Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

Member discussion regarding the methods, varieties and merits of growing tomatoes.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old March 25, 2013   #1
tedln
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Weird Weather!

I planted my tomatoes in the garden on March 1 last year. I may have covered one time to protect from a light frost. This year, I planted out on March 3 and have covered on average twice per week.

In Texas, we differentiate between frosts, freezes, and hard freezes. We had a hard freeze last night and expect another tonight. It was 26 degrees F at midnight and got colder through the night. My plants were well protected, but I may have lost two or three out of forty. Sometimes, they look wilted; but still recover. I had one pepper plant earlier this month that looked totally lost, but recovered back to it's original condition after a few days of warm weather.

I'm hoping to make it through tonight's freeze and will be in good shape with no more freezes or frosts.

I really feel sorry for the retailers who have a huge inventory of tender plants. They have lost a lot of plants this month.

The good thing about the weather is it should or may delay the onset of insect problems in the garden.


Ted

Last edited by tedln; March 25, 2013 at 12:57 PM.
  Reply With Quote
Old March 25, 2013   #2
b54red
Tomatovillian™
 
b54red's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Alabama
Posts: 7,068
Default

Ted I planted out the first week of March last year and didn't have to cover once. This year I only put out my first plants on the 17th and have been wanting to set out more but I don't have enough buckets to cover any more plants than the ones already set out so I am just going to have to wait. My seedlings are starting to get really tall now and since most of the ones I will be setting out are grafts they will not be planted deep so keeping them upright may be a problem in the wind we keep having. I lost one of my plants yesterday; it got snapped off at the graft. Out of 22 in the garden I have only lost that one so I guess so far so good. The nights this week are going to be really cold with at least one good freeze if not more. I hope the buckets are enough.

I had nearly forgotten what a real spring felt like. For most of the last 10 years we have only had summer and fall with no real winter or spring.
b54red is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 25, 2013   #3
Dewayne mater
Tomatovillian™
 
Dewayne mater's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: DFW, Texas
Posts: 1,212
Default

Ted - I am amazed at how much more extreme you weather is just a little northwest of me! We got down to 32 this morning in a northwest suburb of Dallas. Seems like no matter how cold or hot we get, you've always got it worse!

I had row cover over plants last night and moved the tainers into the garage that only got down to 48 inside. Tonight should be the last freeze of the year for us. These are the growing pains of planting early and are pain to deal with, but, with temps in the 70's starting Weds through the foreseeable future, that extra time in ground should have the plants ready to start leaping up on a daily basis! Love that.

Dewayne Mater
Dewayne mater is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 25, 2013   #4
chastom
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: stephenville tx
Posts: 73
Default

we hit 30 in stephenville tx last nite ,i hope for only one more nite of freezing ,and we are out of the woods.

although we always have the normal easter snap .

i just had to plant early this year,and got a cold reward ,but the row cover should be enough to save the crop.
chastom is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 25, 2013   #5
jillybeantx
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: DFW area, TX
Posts: 40
Default

We were at 26 this morning outside of Cleburne. I used upside down buckets and then a row cover over the buckets. The row cover was for warmth as much as to hold the buckets down. Nice "breeze." One more night....
jillybeantx is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 25, 2013   #6
Worth1
Tomatovillian™
 
Worth1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
Default

I feel the occasional protecting of plants far outweighs the advantage you get from the wonderful weather we have had.
Think of all of that new growth out in the sunshine for more blooms that will set before it gets too hot.
You just never know what you will get here.
All of my tender plants have made it all winter long.
Even my Pride of Barbados has new growth coming out of stems that are usually frozen back.

Worth
Worth1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 25, 2013   #7
tedln
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Dewayne,

Anyone gardening within a few miles of the DFW metroplex and connecting highways benefits from the heat sink properties of the area. All the concrete and asphalt slowly releases heat through a cold night modifying atmospheric temperatures by four or five degrees. Even the huge subdivisions with homes crowded against each other with dark roofs release heat into the atmosphere at night. It makes a huge difference. My home benefits from having a large lake within 1/4 mile on three sides.

We pay little attention to the lows and highs predicted by local television weather casters. Their predictions are directed at residents within the metroplex and are not at all accurate twenty miles from DFW. We live within fifteen miles of the Oklahoma border but must rely on the television stations on Direct TV or cable that are deemed "local" by the broadcasters. Southern Oklahoma weather forecasts would be more accurate for our area than DFW forecasts. Even forecast differences between Accu Weather and Weather Underground on the internet usually are quite different for the same zip code. Underground was forecasting 21 degrees last night while Accu Weather was forecasting 27 degrees. It actually dropped to 23 or 24 degrees. It doesn't sound like much difference, but it is important when trying to protect tender garden plants.

Ted
  Reply With Quote
Old March 25, 2013   #8
sio2rocks
Tomatovillian™
 
sio2rocks's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Norman, Oklahoma Zone 7b
Posts: 67
Default

I just can't believe that north Texas got that cold last night. Here in central Oklahoma we were forecast for those temps. 24-26 F, but it only got down to 31 F at my house and 30 F at the national weather service office in Norman, OK. Crazy what the weather is like these days. And Ohio has an APB out for Puxatawny Phil lol.
Though tonight we are forecast for 21-23 F so I hope once again the weathermen are wrong.

