Wednesday, November 13, 2019

FREEZE PREP

As this posts, we just had our coldest night of the season.  They forecast low of mid to upper 20's.  After I get home tonight, I'll update this with the "official" low.  The current record low for this date goes back to 1907.


At the farm I tried to get things ready for the freeze.  There was enough warning to have time to get done what I needed.  I dug out the freeze cloth box with the bungee cords.  We used these a couple of years ago for the citrus that was behind the garden.  They are round openings at the bottom and the thought was they would go around the square boxes.

Of the 11 fruit trees we have now behind the house, the only ones that need to be protected are the three citrus trees.  The apple, pear, plum and peach trees are all fine into the single digits or even below zero.  Barring a "Day After Tomorrow" scenario, we won't ever have to worry about those kinds of temps.


Now the plan, as I had mentioned, was to drape them over the boxes themselves.  Alas, since they were round openings they didn't work (the old square peg in a round hole conundrum, ha).  So I had to improvise.  I took mulch and mounded it up around the base of each tree.  Then I put the covers on.  I used some coat hangers to try to keep the bags off as much of the foliage as possible.  Then I just tied them off around the trunks.

All we can do is hope for the best.


On the porch, I put this box around the banana trees.  I also draped a sheet over the top.  They should be OK.  2nd Family is going to come remove the sheet after the cold snap.  I told them to just leave the cardboard on so they leaves didn't get any burn from the chilly wind.

As for the rest of the plants on the porch, they are all freeze tolerant.


I packed up the garden trellises that I should have done last Summer and put them in the mower shed.


I disconnected all the hoses around the house and garden and removed the manifolds like this one. I did however forget to wrap this pipe. 


 We're worried but 2nd Family said they would get up there and wrap it if necessary.  The original forecast was 30, maybe 29 and even that was only for about 3 hours.  That's not a big deal and we don't have to worry about pipes in that weather.  But then last night as the new weather models came in they were showing mid 20's possible.  As I typed this last night, it was 30 at the farm.  Hoping they are wrong and it stays around the 28 or 29 range.

Stay warm!

9 comments:

  1. I have my three lemon trees outside right now and I'm afraid they will either be damaged or die because I couldn't get the covering I needed in time. Hope you fair better.

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  2. I covered my 3 potted roses and brought some i9nside and put in the shed.
    We had freezing temperatures Monday & Tuesday night.

    Now, of all things we have to have a new furnace put in :( of which they will be coming out tomorrow.

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  3. we were 12 this morning and my furnace broke. real life!

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  4. I was really glad that a light cloud cover moved in and moderated the temp by a few degrees. There was still a freeze but it wasn’t bad.
    Now it looks like there might be a light freeze on Friday night. I’m just leaving everything covered up until then.

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  5. When I first seen the box of freeze cloth and bungees I thought you had another box of snakes! Ha :-)

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  6. I. too, thought that was a box of snakes at first sight when scrolling.

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  7. I lost a few plants, but I really have no where indoors to keep them. Oh well!

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  8. Good job protecting your plants. I HATE the cleanup part of the cycle so much! But yeah, it has to be done! Stay warm! :)

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  9. I've just recently learned of freeze prevention pouches ... pre made canvas type outer coating with probably an inch or so of insulation inside... come in various sizes ... be sure and look for the right height/width combo... if you look on amazon you will find a ton of these in various sizes and manufacturers... I just got a quite large one for outside our kitchen where there is a manifold with valves for main shutoff, house, pool and irrigation ... I'm hopeful I can make this large one work ... there are pipes coming from ground, but also go up and into the side of the house .... so not a perfect fit ... but worth checking out... easy on and off and easier than dealing with wrapping pipes and keeping the insulation in place and insulation doing it's job...

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