Tuesday 23 June 2009

Frost damage

At little under two weeks ago we got hit with a frost. It was a medium severity frost impacting some of the plantings on the lower section of the property the most. This included four sections of sweet potato plants, watermelon plants, a Kent pumpkin plant, and butternut squash plants. I had expected the squash and watermelon to be spirits of plantings past; amazingly all seem to be recovering now.

Up at the top end of things (near the shed), three zucchini plants coped it along with some sweet yellow peppers. I am hoping that the youngest zucchini plant will be able to yield at least one fruit before the stem turns to mush. I will still be able to get some sweet yellow pepper plants growing as not all of them tangoed with Jack Frost. Other plants like the button squash, lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, snow peas, silver beet, Hong Kong broccoli, bok choy, carrots, onions, leeks, and garlic all weathered the cold without any dramas.

The banana pit was probably the warmest spot of all. This is no doubt due to the water in the middle of the pit which I maintain for irrigation of the bananas. None of the sweet potato in this area has any visible signs of frost damage. Go micro climate.

So I will need to start being a bit more vigilant with the more sensitive plants when we get forecast temperatures in the mid single digits or lower. Its almost like gardening in Canada again. ;)

No comments:

Post a Comment