I’ve recently heard that with hard frosts/freezes whatever plant parts are in contact with the protective cover will/can still be damaged. It looks like that’s what May have happened with your little shrubs and trees. Tips that were bent down were good, but the bent part touching the sheet was damaged. Not that I know how to prevent that with tees or shrubs…..
This is what I came to comment. I did this, remembering it from childhood, but forgot that wherever the fabric touches the plant it will expose it to the temp and kill it.
I'm in Alachua County and I use sheets too but added Christmas lights for a tiny bit of heat. Also used stakes to keep the sheets off of the branches. All my plants made it with little damage. My garden is in my small yard.
David, covering plants can protect them if the sheets are not touching the plants. Direct contact transfers the cold. Lift sheets up away from plants using stakes and such. You will have much greater success. Good luck.
I've been using the very cheap mylar security blankets for covering plants and crops for the last 3 years. I've never seen anything protect our farm like the mylar blankets 💪🏽🌱☀️💚 P.s. however the neighbors always complain that they think aliens have landed on our property 🤦🏼 little do they know, we have been here the whole time 😉👽
@@tsquared334 I lay the blankets directly on the plants. And either steak them or weigh them down with rocks. The mylar is so light that it bothers the plant foliage not 😉 Let me know if you have any success. happy gardening 🌱💚☀️
Here in N. Georgia we got down to about 17. I covered everything and only lost a couple of potatoes that I missed but like you said they will be fine. My bluberries got a little damage but black berries did fine. I had actually planted broccoli that had came up and sunflowers that I covered with straw and they all made it! Glad your things did well for the most part.
I use old tomato cages and metal t posts anything that will keep the sheet from touching the plant and creates an air pocket that will insulate the plant.
Reporting from SC: My husband did 14 firepits on tin in various areas of the orchard; I wrapped 3 bushes/1tree with double layers of sheets/blankets. He gave up on the fires by 1am. All in vain. 17 degrees around 7am. Heartbreaking.
A combo of large plastic garbage bags and tarps and covering with leaves and hay work better for us than sheets, especially if there's any moisture involved. Only thing that took a little damage was our pomegranate but not sure why. Maybe cause we left the bag on it during the day instead of letting it breath when it warmed up. I saw someone put cattle panel arches over their fruit trees so they can quickly cover with tarps or plastic if needed. Pretty cool.
I’m in Midway GA and we had 25 degree or less. I would recommend use black trash bags and get in on while the sun is still Out. I had pretty good luck this year with that.
Those figs should bounce back real quick. All my figs survived 14F last winter and two weeks below freezing, uncovered, and they did grow back with various levels of vigor despite lots of damage, even got some fruit last year. Its 1 year later and I expect a better harvest from non-stunted trees. Hope yours do well.
We had a great day searching our local thrift stores finding sheets and duvets to cover our young and tender trees. luckily, it appears the cold really only messed with our mullberries, and spared almost everything else(Slight burning on pear trees that shed their sheets due to the wind as well). thanks for the idea to hunt thrift stores for frost protection!
I use my bean pole tepees and cover with quilts when we get an unexpected frost, the extra insulation works perfectly for the fruit that I don't have under the greenhouse . I also have an old tent that I cut the bottom out of and set it over and stake it down with a layer of reme over the actual plants inside the tent.
I forgot to mention that I also kept the old swing set stands from when the girls were young and drape plastic over it to make a long row greenhouse. I use this in the winter to protect my raspberry row for earlier growth and eliminate winter wind damage, we get -40 C in the winter so protection is becoming an art after many winters.
We made it through the wind all night, then had one gust in the morning that pushed the wall of our greenhouse and knocked over our tables of starters. The peach tree and blueberries looked fine with the sheets but our poor little, once great looking, mulberry trees look terrible.
I was worried about my pear tree that is in full bloom here near Raleigh North Carolina but it seems to have come out better than years past when we've had frosts... hope that that was it.
Gary's Best Gardening says some interesting thing about some Mulberry. If you strip the leaves off, they will come back and fruit multiple times in a season. So you might be able to still get a harvest.
@@davidthegood if your main stem or stalks didn't get frost bot on most plants they'll come back. In Maine i often harvest from my garden up through October.
So relieved that you and your family are ok! Sorry about the Rachel Mulberry, but it's great that most of your garden survived and what got burned will hopefully recover quickly.
Yup, there is always next year, but sorry for the damage. Living in the northeast, I always have to have pots and tubs and buckets and frost blankets around. If you noticed, the parts which contacted the sheets were the ones that got damaged.
