Quote:
Originally Posted by Nicolas Naranja
I don't know how cold it got and I'm not 100% sure it was last night that did them in. Everyone I have talked to up there says it was about 35-36 last night, but there was no wind. When I went up there with a handheld Monday night the wind was blowing hard and my handheld was reading between 28 and 30, a normal thermometer was reading 30 about 1 mile down the road away from the lake. I think the taller plants just had leaf burn, but real small ones I fear may have been killed outright.
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Nicolas,
We had some terrible nights here too last week and this week. Last Saturday I cut burned/blackened foliage off of everything (I know, but I don't want to look at that mess all winter), and we went to 24 here Tuesday morning and woke up to 64 this morning!
The first damage that showed up was on the plants outside of my oak canopy. It wasn't
freeze damage as much as it was
frost damage. I remember nursery friends telling me that if there is wind, there won't be frost, which is a good thing for them. It's those still, damp nights that can do some real damage to tender plants even without an actual freeze. That wind can be a life saver above freezing, but all bets are off below freezing. Maybe this is what happened, you may have been hit a couple of frosty nights in a row. From that picture your plants are in the wide open with no protection.
Russell