Jay,

I've been watching the forecast and hoping the NWS was wrong and it wouldn't get that cold this early up there. Still, the weather has been gorgeous and the warm days have held on a long time.

We aren't supposed to get as cold as you are, but since our temp has dropped 10 degrees lower than forecast on several nights in Sept. and Oct., I don't really trust the forecasts either.
I just started on some garden clean-up tasks over the weekend but have a long way to go. So far, I have found snakeskins and field mice, neither of which are welcome in the garden.

I just harvested what is likely to be the last of the peppers (1100 of them over 4 days, mostly jalapenos and sweet bells) so I've been busy putting up peppers and I'm not quite finished with that.

Tomorrow I'm going to dig my sweet potatoes and fall potatoes, and check the garden for any tomatoes left in it that might ripen indoors.

We may or may not have freezing temps or a frost down here in southern OK this week, but I'm treating my garden as though we will. Better safe than sorry. We have a good amount of persimmons on the native persimmon trees and I'm hoping for a good frost or two to hit them so I can harvest them before the coyotes do.

I've been working on my grow lists for 2011 and have the same problem as always, which is narrowing down the list because I want to grow too much of everything.

Shoulder surgery? Sounds serious. I hope you breeze right through it.

For anyone who hasn't been watching the weather, the NWS Webpage is linked below, showing in various shades of blue the counties with either a Freeze Watch, Frost Advisory or Frost Warning.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: NWS Forecast Page

Dawn,
When I went out this evening I found that it must of got colder on the NW side of my garden around the trees. They gave a low of 37 but I found a little light ice when I went out a little after six. This is the same area that froze first last year. Last year was the first year for this area. All the rest of the tomatoes and all of the peppers looked fine. I stripped about everything that was close. I threw 2 blankets over a few plants. If it gets as cold as they predict tomorrow night sure they won't be enough. I have tons of green tomatoes. Moved all of my garlic and onions either into the unheated garage and the utility room. So everything should be fine. I will start roasting and freezing peppers tomorrow night. I pulled the pepper plants as I stripped them and everyone had great roots on them. Will be interested to see what I find when I pull the tomato plants. The 16th is the average frost date so we have passed that. Jay

Jay,

Did your garden freeze?

For us, the dangerous time will be Friday a.m., when we're forecast to go down to 38, and the local weather folks are expecting widespread patchy frost. You know if there is any patchy frost in southern OK, it will be here in our frost pocket location.

I hope at least some of your green tomatoes will go ahead and color up, and then of course, you could make chow chow or pickled green tomatoes or fried green tomatoes.

I've been roasting peppers too. Every time someone walks into the house they sniff the air and comment on the delicious pepper aroma. Some people have potpourri in their house to scent the air, but here we just have whatever it is that I'm dehydrating or roasting at the moment.

It will be very interesting to see if your root knot nematodes stayed on that one plant they likely came in on, or if they moved around any. Still, I cannot imagine nematodes could survive the cold soil temps there.

Keep us posted on what the cold weather is doing to y'all up there. It was chilly here this a.m. but not really cold.

Dawn

Dawn,
I won't know till I get home tonight if it suffered anymore damage last night. It was supposed to get around 30 last night. When I checked at 5:20 it was 40 on the NWS site.Which is on a hill. And 32.8 4 miles NW of me which is the same elevation I am and usually closer to my temp. Overall 2-3 degrees warmer than yesterday morning when I checked the recorded lows a few hours ago. They are wavering big time on tonight. Anywhere from 25-32. I'm not going to do anymore. I am going to help finish wiring a church tonight so won't pick any green tomatoes. I will leave it up to Mother Nature.

I got a notice that Dixondale is now taking orders for next growing season. I'm not sure when they started. I will place my order soon. I didn't see any new varieties but didn't look through everything. Jay

I have a few tall pepper plants that look be-draggled (is that a word?) this morning, but the peppers were still nice and crisp. I just chopped enough sweet peppers to fill a gallon freezer bag. I think I am going to work on those "little" pablano peppers now and dehydrate some of them. I think I would like to smell that pepper smell from my oven all afternoon. LOL Before it gets dark, I will likely pick what is left of the peppers since I know frost isn't far away.....and maybe a freeze. They are saying 31 for Thursday night for Jay (that's Jay Oklahoma, LOL). The lake usually keeps us a little higher but I think I will pick them just the same.