Glad to see most things survived. I always like to keep a bit of airspace between the plant and the covering and leave a slight gap to allow the cold to roll out from underneath. My other secret is to use a rough-service halogen light underneath the covering. It does a great job keeping things warm when we get late frosts here in southern NY.
Im glad you didn’t loose anything man , you really grow food to eat not just to make RUclips and try to get paid from it videos like most these “gardeners” do 🤠🤙
Just taking a break from grocery row digging my lawn after buying your book. My wife read it in one day. I got to get back out and get my fruit trees and berries into the ground. Peace.
I covered everything with hay. All my greens and peas and brasicas all made it. But the tops of my potatoes were covered in hay but still wilted. I hope they will grow back!!
David, the tops of those things got frost bitten because the sheets were touching them. Living in Missouri we face this at least a couple times each spring. You had a lot to cover in a hurry so I think you did a really good job, but if you have time to prepare ahead, things need the protection to be more like a "tent". Upside down 55 gallon trash cans with a brick on top work too. Last year I saved my Apricot from the infamous May frost of 2021 by upending the trash can and wrapping it with my bubble wrap car window shade,, held together with binder clips. It survived and looked beautiful until a degenerate rabbit took it out. Hope that helps if you ever face this again.
PS you were smart to use sheets. I spent $75 on agribon last year and the first storm ripped it to shreds. Short stuff like asparagus you can cover with cardboard boxes, 5 gallon buckets, and rubbermaid totes. Put bricks or rocks on top of course. It works for me, and KC weather is harsh.
grow grow grow your rows, pray your grocery rows are green, berrily berrily berrily berrily, may your thumbs always be green sorry just had to be sung. ZenHugs!
Sorry you had so much damage. We lost a few things as well. I saw some other gardeners put Christmas lights under the covers for extra warmth- wonder if that makes enough of a difference? We might try that next time.
Sorry about the frost and your losses. I had similar results a could years ago and realized that the sheets need to be above and not touching the plant to trap more air in it. Wondering IF the climate is so messed up that we are going to have to grow everything in high tunnels? Or... some taller early leafing shade trees to act like an umbrella and catch the frost before it his the crops below. Look around and see what the native trees are that were not affected. I know my tomatoes grow better under the trees. Both for frost and wind protection as well as shade cloth as well. I have not had a real fruit crop from trees here in PA in 4-5 years. Add to that what some people are calling fallout fro "stuff" in the air falling form nature or men in airplanes. It has been written there will be famine in the land. Father is in control and he will provide. Peace, Walter
I burned my pasture off a few weeks ago and had some real pretty grass for my livestock. So far that looks like the only thing hurt. Just gotta wait a few days to see...
My blueberries took a hit, here in zone 8a SC. I've decided, since they bear very heavily every year, this is okay for them to have a year of rest. I'm going to concentrate on trimming them and putting some organic material in the soil around them, mulch heavily, all of which I do every year, but this year I'm really going to prep them for next year's bumper crop! (Thinking positive!!)
Central TX. Zone 8a. Having high wind and low 27, I find natural burlap the best. I buy Wool Bags from my hardware have to ask for them I sew them in blocks by hand store in a large tote, also frost cloth. But burlap has woven air pockets. This is Weird weather. My thumb is also green. God Bless
Thank you so much for the sheet idea! I covered my flowering blueberry bush, peach and plum trees with trash bags, then with sheets, and they came out just fine, it was 25* here in SE NC.
We got super lucky in North Florida. Didn’t cover the trees, they’re way to big. Only the tips of my Afghanistan mulberries got burned. I’m very thankful.
Did you water everything right before the frost? The same principle you used when you moved the mulch away from the plant that was low to the ground will work with trees, I believe. Citrus growers here in AZ flood the orchards to keep the trees warm.
The wind took my cover off. I only lost radishes, 1/3 of my beets, a small bit of lettuce, and 1/2 of my blueberry blossoms. Flat parsley was toast. Curly parsley did great. Potatoes mulched with straw were ok.
It got to 21 here and my blueberry bushes got zapped even though they were covered with frost bags. We have gotten 50 lbs off the two bushes before. Hopefully they will still produce some.
I used 5 gallon buckets on a couple of tomato plants and I had the same results. The tops showed damage but the bottoms were okay. I didn't trim anything, and much of it was perked up and the right shade of green the next day.
I gave up on protecting asparagus years ago. If it's more than a couple inches tall it gets picked. Like you a lot of it gets eaten right there. I figure if it is going to freeze I may as well eat it. It won't feed the roots may as well feed me. Just peaking through the ground I cover with mulch. I should have said something when I saw you covering it but figured you will learn. My peach blossoms froze on the earliest one. But the later ones remain to be seen. I plant late blooming varieties for this reason.
