I need an alarm on mine.
We might get saved by this rain in Central MD. I assume if it’s rained during the night and everything is soaked then a light frost isn’t going to be a problem.
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Warm water from a sprayer will already be cooled when it hits the fruit so it may not do much. A hose sprayer might be better, cooler water but a lot more of it. The only water method that definitely works is continual spraying as freezing is exothermic. But that requires a massive setup.
I was hopeful because our forecasts were only to -3C and with the state of my buds, it should have been fine, except the apricot. (And even it was only just in the 10% kill range)
Now we have -5 C which is another whole issue. I think we’re going to try and wrap the pears, since they are pretty far along. I may try to cover the haskap as well, but the bed is large.
I’m taking every bit of asparagus that is up and a chunk of the rhubarb today as well.
I’m lucky enough to have a heated “shop” so I’m just going to move all the young potted stuff in. They can probably make it through, but why not save them the stress.
Really glad I haven’t gotten my veg starts yet!
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I’ve setup my weather station to alarm when it reaches 29. At that point it will play TAPS. The rest will be history… 
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The heat is probably released out of the water too quickly. 5 gallons of even hot water (say 90F) would only release about 2500 btus as it dropped to near freezing… i suppose the amount of insulation would be a big factor in holding in any of that heat (over time) Maybe Xmas tree lights…the old style would work better.
I have a big patch of strawberries along the side of my driveway with some Carmine Jewel cherries and other fruit plants mixed in. It isn’t really something I can easily cover. They are all in bloom now and a good number of berries are already set. Currently looks like 34-35 tomorrow morning here, so not a definite frost, but lately it seems like it always gets colder than projected on these marginal nights. What temps might cause issues for them? Just a frost or does it need to go into the 20s? I’m used to seeing the flowers open with black eyes when they got to cold before opening, but I’m not sure how they handle the cold if they are already open and pollinated and how do the fruit do?
All my pepper plants and annual flowers I just planted this last weekend will definitely be covered!
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It’s been a while since there was a frost in May here and it looks like we’re probably going to avoid it this time around. The forecast here for the two cold nights is for 34 and 35. I’ll bring the Chicago Hardy fig in, the Reservoir fig cuttings from Bob Vance will remain in my makeshift greenhouse as will the “World’s Best” mulberry cuttings from Bryce. Hopefully I get at least a couple of takes, I offered Bob a WB cutting but wound up having to use my spares as the cuttings I started while we were away didn’t make it.
It’s been such a cold Spring. The peas I planted in March took forever to sprout and are just a few inches high. In other years I was harvesting peas before the end of April. The broccoli rabe is still puny. The tomatoes and peppers I started outside in the makeshift greenhouse took forever to sprout and are tiny. I overseeded my lettuce patch and most of the seeds rotted. There’s just a few lettuces coming up. The carrots all came up, but they’re small.
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Got the strawbs covered, and the sprouting potatoes
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I covered my Persimmon tree. It had about 2 inches of growth and I could see couple of tiny flower buds ( I think). Didn’t want to miss out on tasting a home grown Persimmon. So here it is now
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The local places that are open are all out of heavy grade row cover.
Is plastic ok if it doesn’t touch the foliage?
I just got this in the Penn State Extension newsletter:
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@Ahmad,
Talking about bad news!!! That article did not provide a lot of hope.
We’ll have strong wind, 30 mph on Sat but the predicted low would be only 35 F. Hope they are accurate this time.
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Our high for the day tomorrow is 35F ! And we’re getting intermittent snow flurries now and it’s forecast through Saturday night. Good news is most of my trees are still dormant. Just the Colette Pear and a Hewe’s Virginia Crab have blossoms swelling, but they should be ok.
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I was watching the Cornell bird feeder cam on Youtube and it was snowing. Birds looked hungry.
NWS here says teens in central Wisconsin. 29F here…sitting at 49F now but once wind dies down with such low dewpoints in place…temps will fall like a rock.
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The only hope from that article is that if temperature does not drop below 28 the fruits will be ok. Otherwise, I agree with you…
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This is when you hope your microclimate helps, not hurt you.
A few weeks ago, it was predicted low at 29 F. Weatherunderground said it was 29 F. My apricot was at late stage of blooming. It should not have had damage. Well, 99% of my apricots got freeze kill. You never know.
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3’’ - 5’’ snow predicted tonight and tom. not supposed to get above freezing tom. with 35mph gusts. glad everything is still sleeping.
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