Just so I can brag....I'm going to remind you that months ago, I declared Halloween as our predicted freeze date. I don't think I will miss it by much.

Hey Paula - Do you have the witch out?

Jay,

I hope Mother Nature comes through for you tonight and that your plants live another day or another week or two.

A minute ago I noticed more counties added to the freeze/frost maps and a new category added for a 'hard freeze'. It seems they might be expecting a bit more cold for tonight than what they were predicting this morning.

Believe it or not, I looked at the Dixondale website a few minutes ago. (Great minds think alike, and isn't it odd you and I had Dixondale on our mind on the same day? ) I didn't stay there long, but didn't notice anything new. I think Seedmama is going to pull together a large Dixondale group order later on, so don't order yet if you want to be a part of the group order.

Our local TV forecaster on his blog listed ave. frost dates for our part of the region, and then said that most his station's broadcast area counties (southcentral OK/extreme north central TX) likely won't see the first frost/freeze until late November. I hope he's right, but still think our place is in one of those low-lying frost pockets that will get hit early no matter what he says.

Carol,

Some years I have been surprised how long pepper plants and peppers have hung in there and survived cold weather. I know I've had some survive a few pretty hard frosts, progressively losing more and more of the topgrowth to each bit of frost while the plants below held on and kept producing.

I think it likely your prediction for your area is right on target, but it wouldn't surprise me if the 'lake effect' keeps your personal garden going beyond that. My plants near the lily pond are always the last ones to freeze, and sometimes I even have water lilies in bloom as late as December and as early as late February or early March.

I bet Paula's witch is out! She might be a frosty witch sometime in the next couple of days. FYI-the NWS just added two counties in central OK to the 'blue' counties expecting frost.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Latest Frost Update

we had frost on the car windshields and ice on the garbage can lid. The bi-metal thermometer read 30, but expect it was more like 33, judging from the other 3 frost we have had. I was out at 7:00 AM apraying plants, I will go out and repeat in a few minutes.

Larry

Larry,

We have frost on the windshields too, and on the ground too...and on the plants. It is 36 degrees here right now, which also is our official low, unless it drops even lower in the next few minutes.

We were forecast to go to 41, but I was expecting it to go colder because we live in a frost pocket that always freezes/frosts early in comparison to people on higher ground only a mile from us.

I won't be spraying off the plants because they're going to "get it" tonight again and then I expect my warm-season plants will be done for this year. I'm OK with that as the freezers, jelly closet and root cellar are pretty full, and I'm tired of trying to figure out where to put more.

The old saying "it ain't over till the fat lady sings" comes to mind.....if she didn't sing last night, she surely will tonight. I believe if I close my eyes and concentrate, I can hear her practicing her aria for tonight.

If my plants and their fruit weren't damaged last night, I'll strip them of any sizeable tomatoes and peppers today, and perhaps will find some okra and beans to harvest as well. My okra is still blooming and producing pods, but I haven't harvested much lately, already having more than enough in the freezer. I've been picking the pods and putting them on the compost pile for the deer. Our deer around here love okra.

I've linked the Mesonet map of official lows, but am sure some people had lower or higher temps at their homes since temps can vary wildly even over a fairly small area.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Map of Official Low Temps Since Midnight

ACK FROST.

I checked and checked and thought I was safe last night, the low was supposed to be 42.

Frost everywhere this AM. Hope my tomatoes survive.

Tonight I will be covering as the low is supposed to be something like 37.

Jo

I just looked again and now tonight the low is supposed to be 30, tomorrow night higher 30s, so I will be covering both nights. If my plants survive, they should be safe for another week or so, because lows from Sat on are in the mid 40s

Jo

I have too much going on now to mess with a garden thats about to croak anyway. I picked the peppers and kissed the garden good by.

