What you can do is place a pot/bucket over every few plants and then drape a plastic sheet/blanket/quilt/bed sheet/tarp..over the buckets to make sort of a tent over all the plants. Cover the edges with dirt , bricks ..If you use a plastic sheet don't let it touch the plant.

The more redneck looking the better it'll work.

Rick

You usually don't have to go to a lot of trouble to cover brassicas in the early spring.

24* isn't going to kill brocolli / caul and especially cabbage .

Buttoning is more the concern if the low temps are prolonged.

And covering may or may not prevent buttoning.

you might could delay putting out brassicas till after the frost date

But then they may not produce before the heat sets in.

Hence the catch 22.

Rick

A-hole weather as usual.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvc3E_evvgI&list=TLPQMTgwMjIwMjFw7cZA82fALA&index=3

Rick

I am a little nervous tonight about the weather, my min/max shows that it got down to 29 last night, but it must have been a very short time because the warm weather plants in the greenhouse looked good today. The temp is dropping much faster tonight than last night. Our low is suppose to be 34, where last night low was supposed to be 32.

Neighbor is on vacation, and, I am trying to look after the greenhouse, but we have no heat, and there is at least 2000 warm season plants in the greenhouse. The temp has been holding at 37 for a while so it may not drop below 34 tonight. I left the greenhouse shut up today trying to let the heat build up, hoping the soil will be warm enough to keep the plants safe tonight. With the number of plants we have in the greenhouse there is no way I could haul them to my house to try to protect them, and the extension cord we have over there is not heavy enough to run an electric heater.

Sounds like you need to call in the troops.

If I was closer I'd be there by daylight.

Rick

You might try covering the plants. Row covers would be ideal

but old bed sheets or whatever you got would work too. If you use plastic prop it up over the plants but not touching them. Cover them late in the day before the temp start dropping off to hold the heat a little more. Might want to uncover them the next morning when it starts warming back up in there.

An extra layer of covering inside the green house would give it a few more degrees of protection.

Here's what Jennifer does in the hoop house but with row cover instead of the shade cloth there.

Rick

I stayed up till after midnight watching them temp, it was at 34 when I went to bed, and Ft. Smith was to drop to 32, I am most often a little cooler than Ft. Smith, but I felt that I may squeak by. When I got up this morning my min/max showed a low of 32, and up to 40 now, I expect the greenhouse is okay. I will go check after it warms up, I will also let the heat build a little higher today, with the sun shining like it is that should happen. I think the double layered panels on the greenhouse must help with the insulation.

Hi all. Hope you all are doing well. Battling temps with no green house and 5x the number of plants with which I am familiar. Ready to offload Some.

Any idea if I can transplant hollyhock seedlings now?

Shasta daisies?

Waiting to put my brassies out when they are too big for cut worms. So I’m prepping the beds with hoop installations.

When do the white flies generally show up?

TiA Blessings to you all.

bon

Location: Central 6b/7a Avg Last frost: 3rd or 4th week of April

Keep an eye out for Friday & Sat overnights. Every time I look, it gets worse :/

I have heard of warming a greenhouse with a crock pot full of water. You leave the lid off.

Hwy20, which mesonet station do you use?

Hi ya, Bon!

Sorry for the brevity, but I just can't type in Houzz. I read here every day, even if i don't comment.

I heard of warming larger greenhouses with water barrows painted black to absorb heat from the sun during the day and release heat through the night. I've tried it with smaller 2 liter bottles and gal jugs of water under low tunnel structures, might of helped a little...doesn't hurt. That's what I would do if I was trying to get tomatoes through a late Apr freeze.

Rick

HJ, ok, that's an odd coincidence! We've been watching them doing work over there for a couple months but I could never catch them when I was free to go chat. Saw them outside the other day & waved them down. Mainly to let her know our dogs were all friendly even though they sound like little monsters, so she didn't have to worry much about her little dog. Also wanted to make nice so we didn't have a repeat of the previous owners. Hope they don't mind dogs lol.

I have garlic, onions, broccoli, peas, radish and some mustard greens coming up in the back, then planted some turnips and peas in the circle bed out front. The circle bed I'm not too concerned if nothing produces, I mainly just want the plants to grow so I can incorporate it into the soil. Also planted up 3 of my dwarf tomatoes and once this cold snap ends I'll start moving them outside on warm days. Everything outside has a layer of hay covering it for protection. May the odds be in their favor.

