Caught red handed ?

[fishinwrench]

I am an idiot.  Someone tell me what good it does to cover a plant when it's cold.   Does it hold in just enough heat from the ground to keep them from getting too cold, or what?   Obviously we're just talking a couple degrees right?   

[Old plug]

Frost Wrench. Its hot the cold it is the ice. I am sure the good lady of the house over there knows about it. Most that just applies to spring plants but some cannot be permitted to leave their dormant state and in that case the deal is to keep them cold until the weather settles down in the apring.  

[BilletHead]

   Wrench you answered your own question. Yes the heat in the ground will make a big difference covering the plants. Not just a couple of degrees. If you look back a couple of years in this garden forum I put straw around one of these beds. Then covered with Plexiglas frames. When it got real cold I would put a light and cover with a tarp at night. We had fresh lettuce for new years dinner. The straw bales would freeze solid and I had to shovel snow off the covers.  This and some plants are more cold resistant than others. The greens that are pictured in this thread have had two frosts on them without covers, one pretty hard.

  Initial cost making these covers and messing with the winter greens, worth the trouble? Yes. Beats the heck out of the crap you sometimes get in the market. Home grown buddy!

BilletHead

[ness]

Heat from sunlight during the day is absorbed by the soil and the plant. Covering them provides insulation and slows the release of that heat. Also, since the covering restricts the amount of moisture-carrying air near the plant, there is less moisture available to condense into dew/frost on to the cold plant that can ultimately cause cellular damage.

Billethead's frames are like miniature greenhouses that trap even more heat during the day and the straw works as a super insulation to help keep it warm in there. I've done something similar but simpler with hoops and plastic. It's pretty fun and amazing getting vegetables into December, or an early jump in the spring. But I didn't do that this year, and I kinda miss it. Sniffle.

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, ness said:

Heat from sunlight during the day is absorbed by the soil and the plant. Covering them provides insulation and slows the release of that heat. Also, since the covering restricts the amount of moisture-carrying air near the plant, there is less moisture available to condense into dew/frost on to the cold plant that can ultimately cause cellular damage.

Billethead's frames are like miniature greenhouses that trap even more heat during the day and the straw works as a super insulation to help keep it warm in there. I've done something similar but simpler with hoops and plastic. It's pretty fun and amazing getting vegetables into December, or an early jump in the spring. But I didn't do that this year, and I kinda miss it. Sniffle.

      Yea what the scientist says . 

BilletHead

[ness]

On 11/16/2016 at 9:44 AM, BilletHead said:

      Yea what the scientist says . 

BilletHead

You guys were oversimplifying it

 

[Old plug]

I do not understand all that. All I know is if were going to get a feeeze and I have plNt allready coming out I better cover them with something. I figured it was heat from the earth because there is sweat on the inside of the plastic now and then the next morning but the frost is on the top of the plastic. even if the frost is covering the area of a plant the plastic prevents it from doing any damage.

[Johnsfolly]

A lot of the covering also is to keep the plants out of the wind as well. They lose a lot of water do to transpiration especially on cold dry windy days. That water loss leads to wilting and damage as well.