Frost is forecasted for tonight and next few days my potatoes are coming through but are only about 2inch showing question is will they be OK or do i need to earth them up now!HELP :-\
be better to earth them up but they'll recover anyway.
I am resigned to the frost this year. I just have not had time to earth them up and the last batch of fleece I bought was rubbish and shredded in the last breeze. Note to self - invest in some heavy duty stuff. Luckily, the only thing I really have to worry about in the potatoes. Squash are all indoors and beans and toms are in the growhouse. The sweetcorn only got sown yesterday.
Quotethe last batch of fleece I bought was rubbish
For the record there are two types of fleece woven & spun.
Spun is rubbish and is normally cheaper so the dearer woven type is a better investment it will last you for years.
according to today's Telegraph we are are due for frost and it's all St Dunstan's fault. Apart from being the Archbishop of Canterbury he was also a brewer in Somerset, and he was getting lots of competition from the zider people due to several really good springs. So he sold his soul to the devil and the devil arranged for bad frost between May 17-19 (St Dunstan's Day) to kill off all the apple blossom
Just been up and lit a couple of candles in greenhouse. Put weed suppressant fabric over spuds
I've had spuds frosted loads of times. It sets them back a little, but they very soon recover.
Good. I have run out of fleece and stuff :'( :'( :'(
Though we may not get it in the Midlands.....hopefully :-\
Just got back from the lottie.Fleeced as much as I could.Had to resort to covering some with the weed bucket and an upside down cardboard box :)
Me too a quick visit cover spuds in fleece and have fingers crossed, although fellow plot holder looked at me as if I'd gone loopy when I said there was arisk of frost we'll see.... :o
that's me fleeced up at home. The plot can wait til tomorrow. Should have listened to my inner gardener - 10 days early, 10 days early
I dont think we'll get frost. SO THERE!!
Quote from: northener on May 18, 2008, 19:49:05
Just been up and lit a couple of candles in greenhouse.
Is that to pray to St Dunstan? Good idea, worth a try ..... ;D
Quote from: northener on May 18, 2008, 19:49:05
Just been up and lit a couple of candles in greenhouse. Put weed suppressant fabric over spuds
One woman on our site burnt down her greenhouse and all her seedlings doing that.
and may I just add, it was this woman:
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,41084.msg412222.html#msg412222
so had a bit of a giggle then smited myself later.
well we didn't have a frost, at least in the garden, tho it was probably a close run thing, and it was actually colder at 6 o'clock than it was at 5
funny with all this global warming how a bit of folk wisdom from a thousand years ago can still be right-expect frost in the third week in May, and also wrong - even here up North our apple blossom finished ages ago
A heavy frost in Wing Bucks this morning things look OK but will see what damage it has caused latter.
Better cover up tonight if things survive.
Nice one Greyhound. I shall be taking bread and water up this morning.
Same here - not the bread and water thing, but heavy frost in North Warwickshire so will go and see if the potatoes are frosted and also whether it got through to the toms/squash in the cold frames.
It's a bit chilly this morning but no frost here in Peterborough, in fact it look like it rained. Not been to the lottie yet though.
no frost in South wales either a little nippy but everything in the garden looked ok
I was up with the birds this morning (4:30) and watering my pototoes and beans etc.This helps when you have had a frost..........and we had a good one!
I hardened off some of my Toms last week and planted them out at the w.e., but am I right in thinking a frost will kill them?
Yes
no frost but v cold, covered the squash last night and will be leaving it on for a few days though, the beans were ok :)
I haven't planted any tender stuff yet but have loads of plants hardening off. Lets hope that the west mids don't have a frost eh! 8)
I think I may have upset the frost gods. My cold frame plants all okay, but went up to my other lottie and potatoes were badly frosted. This was very strange because all the potatoes in the plots around me looked okay. I can only think as mine were a couple of inches taller that it was a good air frost rather than a ground frost. ???
Anyway the lower leaves look okayish and I have been earthing them up so they should survive. The Oca which is in the same row as the potatoes and as frost tender are absolutely unscathed. :-\
Frost is quite capricious at times; I once had one end of a row of toms badly frosted, while the other end was untouched.
Luckily we've had no frost yet in Newcastle - although at 6am this morning it felt colder than a witches t*t..
Mind, it feels colder again tonight, so I'm starting to worry!....
No frost in central Birmingham either, though it's been pretty chilly some nights.
Forgive me for asking a probably daft question here but what do you class as a frost?
I always think of everything being white as having had a frost.
I had put my tomatoes and beans out this weekend just gone, so far touch wood they are okay. When I have gone out at 7am I haven't thought that it was all that cold, cooler definitely but not what I would call frost cold.
