North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>]

On Dec 7, 2010, at 8:53 AM, Mark Angermayer wrote:

I've also wondered why the plants don't get burned, but they don't.

 

My semi erect blackberries are on a metal trellis made out of shiny galvanized pipe (the kind used for chain link) and wire.  The top lateral support is also made out of a continuous galvanized pipe.  On hot sunny summer days, it gets so hot, I think it might blister your skin if you touched it long enough.  I tie the canes to the top pipe just as I do to the wires with no detrimental effect to the canes.

 

On Dec 7, 2010, at 9:11 AM, Ginda Fisher wrote:

I've had damage to tender new grape shoots from cold metal trellis in the early spring.

Maybe the leaves on older canes/vines shade the trellis, so it doesn't get as hot where the plants are actually touching the metal?

New vegetable transplants that are set out in black plastic mulch can burn if the new plants touch the mulch in hot weather; but older plants shade the plastic, and it doesn't get anywhere near as hot.

It's also possible that the tough bark of older canes may be adapted to quite a bit of heat (and of course cold).

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly

Fresh-market organic produce, small scale