The cold weather THIS WEEK. Arghh. Warning

grrmich

Right-I'm about to ask what sounds to me like a stupid question, but I need to know!

The weather report for my area says 8 degrees over night for Tuesday, but that it will 'feel' like 2 degrees.

Does that mean there will be a frost?

At what sort of temperatures do a frost occur?

This is only my second year growing and I'm not wise about the ways of the frosts.

[Deleted User]

grrmich. that particular temperature would be fine for plants. Re mine on wednesday night ie 1 feeling like -3. (Feeling like= air feel. )I will be taking no chances, it all depends on your own position ie at the bottom or top of a hill etc as cold air rolls down unless blocked by a wall etc. I feel quite comfortable re my plants at actual 6 but would get twitchy at 4. If the real is 4 and feel is 4 then I wouldn`t worry too much but if real is 4 and feel is 1 then I would be out putting fleece on tender plants, not eg shrubs or brassicas.or radishes. At 1 feeling like -3 then there is a real danger of frost and at the least a big setback so I will go overboard re covering

The actual coldest time comes at 5-6 am. At 8 pm it is still likely to be fairly warm and I would have plants covered by then. I WILL be taking fleeces off during the day. I used to use newspapers in my young days and that worked fine

mardatha

Should I put fleece over onions ? they are 1-3" high & tonight is to be cold

morg_monster

"feeling like" relates to wind chill i think and is only relevant to humans, ie the wind makes it feel colder as it makes moisture on our skin evaporate faster or something?!
Obviously wind could damage plants but I believe that eg if the temp is 3C but it "feels like" -2C, there WON'T be a frost.

I'd hoped to start leaving my tomatoes out overnight but will wait until this colder period is finished. They are getting a little big to be carting in and out every morning and evening! Also too big to fit between tiers in my plastic greenhouse. Lettuce and home grown bedding plants are in the cold frame and have been out there for a couple of weeks so should be well hardened off (it's been 5C overnight) so they will have to just weather it! Potatoes; may fleece them...

I really hope my azalea doesn't get frost damage... it's so pretty at the moment, but not sure I can be bothered to wrap it all in fleece...

mardatha

Is to be 0 degrees here tonight.

RAS

mardatha wrote: »

Should I put fleece over onions ? they are 1-3" high & tonight is to be cold

They will be fine; I have onion shoots that survived minus 17 last winter and are coming on fine at the mo.

[Deleted User]

onions are fine and ,my lettuce overwintered at -14 last winter. I`m not concerned about most plants really because even a setback won`t kill them but I am bringing in 5 trays of good tomato plants (30 plants) 1 tray of 12 peppers and 3 cucumber plants and thats it. The other stuff in the greenhouse will have fleece over and it`ll take 2 seconds to put on. I spent an hour earthing up the second earlies and main potatoes and I am leaving the first earlies tonight. They have a very good head of leaves on them so will def cover them tomorrow.

I have been loving the fresher weather today

ALIBOBSY

I think it can depend on the position of your garden and the direction it faces as well.
I found for this area weather net seems to best for accuracy. The met office only seems to do a forcast for the next nearest city which is 8 miles away. they are sat on a dock basin and we are inland, over the river and higher up than them so often get quite different weather.

Even locally we have had days when the house across the street are scrapping a light frost off the car whilst we have no frost at all.

looks mild for us so won't be dashing to cover everything, but the toms and aubergines will stay in the greenhouse anyway with the french beans which are just sprouting in toilet rolls.

Cukes and corgettes etc are still just sprouting on the window sill so won't go out for a couple more weeks.

ali x

mardatha

:rotfl: Just came in and read this ty kittie and RAS. I was out covering my onions with fleece - and the orange cat thought ooooooh what a good game !! and the wee sod was lying onnit, fighting it, rolling innit, and he's a big heavy fat cat so I chased him with the water pistol :rotfl: but can't catch him.
So that saves me worrying about them Now all I have to worry about is the cat bein inna huff because of the water pistol... god no wonder I am worn out !:D

stumpycat

Well, the BBC reckons it will be a balmy 6 tonight, while our local forecast says -4 - so everything will be tucked up snug in the greenhouse!