Central Florida (zone 9) is in the middle of one of its longest cold spells in history. The mercury has dropped bellow freezing 3 days in a row and it looks like it is going to continue to drop bellow freezing for the next 5 days at least.
So what are the effects?
Many gardeners here in Central Florida still had a few vegetables growing that do not tolerate freezing temperatures. I had tomatoes and basil still growing. I was holding on to the tomatoes hoping this last crop would ripen, but I had to harvest them while still green. They were still producing pretty heavily, but that is not the case any longer!
I had a few types of basil that was going to seed. The plants were already on the decline before the freeze but now they are just done for!
Did you experience any losses do to the cold temperatures?
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January 8th, 2010 at 3:08 am
Yikes! Good thing I already gave up on the veggies. Still trying to save some ornamentals though
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January 8th, 2010 at 4:35 am
@Penny Carnathan,
It is getting very cold out there right now… They are calling for SNOW on saturday… That is right, snow! In central Florida!
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January 8th, 2010 at 4:47 am
We are also seeing VERY cold temps here! Good thing is I don’t really have any cold sensitive veggies left in the garden!
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January 11th, 2010 at 2:04 am
Last year I try to save about thirty tomatoe plants by building
a fram over them W/ bisqueen and miro-jet irrigation. The plants lived,
never did bloom anymore.
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January 11th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
@Robert Lyles,
Was there any fruit on the plants when the freeze hit? Did it rippen?
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January 11th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Rome fruit and took forever to ripen. I picked the most good sized ones before the freeze came. But the cost and time, is why I didn’t do this year.
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January 13th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
@Robert Lyles,
I had a few tomatoes still out… They didnt make it!
Lesson learned!
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January 18th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Last week really hurt, mustard and rhutabagas and carrots did fine. I have a Bhut Jolokia pepper that is real hard to grow and it was doing fine till the freeze. I have a half dozen peppers from it I’m hoping I can start again with. Anyone have much experience with this pepper, sometimes called “Ghost pepper”?
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January 18th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
@Roy Shaul,
I also had a pepper plant out there that didn’t make it. It was just a common Bell Pepper.
The only info that I could find about the Bhut Jolokia that is any different than most other peppers is that the plant can get fairly large here so allow it plenty of room. Other than that, treat them as you would any other pepper.
What do you plan on doing with those peppers? They are the hottest in the world!
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January 19th, 2010 at 2:22 am
@Dan,
Thanks for the reply Dan, I guess I just wanted a challenge on the ghost pepper. I’ll have to try a little in some chilil, but, must admit I’m a little afraid of it.
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