First frost

We are expecting our first couple nights of frost on Sept. 9th, 10th, and possibly the next 2 nights following. We will be dragging out any sheets we can find. My husband says we need some big old truck tarps. Lol

When do you expect your first frost of fall?

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  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    We got down to 3C yesterday morning. Tomorrow morning its supposed to be 4C but then the overnight lows go back up. I heard on the news that somewhere in the region had a frost a couple of nights ago but not in my immediate area. I hope it will hold of for a few more weeks. At least until my daughter gets home as I am babysitting her garden for two weeks.

  • Michelle D
    Michelle D Posts: 1,465 ✭✭✭✭✭

    We typically have our first frost in mid October. Our nights are trending colder than usual for this time of year so I'm guessing it will come early for us.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    They say October 15 for us.

    It used to be one hard hit by Labor day - to ruin corn then nice for another few weeks.

    We have longer warmer falls. One year it was Nov 17 before we had a frost. But we have cooler longer springs.

    If this summer is a prediction it will be a late frost. Its been warmer and even nice at night.

    I am not looking forward to Winter weather. But I may in in a warmer place...

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    Now, I am jealous! It has been very hot and extremely rainy here this summer. The mosquitos are awful! I am ready for some cool nights and frost kissed collard greens.

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,290 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The Farmer's Almanac says that our first frost will be October 15, 2022. Our overnight temperature was 48 degrees the other night. It seems that is the lowest temperature we have had for a long time.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    We will have +2°C for the next two nights and +4°C on Monday night. Of course, colder can happen. Last night the low was predicted to be 5°, but we had 4°. I took a risk & didn't cover.

    Tonight I will try my best to cover what I can. Some things will be a bit/very awkward. I'm not sure if I should pick my tomatoes & squash under & throughout the corn or if they will be okay. My husband says leave them, but I'm not so sure. Any thoughts?

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The corm will protect some but how much, I am not sure. I would pick half and leave half and hope for the best

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    We had 3C this morning. Clear and sunny now but there was quite a bit of mist on the lake earlier on. 8-9C for overnight lows for the rest of the week.

    @LaurieLovesLearning I'd pick as much as you could deal with that are ripe, or that you could store safely until you can deal with them, and take a chance on the rest. I think they would be fine with the protection from the corn.

  • SuperC
    SuperC Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭

    Tonight will be 50F. (In the northern part of the state will be in the 40s.) Unsure of when the first frost will be exactly. The weatherman says next week will be in the 60s to 70s F. This past week was in the low 70s, and now it’s raining. I think this windy and rainy weather is from the wild Atlantic Tropical storms. @LaurieLovesLearning And, usually the grape harvests are late September into early October for both the Concord and Wine grape varietals.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    Well, I picked the majority of my volunteer tomatoes (in the corn and some in other rows), and tucked the squash (there are 6 little ones) into the corn as much as possible.

    We found 2 bumblebees tucked deep into one of the squash flowers. Hopefully tucking the flower under the corn will also help them.

    The other tomatoes, hot peppers, lettuce, cucumbers & pumpkins are covered. There are a lot of sheets out there! We had to kick the puppy out and contain her fir the night because it looked like a great playground to her. 🙄

    We will leave it covered for the day & tomorrow night too. Uncover & then possibly cover again Monday evening.

    There is a full moon & as it came up, it was a beautiful orange harvest moon. Brr...its cold out there!

  • jowitt.europe
    jowitt.europe Posts: 1,465 admin

    Time passes so fast. As if I’ve just finished sowing and planting and was waiting for the first crops and now it is time to harvest. No frosts in the nearest future, but we have much less sunshine because of the high mountains and, as soon as the sun is gone, it gets much colder.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    3C again this morning but its supposed to get as high as 30 here this afternoon so a huge spread in temps.

    Gorgeous and sunny.

    It was an amazing full moon, @LaurieLovesLearning!

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    Wow, @torey! What a fluctuation!

    The wind decided to uncover some of our plants today, so I guess we will ne covering them again tonight.

    We just discovered a problem. Our freezers are full & there is still much to bring in. A good problem, but a problem nonetheless.

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Normally our first frost is supposed to happen around September 23, but the last few years it has come later.

    We're starting to get cooler nights this month, sometimes dropping below 50F (10C). That's a sign that fall is coming, but not hear yet. Tonight will be warmer, around 60F (16C). Daytime highs are still over 80F (27C).

