Re: CULT: freeze damage
- Subject: Re: CULT: freeze damage
- From: D* E*
- Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 21:14:41 -0800
From: "Donald Eaves" <donald@eastland.net>
Linda wrote:
>
> Condolences Donald
On behalf of my poor arilbreds, I accept. What I'd really like to say
about
the whole thing is ##?*^^ etc. (read 'drat" of course).
>
> Somewhere I have read how many days of cool/cold temperatures it takes
> to harden off plants vs how many days of warm temps it takes to
> "re-tenderize" them. Seems like it was something dreadful like one day
> of warmth will undo 2 weeks of chilling/hardening off. So that's one
> factor in how likely plants are to be damaged.
>
Wow! There will never be much hope here if that's the case. The last two
years have had extraordinarily warm temps for such long durations that I
can't even blame the cultivars for being inappropriate for my area. How
are
they supposed to know that two months is not the end of frost season?
> Another is what stage of growth they are in (as you've noticed).
>
Yes. IDIDIT has been big and healthy looking all winter. It apparently
(so far)
did not suffer any damage. Others which have nearly caught it in growth
just recently, did have damage. Still others, which are still waiting to
start
that kind of rapid growth, did not suffer which is apparent. I use
'apparent'
with some caution. Last year there was no apparent damage until bloom
stalks failed to keep growing in the fan and other grew but were clearly
blighted. I can't know ahead of time.
> Another is how long they stay at a damaging temperature.
But here I wonder. When I went to bed between 10-11pm, it was 40 and
had been for an hour or so. When I looked out before 6am, it was sitting
on 31. 9 degrees change and not quite seven hours. I think the plants
have suffered less with longer durations of even colder temps, but without
that white frost. I'm going to have to watch and see if I can really
determine
if my thoughts on this are correct. We can have those white frosts without
the temp even getting into the 30s officially and they damage. The same
temps with no frost don't seem to harm the plants. Wind prevents it from
forming, but naturally wind only blows when you don't want it here (most of
the daytimes).
> if it happens again, a
> light frost on sensitive foliage can often?sometimes?always? be
> short-circuited by spraying cold water on the plants first thing in the
> morning - basically lightly hosing off the frost. It will safely warm
> the plants back up to slightly above freezing thereby making sure they
> don't stay cold as long & are less likely to be injured.
What's the trick here? I've tried this so many times and it has never yet
been successful for me. I've heard it so many times I have to believe it
has
merit, but it has never worked. Sometimes when I've tried this, the water
freezes in sheets on the plants and made everything appear to be worse
than if I'd left it alone. Too late? Too cold? Not watering long enough?
I've had sad luck with this process enough times to be gun shy of trying
it.
>
> It has been consistently cold (usually well below freezing) most nights
> here keeping the wee iris plants at my house tough.
>
And I hope it holds for you and there is a bumper crop of iris blooms on
your estate.
Donald Eaves
donald@eastland.net
Texas Zone 7
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