Re: CULT: cold & this n that

Hi Neil,

Has anyone tried using water spray, as the fruit growers do, for Iris?

Char, New Berlin WI
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Neil A Mogensen" <neilm@charter.net>
To: "Iris-talk" <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 10:22 AM
Subject: [iris] CULT: cold & this n that


> Boy, Linda.  If you are right about 25 degree cut-off, then I can expect a
> whale of a lot of damage.  My outdoor thermometer (uncalibrated) showed
18.8
> degrees minimum Monday morning.  We had dropped below 32 soon after
sundown,
> so there were looooong hours of freezing temps.
>
> I'm sure my irises are not as far along as yours, but I have a comment
about
> the 25 degree cut off.
>
> I don't know how this works yet in NC, but in Idaho I know it made a lot
of
> difference in how much cool-down time occurred ahead of a hard freeze.
Irises
> showed little damage from temps deep into the lower 20's even right into
bloom
> time if they had adequate time ahead of the freeze to chill.
>
> Apparently there is a natural "antifreeze" character in plants that allows
> them to tolerate freeze.  I imagine it has to due with the ratio of
soluble
> solids to water in the cell sap.  Some plants may produce extra sugars or
> something like that, or else a reduced uptake rate of water from the soil,
or
> both,  giving the cell solute a lower freezing point.  Bearded irises seem
to
> have this ability right along with pansies and winter cabbage..
>
> I know that Monday morning, even with the temp as low as it was, the iris
> foliage looked perfectly normal after the air warmed up.  In rapid hard
> freezes, such as those we've had with an abrupt drop from 70-ish temps
into
> the low 20's in a matter of hours, the foliage has looked awful the next
day
> with uneven darker green areas having an almost glassy look to them.  Even
> though those scalded-looking areas healed, they never recovered fully.
>
> Monday daytime the irises here showed none of that.  We had two or three
days
> of good chill ahead of this frost, and haven't really had a high
temperature
> here yet at all.  A week or more ago it did get into the upper 60's for a
few
> hours a couple days.  That's all.
>
> It is going to be interesting to see just how much damage I got.
>
> Neil Mogensen  z  7  western NC
>
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