Temperature Damage

I get all my bedding seedlings into the greenhouse in April . I keep the temp at 5°c + , actually I turn the paraffin heater on when the forecast is at 7°c. I have had most of my plants outside for 2 weeks now due to the barmy weather , and I have been planting up my baskets and containers. Last night the temp dropped to 5°c unbeknown to me I am pretty sure the plants will be OK , even though I think ground temp can be 4 degrees lower than air temp(?). At what outside night temp should you get worried ? At what temp generally would bedding plant damage occur ?

 

Thanks Shiney , there was no frost last night luckily , and for the next ten days night temp is around 10°c. Normally a cold night like last night I would cover the plants with fleece , but it caught me out. So 3°c is the danger point for most bedding plants.

 

Useful post for me. I've had to pot on the courgettes into tubs so they had to go outside into the new plastic growhouse and I was a bit jittery about night time temps. Found this very reassuring. :thumb:

 

Courgettes (and their siblings Squash, Cucumbers, et al) are all a bit woozy when ti comes to cold night temperatures. They will survive cold (but not freezing) but they go into a big sulk for quite a while. Don;t know how big your containers are, but if you can get them into the garage for the night if < 5C is forecast I think that would be prudent.

My slightly-tender stuff is stood right outside the garage door at the moment so I can easily drag them into the garage for the night if necessary.

 

Worth bearing in mind Kristen. Thursday night is likely to be a bit chilly so they may have to double up as footstools that evening.

 

Same here, day time temperatures up slightly too but night times should be no lower than 7-10 degrees from tonight

 

Yup, its looking good :thumb: and we are probably past the last frost ... but I thought that around this time last year too, and we had a late frost (many places had one at the beginning of June last year IIRC :( )

Its around this time of year where, after a week or 10 days of around 10C nights, I am not paying proper attention to the forecast, and can get caught out! Taking the dogs out for their late-night pee in a short-sleeved shirt somehow doesn't seem to alert me to the fact that its actually quite cold :(