Protection Of Plants From Spring Frosts

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Not so long ago, climate conditions could almost always be predicted, and the harvest from the garden could be harvested even at the end of October. Now the weather very often brings surprises that do not always please gardeners and summer residents

Particular troubles are delivered when growing vegetables, berries and other frost crops in the spring season. During their period, flowers, fruit trees, and vegetable seedlings can be significantly damaged. Therefore, when planting, gardeners always need to anticipate the absence of the threat of spring frosts and carefully prepare for unexpected manifestations of the weather. Frosts are often present even in late spring, when all crops have already been planted in open ground. Therefore, you need to take care of different ways to protect plants from the cold.

Method one - smoking

For a long time, our ancestors tried to protect the vegetable, berry and flower crops planted in the garden from spring frosts. Fumigation is also often referred to as fumigation. The technology and specificity of this method lies in the fact that a certain cloud is formed with the help of smoke, and the radiation of warm air from the ground becomes less.

At the same time, during fumigation, dust can condense water particles that are in the air. As a result, fog appears over the plantings, which provides protection to the plants. To carry out this procedure, it is necessary to first prepare heaps of materials on the site, which will smolder with weak combustion. At the bottom of the folded heap, brushwood and firewood should be laid. The second layer will be manure, fallen leaves and straw. All materials must be compacted, and then covered with soil. The thickness of the soil should be a couple of centimeters. Such smoke heaps have the following dimensions: height - one meter, width - one and a half meters. Thus, it is possible to ensure smoke in the garden for fifteen hours.

Some summer residents achieve better results by laying out materials in one pile per ten-meter area. For smoke to efficiently escape and enter the air, holes must be made from above and from the leeward side. This operation is rather laborious. Moreover, frosts do not always last only one night. For this reason, it is necessary to restore the smoke heaps again. The effectiveness of manipulation is noticeable only in calm weather, when the air temperature does not drop below minus four degrees.

Method two - sprinkling, watering

In order to reduce the radiation of heat from the ground, you can use the artificial fog method. This method is referred to as sprinkling. With short-term frosts in the spring, this option is one of the best. Sprinkling specifics include spraying plants with water. The time of day does not matter here, you can carry out the operation at night. At this point, the stems and leaves of the crops will have a thin ice crust. It will help protect plants from frosts of at least five degrees of cold.

Irrigation is a well-known agricultural protection method. It is most effective to perform it at night on wet ground. After watering in the evening, condensation forms, generating heat. In such a cloud, landings can be protected from cold snaps down to minus four degrees.

Method three - concealment

The most common and favorite way for summer residents to protect plants in the spring from cold snaps is sheltering. There are a lot of advantages to this action, but there is only one drawback - it cannot be used to protect large trees. Shelters for plants are always selected individually. You can create them above each planting hole or group of seedlings. Absolutely any materials can be used for these purposes.

Some gardeners cover the seedlings with paper bags for milk and juice. Plastic bottles are also a good option. Glass jars, cardboard boxes, matting, burlap - in fact, there is a wide variety of possible items that cover and protect the seedlings.

Summer residents can cover potatoes and tomatoes with earth. To do this, tomato seedlings must be carefully bent to the ground and covered with a layer of soil (two to three centimeters). Such a shelter can be kept for several days.