Amy, the crock pot might actually be a helpful solution to offload some plants. Your comment reminded me of something I read by a guy that used a fish tank heater in some water to heat his small green house. I just don’t know anything about fish tronics so it doesn’t resonate with me, but the crock pot does.

I shall build it and monitor it. Letcha know.

I mentioned the black barrels to neighbor, he seemed to want to heat the greenhouse with electricity, until I told him about what it would cost.

At one time I was able to buy black plastic barrels that had contained acid, those were really great barrels, they were about twice at thick as the plastic barrels you buy now, but I have not seen one of those barrels in over 30 years. The greenhouse is sitting on a gravel pad with black plastic stretched over the gravel.

I went to the greenhouse about 1:30, and it was about 95 degrees inside, I opened the top half of the door and will go back in a while and water everything and close it up in time for it to warm good before night.

Hwy20, it looks like Fri. night will be a tuff night for us also, but neighbor should be home by then.

Bon, it is nice to see you post, I hope everything is well with you.

Rick, I had my grand daughter order a carburetor for my mantis. I have had more trouble with my tillers since I started using my tractors in the garden. I think a small engine will run better if it is used ever week, rather than 2 or 3 times a year.

A carburetor doesn't have a chance to gum up as much when ran more.

I run my Mantis so much that I come more near wearing out the transmission.

Rick

Rick, have you ever worn out the tines on your mantis? The mantis looks like the transmission and the tines would be the week spots, but I don't see how a small 21 cc 2 cycle engine can last long either. I bought the easy start system when I bought mine, knowing that my body going to pot. I also ran under ground electric lines to both gardens, planning to go to an electric tiller if I had to, but I had an electric mower long ago and knew that an electric tiller would probably my last choice. My body is pretty well shot now, but not bad enough to buy an electric tiller. I can just see me getting my feet tangled up in the electric cord and tilling my self to death.

Yeah I've worn the tines down some.

The most problem I've had is the transmission hanging up and not turning

and then the clutch slipping. They used to have a grease zert on the transmission at the bottom where the tines turn but then they started putting a plate there to have to take loose and pack grease in where the worm gear is.

I've gone through 4 or 5 Mantis's in the last 30 years or so.

I mainly use them to keep the middles cleaned out between the rows

Rick

Hey Bon! Long time <3

Jen, Tena likes animals, so you should be fine with that. She gets really frustrated by a couple of our neighbors who don't care properly for their animals. Her little Dixie is a barker too. She said that she hadn't noticed your dogs barking much while she's been working over there. I told her the people who lived there before, weren't very kind to your pups.

Maybe y'all can figure out your sandy soil situation together.

I'm sad because I haven't been able to do much gardening this week so far. Because of busyness and weather.

Amy, I typically use the mesonet that looks north of the airport. Although I also take a look at the Talala and Skiatook stations from time to time. Being more or less in Collinswasso, I figure that Tulsa one is closest as a crow flies.

Rick, it is easy enough to install a grease zerk if you can find a spot to put one. I try to keep then here at the house. The easiest ones I have to install are the drive in type, you don't need a tap to install them. I just use a small socket and an extension, set the zerk into the entrance of the drilled hole, with the socket riding on the shoulder of the zerk, then whack the extension with a hammer. The zerks I use take a 1/4" or 5/16" pilot hole. You can also buy John Deere corn head grease, which is a #0 weight grease that comes in 14 oz tube. I cant tell you if it works as well as the Mantis grease or not, I can't get the cover off my Mantis gear box. Because of having weak hands and arms, I installed the screws with an impact driver, now I have to drill out at least one of the screws.

I wonder why Mantis quit putting grease zerks there to begin with.

That corn head grease looks like good stuff.

I might even try it on my worn U-joints on my truck.

Rick

I expect that there may be two reasons Mantis may have used to quit installing the grease zerks, (1) would be that it cost more money to install a grease zerk. (2) zerks may have been getting knocked off and sand getting into the gear box.

I use the corn head grease because a lot of the junk I own wont hold gear oil because of worn out seals. I try to mix up a paste that is too thin to stick to the gear box casing, and too thick to easily run out the worn seals. Most of the junk I own is stuff given to me because it was not worth repairing. I own 4 brush hogs, my heaviest brush hog wont hold gear oil, but I seldom use it, it was my first brush hog.

My old rear tine tiller is another tool I use the mix of oil and grease in, because it is the clam shell design gear case, and the seals are worn out on the axle and tiller spindle, and being a chain and gear drive I want to keep something in it that does not easily leak out.

