Frost: I'm confused

Wide-O · Nov 4, 2008

As we had a frost warning a few days ago, I moved all the plants I wanted to keep inside. I discarded some others, but kept a few plants outside to see how they would cope. (yes, very cruel

)

The first night was only -1°C, the second one temps went down to -3°C.

We are now 4 days later, and to my surprise, none of the plants have died. Some seem to have wilted a bit more than others, but for example a Pequin is still as green as it was before.

It was my understanding that even light frost would kill off the plants, and this seems to indicate that's not always true.

What could have caused this?

talas · Nov 4, 2008

I indeed something simalr my friend and found out even a light frost(air) can cause much more damage than we think leaves scrunch first..Them any fruit will start to go,But a severe frost if it is a penetrating one and even a -1 can do a lot of damage,The where a few that survived till-3 and snow, Goats weed did surprisingly well and Roctoc Canario which was planted out in my garden and cut back before the main frost/snow and still seems to be doing ok after all the battering

POTAWIE · Nov 4, 2008

The plants in my unheated greenhouse just finally died with a temp of -7C but plants outside in the wind were killed several weeks ago

Omri · Nov 4, 2008

Even 0c can kill ya plants, it's all about duration. one night, or even two or three won't kill ya plants.

chilliman64 · Nov 4, 2008

yeah Omri's right, it seems to be more of a war of attrition that kills the plants (unless you get snow of course). it also depends on the varieties you are growing as some are more cold (frost) tolerant than others - pubescens are particularly hardy so I've been lead to believe.

wordwiz · Nov 4, 2008

How much moisture is in the air makes a big difference also. We had one night where it got down to 31 and my basil plants were not hurt. The next night it was 33 but with a lot more moisture and the plants died.

Mike

Omri · Nov 4, 2008

wordwiz said:
How much moisture is in the air makes a big difference also. We had one night where it got down to 31 and my basil plants were not hurt. The next night it was 33 but with a lot more moisture and the plants died.

Mike

Maybe they just couldn't handle two nights in a row.

You need lower temps to actually freeze the moisture in the air.

moyboy · Nov 4, 2008

I found that my chillis survived all winter (most wern't healthy near the end). We had a few frosts but they were few and far between, so it gave the plants time to recover.

As Talas has stated, the Goatsweed will survive very well as it is from high in the mountians of Peru and can handle the lower temps for a lot longer. My goatsweed produced well all winter and it was as strong at the end of winter as it was at the begining....

Wide-O · Nov 9, 2008

Apologies for not replying earlier..

Omri said:
Maybe they just couldn't handle two nights in a row.
You need lower temps to actually freeze the moisture in the air.

I think that's right. The two nights that we had freezing temps were also very foggy. Most plants survived, and some didn't. (in hindsight)

The ones on window sills survived. The ones close to the ground didn't (well, some of them). The ones in a small greenhouse (on ground level) did.

I guess that's because temperatures can be quite different at different heights.

All in all, my noob conclusion would be that these plants are quite strong, and there are no hard fast rules. (apart from common sense)

My friends are now asking to stop offering them chili related stuff. I've got about 300 pods left (waiting for a dehydrator) and 300 more to harvest from plants that were brought inside.

Mental note: you don't need 70 seedlings, not even as a newbie.