East TN got down in the teens for two nights, but also had about six inches of snow. I had covered our very young orchard trees and bushes with rabbit fencing to keep the critters out and so I just wrapped that with burlap. I thought the berry bushes would be toast, but the snow cocooned them in over the burlap and no burning. Not sure what happened with the trees because I have been following some lunatic who told me to cut them down to 18”, which I did of course, and so there ain’t enough of them there to see any damage :) I’ll bet a month from now your place will be banging with life, and all will have bounced back.
If you can cover your crops without the cover touching them, you will have more success. We have taken garden stakes and made TPs around our plants and they did good. I have also made a lean to along the side of my house and my plants survived the frost. If the ice can touch the plant it will burn it.
Pretty much the same outcome 1 hr south of you in Elberta, AL except the tomatoes. I planted 4 diff varieties and only one survived with no frost burn at all and that was Daisy's Everglade tomato plant! Whoo hoo!!!!
Haha!! We have a favorite thrift store plant too! We are with you! We are a bit nervous about our 2 NEW Rachel mulberry trees. We are hoping they recover. We just got them 😭.
It looks like we may have had our last hard frost, so I'll start planting tomorrow. We've added two pairs of rabbits (can feed them on locally grown stuff) and some Muscovy ducks, which will mostly feed themselves. Most of our row garden will be potatoes. Lord willing, we'll have food to eat.
Good morning, most of my plants survived ok. But the blueberry blooms were turning brown. It’s a shame last year we picked a few gallons. To protect my 2 plums I just gently wrapped two limbs on each tree loosely with row fabric several layers thick. It worked, but strangely half of ALL the blooms didn’t die and yesterday the tree was alive with bees. Maybe I’ll get some plums and won’t have to thin them. I just ordered you book, look forward to reading it. Have a great day.
I remember as a kid doing a report on citrus crops comparing California and Florida. In Florida the citrus farmers would put out these kerosene heaters called smudge pots in the orange groves and sometimes actually run sprinklers which would coat the trees with a layer of ice and it would protect them from below freezing temps. That was a very LONG time ago. Don’t know how they handle that stuff now with all the polution regulations (for the smudge pots).
I learned alot. We haven't had this late a freeze in years. I learned how much the banana and papaya can take. And I'm impressed. Barbados cherry, pomergranite and surinam cherry. Champions of the freeze. I think it was the ground being in full sun. The warmth from the ground radiating up. Elderberry, too, but they always do good. I'm an hour north of Tampa. I have a drip hose in the greenhouse and that did well too.
Where I'm at in E. Central Fl. zone 9b, we were coasting along doing great. I knew we would get one night, just one, of freezing temps to screw everything up and kill my more tropical trees. I covered every thing, but some things were just too tropical for my area. My Jamaican Cherry gone, saved my coconut palm by building a tent around it and putting a 5 gallon bucket of water in with it. If it gets bigger that option will be gone. My leechee done, couple of plumeria toast on the edges. It's always one night of freeze then 78 degrees in couple days! Plus my area is rural and gets colder than some area's north of us.
Sorry for the crop damage. We were in that same storm, the winds were insane and it was in the low 20's. All I have planted are Carrots and Radishes that we planted a week or so ago but they haven't come up yet. I think I have too much biomass over them.
The problem is you can’t have the sheet touching the foliage. You need to set up stakes taller than what you are growing then drape the cloth over so that it isn’t touching the foliage. Hope this helps!
This happened near Chas. SC too- same time. Our "Texas storm" version. I lost cauliflower and I'm yet to know the fate of the larger blueberries, which I didn't cover unfortunately. Ten small ones got covered.
I was away during the frost so I wasn't able to cover anything, but everything looks good so far other than the Meyer lemon (it'll probably lose its leaves and have some dieback but should still be alive), blueberries (not sure how hard they were hit but definitely some damage), and pomegranates that lost their leaves (one of which already has some new growth). Somehow the peach flowers seem like they didn't get hurt, but I guess time will tell...
It might seem counter-intuitive because they cost so much damn money, but it doesn't hurt the sheet, the higher the thread count the sheet the better when it comes to protecting plants from the cold. That and it was new tender growth on the tree which is pretty delicate when it comes to frigid temperatures. I'm sorry 😞...
You should see what happened our friend David at The Weedy Garden channel in Lismore AU; floods! Everybody is experiencing the effects of freak weather.
Just a suggestion as im the student your the teacher learning lots your videos. Put tar paper around your trees next time and stuff leaves inside the paper then put the sheet over
That would work, definitely. With how many we did and how unexpected this frost was after the warm weather, we didn't have time for much infrastructure.
