April snow! Oh no!

littlesapphire 4/22/2012, 12:32 pm

I don't know about everyone else, but here in western new York, we have some winter storm warnings in effect for the next couple of days and are supposed to get up to 12 inches by Tuesday! I'm pretty worried about some of the plants I just planted. There's broccoli and cabbage plants, and I just put out my sed potatoes and onion sets, and I should be getting pea and spinach seedlings coming up.

Should I be worried about them? Do they need covered or protected in some way? I can always reseed the peas and spinach, but I would hate for a freeze to kill my potatoes or for the snow to cruch my brassica.

Any suggestions would be great!

boffer 4/22/2012, 1:57 pm

Your plants will survive the temps OK, although they may be slow to grow at first, once it warms up.

I think you're right about protecting the fragile plants from the weight of the snow. It will get heavy before it's all gone. Hoop houses are fast, cheap, and easy. If hoops aren't practical for your set up, you could do cloches over each plant. Or, get creative and make temporary teepees or frames out of sticks, 1x2's, or whatever you have around, and cover with plastic, tarps, old sheets, or ?

plantoid 4/22/2012, 4:55 pm

All Boffer says and .... Snow is one of natures free fertilizers for it soaks things up out of the air as it falls to the ground .. you get all sorts of traces elements and compunds that in minute doses do your crops good.

floyd1440 4/22/2012, 8:08 pm

boffer wrote:Your plants will survive the temps OK, although they may be slow to grow at first, once it warms up.

I think you're right about protecting the fragile plants from the weight of the snow. It will get heavy before it's all gone. Hoop houses are fast, cheap, and easy. If hoops aren't practical for your set up, you could do cloches over each plant. Or, get creative and make temporary teepees or frames out of sticks, 1x2's, or whatever you have around, and cover with plastic, tarps, old sheets, or ?

I have brocolli, cabbage, spinach, and cauliflowerin my garden and new we are expecting anywere from 3-6inches of heavy snow.

Made a structure high emough and some garden fabric tocover them and staples them to my wooden grids.

Hope it makes it through Wednesday as the weather should improve....

littlesapphire 4/23/2012, 12:53 pm

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I ended up getting some pvc to make a hoop house over one box, then put buckets over my broccoli and small teepees over my cabbage, garlic and strawberries just so they don't get crushed by the weight of the snow. It's coming down really heavy today!

quiltbea 4/23/2012, 1:46 pm

I'm thinking the snow won't hurt them since you are covering them so well. It is, after all, Nature's Compost. It will also help restore well water and the water table which is probably in dire need of the liquid. Snow, also, is a natural insulater against the cold so there's little worry about freezing.

Good luck. We're having rain, rain, rain but its needed, too.

littlesapphire 4/25/2012, 10:31 am

Just thought I'd let everyone know that my brassica survived the snow storm! I don't know about everything else since there's a thick layer of icy snow still on most everything, but I think they should all be just fine. The snow is melting quickly.

quiltbea 4/25/2012, 11:01 am

Good for you LittleSapphire. I hope all is well when the snow melts.

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April snow! Oh no!

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