Unfortunately, we suffered a great deal of damage to both greenhouses and our outdoor growing.  Some decisions need to be made and you guys need to help me make them as to whether I need to replant or focus on our spring planting. I so value all of your opinions and all of your experience. Let me know your thoughts.
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Oh dear… hugs!!! So, I was retired/"covid-ed" out of a 20 yr stint with a major seed supplier…(Burpee) and had the advice of Master Gardners at my fingertips. Regarding pruning after a freeze, the advice was to give the plant-kids a little breather first. Water, no fertilizer and see if they they put out a little new growth, then prune lightly, a bit every couple of days. They've had a big shock and hard pruning would be another shock. (And yep, I talk to them too…) Also, go ahead and re-plant, maybe a smaller amount. Your faith is strong! I always told my newbie gardeners that gardening, in and of itself, is an enormous act of faith. ❤️
I'm not sure what to do. I have the same decisions to make. I think I will replant some of the brassicas and get the rest ready for spring.
You wanna know something, I think you made out pretty good all things considered… Thank you for the update Jill. 😊
thumbs up
We only had a short row of red taters in the ground this fall and they did not produce a good harvest after the freezes in November. My spring seed order came in last week and I have a kitchen garden bed ready to plant some spinach and lettuces . I probably won't get any seed in the ground until the end of January. We will only have a very small garden this year .This coming year will be the seventh on this property so most of our plots will lie fallow the coming year.
Lost it all. I don't have a high tunnel. Covering did no good. I guess I'll see if my garlic will rejuvenate. But, I'm not counting on it. That was a lot of garlic. I'm going to start some more seeds indoors. And throw some seeds in the ground outside. I think my big pot of Rosemary that I dragged in the garage made it. At least I think. Probably won't know for a few days. I'm sorry that you lost so much. But, at least some survived. I would just start again. What else can we do?? You can do all you can. But, nature always wins. Especially when it's being manipulated. That's another story.
I have pruned leaves from freeze here in the past in zone 5b & some made it but some didn't so I would say it's worth a try.
Hey Jill. I will be uncovering our garden tomorrow and we will see. I think the carrots and onions will be fine. Whatever we lose we are pulling and not going to re-plant until March. We are starting seeds over the next three weeks and getting ready for spring planting March 15th. Glad the chickens s are doing good. Warm temps the next week. hang in there and God Bless. Mike
I’m so sorry about your babies. I think this cold just came in too fast, even the weeds in my garden beds have died 😂 I think you are right about how dry it got, even my indoor plants were dried out. There is lessons to be learned though, and you’re already sorting out solutions to have the best greenhouse ever, I just know it will all work out beautifully in the end. If you’ve got some DE on hand you might mix some in that kale soil so any aphids who retreated below won’t re-emerge. And this is just thought I had while watching the video,.. seeing the metal garage door and poles got me thinking how conductive metal is, I bet all that exposed metal was helping keep it like a refrigerator in there, I wonder if wrapping the bottom of the frame-areas where metal is near plants- in felt or towels might help.. and maybe some kind of liner over the garage door-magnets could probably hold it in place for easy removal. Anything to keep the cold out!
I lost just about everything. I covered my carrots and they look okay. My beets, also covered, look just like yours and not sure they will make it. I do have broccoli seedlings growing indoors under grow lights and should be able to plant out late February as well as onions. If you have cabbages with a shorter maturity date, you could try planting those. That would give you the space for your summer crops. Most likely will direct sow beets in late February or early March. Otherwise, will probably focus on spring/summer garden seed starting indoors.
For me here in Corpus Christi Texas I’m planting again. My celery took a beating but did survive and my kale did the best out of everything. Cauliflower and cabbage have to be replanted along with my herbs. We have such a short window here for cold/cool weather but I’m excited for the experiment. It was 38 here last night but will be in the 70’s today. South Texas weather in the winter is so hard to predict this year 😅❤️
I’ve never been much of a gardener, however I’m going to go through your list of videos so I can learn more about it. I’m getting older and eating healthier I’m sure can’t be a bad thing. It’s so good to see you Praise God like you do The Lord is my everything God Bless y’all 😊
Thank the Lord you didn’t lose everything.
