When I got up Sunday morning I was surprised to see the outside temperature at 25 degrees, much colder than I had expected after listening to two different weathermen on Saturday night. I had expected at worse about 28 degrees so nothing in my garden was covered, but those 3 extra cold degrees did a number on the garden. It took two days to fully assess the damage but here's what I've found. Right now the cabbage plants look horrible, the leaves that froze are brown and will eventually fall off. Fortunately, the inner core of the plants appear to be intact and so the plants should grow out of this condition. It will probably delay harvest but we should still make a crop. If your cabbage, broccoli, and kale have brown leaves but green centers leave them and they should grow. Same goes for those of you with potatoes, if the leaves froze don't worry, the plants will sprout anew.
Those of you that planted tomatoes, peppers, etc. by now you can see if the plants froze completely. They will not recover. Plan to replant those crops in about 2 weeks after we are really clear of frost and freeze.
Looking around the farm, the blueberries took a hit especially the earlier varieties. Looks like we lost about 1/3 of that crop. Freeze damage also on the fig plants, persimmons, and kiwi. But they all should rebud and hopefully make a crop.
So now what to do going forward. This Saturday I'll be planting potatoes, beans, cucumbers, and squash. Not that we might not get another frost but we'll cover as necessary once those crops sprout. The 10 day weather forecast looks good for warm weather and Saturday is a good day to plant by the moon.
In order for potatoes to sprout the seed potato must have an eye which is where the sprout comes out of the potato. You can plant an entire potato or if the seed potato is large enough you can cut it into pieces and plant each piece, just make sure the potato piece has an eye sprout. Dig a trench 6" deep, lay the seed potatoes 10" apart and refill the soil into the trench. As they grow we'll do more work later to the growing potato plants.
Those of you that planted tomatoes, peppers, etc. by now you can see if the plants froze completely. They will not recover. Plan to replant those crops in about 2 weeks after we are really clear of frost and freeze.
Looking around the farm, the blueberries took a hit especially the earlier varieties. Looks like we lost about 1/3 of that crop. Freeze damage also on the fig plants, persimmons, and kiwi. But they all should rebud and hopefully make a crop.
So now what to do going forward. This Saturday I'll be planting potatoes, beans, cucumbers, and squash. Not that we might not get another frost but we'll cover as necessary once those crops sprout. The 10 day weather forecast looks good for warm weather and Saturday is a good day to plant by the moon.
In order for potatoes to sprout the seed potato must have an eye which is where the sprout comes out of the potato. You can plant an entire potato or if the seed potato is large enough you can cut it into pieces and plant each piece, just make sure the potato piece has an eye sprout. Dig a trench 6" deep, lay the seed potatoes 10" apart and refill the soil into the trench. As they grow we'll do more work later to the growing potato plants.
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