Possible Frost.

Reckless Abandonment

Just a heads up. A few of the posters in the weather forum are talking about potential cold spell from sunday to Wednesday.

wayoutwest

Haven't got any horticultural fleece and won't have time to order any but i have got a roll of the breathable roofing fabric - so will be using that on the young planted greens.

pconn062

I have a lot of very frost tender stuff planted out already both outside and in the polytunnel including potatoes, french beans, peppers etc. I have fleece to cover stuff if needed but my garden is right on the coast so I'm thinking of chancing it. Would take a lot of time and material to cover everything as I have a big veg garden.

magicbastarder

met.ie is currently showing a predicted low of 4C on tuesday night, for dublin.

Zapperzy

Complete newbie to growing veg, I've a few containers of potatoes, carrots and pea seedlings as well as a pallet full of strawberries which are starting to grow fruit. There's lows of 2C forecast or my area. I'm assuming a frost will damage my strawberry crop? What about the rest?

The grass needs a cut this weekend, would it be worth trying to cover containers with cardboard and grass cuttings to keep them safe?

pconn062

Zapperzy wrote: »

Complete newbie to growing veg, I've a few containers of potatoes, carrots and pea seedlings as well as a pallet full of strawberries which are starting to grow fruit. There's lows of 2C forecast or my area. I'm assuming a frost will damage my strawberry crop? What about the rest?

The grass needs a cut this weekend, would it be worth trying to cover containers with cardboard and grass cuttings to keep them safe?

I probably would, just to be safe. I would cover the potatoes too if they've broke the surface. You can always take them off in a few days.

highdef

magicbastarder wrote: »

met.ie is currently showing a predicted low of 4C on tuesday night, for dublin.

Coastal parts of the Republic, especially near the east coast will have less cold temperatures by night due to onshore winds however places inland, across much of the country are likely to see air temperatures (not just ground temperatures) dip below 0c on Monday night, probably Tuesday night too. A ground frost is also likely in many parts on Sunday and Wednesday nights.

It's gonna be a shock for many unprotected plants, that's for sure!

MacDanger

Novice gardener here too - how low a temp would it need to be to damage potatoes? Living ~15km from the north mayo coast here so I wouldn't expect any frost tbh but if the alternative is damaged plants, I'll get plastic or something to cover them.

I presume planting out the broccoli plants this weekend would be better put off until it warms up a bit again?

pconn062

MacDanger wrote: »

Novice gardener here too - how low a temp would it need to be to damage potatoes? Living ~15km from the north mayo coast here so I wouldn't expect any frost tbh but if the alternative is damaged plants, I'll get plastic or something to cover them.

I presume planting out the broccoli plants this weekend would be better put off until it warms up a bit again?

You're probably safe enough. I've been keeping an eye on this for a few days and I think unless you are very inland you will escape any real frosts. I'm about 1k from the Irish sea and the offshore wind usually keeps us a few degrees above the midlands at night. I would wait until later next week for the broccoli plants though.

Good call on the frost,
Fairly heavy in kildare.
Glad I seen this and didnt plant out on Saturday as planned!

highdef

BrownFinger wrote: »

Good call on the frost,
Fairly heavy in kildare.
Glad I seen this and didnt plant out on Saturday as planned!

Indeed, I had a minimum air temperature of -1.6c in North Kildare last night so ground temperature was probably close to -5c. Rather low indeed, especially considering that I was sunbathing at lunchtime yesterday!

My minimum was 4.4. No frost here.

tabby aspreme

I have potatoes which appear to be damaged by last night's frost, the leaves have dropped a bit and are a darker color, will they recover from this.

highdef

tabby aspreme wrote: »

I have potatoes which appear to be damaged by last night's frost, the leaves have dropped a bit and are a darker color, will they recover from this.

Yeah, they should be OK. Is it all leaves or some?

highdef

SouthWesterly wrote: »

My minimum was 4.4. No frost here.

Going by your username, I'm guessing you are in the south west? Are you near the coast?

I hope my outside grape will be ok ,
It was only plated late last year and is looking very promising .

highdef

BrownFinger wrote: »

I hope my outside grape will be ok,
It was only planted late last year and is looking very promising.

Where are you located? It's possible that it has suffered damage but hard to know if we don't know where your vine is.

Im in Kildare,frost was heavy .

tabby aspreme

highdef wrote: »

Yeah, they should be OK. Is it all leaves or some?

The top few leaves with the plants that were 6" high, and some that are just above ground all the leaves, I'm in south kildare.

highdef

BrownFinger wrote: »

Im in Kildare, frost was heavy.

Might be curtains so, I'm sad to say. Would the vine be in a position as to be exposed to the cold air or is it sheltered, say on a South facing wall? Any reason you didn't provide protection to the vine especially as you were forewarned about it?

highdef

tabby aspreme wrote: »

The top few leaves with the plants that were 6" high, and some that are just above ground all the leaves, I'm in south kildare.

I'd say they'll recover. I've had similar in the past. Could be a frosty again tonight so perhaps some protection could be applied this evening. Same goes to the grapevine.

hawkwing

tabby aspreme wrote: »

I have potatoes which appear to be damaged by last night's frost, the leaves have dropped a bit and are a darker color, will they recover from this.