Can someone give me an idea of what sort of temperatures are going to do damage.
Hi all, :)
The site my plots are on is a slope with a river at the bottom, in Norwich. The whole site is a frost pocket.
Some people at the lower part of the slope have lost the tops off their unprotected spuds and their runner beans overnight, last night.
My spuds are higher up the slope, but not showing much stem because I earth up several times as they come through and both they and my beans are protected with builders plastic sheet. They have escaped any damage so far.
People ask me why I fuss over them especially given the recent hot weather, this is why.
Col
Hi All, Google Windguru as this site gives a fairly detailed forcast for your area. I am not sure wheather it is just a coastal reading and monitoring site however give it a go as they ask for a post code and results are pretty accurate.
Cheers
Tony
It was OK Sunday night here in W/Yorkshire as it was cloudy overnight but yesterday a frost was definitely forecast from midnight onwards so i covered 1 bed of potatoes with a big tarpaulin and some more in a separate bed i earthed up as they were only just showing through, but do you believe it! it was something or nothing but prevention is better than the cure don't you think! the rest of week is supposed to be OK and be a bit warmer, but as you know it can change anytime and they have been known to be wrong haven't they! so keep your fingers crossed !
Despite my best efforts Mr Frost managed to ruin about a third of my runner beans.
I got some new seed earlier and will sow them in the morning.
In answer to your questions Gardening Gal Frost can be "air" frosts when the air temp reaches zero C or ground frosts when the air falls below 5C. Most non hardy plants suffer at below 5 as water is at its densest (?) at 4C then starts to expand again, which causes plant tissues to rupture as ice crystals take up more space than the same amount of water. Hardy plants use sugars to make the plant tissue/water harder to freeze... same as salt water doesn't freeze until much lower temps.
If you need some more runners Fork you can always come down to our plant sale in Derby 1st June! We always sell out of Runners!
;D
I lost all my runners last night and the spuds are badly frosted :(((
Sowed another packet full of runners this about an hour ago.Havre walked up and down the allotments and just about everyone(apart from those who went to great lengths and expense to cover them)as been hit by the frost.
Some rows have lost half,some more.
Saddad,thanks for that info,may just pop along on the 1st June.
Fork,a roll of fleece is worth every penny.You can also use old net curtains or even newspaper.Protection from frost is just part of the gardening year.
A simple trick for runner beans is buy a packet of pegs and roll a bit of news paper round the cane and secure with the washing peg.Keep working up the cane. :)
Chilly but no frost here in SW London.
ok i know i should have covered them but, why didnt the frost take everything in the row,
potatoes about half of them are dammaged,
beans its like ones been got then skip a feww all down the line very odd
lbb
ps lowest forcasted temp for us was 7, i would have covered if it had been lower
Quote from: betula on May 21, 2008, 10:19:42
Fork,a roll of fleece is worth every penny.You can also use old net curtains or even newspaper.Protection from frost is just part of the gardening year.
A simple trick for runner beans is buy a packet of pegs and roll a bit of news paper round the cane and secure with the washing peg.Keep working up the cane. :)
Thanks for that,trouble is Im a lazy so and so ;D
Im on afternoon shift at work at the moment so popping along to the plot to cover things is impossible.I cant ask anyone else to do it.I already have people looking after my greenhouses when Im not around.I feel cheeky asking them to cover my runner beans up every evening.
I understand.I have learnt my lesson now and they will not even be started off till end of May.
Me too.
Sometimes I think its a race to get the first boiling ;D
No frost tonight in the west midlands :)
Yes I heard that too, goody, goody.....I dont have to run round like a headless chicken later then :D
Had a walk around the whole site today. The first seven plots on our site escaped the frost completely, no damage at all. Thereafter almost everyone has lost their potatoes. All of them frosted and blackened, all the squashes and beans as well.
My 3 plots and 2 either side are totally unaffected. It's a funny ole' game.
we had frost here in surrey too. :-[ Lost my French beans and potatoes frosted - will the potatoes recover?
Yes the spuds will recover just will be a smaller crop.
goldendaisy123
I'm in surrey as well, where are you?
lbb
the rains are coming now it seems so plenty of cloud cover for some and hopefully past the threat
My new plot is OK, but that is probably because I have not yet planted any thing, I have just got it.
However the lady who runs our allotments said lots of other people have lost the tops of things! ???
Hello Dippy Chick, welcome to the site.
I suggest you get something in before it's too late.
It is quite well known in weather lore that there is usually about a week of very cold weather roughly in the middle of May, known as the "Ice Saints". The name says it all!
My potatoes were completely unharmed :)