Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: jambop on April 20, 2017, 09:27
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Hi we had a quite cold night last night got down to about 3C. I went to the poly tunnel this morning and my peppers and aubergines are looking a bit limp. I don't think they have been frosted but the question is will they bounce back from it? The Tomatoes appear to be un affected. It looks like another cold one tonight 2 C so I will take steps to protect the plants cover them with fleece?
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According to latest forecasts the cold snap will continue for another week, (worse for continental Europe than the UK, I think ) so use fleece/polysheet/bubblewrap and keep everything crossed.
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According to latest forecasts the cold snap will continue for another week, (worse for continental Europe than the UK, I think ) so use fleece/polysheet/bubblewrap and keep everything crossed.
Had a look at the forecast for around my area and tonight is going to be as low as 2C so will be closing all vents and covering the plants with fleece and hoping for the best. I also have a cold frame that I will put inside the poly tunnel and move some plants into it.
I don't think there was a frost last night but it was windy and from the east of course I had left all the venting open so the cold air must have shocked the plants. Only the peppers and aubergines seem to be affected the leaves have gone limp but I am hoping the warmth of the day revives them again. I had a look at my spud tops and they do not look as though they have been frosted so tonight I will cover them with a bit of news paper and fleece that should hold back the cold a bit.
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What looks concerning for those of us further South is the lack of rain, more than the temperature. The gulf stream forecasts tend to be reasonably accurate. We've had virtually no rain this month to speak of, with next to none of the traditional prevailing souwesterly rain bearing winds. It's set to continue past Mayday.
There's only so much we can do with a watering can. I'm going to have to get up at dawn a few times to hog the water pressure before it disappears by 9am.
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What looks concerning for those of us further South is the lack of rain, more than the temperature. The gulf stream forecasts tend to be reasonably accurate. We've had virtually no rain this month to speak of, with next to none of the traditional prevailing souwesterly rain bearing winds. It's set to continue past Mayday.
There's only so much we can do with a watering can. I'm going to have to get up at dawn a few times to hog the water pressure before it disappears by 9am.
Assuming you mean the jet stream (the Gulf Stream is in the Atlantic ocean, not in the atmosphere), I agree with the lack of rain here in the SE. It is getting tough to dig out the weeds in my clay soil. I have a bed of overwintered field beans and rye that need cutting down and digging in, I will probably have to use my rotavator to do this, the soil is getting so hard in places it is very difficult to get a fork in.
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It has been quite dry down here too but we are going to get some rain next week... it can rain very, very heavily down here!
I don't know why but this site screws my computer big time. Sometimes it just hangs and I have to go to the task manager to be able to get out of it !
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It's snowing in a couple of days time...
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Yes we have snow and sleet in the forecast for Monday evening and into Tuesday with cold weather all week. Most of my items in the greenhouse are at seedling stage and back in the house. Bit cluttered but I'll survive and so will the plants.
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No snow forecast here but some low overnight temperatures next week. All the really tender stuff is indoors and the greenhouse and cold frame will be fleeced.
Seed sowing has come to a halt as I am out of space until stuff moves on, but its only a few more days. Pointless worrying about it - most of what I what I wanted to do are fast growers like beans, squash and sweetcorn and they will catch up :)
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I was very surprised on a walk round our allotments (Poole, Dorset) today to see all those with spuds above ground have got frost-blackened and wilted tops.
The optimists with runner beans already 6" high will be replanting.
Be warned.
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Replanting is no worse that waiting to plant.
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1.5c in greenhouse last night. Another degree colder expected tonight. Potatoes earthed up and greenhouse tomatoes and chillies fleeced. Everything put down at ground level where it's a degree or two warmer. Should be ok.
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0 degrees forecast here for tonight and tomorrow, and then 2 degrees which isn't much better. I've been fleecing and netting and covering up with old hay....putting down anything that might get in the way of frost for about 10 days now.
The potatoes are lifting the hay up to ever dizzying heights as they grow! The leaves on my Acers have been shrivelled by the heat/cold/wind/sun (take your pick).
Add to that we have had no rain at all for a month - and this is Brittany, the bit of France like the west of Ireland where it is always damp. Some farmers are sowing their maize under transparent plastic this year to try to conserve what little moisture is left in the soil to help germination. The water levels in the rivers and streams is really low too.
Then add to all of that the daily damage by field voles....I'm getting to the end of my tether and we've hardly begun!
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Replanting is no worse that waiting to plant.
Emotionally might be so for quite some, but factually it's a waste of time, effort and money(seeds).
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I got soaked in heavy sleet today. Forgot me coat... :mad:
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Replanting is no worse that waiting to plant.
Emotionally might be so for quite some, but factually it's a waste of time, effort and money(seeds).
Very true Gobs, didn't think of that side of it. arh.
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Replanting is no worse that waiting to plant.
Emotionally might be so for quite some, but factually it's a waste of time, effort and money(seeds).
Very true Gobs, didn't think of that side of it. arh.
Also called ` Learning the hard way' ! :)
Nature still has the upper hand .
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I moved all the plants that I had hardening off back into the potting shed a couple of days ago. Our daughter who is at Keele Uni phoned us to say she woke up to an inch of snow yesterday.
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1.5c on Monday, down to 0.3c last night in greenhouse.
All tomatoes, chillies and assorted vulnerables under fleece for a second night, and on the ground off the shelves to give them another degree or two...... see below.
Can't move in there now, what with the early potatoes, peas, carrots, over winter lettuce, rocket and assorted brassica plants. All rather ad hoc, but it works sort of.
I need another greenhouse..
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0 was, in fact -2 :(. Figs now have crispy leaves, despite a covering of debris netting that had been working up til now. I don't know if they'll recover enough to set a crop. My apple and cherry trees are in full blossom...don't know what that means for them? Potatoes actually ok at first glance apart from odd leaves or bits of leaf which got hit where their straw had got dislodged. The water in the watering can was frozen solid. 0 forecast for tonight now.