North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Matt Demmon <mdemmon@gmail.com>]

I've also noticed some things about frost this spring. We've had a
good long chance to observe foliage and flowers under different
temperature conditions. ;)

We've had some 'dry' freezes lately. I.E., where the temp gets down to
28 or 29, but no frost. These seem to not damage anything, except
maybe figs or mulberries, which are my most frost sensitive plants,
when leafed out. However, a temp of 27-31 with actual frost, blackens
things like kiwis and and pear blossoms, and causes slight damage on a
wide range of plants.

Very interesting spring. I'm curious to see if I get any fruit at all.
Sounds like we've had about the same weather as North Carolina, but
more freezes after the warm. Our winter low was only about 5 degrees,
and only under 20 a handful of times. Most highs were above 40 all
winter. Then we had a week in the 80's in March. Soil never froze.
(normal low for here is -15).

-matt
z5 se MI

On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 9:38 PM, Elizabeth Hilborn <ehilborn@mebtel.net> 
wrote:
> 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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