Re: Over the top ... protecting bloom stalks
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: Over the top ... protecting bloom stalks
- From: J* I* J* <j*@ix.netcom.com>
- Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 16:56:36 -0700 (MST)
Rodney Barton wrote:
>
> No, warming the water won't help that much. It will quickly cool to
> freezing, but will hold that temperature much longer. The point is
> not to keep the bud "warm" but to keep it from freezing solid.
Of course, any thing above 32 F will do the job. The Latent Heat of
Cyrstalization, that is, the amount heat that water has to give up to
transition from water at 0 C to ice at 0 C, is much greater than the
heat the same amount of water gives up in decreasing 1 degree in
temperature (1 cal per gram of water per degree - of course they express
it some other unit of measure now). The point is, that if you are
filling a bottle with water you may as well put extra calories (heat) in
it. Since you want that heat in the mini environment you are creating
around the bloomstalk, it would make sense that insulating the bottle
from the ground with a piece of wood to keep the heat out of the ground
would be better than not doing it, without regard to whether the heat
came from temperature change or state change. Actually depending on the
situation (air temp, wind, and weather) and how tight the seal between
the cover and the ground is, the heat in the ground would probably be
enought to keep the bud from freezing.
> The
> ground here is not frozen so insulating the bottle from the ground
> isn't a problem. I uncovered the bud this morning and it seems not
> to have frozen. Too early to say if it will bloom. The coke bottle
> didn't have any ice while my rain catch buckets nearby were mostly
> ice.
Sounds like you were successful. Last time I froze a bud it turned to
mush almost right away.
---
John | "There be dragons here"
| Annotation used by ancient cartographers
| to indicate the edge of the known world.
John Jones, jijones@ix.netcom.com
Fremont CA, USDA zone 8/9 (coastal, bay)
Max high 95F/35C, Min Low 28F/-2C average 10 days each
Heavy clay base for my raised beds.
