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nafex - Re: [nafex] Row cover for frost protection on grapes

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  • From: Elizabeth Hilborn <ehilborn@mebtel.net>
  • To: nafex mailing list at ibiblio <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] Row cover for frost protection on grapes
  • Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:38:00 -0400

Dan,
I just gained some experience Friday night. Our 40 warm (and hot - 87 degrees!) frost-free days have produced much new, tender growth on multiple plants. The grape leaves have emerged the least of all my fruit. We had a frost Friday night, the temp dropped to 33.6 F.

At sunset, I covered the kiwis with agribon, some with a canvas tarp, some with cotton bedsheets. I coupled the 'tents' I made to the ground and placed buckets of water inside the tents. I left the laterals of one plant uncovered as a control as I had observed damage on covered plants previous years.

Today I noticed that all the plants looked good with minor differences. The uncovered kiwi had zero damage. The covered plants (with all kinds of covers) froze where plant material touched the cover. The foliage was protected under covers where there was no contact.

I believe that you are right: moisture condensed on the agribon and fabric and created local freeze spots due to evaporative cooling.

Betsy Hilborn
7a NC

Anyone have much success with using agribon row cover to protect new grape shoots from a late frost? The book Northern Winework suggests it as an option. We had a "late" frost last night and the shoots that weren't protected with row cover seemed to have less damage than the ones with the row cover. Could this be the result of evaporative cooling from dew condensing on the fabric? Dan __________________





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