Luck and/or Experience

Apparently we weren't safely beyond the last frost of the spring season when we began transplanting warm season sensitive annuals outside two weeks ago. Temperatures plummeted to the mid-30s on Thursday morning, our latest frost in 15 seasons. It feels especially late this year since spring basically arrived in February. We got very lucky; our crops hardly sustained any damage. But we have a lot of experience with our only method of dealing with this kind of weather: floating row cover. Unless it's elevated above crops with hoops and is of a heavy enough grade it can actually create more damage. I think due to its white color it warms up less slowly than plants' leaves and that added amount of time of frost actually causes more damage. Luck was the location of the cherry tomatoes; they receive the very first rays of the morning sun. Almost the entire crop survived unscathed. The ones that had damage to their leaves were on the upper ends of the beds and sat in the shade of some high grasses for too long. A tray of leftover tomatoes outside of the hoop house, further down the hill and in shade until mid-morning, sustained the most damage. So it's not only the temperature and frost but length of time of exposure. The other sensitive crops, peppers, beans, and basil, appear fine. The peppers and basil are short in stature so perhaps the warmth of the ground saved them. Some beans got burned by the frost but not many. Overall we feel very fortunate and can hopefully now assume frosts are over until October.