Comments on: I live in a cold climate

By: Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 01:02:44 +0000

There have been years where we’ve had a very dry period in the summer, and then get a good rain towards fall when the nights are getting cool again. I’ve had plants act like they were going through a second spring, blooming again when in a normal year they wouldn’t. So maybe something similar happened with that tomato plant, except temperature being the trigger instead of moisture. And I know you would agree that we don’t know everything there is to know about tomatoes–or any plant for that matter.

By: M Sinclair Stevens (Texas)

M Sinclair Stevens (Texas) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:45:21 +0000

I’m still confused about the tomato thing. I was thinking about it this morning when I picked a handful of tomatoes off that cherry tomato I planted last fall. I covered it during our freezes (if the temps were going to be in the 20s overnight) but didn’t on our last freeze in late February. It froze. Later when I was going to pull it out I noticed that the stem was green. So I just cut it back.

I have lots of perennials that die to the ground and resprout in the spring. This tomato did just that. All the tomatoes have been slow to ripen this year because of our oddly cool spring. But my frozen cherry tomato has been keeping pace with the plants I put out in March. I don’t see any difference at all.

By: Talitha

Talitha — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:01:01 +0000

There was one year not too long ago where my brother was scraping frost of his windshield on June 30th. . .but these cold nights don’t rule out hot days. It’s not all that unusual for us to have nights dipping into the low fifties and days skimming the bottom of 90 or higher.

By: Shirley

Shirley — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:42:26 +0000

We’re cold-weather gardeners too, and this year has been great because so far (and it’s getting too late now) we have not had a frost after we planted the tomatoes. Last year we weren’t so lucky and had to cover the entire garden several times, but we’re used to it! Nice site….

By: Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:24:40 +0000

Well, my hand-me-down GPS says right outside the door we are 1,059 ft. (but it says accuracy is 20%) and then our property goes uphill from there.

By: The Red Scot

The Red Scot — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 14:22:49 +0000

What is your elevation?

By: Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 11:33:38 +0000

Carol and Ellis Hollow--I am still searching for a comprehensive source of information on chill injury. You would think some northern extension service would have a website page devoted to it, but I didn't find it using the search terms "chill injury" and "vegetables." Lost Roses--check the fine print when you go shopping for a weather instrument. As I stated when I got mine, not all wireless thermometers go down as far as we cold climate residents need them to go down. I settled on one that only went down to minus 22 degrees F, and it's only bottomed out a few times since 2003.

By: LostRoses

LostRoses — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 03:52:59 +0000

I just heard our weatherman on the evening news warning us to cover our tender annuals and tomatoes. The weather is a crapshoot until we get deep into June, and we aren’t there yet.

I love your thermometer and thanks for the links, I think I’ll finally order one of those. If nothing else, to satisfy my curiousity over whether I really had to “cover” those crops!

By: Carol

Carol — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 22:49:53 +0000

Kathy, I read or heard that tomatoes don’t grow below 59.6 degrees, or something like that. I hope you don’t get a frost. That would be cruel, as cruel as temperatures in the 90′s!

I don’t know how you do it… lots of sweaters and sweathshirts, I guess.

By: Ellis Hollow

Ellis Hollow — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 22:11:54 +0000

It was cold over here in balmy Ithaca, too, Kathy. When I got up, it was 38F and change on the electronic thermometer here at the house. But the vegetable garden downslope is usually 3 to 5 degress colder.

I had everything covered with buckets and pots. It all survived, but like you I worry about other effects of non-killing cold on warm-season crops.