Frost forecast tonight

Just saw the weather forecast. It is for a widespread frost tonight. Ground frost pretty much everywhere, air frost in some places. We might want to think about protecting any delicate plants we have outside.

I have very young chillis, courgettes and a few other bits and pieces in my unheated blowaway greenhouse. Should they be coming into the house for the next few days?

 

Crossing my fingers.
The forecast for up here is +2C minimum for tonight.
Good luck Clueless

 

Definitely bringing in the chillies and toms the next fortnight is all over the place

 

Pay back time.
I'm sure floods will follow.

 

I've just got my few courgettes & cucumbers out of the polyunnel and put a paraffin heater in there together with loads of fleece to go on this evening.

 

Forecast is 2°c here tonight , the middle of next week night temps look very chilly though. Five days ago I got sunburn on top of my head and was having a piri piri chicken BBQ !

 

chance of snow in cambridge on wednesday according to wunderground?

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=zmw:00000.1.03571

 

They should be coming in for the nights, at least, but if its not too much faff to cart them in-and-out each day they would be happier off in the better light in the blowaway.

Very early for Courgettes though - they'll be massive, and need massive pots (10L ??) by the time they can safely be planted out I reckon ...

 

Un-cross them and take precautions! Unless you are in an urban environment that has an above average warm micro climate +2C will give you a frost, and probably a sharp frost because the weather forecast is often 2C higher than actual (unless you live in warm microclimate)

I log the weather forecast and the actual here, and the delta figures (i.e. -2 means that the actual was 2C below the forecast, +2 means that it was warmer than forecast) from 1st March are below. I'm in a sheltered spot, not a frost hollow, and my weather station temperatures on Wunderground are typically slightly higher than surrounding - so I'm not in a natural cold spot.

-5, 0, -1, -2, +1, -2, 0, -1, -2, -3, -3, 0, -1, -3, +1, -2, +1, -1, -2, -2, -2, -3, -3, -2, -2, -3, -3, -1, -4, -1

Note also that the Dew Point (at which frost will form) is usually a couple of degrees lower than air temperature.

 

They're all in small pots, in trays, so no bother to move them about.

Maybe I was a bit impatient and/or over enthusiastic, I didn't realise it was too early for them. Should be no problem though. My front garden is south facing and sheltered so it gets really warm out there. I'll just stick them in the ground if they get too big for pots.

 

Is that actually relevant Kristen?, bearing in mind ground frost actually takes place when the air temps above ground are above zero.

I'm not sure it matter whether we get hoar frost or not, if its tender and the temps go below zero the cells freeze within the plant.

 

I was assuming a hoar frost would do some damage? (On Spuds for example, if not on reasonably tough-but-tender Tropicals)

 

They (and Squash in general) hate the cold. Planting them out whilst the temperatures are still "chilly", even if not "cold" from the plants' perspective, is likely to make them stall (and "cold" will kill them :( ). Try to avoid them getting "chilly" for as long as you can

 

Mine are few small bush courgettes to be grown early in a tunnel, with a bit of extra protection + some heating if required. I'll just stick a few seeds in every couple of weeks until I get the right time for an early crop.

 

2c forecast for the early hours, that means here it will probably be 0c as we are on sand and another frost.