Re: 70 to 25 in 48 hours, moving air, water

Hi Robert,
 Moving air will usually inhibit frost formation. We went down to 28 last
night, but no frost! The wind has been blowing 10 to 15 miles an hour. It
dries out the plants a bit but it's a world of improvement over ice
crystals sitting on the leaves and fruit blossoms.

 Spraying them with water has two parts. The first works when the temp will
hover just above/around freezing. The relatively warmer water is supposed
to help generate a small amount of heat as it evaporates, and it helps
prevent frost formation on the wet leaves.
 The second choice, if it's going to be extremely cold out, is to form a
solid thin layer of ice on the plants. It's supposed to be a good short
term insulator from even colder temps. It's supposed to keep the plants
around 32 degrees and slow down the thaw process to a less distructive pace.

 This is what I 'remember' being told to me. I would love to hear a clearer
answer from some one who knows more.

 We made out fine last night with the wind, I hope everyone else in frost
border states was just as lucky!


>------------------------------
>
>Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 16:54:22 -0600
>From: Robert Sperl <rsperl@ameritech.net>
>Subject: Re: 70 to 25 in 48 hours
>
>I was listening to the radio and heard that commercial growers were
>spraying trees down several times during the night and keeping fans on
>them???
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>

Matt Trahan  <matttrahan@ecsu.campus.mci.net>
USDA zone 8, Sunset zone 31, AHS heat zone 7, northeastern N.C.

SUPPORT http://www.cauce.org/ (with no money) HELP STOP SPAM
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index