Frost alert!

[Clive.]

I hope you enjoyed some of them Clive.

No not so Old H'...
....they were only in my custody whilst in growth. ...and I do hope they are being enjoyed this evening.

..but I did enjoy growing them....
........the first crop to benefit from the refurbished back greenhouse.

Will need to wait a few days yet to sample our pots of Swift at home here.

Clive.

[oldherbaceous]

Frost free here this morning, and the weather is looking better and better as the days go by.

[alan refail]

Morning OH

I think the cold spell is over
Much higher night-time temperatures forecast from now on so I can get the tomatoes planted out in the polytunnel today.
If it's any use to you, we are having some rain tomorrow morning and can send it you way if you like

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Alan, your kindness never ceases to amaze me.

[alan refail]

Dear OH

I'll try and get the rain to you about mid morning if that suits

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
The cold snap is not over here according to the heavy frost we experienced last night. This frost occurred with a minimum temperature of 36F which is a full four degrees above official freezing point.
I have three censors recording into my weather station and the one in the tunnel recorded 36F but the open censors recorded a minimum of 36F outside my back door a minimum of 36.4F on my vegetable plot and that too was covered in frost.
What amazes me is that earlier on in the week the minimum here was 33.5F and no apparent frost!
It is still a case of gardeners beware! This is a very strange year for growing so far so lets hope that it pans out in a better vein as the year progresses.
JB.

[alan refail]

Morning Johnboy

No frost here but I have checked it was down to 3C in the polytunnel last night - when 8 or 9 was forecast.

[Elaine]

We were doing the rounds of the garden centers yesterday and folks were buying bedding plants by the barrow-load. We over-heard several people grumbling that they had lost their first ones due to the frost...one chap said he had lost almost £40's worth of bedding plants.

There are plenty of prominent signs above and amongst the plants, advising that they must be protected from frosts, yet year after year, folk plant out their treasures as early as Easter weekend, only to have to buy another lot when the frost wipes them out.
Cheers.

[Clive.]

I see this morning that "my" Kestrel Potatoes at work are moving forward once more... and starting to shake off their frosting..will wait 'til they have taken up a bit more before hilling them up.

There was a light mizzle of rain on the way in this morning enough to need full wipers....but has returned to sunny now. I planted out a few purchases of yesterday with the talk of a drop of rain this pm...bet that'll make it stay dry now

Clive.

[Clive.]

On the way home today I see a local farmer has removed the plastic from his earlies and they have got some frost burn to the leaves..

Clive.

Unconnected with the threads frost title...but out of interest...I noticed tonight that the local farmer now has the irrigation going on the early tateys that I mentioned back on page 5 of this thread.

Clive.

[oldherbaceous]

Evening Clive, that is early in the year to be irrigating isn't it!

[Johnboy]

Hi Clive,
I would give his spuds a miss because they will for sure disintegrate when cooked!
JB.

[alan refail]

Back to the frost topic.....

I was congratulating myself yesterday evening that summer had finally arrived. Saturday I planted my three dozen tomatoes in the polytunnel; yesterday I emptied the propagators and put them away and cut the grass in the field. Happy that higher overnight temperatures were forecast I slept soundly. Looked out this morning to see frost on the cut grass and the tunnel thermometer down to 3C. Ah well

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
The temperatures are simply all over the place this year. I have a piece of information issued before D T Brown Commercial were taken over by Moles Seeds.
Before planting out Tomatoes the soil temperature should be 14C!
I suspect that if this were to be the truth there would probably be no outside Tomatoes grown to fruition in the UK this year!
BTW the minimum outside temperature here on Monday night was 41.5 F which is marginally over 5C with no sign of frost.
JB.

[Monika]

About the potato irrigation: presumably Lincolnshire has been similar to here - almost no rain for almost two months! We have certainly had the sprinkler on to our vegetable garden at home and are watering copiously on the allotment. I refuse to water the potatoes simply because we have to carry the watering cans a long way, down a steep slope, so we are concentrating on more needy vegetables but if we had the means, i.e. irrigation, we would certainly use it!

And as I always steam potatoes and never boil them in water, the irrigation wouldn't matter.