Hwy20, I believe the "north tulsa " mesonet station is at Apache and Harvard at the TCC campus. I'm actually closer to Tulsa airport, but not by much. I can't figure out why Owasso doesn't have one. Jen knows about a network of (I think) privately owned weather stations, but I couldn't get it to work for me. Maybe she'll post a link.

https://ambientweather.net/

Channel 4 says 23 * Sunday morning for the OKC area.

If the storms don't blow us away first. Worst of it supposed to be southeast ok tomorrow afternoon.

Larry you might want to beware.

Rick

Rick, thanks for the heads up. Madge had just waved at me to look at the TV, which I think was saying 23 also. neighbor will be home by Fri., and we will have to rig something up. We may have to sit a generator down by the greenhouse. I think that there is an RV plug down there also, I have a couple of 12 gauge extension. I think a couple of 1500 watt heaters will keep the greenhouse warm enough to save the plants. I may want to move enough plants to my house to plant my garden, neighbor may want to do the same, just so we can be on the safe side.

II got another flat of Covington sweet potatoes ready to place on a heat mat today. I have several containers of them in the greenhouse, and I have not seen a sprout yet, but the Red wine Velvet are really sprouting. I was late with the Covington slips last year also, those things keep so well that it is hard to get to make a sprout. I wish I could learn to make the RWV potatoes store lie the Covington. The sweet potatoes will be some of the plants to be moved to the house, because I have most of my potatoes tied up in the slip making process.

We also dont have any Irish potatoes up yet, I hope they have not rotted.

You don't want to have Irish potatoes up yet anyway.

They'll get bit back by the freezes.

I'm concerned about my potatoes rotting too , but I don't want them up just yet.

Just worry about the plants in the green house.

Rick

Seeing 22F now for overnight Saturday. I'm thinking this will not go over very well. Maybe Worleys has some replacements in the greenhouse that we can get going right afterwards. Guess we'll cover what we can and let the cards fall.

Your brassicas should handle it if they've been hardened off enough.

Go ahead and cover them however way you can anyway.

Brassicas can handle the 20's . It's when it get into the teens or worst is when you got problems.

Good to have backup plants when you do.

Rick

Regarding the weather....I'll bring in the trays of cabbage. They need to be planted, but haven't been. They look so good and I can't wait until they can go into the garden. I'll also bring in the tray of kale, swiss chard and spinach. It all needs to be planted next week.

I'll throw some coverings over the lettuce and broccoli in the hoop house beds and maybe even a cloth over the strawberries since they're newly planted.

That's all I'm going to do.

I'm always excited about growing fresh veggies, but I'm really excited about making my backyard pretty. It's been a project that's been put on hold for 3 years now. I'm excited about growing flowers too. And herbs. Obviously, I've had those things all along, but they've barely been paid attention to for a while.

I'm not sure If I mentioned that I purchased two Vego beds. They were a splurge, but I got them on sale AND I ordered them through Amazon and had a gift card there too. I ordered the pearl white. We'll do the 3.5' x 6.5' configuration. They'll go between the patio and chicken pen flowerbeds. The Vego arrived today.

There's a weird place right outside our backdoor. The patio is to the left and there's a square of grass to our right. It's not a big spot. maybe 5'x5'. All the boring and ugly electrical stuff is on the outside wall there too. Over the years, I've tried to think of something I could grow there. It does get full sun. It's on the west side, so really hot in the summer. Sunflowers! Sunflowers of all colors and shapes and sizes! IF something happens and someone needs to look at/work on the electrical things, it would not be difficult to remove the sunflowers.

Next year, I'll do the Greenstalks. (I think) I like the Stunning Stone color the best.

I checked Ft. Smith weather forecast, and it looks better than I thought, Fri. 32, Sat. and Sun. are expected to be down to 27, but I often run as much as 5 degrees cooler than Ft. Smith. I think some electric heat in the greenhouse, plus hauling some important plants to a safe place will get us by. No more freezing weather show up for the rest of March, but because of the crazy weather we have in this valley, it will still be unsafe to plant tender plants for at least a month, and even then we will need to hold some back-up plants.

The rain is keeping me in today. I did manage to up pot 19 Sun Gold tomatoes and 30 Beefmaster tomatoes, I have over 100 Yellow Jubilee coming on, plus what ever Madge has planted.