Same here in S Tipp.I spent a while yesterday putting clay around them, they were only a few inches up but wished I put more as I didn't cover them fully.They weren't fully ready for earthing. I'm going to cover them more now as tonight looks similar.

highdef

highdef wrote: »

Might be curtains so, I'm sad to say. Would the vine be in a position as to be exposed to the cold air or is it sheltered, say on a South facing wall? Any reason you didn't provide protection to the vine especially as you were forewarned about it?

I forgot it sadly,
Time will tell

looksee

Potatoes and peas seem fine, some barely-through green beans look a bit disgruntled but not actually damaged. Oddly some new growth on an Elecampane (Inula Helenium) got quite badly nipped at the tops of the leaves, I don't think it will be a problem but they look a bit sad. (north Waterford, bit of altitude).

magicbastarder

northside of dublin here; spuds seems fine, as do the new leaves on the beech i planted last year (which i was more worried about)

highdef

highdef wrote: »

Going by your username, I'm guessing you are in the south west? Are you near the coast?

Im on a mountain but I can see the sea from the sitting room:D

Just got home and thankfully the grape looks ok.
Some damage but still healthy looking

magicbastarder

weds night/thurs morning is forecast to be colder than last night was, in dublin.

poteen

Got badly hit in all areas by frost last night. The potatoes were badly blackened . They were just ready for soiling over. Have prune the black leaves back this evening and spike them over.

beggars_bush

Two nights in a row with frost.
Weather is mad

Frogeye

my spuds took an nawful bate'n. I covered them Sunday night and there was no frost. Forgot to cover them on Monday night and they got clobbered, covered them last night and there was no frost!

Just have to hope they recover....

Last May there was a lot of frost over a number of nights and they got a bit black and weak on the edges of some leaves but nothing like they got on monday night. I didn't think it was that cold , maybe there were just further long than last may,

I had a small tomato plant in the tunnel and that got dead monday night too. Thankfully I took advice from the good people on boards.ie and have been moving the others back into the garage at night!

highdef

Frogeye wrote: »

my spuds took an nawful bate'n. I covered them Sunday night and there was no frost. Forgot to cover them on Monday night and they got clobbered, covered them last night and there was no frost!

There could be another fairly sharp frost again tonight where skies are clear and away from coastal areas with onshore breezes.

To put the level of frost on Monday night into context, it was the coldest May night on record at the Met Eireann site in Mullingar with a minimum air temperature of -3.2c. You could take another couple of degrees off that figure (at least) to get the minimum ground temperature.

Lowest temp was 4.3C. No frost

robbie checker

Heavy frost here on Monday night in Co. Offaly (grass was white in places yesterday morning) and last night was cold too. Not sure why some people here were waiting to earth up their potatoes when frost was forecast. You can earth them up a number of times you know, it doesn't just have to be done once! Most of mine were gone too big and I had earthed them up a few weeks ago and had earthed as much as I could on the majority of them. I had a few late drills which were just coming up so I earthed them up and they were protected from the frost. The other ones that were up by 10 inches or more were hammered but I had this last year too on the May weekend and they will come back in a couple of weeks although it would put you in bad humour looking at them. I had covered 4 drills this year as that's all fleece I had and the frost even damaged the tops of them through the fleece but they are still a lot better looking than the rest of my potato crop.

This morning in Kildare
Lets hope thats the last one !

magicbastarder

woke up at 5am and the met.ie app was saying air temp was -2 on the northside of dublin. no sign of frost though, spuds and other plants seem unaffected.

Car99

My portugese laurel hedging this years new growth is blackened from the frost. Should I prune off the black bits or let it? Planted less than 2 years ago. About 30" tall.

highdef

magicbastarder wrote: »

woke up at 5am and the met.ie app was saying air temp was -2 on the northside of dublin. no sign of frost though, spuds and other plants seem unaffected.

That would've been the reported temperature at Dublin airport, your closest official station. That station is in a known frost hollow so often reports temperatures several degrees lower than many nearby surrounding areas.

magicbastarder

interesting - i travel past the met station there quite often and wouldn't have thought it was in a hollow.

BnB

I went out at 6 am this morning (in East Clare) and there was a good think layer of frost of the windscreen of the jeep and the Temp gauge was reading 2.5 Degs

It was an stunningly beautiful morning though.

fryup

will it kill outdoor strawberries?

pconn062

So much for fleece protecting plants. All of my potatoes that had fleece on them got quite badly hit but the uncovered ones were fine! Must be due to the moisture settling on the fleece and freezing while in contact with the leaves. Won't kill them but will set the back quite a bit. Frustrating.

Conall Cernach

My spuds got an awful doing on Monday night. I didn't think it had been that cold and my lettuce and peas are grand so I thought it might have been the blight. I gave them a serious dose of spray just in case.

This happened overnight. Luckily this guy was a stray in another border from last year. I’ve covered my crop so please God they’ll be okay!



I dug it up this evening. I’m assuming it’s frost and not blight. I’ve only been growing spuds a few years so don’t know!

beggars_bush

SnowyMuckish wrote: »

This happened overnight. Luckily this guy was a stray in another border from last year. I’ve covered my crop so please God they’ll be okay!



I dug it up this evening. I’m assuming it’s frost and not blight. I’ve only been growing spuds a few years so don’t know!

Frost
Blight only hits in late July into August with damp muggy days

Harry Palmr

No bother on Costa Deise at all.

Put no fleeces on and everything is fine.

wayoutwest

Used roofing felt with success on the spuds and lettuce, but wasn't good enough for the runner beans - wipeout!. Must get some proper fleece for next year.
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