I have been keeping an eye on the Weather Channel, and the forecast looks more dismal for next week every time I check. Now they are forecasting that overnight temps may be as low as 29 F, and down to 32 & 34 other nights. I'm worrying about the new strawberry plants and wondering if I should be finding quilts and things to protect them or if they will be alright. What this will do to the budding apple trees, etc --!! I suppose I'll be trying to hang blankets over the new little ones to protect their leaves at least. Boy, do I hope they are wrong about this. It was looking like it was going to be an excellent year for the fruit trees, but not if they lose all their buds and blossoms.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Answers

Oh my. I sure hope not. I would use straw or old hay on the strawberries, it works really well. Sometimes sheets do more harm than not using anything. Allot of times they say we are getting a frost, and we don't, so I hope that is the case for you. Maybe some others here have something helpful for the trees, that's a tough one.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Kelp spray is supposed to give a little protection but must be used ahead of time. Fruit tree blossoms can be encased in ice for protection if it's worth your while.Put the sprinkler on around 10 PM.

Apple buds will be fine at those temps.Blossoms are another matter.Someplace I have a chart that shows the diff. temps the diff. stages can withstand.

Strawberries not in bloom should be fine.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

When we were threatened with late frost here, Lynn shoveled compost over the young plants that we couldn,t cover with milk jugs or nursury containers. I used a combination of water mist and fire barrel to create a warm pocket around my blooming plum trees.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Hi Julie f, where do you live that it is going to frost in May? Strawberrys should be fine, fruit trees you might try running your sprinklers over nite. Thats how I keep my banana trees alive in the winter here(north Florida).It freezes here in Jan & Feb.I have strawberrys here all year the cold dosen't seem to bother them at all. Daryll

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Hi Julie,

We had a late frost here in the Ozarks (late for us). We already had over 100 tomatoes in the ground. We mulched one raised bed heavily with hay and used plastic sheeting over the other. The tomatoes mulched with hay did much better (we didn't lose any) and those covered with plastic did much worse, several died back to the soil level and we lost a couple entirely. We will use the hay approach in the future. The temp got to I think 29 which is similar to what yours will be. We had strawberries in blossom which we covered with plastic and they did fine, although I think we would use hay next time. Our apples were in blossom but these trees have only been in the ground for 1+ years so we didn't worry about losing the little fruit. Several trees still have quite a bit of fruit so I am not sure if the frost hurt them or not.

Good luck. Seems we second guess nature every year.

Incidentally we are pleased with this cold snap. We are getting rain (seems to be in real short supply this year) and our highs for the next few days will be in the 60s, as we have already hit 90 this is welcome relief. I'll put in with the garden slowing a bit, I'm already behind!

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

What state do you live in Julie? Or are you at a high elevation?

The people that suggested running the sprinkler on the fruit trees in bloom are right. I've managed to save a peach crop doing that. Some of the limbs broke off due to the icing though. The trees had icicles about 6 inches long by morning. If the majority of the blossoms are still in the bud stage, they should get by anyway and still have a decent crop. The commercial fruit growers here use fires between the rows of fruit trees. They just basically build bonfires and keep them fed all night long. I think they are spaced about 25 feet apart, on squares. Might work if you have plenty of wood and don't mind staying up all night. Good luck.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

I'm in northern Wisconsin, near the UP border, zone 3/4A. May frosts aren't all that uncommon around here, however, due to global warming or whatever, we have been having Aprils with temps in the 80's, then freezes in May, and cold Julys. It's making gardening in a finicky area just that much harder.

Of course the strawberries are starting to bloom. They are the new ones I just put in and bedded, so I've been snipping off the new blooms to encourage root and runner growth for their first year. They already have a nice oat straw mulch on them, I suppose I'll just fluff it a bit and maybe put a polar fleece blanket over them.

I have three new apple trees that just got put in that just put out their tender first leaves, and I think I'm gonna put up a pole next to each one and a quilt over them and not stress them out. I also think I'll try the kelp spray, since I've got a day before the temps start to drop. I've got a portable firepit and a big stack of wood, so maybe I'll be having an all-night jammie party in the garden!

I wasn't so quick to plant out the tomatoes, thankfully. The potatoes in the ground and the cabbages with a light cover should be okay, as will (I hope) the leeks, etc. My grandmother always said not to plant before the birch leaves were the size of a mouse's ear in the spring. Of course, I'd be out scrutinizing the leaves to compare to a mouse's ear and hopping to get things in the ground -- then she'd change it to a squirrel's ear. Well, they're squirrel sized right now and I hope they don't freeze off too.

Gardening in the north can be such a challenge, temperature wise...my dad used to talk about the year they had snow in July! It was a freak thing that didn't stay, nevertheless, you've gotta think it wasn't much of a summer for the crops.

Thanks for the quick advice. Let's hope that the weather man is wrong this time around, it'd make things a lot easier. Of course, being a weather man is the only job you can have where you're wrong over 50% of the time and still get a paycheck.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

You're right about the weathermen being wrong 50% of the time. I told my sons I was thinking about becoming a weather forecaster. They reminded me that I didn't have the college education for it. I told them I didn't know what difference it made, after all, the education didn't seem to help the guys on TV much! They still didn't think I could get hired. (sigh) Another dream bites the dust!

Good luck with the plants. I gotta say I could use a little of that coolness down here though. It was 92 in NE TX yesterday. I hate hot weather.

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2001