Neighbor has done like me and most other gardeners by planting too many seeds. We will be out of room in the greenhouse when we start up potting our starts in the greenhouse. We have far too many cucurbits, eggplants, and peppers. I expect we will have far too many tomatoes also. I dont know what all neighbor has planted, but we will have 100,s of tomatoes if all the seeds come up.

That's a lot, Larry. I did really well this year with not starting too many seeds, except for the cabbage. But, I have a place for them all, so it's not a problem.

Normally, I have way too many plants. As it is this year, I might need to purchase a couple of jalapeno. I only wanted 5 or 6 of those, and only 3 have sprouted. The Ashe County Pimento is not showing up. The Bell is doing great and the Doe Hill is making an appearance finally.

Tomatoes--so far, I like the number that I have.

Everyone gardens for different reason (and to me, any reason to garden is a good reason). I want enough veggie plants and produce for us to eat fresh....and enough to preserve. I don't want an overabundance of it because caring for too many plants and dealing with the produce can be overwhelming at some point.

That's me. Other people have other ways and reasons.

It's been raining all day at work. I'm about to head home.

I was able to spend a little bit of time yesterday (in the crazy wind) weeding behind the shop. The red poppies have shown up, but that is all. I pulled the henbit away from those, but need to finish it up. It will probably take a couple of hours to finish that task.

The burn pile "garden" is always the most interesting to me. Currently, there's yarrow, garlic, lemon balm, and what I think are coneflowers--all in large numbers. I'll probably choose a nice looking lemon balm and move it to a pot next to the herb garden. And relocate some of the coneflowers to the area behind the shop. I'm happy to leave plenty of volunteers in the burn pile, but at some point it gets a little overgrown and I don't want Tom to mow it over. I like those things there for the pollinators. But, it's harder for me to get to those things if I want to use them--like the lemon balm.

Jennifer, I wish I lived close enough to come to the Spring Fling, I always have plants to give away. One of my goals in gardening is to help my neighbor, he has a produce stand, and a greenhouse, but this is the first year he has used his greenhouse. I use my equipment to help with getting soil ready to plant stuff for neighbor to sell or trade, while he helps me with things I can't do anymore. I am also trying to plant an interest in gardening in my daughter and grand daughter. I expect that the main reason I garden is because I enjoy it.

Well, It is getting late in the afternoon and I need to go check on the greenhouse, there is a tornado watch west of us, and I need to see that things are latched down.

I found about twenty pots that should be big enough to do some covering. Need to come up with about 10 more. I had a thought, and i'll let you all tell me if i'm crazy. I've got a stash of hand warmers left over that i won't be needing...was thinking about going out around 1am and putting one in each cover pot/bucket.

Not a bad idea. I'm assuming you have 10 plants each of brocolli , cauliflower and cabbage.

don't worry about the cabbage , it's the hardiest of the three . Just handwarm and cover the cauliflower and brocolli. if you come up with another 10 pots for the cabbage then go ahead and do them too.

Rick

Will the hand warmer give off fumes? What if you had a bunch of plastic pop bottles you could put warm water in ?

That's a thought too. I would guess that hand warmers would give off carbon monoxide.

Don't know if it's harmful to plants. If you're going to go to the trouble of getting up at 1 AM in the morning, then maybe just heat up a big pot of hot water and fill smaller water bottles to set in under the pots.

For added assurance I would drape over a layer of plastic over the pots.

It's probably overkill ( at least for brassicas).

No idea is crazy with us , just let us know about it.

Still hearing that wind howling out of the north, is it still January?

rick

Hahaha...if it weren't a weekend, those plants would have to fend for themselves.

Most of the plants are broccoli, so we'll prob cover those and the cauliflower and leave the cabbage to tough it out unless we find something.

Those warmers produce heat by reacting oxygen and iron powder, basically rusting.

I will toss out something I try to keep on hand, which is plastic bags. We save the Walmart plastic bags, and then I buy 3 sizes of trash bags from a place in Ft. Smith, Morgan Supply. You have to a large box of a 1000 on the smaller trash can liners, and 100 or 250 on the larger bags. The largest bag I use is a 55 gallon barrel liner, which is pretty heavy. I find uses for all sizes. The large ones I often cut up for the plastic. The small ones we use for trash can liners in the house, they would easily fit over a 5 gallon bucket. The small or middle size I have used as a small greenhouse out in the garden. I only use the bag for a greenhouse if I don't have something set up in the house, and it is for a short time only, and only one flat will fit in it, and the bag is held in place with clothes pin, I stick wire in the potting soil, or down into the garden soil to keep the plastic off the small plants. ( I dont have a good place in my house to start plants if I dont have my light shelves set up )

I don't know if this is of any interest to any of you, but Rick made me think of it when he mentioned placing plastic over the 5 gallon bucket. I dont know what the bags cost now, by buying them in large amounts I got them pretty cheap, and buying that many at one time it is years before I have to go back for more.