The TV said it was 42 in Fort Smith, I had ice and the thermometer said 30. I sprayed the ice off the windshield and garbage cans, checked again in 10 minutes and they were iced over again. Its time to quit.

Larry

Larry,

I agree. I covered up a few favorite plants, but if it all freezes, I'm OK with that. I need a break from all the canning, dehydrating and freezing.

I always dread the first day after a hard freeze....it is hard to look at blackened, dead plants that were a lush, lovely green just the day before. Then, I get over it and get on with cleaning up the garden and planning for next year.

They've dropped our forecast for tonight from 37-39 degrees to 28-36 degrees, so I'm inclined to feel it is over here too....or very nearly so.

Dawn

I posted at work and now don't see it. Guess the GW goblins ate it for a Halloween treat. The lowest I saw around here was 31 this morning. So warmer than most said. It was odd also. The NWS site sits on a hill a mile south of me and is usually warmer than here or the WUG site 4 miles to the NW from me. The WUG site is usually close to what I see here. And both the WUG site and here have run 2-3 degrees colder than the NWS site till last night. The NWS site was 31.8 for a low and the WUG site recorded a low of close to 33. Anyway things look the same this evening as they did yesterday. Not anymore damage I can see. The few plants I covered may get another week. Those I didn't are basically gone. The flowers still look nice. And the couple of peppers plants I didn't pull look ok but they don't have any fruit that will get big enough to pick before we get hit hard. I started removing some of the hoses ect. Will try to work it soon. Hope everyone else misses the black ghost tonight. Jay

Snug and cozy. Anything that survived the garden onslaught this year deserves another few weeks of life!
{{gwi:1134013}}
today's cherry tomatoes, and I have about a million more on the vine that I want to EAT!
{{gwi:1134015}}

spent the day dragging in everything
into the greenhouses that
I wanted to save. Fired
up one heater to make sure
it was working. I won't
keep that greenhouse warm,
but I do try to keep the
frost out by not letting
it get colder than 32.
I still have sweetpotatoes
to harvest, but the vines
are all cut off, so I hope
they will be OK.

I always seem to miss
something that I intended
to bring in.

I sure Hope that propane
prices are better this year.

Glad I said goodby to the garden yesterday because its frozen stiff today, Thermometer reading 24 degrees.

Jo, your tomatoes look good. Are you having a kkk meeting in your garden? It looks like a see from 'O WHERE, WHERE ART THOU'. Just kidding.

If it warms up enough today I will go to the garden and bury the dead and plant more rye.

Larry

Jo, I hope those plants made it through the night OK. The tomatoes look yummy and I'm hoping you'll be able to pick more for another week or two at the very least.

Larry, Y'all are too cold this morning! It is cold here, but about what I expected.....30 degrees and frost so heavy it looks like a dusting of snow.

I expect the few plants I covered likely survived but won't uncover them to check them until the temperature gets back up above freezing.

I've linked the Mesonet map that shows official low temperatures since midnight. Of course, we all know that often our own temps are significantly higher or lower than those recorded at our county's mesonet station.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Low Temps Since Midnight

Dawn, I did not cover anything. I felt bad about the garden after I had come onside and went back out to spray the cabbage. The garden hose was left attached to the faucet and both were frozen. I put a heat lamp on the faucet and it was ok in 30 min. Mother nature will have to take care of the garden hose.

It seems so strange that it gets so cold in this valley. One of my gardening friends lives no more than a mile from me, up on a hill, and has at least a two week longer growing season.

Larry

Larry,

I agree that it is hard to believe how much lower temperatures will fall in a valley---and I say that after 12 years of living in a low-lying area of the Red River Valley.

My friend, Fred, who gardens barely over a mile from us but on significantly higher ground often has two more frost-free weeks in spring than I do and then two to four more frost-free weeks in fall. It drives me nuts because he can plant earlier and then torment me by saying "you haven't planted your corn and beans (or whatever) yet?".