In Texas today,Dallas area, it was warm with chance of rain,so I put some of my sprouted seedlings out to get sunshine and I thought rain will be ok,The rain came with Large Hail! Will they survive after that? Maybe with prayers!
I got lucky here in the south west corner of Tennessee and it doesn’t look like any of my fruit plants were damaged, even though the blueberries had started to open their buds. I have some collard greens, broccoli, and cabbages growing in mineral tubs and I covered them up with frost cloth each night. We got about 3 inches of snow on Friday night which piled on top of the price clock of course, and if some of the leaves little bit freezer burnt but they seem to be bouncing back in the sun during the day. Glad we are starting to warm back up today!
Yeah, ugly here too. Potatoes didn't do too bad. Snow peas are a little beat up even. I thought the tomatoes and pepper starts, about 12" high, would be okay in unheated greenhouse. Nope. Lost about 90% of tomatoes and 80% of peppers. But on the bright side, gonna seed save from those survivors. Clearly they are frost resistant! Bananas are back to brown. Hope they have the energy to come back. it was their first winter. I sure hope that's the last frost/freeze for the year. And speaking of comfrey, it sorta shrugged. No cover or anything and it's fine. It's heat that it doesn't like!
Bummer! I was soooo tempted to plant my tomatoes/peppers/squash/melons and I was like nope better not - safest to wait until Easter and I would have 💀 if I lost most of them! It’s probably early enough you can start over though. So sorry bro that just sucks!
I lost both my mulberries (foliage and blooms) and looks like my pomegranates that just started leafing out and my figs lost their leaves. Everything else 👌
To prevent that from happening, use a tall stake to hold the fabric up above the plant so the cover does not make contact with the plant.
@james Connell we tried that but the wind was super crazy with this freeze!
I’ve recently heard that with hard frosts/freezes whatever plant parts are in contact with the protective cover will/can still be damaged. It looks like that’s what May have happened with your little shrubs and trees. Tips that were bent down were good, but the bent part touching the sheet was damaged. Not that I know how to prevent that with tees or shrubs…..
This is what I came to comment. I did this, remembering it from childhood, but forgot that wherever the fabric touches the plant it will expose it to the temp and kill it.
I'm in Alachua County and I use sheets too but added Christmas lights for a tiny bit of heat. Also used stakes to keep the sheets off of the branches. All my plants made it with little damage. My garden is in my small yard.
David, covering plants can protect them if the sheets are not touching the plants. Direct contact transfers the cold. Lift sheets up away from plants using stakes and such. You will have much greater success. Good luck.
I've been using the very cheap mylar security blankets for covering plants and crops for the last 3 years. I've never seen anything protect our farm like the mylar blankets 💪🏽🌱☀️💚
P.s. however the neighbors always complain that they think aliens have landed on our property 🤦🏼 little do they know, we have been here the whole time 😉👽
Nice. I never heard of mylar blankets. Funny thing, I just got mylar bags today for food storage. Where did you get your mylar blankets?
@@SheIsWholeorg
Amazon 9.99$
Primacare CB-6841-CS Emergency Foil Mylar Thermal Blanket, 82" Length x 54" Width (Pack of 10)
@@ancopenh Thank you much.
@@tsquared334 I lay the blankets directly on the plants. And either steak them or weigh them down with rocks. The mylar is so light that it bothers the plant foliage not 😉
Let me know if you have any success. happy gardening 🌱💚☀️
Exactly what the powers that be wanted EXCEPT we dont lie down and just take it. Great job David.
Here in N. Georgia we got down to about 17. I covered everything and only lost a couple of potatoes that I missed but like you said they will be fine. My bluberries got a little damage but black berries did fine. I had actually planted broccoli that had came up and sunflowers that I covered with straw and they all made it! Glad your things did well for the most part.
Same here in north Georgia. I cover some with straws. Not worried. I did early gardening for the last couple of years.
I use old tomato cages and metal t posts anything that will keep the sheet from touching the plant and creates an air pocket that will insulate the plant.
Reporting from SC: My husband did 14 firepits on tin in various areas of the orchard; I wrapped 3 bushes/1tree with double layers of sheets/blankets. He gave up on the fires by 1am. All in vain. 17 degrees around 7am. Heartbreaking.
I sympathize. Nothing like putting in all that effort at night just to still get froze out.
Oh man - I am sorry.
So sorry, Carla! Praying your trees and bushes can recover for next year's harvest.
@@jeanproctor987 God is good and always provides.
@@carlashuler5004 Indeed, He does!
