How to protect plants from spring frost

Recommendation points

• What are the types of frost and how to predict them
• A bit of theory
• Smoke
• Sprinkling and watering
• Sheltering
• Garden protection features
• A few words about resuscitation

Our grandparents still remember those times when the climate was stable and predictable enough, winter was snowy and frosty, spring was warm, it was hot in summer and there was enough rainfall, and in autumn the harvest from the gardens could be harvested until the end of October. Today, unfortunately, weather surprises cause a lot of problems for gardeners and gardeners..

Spring frosts can severely damage fruit trees and shrubs, seedlings of heat-loving crops, flower beds and flower beds. They suffer from the quantity and quality of the harvest, and people who grow vegetables and fruits at a professional level incur significant losses. In order to withstand this natural anomaly, it is necessary to be able to determine the time of the onset of frosty weather and be carefully prepared for this. In this article we will talk about methods and means of protecting plants from frost, which can come even in late spring..

What are the types of frost and how to predict them

In order to understand how to deal with it, you need to “know the enemy by sight.” Science divides late spring frosts into adventive, radiation and mixed.

Adventive frosts occur during the invasion of the Arctic air masses. There are no methods to resist this natural phenomenon, it is useless to fight them. The good news is that this type of frost is inherent mainly in the northern regions, where the planting season and the timing of bud budding fall on a later period..

Radiation frosts occur quite often, and the reasons for their occurrence have not yet been practically studied. This phenomenon is associated with nighttime cooling of the surface layer of the soil. During the day, the earth heats up under the influence of sunlight and gives off heat energy to the surrounding space. At the same time, equal heat from the atmosphere is coming towards. At some point, this mechanism is disrupted, and the soil gives off more heat than it receives from the air. As a result, there is a sharp drop in the temperature of the surface layer of the earth. Such frosts are short-lived, pass in “stripes” and, as a rule, occur on clear, windless and cloudless nights..

Most often, mixed frosts (adventive-radiation) are observed. They are accompanied by a systematic decrease in temperature during inclement weather, last for a long time and cover large areas..

In order to be fully armed and to be able to provide effective assistance to plants, you need to know about the onset of frost in advance. This information can be obtained from the weather forecast in the media.

As you know, forecasters are often wrong, so you have to rely on your own observations of weather changes, which will help you prepare well for the onset of an unexpected cold snap. The approach of frost is always indicated by a sharp drop in temperature in the evening after a warm spring day and the absence of dew on the grass, as well as calm, dry, cloudless weather..

A bit of theory

Different cultures have different attitudes towards lowering temperatures. Cold-resistant plants adequately resist spring frosts, and when cold weather comes, you should not be afraid for them. For example, carrot seedlings and cabbage seedlings can withstand frost down to -6 ° C, parsnips and celery – up to minus 5, and parsley and lettuce – up to 9 degrees of frost.

Thermophilic crops such as peppers, tomatoes and eggplants cannot tolerate even minor drops in temperature. Hypothermia greatly weakens the plant’s immunity, which in the future can cause a number of dangerous diseases.

It should be noted that unhardened and poorly rooted seedlings of thermophilic crops suffer most from spring frosts. Seedlings of early vegetables must be grown in pots. This contributes to the fact that the root system is not damaged during transplantation. Plants take root faster and gain strength, and, therefore, more actively resist cold weather.

Fertile, rich, loose soils help plants in difficult times. They have enough air for active development, they warm up better in the sun. However, loose soil, cleared of weeds, cools down much faster. This must also be taken into account when frost occurs..

Crops planted in unfavorable areas – lowlands and northern slopes – suffer most from low temperatures. Freezing temperatures are more common here, and frosts last much longer than in areas with a convex relief or in open areas. Near rivers or large bodies of water, the risk of spring frosts is reduced many times.

Smoke

Fumigation or fuming is a well-known, long-standing method of dealing with spring frosts. This technology is based on the fact that smoke creates an artificial cloud, and the radiation of heat from the soil is noticeably reduced. In addition, when fumigated, dust particles are capable of condensing water vapor in the air, resulting in a fog that protects plants.

To carry out protection against frost by means of smoking, heaps of materials that are capable of smoldering with weak combustion are prepared in advance on the territory of the site. From the bottom of the heap they put firewood and brushwood, on which straw, manure, foliage are piled. All this is compacted and covered with a layer of earth, 2-3 centimeters thick. These smoke piles (1 meter high and 1.5 meters wide) are designed for a 15 hour fumigation period, for best results, they should be laid out at a frequency of one pile per 10 square meters. For smoke and air to escape, holes are made from above and from the leeward side..

The main disadvantage of this method is its labor intensity. Frosts, in most cases, are not limited to one night, and therefore the smoke heaps need to be restored the next night. This method is effective only in calm weather and at temperatures up to minus 4 degrees. When the threat of frost has passed, unburned material from the smoke piles can be used as fertilizer or mulch.

Sprinkling and watering

To reduce the thermal radiation of the soil, you can use the method of creating artificial fog (sprinkling). This method is quite effective for short-term frosts. The essence of this method is to spray the plants with water in any way possible. This work can be carried out at night, until sunrise. At this time, the leaves and stems of plants are covered with a thin crust of ice, which is able to protect the culture from frost to minus 5 °.

Such a method of protection from spring frosts, as irrigation, has long been used in agricultural practice. Watering very well increases the thermal conductivity and heat capacity of the earth. On wet soil at night it is much more efficient than on dry soil; heat is transferred from depth to the surface. After evening watering, condensation occurs, accompanied by the release of heat. And in this warm cloud, plants will be able to withstand short-term temperature drops of up to -4 degrees..

