, it's a pain but it breaks my heart to lose carefully nurtured veg.

[Squash64]

Ellen, I'm only a few miles north of you and I have regularly had frost the last week in May - I cover up anything vulnerable till 1st week in June, it's a pain but it breaks my heart to lose carefully nurtured veg.

Here in Birmingham we had a very heavy frost one year on the night of 29th May.  I remember the date because it's my husband's birthday.  I lost all my runner beans and courgettes.  Since then, if I do plant any out I cover them with cloches.

[Digeroo]

I can remember one year having a frost 6th June.  I was lucky I heard the weather forecast and covered my beans with newspaper and sheets.  But lots of people lost theirs and it was impossible to buy a packet of replacements anywhere.

It was in the days before fleece was available, so now I peg round the fleece every night for weeks.  The weather forecast can be very untrustworthy.  The clouds can suddenly part in the night and goodbye beans.

We have had frosts most nights for the last two weeks.

[Robert_Brenchley]

We had two frosts in June last year. My beans were hit badly, and it was ages before the survivors started growing.

[Ellen K]

Eeeek!!! This is my 4th year and I guess I've been lucky.  Toms and sweetcorn planted out 2nd half of May for the last 3 years and I've got away with it.  But Toms dont go out until they are big plants and perhaps they would survive a very mild frost.  And I'm not a big bean fiend, peas are more my thing, beans go in last in the Q so end May perhaps.

But cant be complacent.  One year, a massive hail storm in the middle of July hammered everything, sweetcorn leaves ripped to shreads etc.  Gotta love the British weather.

[Coastie]

Glad I saw this post.  I've just put some cauli, brussels and cabbage out.  I'll make sure they're covered and cossetted for a while yet then.  I'm in Cornwall

[cornykev]

You should be alright with brassicas Coastie, it's the toms, beans, spuds and sweetcorn when put out too early.
My Marigold seedlings were frosted a few weeks ago though.  :-\

[betula]

A tip for runner beans when a late frost is forecast.

If they are going up the pole wrap with newspaper and secure with a clothes peg.

I am itching to get going with it all LOL ;D

[Deb P]

After getting nastily caught out a few weeks ago and losing all of my heritage tomato plants I invested in a little electric heater which keeps my greenhouse toasty at 10 degrees. It cuts in and out reliably and my min. max. thermometer tells me it has been going its job well. I have noticed the seedlings are just starting to romp away now, but they will still be very small compared to last year where we had that nice April. This year has been cold and very wet so far here in Derby! Musn't grumble........ :-\ :-X ::)

[Duke Ellington]

I got caught out last year and now use a domestic fan heater. I have this fan heater plugged into a thermostat so that I can set the heater to come on at 5c . It's so dissapointing when you loose seedlings especially taking into account the cost and effort that goes into it all. I only hope we don't have a power cut during the night :o

[galina]

Here also losses due to frost in early June.  Half the beans of a heritage variety were wiped out, the other plants struggled for a while, then recovered.  Then the same happened again a few years later on the same date Squash lost a lot of plants.  As it happened that year I grew the same heritage variety from seeds from the frost survivors and whilst other beans perished (and squash too), these survived well.

I doubt we will ever get really frost hardy beans.  However growing from own seed, especially seed that has been through hardship, is a good thing.  So many commercial seeds are grown far from Britain, in India or in the med where labour costs are cheaper, it is no wonder that they are unusually frost tender. 

Heritage tomatoes on the other hand should be hardier - guess most HSL toms were grown in England, but they may have been 'coddled' by seed guardians who want to make sure their plants produce seeds.

Which means that any veg that 'has made it' is worth saving seed from, to have an easier time in future years.

[strawberry1]

watch out from friday night, cold is coming

I had to plant tomatoes in grobags and they are covered by pvc houses but it isn`t going to be enough. I have just received lots more (30 gm) fleece and I`ll be making cocoons over each plant and then layers over and around the pvc. Then I`ll have my fingers crossed

I only have a few french beans sown and they popped up in a few days, so I am going to try them as a sacrificial experiment ie uncovered under pvc. I got hundreds for 99p from ebay, so I won`t be fretting about them. I am going to do the same with rocoto (locoto) chilli as I have spare plants. I planted one up and it is going under an overhang on the house. It`ll be interesting to see if it survives

Such a massive change from last year but it makes gardening an interesting challenge

[Digeroo]

I live about as far from the sea as you can get in the UK so we often have snap late frosts.  Thanks for the warning for friday night.

I can recommend bottle cloches but it is important that the plants do not touch the plastic.  Another great helper is a bottle of water.  So if you put bottles of water under the fleece they give out heat during the night.  Even more if they start to freeze they actually give out more heat.   Remember too that double glazing is more effective so a double layer of fleece is even more use.  If you do not have enough fleece, try newspaper or an old sheet, it does not matter if they are not translucent because you can take them off again in the morning.

Saturday night the forecast is even lower 2C here which means there will almost definiately be a ground frost is they are correct.  We had several very cold nights in May last year.

[green lily]

Well I've fleece at the ready and it'll even go over the french beans and toms in the poly tomorrow night.
Outdoors i only have potatoes that are vulnerable but I want the fleece to stay dry so have to dodge the showers. O the joy of British weather- and we're only at the beginning of May! it's the frosts at the end of the month that usually get me.
I've only sown my climbing beans today. I reckon if necessary they'll manage in their big yoghurt pots until June....