Tickled that you didn’t lose everything!!!🙏
A combo of large plastic garbage bags and tarps and covering with leaves and hay work better for us than sheets, especially if there's any moisture involved. Only thing that took a little damage was our pomegranate but not sure why. Maybe cause we left the bag on it during the day instead of letting it breath when it warmed up. I saw someone put cattle panel arches over their fruit trees so they can quickly cover with tarps or plastic if needed. Pretty cool.
Black plastic bags absorb a lot of heat.
I covered all blooms and tree tops with newspaper then covered the plants. They faired well. No burns.
I’m in Midway GA and we had 25 degree or less. I would recommend use black trash bags and get in on while the sun is still
Out. I had pretty good luck this year with that.
Those figs should bounce back real quick. All my figs survived 14F last winter and two weeks below freezing, uncovered, and they did grow back with various levels of vigor despite lots of damage, even got some fruit last year. Its 1 year later and I expect a better harvest from non-stunted trees. Hope yours do well.
Good - thank you
We had a great day searching our local thrift stores finding sheets and duvets to cover our young and tender trees. luckily, it appears the cold really only messed with our mullberries, and spared almost everything else(Slight burning on pear trees that shed their sheets due to the wind as well). thanks for the idea to hunt thrift stores for frost protection!
I use my bean pole tepees and cover with quilts when we get an unexpected frost, the extra insulation works perfectly for the fruit that I don't have under the greenhouse . I also have an old tent that I cut the bottom out of and set it over and stake it down with a layer of reme over the actual plants inside the tent.
I forgot to mention that I also kept the old swing set stands from when the girls were young and drape plastic over it to make a long row greenhouse. I use this in the winter to protect my raspberry row for earlier growth and eliminate winter wind damage, we get -40 C in the winter so protection is becoming an art after many winters.
We made it through the wind all night, then had one gust in the morning that pushed the wall of our greenhouse and knocked over our tables of starters. The peach tree and blueberries looked fine with the sheets but our poor little, once great looking, mulberry trees look terrible.
I was worried about my pear tree that is in full bloom here near Raleigh North Carolina but it seems to have come out better than years past when we've had frosts... hope that that was it.
Same!!! SC area here soon.
Gary's Best Gardening says some interesting thing about some Mulberry. If you strip the leaves off, they will come back and fruit multiple times in a season. So you might be able to still get a harvest.
I have seen that happen after pruning, so it makes sense.
@@davidthegood if your main stem or stalks didn't get frost bot on most plants they'll come back. In Maine i often harvest from my garden up through October.
Seems like the stuff that touched the sheets got burned. Sorry about the Rachel mulberries...
Im suffering to but i was 17°f i still didn't get hurt that bad your an inspiration to us all .keep doing what you do
Thank you.
Easter snap is what we call it . Ask the local folks .
So relieved that you and your family are ok! Sorry about the Rachel Mulberry, but it's great that most of your garden survived and what got burned will hopefully recover quickly.
@The Survival Gardening Channel with David The Good Anybody know the variety name of the best Mulberry? Thanks
Aww, so sad 😞 I hope most of it can recover!
Yup, there is always next year, but sorry for the damage. Living in the northeast, I always have to have pots and tubs and buckets and frost blankets around. If you noticed, the parts which contacted the sheets were the ones that got damaged.
I'm in WI (zone 4b) and those late frosts just get you. Its hard to see all those blossoms die off.
Glad to see most things survived. I always like to keep a bit of airspace between the plant and the covering and leave a slight gap to allow the cold to roll out from underneath. My other secret is to use a rough-service halogen light underneath the covering. It does a great job keeping things warm when we get late frosts here in southern NY.
Im glad you didn’t loose anything man , you really grow food to eat not just to make RUclips and try to get paid from it videos like most these “gardeners” do 🤠🤙
Just taking a break from grocery row digging my lawn after buying your book. My wife read it in one day. I got to get back out and get my fruit trees and berries into the ground. Peace.
I covered everything with hay. All my greens and peas and brasicas all made it. But the tops of my potatoes were covered in hay but still wilted. I hope they will grow back!!
That's because greens, peas, and Brassicas are cold weather crops. Some say a frost or two bring out the sweetness.
What a humble and transparent video- how very relatable! Thanks.
Thanks - we do what we can.
David, the tops of those things got frost bitten because the sheets were touching them. Living in Missouri we face this at least a couple times each spring. You had a lot to cover in a hurry so I think you did a really good job, but if you have time to prepare ahead, things need the protection to be more like a "tent". Upside down 55 gallon trash cans with a brick on top work too. Last year I saved my Apricot from the infamous May frost of 2021 by upending the trash can and wrapping it with my bubble wrap car window shade,, held together with binder clips. It survived and looked beautiful until a degenerate rabbit took it out. Hope that helps if you ever face this again.
