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Late Chill Tonight

U

UltraZelda64

Well... this kind of sucks. Tonight it's supposed to get down to a low of 46 or even 43 degrees, depending on which weather forecasting service you believe. Which is not too bad, and at least some of my plants have been outside while it got down to about 51 degrees one night a couple weeks ago (the first batch of ten I transplanted).

Still though, that's relatively chilly... an almost early fall-like low and completely unexpected. Protect the plants or not... any suggestions? I'm trying to avoid stunting the plants if possible, and they're still young, growing in pots instead of the ground. I'm trying to improve the overall health and production of my plants compared to the last few years. But the problem is, 30 plants means a lot of pots to bring in tonight, protect from the curious cats, and then take back out tomorrow. Would such a temp have much of an effect on the plants' production, if it's only for one night?

It's the second day of what is one of the warmest months of the year, the plants have been outside since May 21, 22, 23 (depending on batch), and I thought the lows in the 40s were long gone. Looks like they're sneaking back.

So... haul 'em in for the night or take the chance and hope the quick, brief dip doesn't stunt them?
 
SRBII said:
I would let them stay if they are well astablished in ther pots and growing good its time for tough love :dance:
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think they're pretty well established by now. It's been close to two weeks and they have put on some nice growth since potting them up. I'm just paranoid of stunting them, since I'm trying to up the pepper production this year. Then again... by this time last year I think all my garden peppers went through much more pain and suffering than any of this year's potted plants, so now that I think of it, the effect probably would be minimal. Hopefully, anyway.

The two plants I wouldn't even think twice about are the Rocoto Red and Rocoto Yellow... the red one (overwintered) turned into a monster by fall when the other plants were really starting to wind down. If anything will not only fail to get stunted, but in fact start growing wild, it's the Rocoto.

If only all of the species were that hardy...
 
That's crazy I'm one state to the west of you and our low tonight is 64. I agree though, leave them out. All my plants have been permanently outside since around May 7th and they saw quite a few nights in the very low 40s or even down to 39F, and sometimes 2 or 3 consecutive nights of that and they are fine. They're growing like crazy and are noticeably bigger every day, a lot of them are 2-4 ft tall and bushing out like crazy. I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Yup, don't sweat it. I'm really close to the coast and we still have nights in the upper 40s. My plants have been outside unprotected for months. Extended cool will slow them down, but it's probably not worth it to cover them up or do anything different tonight.
 
It looks like that's what I'll be doing then--leaving 'em outside. I was leaning towards that originally, but figured other growers' opinions would confirm (or deny) this as a good idea. Thanks for the recommendation everyone. Who knows, maybe it'll help prepare them for when the weather really does start getting colder in fall.

I think this is just some rare one-time thing before the nights resume temperatures in the usual 50s-60s range, because soon enough the temps, both day and night, will be going up. In fact, the forecast for the next few nights are: 57, 66, 58, 60, 67... basically, it looks like it's getting back up there to where it was since May 21, when I first started putting the plants outside.

Well, at least it's not supposed to get into the 30s...
 
Yep mine are staying outside too. It's bad enough hauling them during possible hailstorms, they can handle a night in the 40's. And with how wrong the forecasts have been, it might not even get that low.
 
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