By being in Florida you want tropical trees but they don't like freezing cold weather. So I frost covered SOME things .A lot of the trees look a hot mess but I will leave them until our last frost.I then will them prune back to see if they bounce back.I harvested my crops I wanted.I do have garlic planted but not worried about that.All we can do is keep trying.
I'll be very interested in the progress you make with all that damage
My high tunnel survived no losses but ran two-bathroom space heaters. The four worst nights, 17, 16, 21, and 19. Daytime highs were 58, 54, 35 and 46. I have a small wood stove and based on what is to come with the Grand Solar Minimum, I am going to set it up in the high tunnel. All one needs for cool weather planting is 33 degrees. I would likely hold on starting more brassicas and work overtime to get the outside and inside beds ready fo march.
We suffered a great deal of damage too. We don't have a greenhouse or high tunnel or anything built here yet, so we pretty much lost everything that I couldn't bring in the house. I am glad you got a few survivors 🙂
This is why I prefer warmer weather…. no Freezes LOL… I can't wait until Spring/Summer!
My 5ft tall compost pile stayed a consistent 70f through the entire freezing nights. You might need to add low-tunnel hoops & cloth-ag-rolls to the loss-prevention budget.
On your peppers you'll notice the condensation on the plastic so at a high-humidity the plant wasn't sweating/breathing like they might have been if that humidity was allowed to better escape by the use of a cloth cover. I'm no expert though, I did have success with fall leaves as a pepper-plant insulation.
spinach did good!
I,m sorry Jill. I know how much work you had in there. We had snow this morning. Just enough to cover the ground. It made black ice. Lots of wrecks. I don,t think they,ve had ice in years. Caught people by surprise. We,ve got warm coming now. That means the fish will be coming back in the bay. I gotta get ready for that. I had a shot yesterday,x rays,and 5 oerscriptions. I was the wellest one there too let me tell you. Some of them people needed to be in the hospital . Love you all
Those harvested beet greens and peppers are like gold when a deep freeze happens!
Here in Riverside County, Calif when we get several days of light frosts, the peppers die off. Sometimes the stems survive.
I leave dead frosted leaves on plants for insulation until it warms; unless they get slimy and limp…. Those gotta go ASAP. When it's time to see new growth, remove the leaves that got frozen.
I don't have a greenhouse, but over the years I've noticed few things grow from mid Dec until mid Jan or Feb due to daylength. Exceptions are things like radishes and lettuces. So, to me, I'd replant the most important crops if you have time.
We are in 60s today. I planted a few potatoes, lettuce and radish seeds, and transplanted short day onions, anticipating that we usually get a few warm days in mid Jan. However, we can get destructive frosts through April. But, for the sake of hope…. I start a few things every week. It's about time to start peppers indoors. But they go out well after the tomatoes. Any cold at all, and I've observed the baby pepper plants dwarf and never thrive. Tomatoes are much more tolerant of cool.
💚
Wasn’t because you didn’t try! Still it is hard but look how much there is left to be thankful for. Love y’all!
I’m sorry you lost some veggies. Thank goodness you guys are safe and your chickens are ok. The weather is so unpredictable especially coming up January and February.
I'll be uncovering a few little cabbage plants we protected tomorrow. I'm ready to put away decorations. I need room by my big window to start sprouts for our chickens.
We did well. Kept power and didn't break pipes. Our rooster has some mild frostbite on his comb. Otherwise the flock faired well. Thanks Jill for the update. Pray, Plan, Prep
I still haven’t gotten up the courage to go out and check on my carrots and the garlic. I’ve got both covered by heavy moving blankets. That really helped save them last year.
It is so hard to lose so much. One time I told my husband I couldn't be gone all day. It was too cold to open the greenhouse when we left. Sadly by the time we returned everything was thoroughly cooked. I was in tears and boy did he have to listen to it! I haven't started anything, too cold where I am but I figured I would try getting lettuce going in here in about a week. I was in the store today and a head of lettuce was $2.99! I am glad you didn't lose everything but it sure is a blow after all the work.