PS you were smart to use sheets. I spent $75 on agribon last year and the first storm ripped it to shreds. Short stuff like asparagus you can cover with cardboard boxes, 5 gallon buckets, and rubbermaid totes. Put bricks or rocks on top of course. It works for me, and KC weather is harsh.
I used to have a bunch of 55-gallon drums I would fill with water and place next to the trees. they made a better tent, plus had amazing thermal mass.
A For Effort! Mother nature will always have her way!
We did better than if we hadn't covered - it would have been a lot worse!
I have the book. Thanks for all the encouragement. I started lots of fruit seeds since I first found you on RUclips.
Good work.
grow grow grow your rows, pray your grocery rows are green, berrily berrily berrily berrily, may your thumbs always be green sorry just had to be sung. ZenHugs!
That was awesome 👏!!! 😂
Sorry you had so much damage. We lost a few things as well. I saw some other gardeners put Christmas lights under the covers for extra warmth- wonder if that makes enough of a difference? We might try that next time.
Maybe a gallon jug of hot water under the sheets on the more tender ones next time??? Change them out in the evening...
AG Plant jackets work great. Saved my blueberry Bush and my tower all winter. We hit 18° Saturday night.
Sorry about the frost and your losses.
I had similar results a could years ago and realized that the sheets need to be above and not touching the plant to trap more air in it.
Wondering IF the climate is so messed up that we are going to have to grow everything in high tunnels?
Or... some taller early leafing shade trees to act like an umbrella and catch the frost before it his the crops below.
Look around and see what the native trees are that were not affected.
I know my tomatoes grow better under the trees.
Both for frost and wind protection as well as shade cloth as well.
I have not had a real fruit crop from trees here in PA in 4-5 years.
Add to that what some people are calling fallout fro "stuff" in the air falling form nature or men in airplanes.
It has been written there will be famine in the land.
Father is in control and he will provide.
Peace, Walter
Thank you
It's late April here in N Tennessee and we are looking at frost possible tomorrow. Protecting my plants today LOL
I burned my pasture off a few weeks ago and had some real pretty grass for my livestock. So far that looks like the only thing hurt. Just gotta wait a few days to see...
I think it's helpful, as impractical as it may be, to eliminate as much direct contact of the covering with the plant.
Yes, for sure.
And high thread count holds in more warmth generated by the plants.
My blueberries took a hit, here in zone 8a SC. I've decided, since they bear very heavily every year, this is okay for them to have a year of rest. I'm going to concentrate on trimming them and putting some organic material in the soil around them, mulch heavily, all of which I do every year, but this year I'm really going to prep them for next year's bumper crop! (Thinking positive!!)
Isn't that what the Bible says about joy and suffering?
We should laugh together and cry together?
I'm so glad you were able to save some things!
Yep, we took the same hit. I’m planting my garden this week
Central TX. Zone 8a. Having high wind and low 27, I find natural burlap the best. I buy Wool Bags from my hardware have to ask for them I sew them in blocks by hand store in a large tote, also frost cloth. But burlap has woven air pockets. This is Weird weather. My thumb is also green. God Bless
Southern AZ we had snow but only a dusting! Moisture is good but we still have more cold coming so I’m not putting anything out quite yet!
This weather has us all on our toes. It's not an isolated problem. 🤔
Thank you so much for the sheet idea! I covered my flowering blueberry bush, peach and plum trees with trash bags, then with sheets, and they came out just fine, it was 25* here in SE NC.
We got super lucky in North Florida. Didn’t cover the trees, they’re way to big. Only the tips of my Afghanistan mulberries got burned. I’m very thankful.
Did you water everything right before the frost? The same principle you used when you moved the mulch away from the plant that was low to the ground will work with trees, I believe. Citrus growers here in AZ flood the orchards to keep the trees warm.
Yes - the rain watered for us.
Love the transition to grocery row garden. Ala original star trek sound effects, lol
The wind took my cover off. I only lost radishes, 1/3 of my beets, a small bit of lettuce, and 1/2 of my blueberry blossoms. Flat parsley was toast. Curly parsley did great. Potatoes mulched with straw were ok.
Here in West Central Florida we got cold but not as cold as you did. We covered the Fruit Trees and they all did okay.
The mulberry will bounce right back
The sheet definitely saved it
It got to 21 here and my blueberry bushes got zapped even though they were covered with frost bags. We have gotten 50 lbs off the two bushes before. Hopefully they will still produce some.
That is really low for the blooms. I'm sorry.
I used 5 gallon buckets on a couple of tomato plants and I had the same results. The tops showed damage but the bottoms were okay. I didn't trim anything, and much of it was perked up and the right shade of green the next day.