I was referring to placing a plastic "sheet" over all the buckets..

Bags would work too if you have enough of them.

Plastic is handy to have around for a lot of things.

Rick

I have covered plants up so few times in my life that I really dont know of a good way. I use to use 5 gallon buckets every now and then, but I have such a hard time getting around it is easier for me to have back-up plants. I can remember a few times fighting with sheets of different things in the cold wind, and it blowing off before I could get it tacked down, I am just not able to do that anymore.

Yeah that wind is a pain. I fought it all the time I had low tunnels up from the fall.

Rick

We made it to 31 this morning. I'm about to head to the hoop house to vent it and remove the coverings because we're at 36 and it's SUNNY. If I wait too long it will be 90 in that hoop house. Funny how those things work.

I brought in the tray of kale because it had a few herbs in it. They would have been fine, tho. The cabbages stayed in the hoop. I nearly forgot the calendula. It can take a light frost, I THINK. But didn't want to risk it. It's one of my focus herbs. And I have quite a bit of it. Those extra trays didn't fit on the light shelf, but they're big enough to be okay just sitting next to it. The door to that room has to be kept closed. I have 2 sister cats who love herbs--all herbs. I always say that their ancestors must have belonged to herbalists, wise women or witches. My herb cabinet is such a fascination for them. Even closed, they'll nose at it.

Anyway....

I'll take the trays back to the hoop house and only bring the calendula up tonight. Tomorrow, night, the cabbages will come indoors too.

How did everyone elses plants do?

I hope the lows on Sunday morning don't harm those lovely plant volunteers in the burn pile. Or my red poppies.

The seedlings on the light shelf really need to be potted on. (I like saying "potted on" now. There's a girl I follow on Instagram from the Isle of Man and that's what she calls potting up or up-potting.)

It's a messy job and I prefer to do it outside or in the shop. Maybe after this cold spell.

The tomatillos HAD to be potted on, tho, so I did those last night in the house.

Okay. it's time to open the hoop house now.

My Min/max shows a low of 34 last night, but I have not been down to the green house yet. Temp shows to be 38 now with the sun shining, the temp should be climbing fast in the greenhouse, I will check it in a while, neighbor should be back from vacation, I will let him decide if we run heat for the next 3 nights, I think we should because we have an ungodly amount of warm seasoned plants in there. I have started more plants than he and I need for food at my house, but it would be a shame to lose all the plants in the greenhouse.

I checked the Ash County pimento, and 2 other kinds of bell peppers on the light shelf, they will be ready to up pot in about a week, and if neighbor does not want to run heat the next 3 nights, I will sneak out a few flats of plants from the greenhouse and bring them to my house and place them on my light shelf, we will have plenty to eat. I will also sneak out any plants that we need seeds from to restock out supply.

Well, turns out I won't have to mess with a lot of the broccoli, etc. Looks like a rabbit took out a third of what we had planted.

Took a look at Atwoods today and they had plenty of Bonnie plants covered with burlap. At a price of $6 per, I will just put the carrot seed in that row when they get hammered by the now forecasted 21F temps.

I had a patch of brocolli nubbed down by rabbits some years back. That's why I cover with the milk jugs. If it's the only green thing out there the rabbits will go for it.

Rick

Found some Lieutenant Broccoli for much better price. They are smaller than my plants were, but they mature a couple of weeks earlier. Prob gonna need to screen them off. I've got a fair amount of chicken fence i could make small cloches out of. Who knows what else is in store.

I have not even been outside today. The greenhouse was okay yesterday, and neighbor is home from vacation, so I am just taking it easy in the house. The temp got down to 26 last night and to 44 today. I may start more seeds today in the house, I don't want to do anything in the cold wind.

Hwy20, I am sorry you are having critter problems, but critter problems have always plagued me in gardening, above ground, and below ground, a good fence will help with some of them. One of the areas we hope to plant ( if it ever drys ) has a ton of gophers in it, probably moles also. The deer are always a problem here. We are leaving some of the food plots, hoping that they serve as a decoy.

Hwy, I purchased a few of those wire waste baskets from Dollar Tree. They fit nicely over small plants. Good to protect from critters and hail too.