Fred will have his corn and beans in the ground, and tomatoes in containers (he used to grow them in the ground but I converted him to container gardening) while my tomato plants are still indoors on the light shelf, and my bean and corn planting is weeks away.

I just went outside and uncovered the peppers, tomatoes, and flowers I'd covered and they were fine. Surprisingly, the plants that were not covered also were fine. So, I think that we must not have been at 30 degrees for very long...and the frost, while heavy, likely was only on the plants for an hour or two. The garden lives to play another day or two or a week or who knows how much longer.

The cold did knock the blooms off the plum tree, but that's OK since they were out of sync with reality. After a long, hot and dry summer, I guess the plum tree mistook the foot of rain that fell in Sept. as spring rains and decided to break dormancy and bloom again. That happens about every third year here, and the fall bloom cycle doesn't seem to hurt the tree at all because it blooms again in spring just fine.

Dawn

I have seen the plum trees do that in the city, Dawn, especially following a hot summer and the onset of a long. temperate fall. I have seen summers where a lot of ornamental flowering trees lose their foliage in summer due to heat and drought, and return to flower in the fall - we have very weird weather in Oklahoma!

Jo, your tomatos are GORGEOUS! Send some of your ripe, red thoughts to the city, will ya? Everything is GREEN, GREEN, GREEN!

It just seems so strange to me, Dawn, that you guys get frost before we do here in the city. Have had NO frost yet here, even tho I protected the plants just in case. Maybe it's the elevation and all that concrete around us that holds the heat. Lots of wind breaks around here, too. I'm sure we don't get as much "wind sweeping down the plains", valleys, open land, like you guys do. Houses all tucked up snugly against one another, hot car emissions, choke, choke, and the sun sets leaving a heat blanket over the city, holding in the warmth for a bit longer.

Geez, I wish this weather would last until spring....!

Susan

Susan,

It is common for all kinds of spring-blooming plants to bloom again in fall if the summer weather is either so hot or so dry, or both, that it pushes them into dormancy or just on the verge of going dormant. After a hot dry year here, I've seen it often on Bradford Pears and on cultivated forms of plums but less often on native plums and on redbuds. That sort of 'fake' dormancy-induced bloom happened only very rarely when we lived in Fort Worth, but we see it pretty often here.

The frost thing is almost entirely about our lower elevation. Remember that we are squarely in the Red River Valley at our house, with the river sitting very close (less than a half-mile, and probably closer to a quarter mile) from our western fence line, and also a few miles south of us, and also 2 or 3 miles to our east. With the Red River on three sides of us, we are (a) practically in Texas, and (b) in a low-lying frost-pocket type area. Even within the Red River Valley, our property is a low-lying creek hollow so it is even lower than land 300 yards from us that sits (obviously) higher than our creek hollow.

In general I don't mind the early/late frosts too much, except that it prevents me from transplanting tomatoes and peppers into the ground as early as our 'average last frost' data says we "can". I've learned, no, we cannot plant as early at our house as our county's last frost date leads one to believe we could. Sadly, though, for whatever reason, our low-lying frost pocket does not stay cooler in summer when we really need it!

Another thing I've learned about the river valley is that it can be a smoke highway. There have been several instances where our phone started ringing off the wall with neighbors calling me to ask if there is a wildfire near us. In almost every instance, the answer was "no" which puzzled everyone because we had such heavy smoke that everyone just "knew" a wildfire was raging nearby. In reality, the large wildfire was as far as 50 or 75 miles away, or even further, but heavy wind was pushing so much smoke down through the valley that it made it seem like we were "on fire" here.

During the awful 2005-2006 wildfire year, we had that kind of smoke all over Love County (not just down in the valley) from a very large fire in Carter County in the Ratliff City area one night. When Tim, who was driving home from work around 10 or 11 p.m., arrived at the Red River bridge, he thought it was heavy fog in the river valley until he smelled the telltale smokey smell.

It seems that life near the river is many things, but it is never, ever dull.

Dawn