I think your asparagus is going to be fine. It's extremely hardy for me in Minnesota and survives late season frosts. I think you'll get new shoots.
Thank you.
I gave up on protecting asparagus years ago. If it's more than a couple inches tall it gets picked. Like you a lot of it gets eaten right there. I figure if it is going to freeze I may as well eat it. It won't feed the roots may as well feed me.
Just peaking through the ground I cover with mulch.
I should have said something when I saw you covering it but figured you will learn.
My peach blossoms froze on the earliest one. But the later ones remain to be seen. I plant late blooming varieties for this reason.
I would try adding plastic on the outside of your sheets/cloth. Even trash bags will work outside of cloth
East TN got down in the teens for two nights, but also had about six inches of snow. I had covered our very young orchard trees and bushes with rabbit fencing to keep the critters out and so I just wrapped that with burlap. I thought the berry bushes would be toast, but the snow cocooned them in over the burlap and no burning. Not sure what happened with the trees because I have been following some lunatic who told me to cut them down to 18”, which I did of course, and so there ain’t enough of them there to see any damage :) I’ll bet a month from now your place will be banging with life, and all will have bounced back.
If you can cover your crops without the cover touching them, you will have more success. We have taken garden stakes and made TPs around our plants and they did good. I have also made a lean to along the side of my house and my plants survived the frost. If the ice can touch the plant it will burn it.
Pretty much the same outcome 1 hr south of you in Elberta, AL except the tomatoes. I planted 4 diff varieties and only one survived with no frost burn at all and that was Daisy's Everglade tomato plant! Whoo hoo!!!!
Awesome!!!
Haha!! We have a favorite thrift store plant too! We are with you! We are a bit nervous about our 2 NEW Rachel mulberry trees. We are hoping they recover. We just got them 😭.
They should!
Great book idea man! Your frost damage was much worse than ours here.
It looks like we may have had our last hard frost, so I'll start planting tomorrow. We've added two pairs of rabbits (can feed them on locally grown stuff) and some Muscovy ducks, which will mostly feed themselves. Most of our row garden will be potatoes. Lord willing, we'll have food to eat.
Good morning, most of my plants survived ok. But the blueberry blooms were turning brown. It’s a shame last year we picked a few gallons. To protect my 2 plums I just gently wrapped two limbs on each tree loosely with row fabric several layers thick. It worked, but strangely half of ALL the blooms didn’t die and yesterday the tree was alive with bees. Maybe I’ll get some plums and won’t have to thin them. I just ordered you book, look forward to reading it. Have a great day.
Thanks, Everett. Sorry about the blueberries! We lost some too. But some of the ones in the woods look fine. Tree canopy helped.
I have 4 mulberry trees that had already set fruit. Those little mulberries are now mush.
Rats
I remember as a kid doing a report on citrus crops comparing California and Florida. In Florida the citrus farmers would put out these kerosene heaters called smudge pots in the orange groves and sometimes actually run sprinklers which would coat the trees with a layer of ice and it would protect them from below freezing temps. That was a very LONG time ago. Don’t know how they handle that stuff now with all the polution regulations (for the smudge pots).
I know - I did some research on that too. There were even reports of them burning tires to keep off the frost! Imagine that.
I learned alot. We haven't had this late a freeze in years. I learned how much the banana and papaya can take. And I'm impressed. Barbados cherry, pomergranite and surinam cherry. Champions of the freeze. I think it was the ground being in full sun. The warmth from the ground radiating up. Elderberry, too, but they always do good. I'm an hour north of Tampa.
I have a drip hose in the greenhouse and that did well too.
I'm about an hour north of Tampa myself. Spent hours covering things to protect them, then we didn't get a frost.
Got through the cold snap with the help of a makeshift green house. Two layers of 2 mil plastic on a bamboo frame.
Where I'm at in E. Central Fl. zone 9b, we were coasting along doing great. I knew we would get one night, just one, of freezing temps to screw everything up and kill my more tropical trees. I covered every thing, but some things were just too tropical for my area. My Jamaican Cherry gone, saved my coconut palm by building a tent around it and putting a 5 gallon bucket of water in with it. If it gets bigger that option will be gone. My leechee done, couple of plumeria toast on the edges. It's always one night of freeze then 78 degrees in couple days! Plus my area is rural and gets colder than some area's north of us.
So tough. I lost a Jamaican cherry the same way.
@@davidthegood Thanks for all your tips and wisdom, they've helped me numerous times!
Rowing with David the Good!
I feel your pain!!! Ahhh! 😫
Yes that last snap got some of the tips and blooms of my lemon 😞. My satsumas did fine and are starting to bud.
