Last night we experienced temps as low as 32 (freezing) for the first time since March. I did some research and found that beans are suseptable to mild freezes (oops! And that's an early plant?) and squash is at mild to moderate freezes. I don't want to take chances, we will be living off this food soon! So I covered them with some sheets. I also covered Bill's roses because buds are forming.
But what I wanted to share was what I did with my strawberries:
I don't remember where I learned this, I wish I did so I could give proper credit (or yell at them if it doesn't work:) but when the water freezes on the plants it actually formss a skin and the harm is not done. It's when the sun first shines on them and the plant automitacally opens it's cells and then the ice gets in and causes damage. I was told to get up before the sun and water them. So I did. The water washes off the ice crystals and then - an hour or so later when the sun hits the plants water will go into the cells instead of ice.
This will probably work on all plants, and if we do have another dip in temps I might try it on all of them. Upon inspection this morning all plants have seemed to weather it out well. Although the sheet on the squash becamse heavy with the dew and they looked a little squooshed, but nothing broken.
What do you do to keep your plants alive through freezes?
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