The last two early mornings have seen freezing temperatures. Friday night (Saturday morning) it got down to 27 degrees and this morning was 32. I'm happy to say that the greenhouse made it through with flying colors. The forecast for the coming week has morning temps in the forties and fifties, so we're good for awhile.
Out in the front yard, the cannas suffered serious freeze damage.
The chrysanthemums did just fine.
I've been asked how frost damages plants and what to do about it. I've done some research on this subject, but I'm still not sure. I've always been told that a light freeze dehydrates the plants leaves and a hard freeze turns the moisture in plant cells to ice crystals and ruptures the cell walls. The second explanation is closer to what the experts tell me, but I've always found that watering right before and after a light freeze helps plants overcome a mild amount of cold damage.
A common practice is to spray water on tender plants right before a freeze. This works because the water freezes and the ice provides insulation. Spraying water before a hard freeze probably won't really do much good.
The reason some plants survive a light freeze better than others is that some plants originate from cooler climates and have developed a tolerance, possibly by forming thicker or more elastic cell walls.
Pepper plants originated in warmer climates and are easily killed by a light frost, as are tomatoes. Members of the Brassicaceae family such as cabbage and cauliflower can bear much colder temperatures. Fall garden crops, such as beets and carrots can be protected by a deep mulch of straw or leaves. Even onions can last into the winter months under a heavy mulch.
The greenhouse fared well in the freeze. These tender young tomato plants still look great.
These pepper sprouts are doing much better than the ones in the garden.
I planted pepper and tomato seeds a couple of weeks ago, just to see how they will do in the greenhouse with the shorter days and cooler daily temperatures.
The tomato and pepper plants in the greenhouse appear completely unharmed by the cold snap. In the future I plan to make the greenhouse more weather-tight so that plants can continue to thrive, even in long periods of below freezing temps.
This Big Jim chile pepper is doing well. I'm just waiting for it to ripen to a nice red color.
Stephen
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