My potatoes got some leaf damage but they have sprung right back
Has anyone heard this type of cold snap called “Blackberry Winter”?
In the south we have blackberry winter, then dogwood winter before things are safe.
Sorry for the crop damage. We were in that same storm, the winds were insane and it was in the low 20's. All I have planted are Carrots and Radishes that we planted a week or so ago but they haven't come up yet. I think I have too much biomass over them.
Good luck.
The problem is you can’t have the sheet touching the foliage. You need to set up stakes taller than what you are growing then drape the cloth over so that it isn’t touching the foliage. Hope this helps!
Too much work - I'll take a little damage.
This happened near Chas. SC too- same time. Our "Texas storm" version. I lost cauliflower and I'm yet to know the fate of the larger blueberries, which I didn't cover unfortunately. Ten small ones got covered.
Good luck.
I was away during the frost so I wasn't able to cover anything, but everything looks good so far other than the Meyer lemon (it'll probably lose its leaves and have some dieback but should still be alive), blueberries (not sure how hard they were hit but definitely some damage), and pomegranates that lost their leaves (one of which already has some new growth). Somehow the peach flowers seem like they didn't get hurt, but I guess time will tell...
Sorry for your losses. I know how it feels in my zone4. All I can say is --->Chicago Hardy Fig baby!
It might seem counter-intuitive because they cost so much damn money, but it doesn't hurt the sheet, the higher the thread count the sheet the better when it comes to protecting plants from the cold. That and it was new tender growth on the tree which is pretty delicate when it comes to frigid temperatures. I'm sorry 😞...
my mulberry and persimmon got smoked with sheets over them. hope they bounce back!
Sheets work but, you need to stake them up off the plant. I use them for peppers in fall. Anything that touches the sheet gets zapped!
Don't feel bad my Mulberry trees and such got whipped too...
I had a few losses. That wind was crazy!
You should see what happened our friend David at The Weedy Garden channel in Lismore AU; floods! Everybody is experiencing the effects of freak weather.
Oh man - I had a flood take out my whole garden in TN. Painful.
Sorry you had so much loss. Could you add your closing tune to your 'tunes' site? I really like it.
It's on there. It's called "Venus."
Good 👍
Just a suggestion as im the student your the teacher learning lots your videos. Put tar paper around your trees next time and stuff leaves inside the paper then put the sheet over
That would work, definitely. With how many we did and how unexpected this frost was after the warm weather, we didn't have time for much infrastructure.
In Texas today,Dallas area, it was warm with chance of rain,so I put some of my sprouted seedlings out to get sunshine and I thought rain will be ok,The rain came with Large Hail! Will they survive after that? Maybe with prayers!
I hope so!
I got lucky here in the south west corner of Tennessee and it doesn’t look like any of my fruit plants were damaged, even though the blueberries had started to open their buds. I have some collard greens, broccoli, and cabbages growing in mineral tubs and I covered them up with frost cloth each night. We got about 3 inches of snow on Friday night which piled on top of the price clock of course, and if some of the leaves little bit freezer burnt but they seem to be bouncing back in the sun during the day. Glad we are starting to warm back up today!
Burn on the top translate to freeze pruning
You should do a remake of that disaster movie called "the fog" called "the frost".
I had a friend that gave me packs and packs of sheets a couple years ago and I found out what I could use them for...
Yeah, ugly here too. Potatoes didn't do too bad. Snow peas are a little beat up even. I thought the tomatoes and pepper starts, about 12" high, would be okay in unheated greenhouse. Nope. Lost about 90% of tomatoes and 80% of peppers. But on the bright side, gonna seed save from those survivors. Clearly they are frost resistant! Bananas are back to brown. Hope they have the energy to come back. it was their first winter. I sure hope that's the last frost/freeze for the year.
And speaking of comfrey, it sorta shrugged. No cover or anything and it's fine. It's heat that it doesn't like!
Bummer! I was soooo tempted to plant my tomatoes/peppers/squash/melons and I was like nope better not - safest to wait until Easter and I would have 💀 if I lost most of them! It’s probably early enough you can start over though. So sorry bro that just sucks!
Where can I get cutting of these (sp?) "Rachel" mulberries. ?
I lost both my mulberries (foliage and blooms) and looks like my pomegranates that just started leafing out and my figs lost their leaves. Everything else 👌
Hi dude 👍🏴
Howdy.
David, do you think it’s safe to transfer carambola and bread fruit plants to the ground. They’re about 3 ft tall.
I didn't even cover my kale, and it's just fine. I'm surprised it doesn't grow wild in Antarctica!
Those cold weather crops can take a good frost or 2. It's popular here in Maine.