When using sprinkling and watering, the well-known laws of physics apply, when when one gram of water freezes, 80 calories are released, which increases the temperature around the plant..

Sheltering

Covering plants is by far the most effective and most widespread method of protecting heat-loving plants from spring frosts. This method has only one drawback – it is not suitable for protecting large trees..

Individual hideouts are the most primitive part of this method. Such shelters can be built over each individual hole or seedling bush. Any materials on hand will do. You can cover plants with paper bags made from juice or dairy products, or plastic bottles. Covering them with glass jars can be a good protection for newly planted seedlings, and some gardeners use cardboard boxes for packaging for this purpose. To protect crops from frost, burlap and matting are also suitable, many people use hay or sawdust for these purposes.

Tomatoes and potatoes can be covered with soil. In this case, tomato seedlings are carefully bent to the ground and sprinkled with an earthen layer 2-3 cm thick. Tomatoes can be under such a shelter for several days. Young sprouts of potatoes for protection from frost can be simply spud “headlong”.

The use of plastic sheeting is possible with some restrictions. The point is that polyethylene cannot be simply thrown over plants. On frosty nights, when the film comes into contact with leaves, plants can get significant burns. Polyethylene film is not able to retain heat at the proper level and shelters from it can be used only as an additional tool, and only if it is stretched over the frame. You can, for example, cover the plants with paper or hay, and put a frame with stretched polyethylene on top. In this case, an additional air cushion is created, which improves protection against freezing temperatures..

Today, the farm products market offers gardeners a large selection of agrofibers. This non-woven polypropylene material is very lightweight, and at the same time has good thermal protection properties. Agrofibre can be applied to plants without using a frame. This material allows water to pass through well, and after rain the soil under it does not need to be watered. Moreover, in hot weather, the soil covered with agrofibre perfectly retains moisture..

Agrofibre is available in various thicknesses and densities. The thinnest option will help protect the plants in case the temperature drops to minus 3 °, and agrofibre of higher density and thickness helps with frosts down to minus 7-9 degrees. When purchasing agrofibre in a specialized store, you should definitely consult with the seller about this. Light agrofibre can be laid directly on the plants freely and without tension, sprinkling with earth along the edges. For large plants, it is better to make wire arches.

Garden protection features

In the event of late spring frosts, the level of danger for trees and shrubs depends on the phase of plant development. For example, buds and already blossoming flowers can be damaged if the temperature drops to minus 3-4 degrees, and the resulting ovaries will die already at minus 1 ° С.

Trees and shrubs growing in the lowlands and on the northern slopes are especially affected, since the intensity and duration of frosts in these places is much higher than in elevated areas and on a flat surface. But near rivers, ponds and other large bodies of water, garden trees and shrubs are almost never damaged by frost. These factors must be taken into account when setting up a garden..

You can protect trees and shrubs in all the ways we talked about above. That is, smoke, and sprinkling and shelter of plants are suitable here. When a cold snap sets in, many gardeners install many containers of water under the trees. In specialized stores, you can buy smoke bombs, the use of which helps to protect trees at temperatures up to minus 4 degrees. The smoke from such checkers covers the leaves with a layer of paraffin, which protects them from icy dew that falls in the morning. It is good to cover small trees and shrubs with dense agrofibre using a frame made of wire arches. However, this method is not suitable for large branched trees..

Some gardeners with the onset of spring frosts heat the garden with special heating pads. For the manufacture of such devices, old iron buckets, large cans of cans and other metal containers are suitable. These containers are filled with used oil, diesel fuel, fuel oil – that is, that combustible material that will not be too expensive for you. A crosspiece made of tin or a netting is placed on the heating pad, and a wick in the form of a stick dipped in kerosene is installed on it. When frosty weather sets in, you just need to light the wick. Placing such heating pads at the rate of two pieces per hundred square meters will help to raise the air temperature around trees and shrubs by 5-6 degrees.

Some gardeners, especially those living closer to the northern latitudes, use the so-called biological method of combating spring frosts. The essence of this method is to curb the beginning of flowering of trees and shrubs..

You can slow down the onset of flowering with early spring watering, which lowers the temperature in the garden and increases its humidity. Summer pruning of stone fruit crops such as peach and apricot promotes the emergence of a second wave of growth of young shoots, on which later buds appear, and, accordingly, later flowering and fruit formation begins.

A few words about resuscitation

Do not despair if, despite using protective methods, your plants still suffer from frost. Many plants can be bounced back by spraying them in the morning before sunrise with water from a spray bottle. This will help them recover faster..

A speedy recovery is helped by root dressing with a solution of nitroammofoska – at the rate of 50 grams per bucket of water (a bucket of solution for 1 m²). Foliar dressing, that is, spraying the leaves, can also significantly improve the well-being of the crop. For spraying, you can prepare a solution according to this recipe: take 2 grams of boron, copper and manganese each and dissolve it all in a bucket of water. It is best to use fermented weed infusion instead of water, if available.

Loosening of the soil contributes to the better regrowth of plants damaged by freezing.

And yet, do not rush to remove damaged tomato seedlings – on the side shoots, a completely “tolerable” crop can form.

A person does not have the ability to influence the change in the weather, but we can help our garden and vegetable garden to actively resist the onset of cold weather. To do this, in the spring, you need to carefully monitor changes in weather conditions and prepare all available protective equipment in advance..