We have had frost over the past couple of nights. It was forecast and my wife and gardening guru was prepared. We had stored some soft light plastic that came with some appliances we purchased last Summer, this along with some newspaper and a roll of bubblewrap we used to cover the plants most susceptible to frost. We carefully covered the tomato plants, cucamelons, the other melon plants and all the other seedlings in both tunnels.
Unfortunately, it was our outdoor potatoes who took the brunt of the damage. We covered them with plastic, the old cover of tunnel #1 that we had replaced and put away after it did not survive the winter. It was large enough to place over our little potato patch and it was not so heavy as to damage the plants.
We noticed on social media many of the gardening people we follow had similar preparations and were suffering similar damage.
Tweets of damage @cradleymike @vegieguy @gardenngather
These occasions make me think of professional growers. Market gardening is a tough business not for the faint hearted. Growers need to be well set up to avoid disastrous consequences weather and disease and pests. It is easy to see how an ill prepared potato farmer could be wiped out overnight. I can see why fruit growers require heaters in their poly tunnels. All these requirements obviously add to the cost of production.
The Gardening Guru assures me we will bounce back, there is more frost forecast for tonight and hopefully this will be the last of it. After it goes, we will remove damaged leaves and the plants will recover (hopefully) new leaves/shoots will come again. All going well this is just a minor setback and the plants will flourish again in a week or so.
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