Good luck to everyone and survival of all plants,
Colin
sio2rocks is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 25, 2013   #9
bughunter99
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: zone 5
Posts: 821
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by tedln View Post
I planted my tomatoes in the garden on March 1 last year. I may have covered one time to protect from a light frost. This year, I planted out on March 3 and have covered on average twice per week.

In Texas, we differentiate between frosts, freezes, and hard freezes. We had a hard freeze last night and expect another tonight. It was 26 degrees F at midnight and got colder through the night. My plants were well protected, but I may have lost two or three out of forty. Sometimes, they look wilted; but still recover. I had one pepper plant earlier this month that looked totally lost, but recovered back to it's original condition after a few days of warm weather.

I'm hoping to make it through tonight's freeze and will be in good shape with no more freezes or frosts.

I really feel sorry for the retailers who have a huge inventory of tender plants. They have lost a lot of plants this month.

The good thing about the weather is it should or may delay the onset of insect problems in the garden.


Ted
Wow, it sounds like this year those of us in the North might not be that far behind you guys. It snowed all day long here today but we are going to hit 50 on Saturday. That's t-shirt and shorts weather!
bughunter99 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 25, 2013   #10
tedln
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by sio2rocks View Post
I just can't believe that north Texas got that cold last night. Here in central Oklahoma we were forecast for those temps. 24-26 F, but it only got down to 31 F at my house and 30 F at the national weather service office in Norman, OK. Crazy what the weather is like these days. And Ohio has an APB out for Puxatawny Phil lol.
Though tonight we are forecast for 21-23 F so I hope once again the weathermen are wrong.

Good luck to everyone and survival of all plants,
Colin
Yep! Weather Underground is forecasting 19 degrees tonight. Accu Weather is predicting 27 degrees for the same areas. The DFW television stations are predicting a possible light freeze, but not much below 32 degrees.

If you garden in my area, you can't rely on the forecasters so you better prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Ted
  Reply With Quote
Old March 26, 2013   #11
chastom
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: stephenville tx
Posts: 73
Default

well ,i just checked my plants, 30 of them FROZE , even with medium agribon row cover ,we must have been colder than the weatherman said in stephenville tx

I still don't understand how this happened?
chastom is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 26, 2013   #12
jerryinfla
Tomatovillian™
 
jerryinfla's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Central Florida
Posts: 377
Default

It's even cold here in central Florida! My citrus trees look terrible and potatoes don't look much better. Wundergound seems to have the most accurate forecast for where I live and we're expecting mid 30s here for the next three nights. I've already covered plants more than twice as often as I did last year and I still have a few tomatoes , peppers and eggplants to set out. Like others have said, I don't have enough buckets to protect any more plants in the ground so they'll just have to wait. Now I'm hoping they'll be in the ground long enough to produce before our hot summer sets in.
__________________
Jerry - You only get old if you're lucky.
jerryinfla is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 26, 2013   #13
tedln
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I've lost a total of nine plants so far. I haven't even checked to see if I have any losses from last night. It's only 27 degrees right now, so I don't want to uncover them yet to check on losses. I triple covered them last night with a small container with a few oak leaves in the container. I put a layer of freeze protection cloth over the container, a Walmart bag with a few leaves in it over the freeze protection cloth, and a larger container with some oak leaves in it over the Walmart bag. I'm hoping I didn't lose any more. The oak leaves have always worked well for me in the past. They create little pockets of warmer air plus they keep the layers of protection separated. The cold will eventually penetrate all that, but usually not in one night.

We are supposed to only have a light frost tonight, so a container alone should protect them. After tonight, it should be clear sailing into summer. Now I only have to worry about hail storms.

Ted

Last edited by tedln; March 26, 2013 at 10:21 AM.
  Reply With Quote
Old March 26, 2013   #14
afrance30
Tomatovillian™
 
afrance30's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Cincinnati
Posts: 212
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by sio2rocks View Post
And Ohio has an APB out for Puxatawny Phil lol.
Yes, but the funny part is that we aren't going after our own, Buckeye Chuck, who always seems to agree with Puxatawny Phil.

Poor Phil gets the dealth penalty and Buckeye Chuck goes free lmao!
afrance30 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 26, 2013   #15
Dewayne mater
Tomatovillian™
 
Dewayne mater's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: DFW, Texas
Posts: 1,212
Default

Ted - I'm always thankful for the heat island effect this time of year. Now, summer on the other hand is miserable. Those extra few degrees you cool off at night, it just stays hot here and feels like an open oven door in the city. I'm close to the airport, which means concrete everywhere runways, taxiways and all roads leading the airport surround me. Only hit 34 last night and already is 40. Frozen plants avoided! (I too used row cover.)

Sorry for your losses Chastom, that's harsh!

Dewayne Mater
Dewayne mater is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:29 AM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★