Frost question

Tonight is supposed to be our 1st frost of the season here in South Louisiana. I have my SFG set up to cover. My question is: when I leave tomorrow morning for work,around 7:30 will it be okay to uncover my plants? The frost will already have fallen. 

Or, when I leave I can open the ends so air can go through, and leave them covered. I jusgt don't want them to burn.

Cajunsmoke14 wrote:Tonight is supposed to be our 1st frost of the season here in South Louisiana. I have my SFG set up to cover. My question is: when I leave tomorrow morning for work,around 7:30 will it be okay to uncover my plants? The frost will already have fallen. 

Or, when I leave I can open the ends so air can go through, and leave them covered. I just don't want them to burn.

Yes you can totally uncover the plants before you leave for work.

Thanks, that what I needed to know.

First frost date is in 2 weeks.  Will my butternut and spaghetti squash be affected?  They are over 8 feet tall so I can't cover them.

sanderson wrote:First frost date is in 2 weeks.  Will my butternut and spaghetti squash be affected?  They are over 8 feet tall so I can't cover them.

In my experience, I have found that squash can't handle any real cold at all, the ones I covered last year didn't make it, even though other plants did.  

I would make sure it's a good heavy cover to try and save them.  Perhaps those space blankets in the other thread?

My spaghetti squash is already pretty much done (as is the plant) so I'll cut the fruit just before the frost and bring it inside.

the last remaining butternut squash got a light frost last night along with the last few red strawberries.

This lunch time the strawbs are brown and the vine of the butternut has turned yellow . I will bring the butter nut in tomorrow if it is still sound.

The 2 spaghetti squash plants have powdery mildew so I don't mind removing them.  There are some fertilized squash but the biggest is 4 inches and green.  This Newbie experiment cost all of  2 seeds.

Question, can I grow butternut and spaghetti in the spring/summer?

Question, should I remove the Silver Queen corn?  There are some skinny ears growing but, again, it was just an experiment.  Frost "date" is in 2 weeks, but who knows,

Advice welcomed.

I'm putting most of the beds to sleep for the winter, new compost and covered with plastic to force the 100's of tomato seeds to sprout now!!  I keep "weeding" the beds.   The potted peppers, herbs, micro-green tray, will go into the 4 x 4 x 4' mini green house that I still have to build!  I'll be able to auto water them on Saturdays and I can run Christmas lights inside.  I'll post photos when I get my PC back from the shop.  Man, I miss it!

I believe they will go to "vine" Heaven like my tomatoes and eggplant did this morning. They are summer crops and love the heat. 



I'll let you onto a secret. My tomatoes and egg plant were Vegetables Americans. They were drafted into service Spring of 2013 and loss their lives  today approx 0600. They have served their country well. I salute them.

                            https://youtu.be/WbsFSLnbuR8

sanderson, are you posting from your phone?

No, I am posting from husband's laptop.  My photos are om the HD at the shop.

No need to pull anything up until the frost actually comes - I would pull things the afternoon before you are for sure getting a frost.  Remember they're not always accurate and frost dates are averages.  

At times, like last year, we get a hard frost way out of season.  If you can protect your plants for that night or two and keep them alive they might be able to continue to mature - but when it's the real time of year for our frosts there's only so much you can do.

Snow yesterday in coastal NC. Early and unusual. We seldom get snow, but if we do it is later in the season.

Kay

Well we had our 1st frost last night, it got down to 31 degrees, tonight supposed to be 29. I covered the plants last night and uncovered them this morning. The plants did well last night and looked great this morning.

Our first frost and hard for my area was 3 weeks early. The weatherman said this occurred almost 100 years ago