    The drought is still a problem, and I don't know when it will let up. The garden is mostly finished for the year, except for fall greens like lettuce, do mostly what remains is to harvest and store.

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning It's good to have a full freezer, even if that means more work dehydrating and canning.

    I've been canning a lot of beans this year, while in past years I simply froze nearly all of them. But this year I'm keeping more meat in the freezer.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning I have dehydrated and canned more this year. The cost of electricity for an additional freezer and our incredibly poor utility company has made me feel being a bit more utility independent is a necessity. We have been without electricity 5 times this summer. The reason bad lines that they do not have the money to fix and lack of workers. We were told to expect it to become a bigger issue.

  • Cornelius
    Cornelius Posts: 872 ✭✭✭✭

    My first frost is usually in October, but we will see. I have heard some homesteaders I follow on YouTube say that this is going to be an early and cold winter though.

  • Merin Porter
    Merin Porter Posts: 1,026 admin

    Just a couple of weeks for us. The "target date" is September 27, but we'll see! :)

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have also heard it will be a cold winter. My furnance has the sound of it wants to break so I am not impressed to hear this news.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @Monek Marie We are being proactive on that front and have a furnace service guy coming on Friday to make sure we won't have anything going wrong once it gets cold. We're having a new hot water holding tank put in at the same time. Ours sprung a leak about a month ago. Its all connected cause we have water coils in our wood furnace that preheats the water, goes to the holding tank and then goes to the electric hot water tank. So our electric tank rarely comes on from late fall to spring.

    No frost in our forecast for the next few days. We even got a bit of rain during the night.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    It appears as though somehow we got by with no frost. 👏 Now comes a few days of rain & quite cold temperatures, but well above freezing for the lows. After that, I expect some higher temperatures for a while as that's usually how things go.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I am going to try and nurse this furnace through one more winter. The repair man will come in a month or so and it will be $450.00 to get it through one more year. Cheaper than a new furnace.

    I am also looking at rocket stoves for alternative heat. If gas heating goes as high as they say it might decisions will have to be made on how to heat this place differently

  • Michelle D
    Michelle D Posts: 1,465 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning great news! Glad to hear it!

  • marjstratton
    marjstratton Posts: 1,132 ✭✭✭✭

    Our first frost is usually late October, early November. Although I know of people not far from me who are already getting really close to first frost. They live up valley at a higher elevation.

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I'm concerned about our furnace too. It's working, but I think it's approaching end-of-life.

    The good news is that modern furnaces are likely to be more efficient than the old one, which will partly offset the expense. But it's still a significant amount of money that needs to be budgeted.

    We can easily heat the house with wood, but would lose our hot water until the furnace is repaired.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    We got our first frost this morning, Sept 20th. Not much, just -1C. Everything in my garden survived except the zucchini. But I had already harvested all of them.

    My daughter's dahlias didn't do well, or her glads.

    No more frost in the forecast for the next week. Too bad we had to have this little bit.

    Our furnace has been fixed and the hot water holding tank replaced so we are ready for this winter's heating season. A few more loads of firewood to top off the pile and we're done.

  • marjstratton
    marjstratton Posts: 1,132 ✭✭✭✭

    I'm not ready for first frost yet. We've got a few more days of warm until the equinox. Then it's promising to get pretty cool. @VermontCathy our furnace is also very old so I'm not sure how much life it has in it. The problem is that new furnaces are pretty expensive. My sister just got herself a heat pump since she really didn't want to have to rely on the wood stove for heating anymore, it is a lot of work for an older lady.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
    edited September 2022

    @torey That's how it goes...one frost in the week.

    We've missed freezing here so far. Tomorrow night it is supposed to hit 0°. We picked all of our tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, tiny squash & tiny pumpkins...none of which should have been that tiny.

    Tomorrow, I think I'll bring in the rest of the corn, cut my last round of herbs, probably pick the two tiny eggplants, and cover the lettuce & oregano that I hope to collect seed from. The cilantro/coriander is pretty tough, so I'll get that later.

    The weekend sounds like it will be cool. We got about 1 1/2" of rain yesterday (a bit late for gardens) and possibly more coming in the next couple of days. Considering that October is approaching too, I figured I'd get the above ground stuff in and not fiddle with covering & uncovering, rinse, repeat.

    I hope to gather hawthorn berries & silver buffalo berry near the end of the week (after my garden processing gets caught up). If I had known that the silver buffalo berry would have more pectin when underripe, I would have tried to pick some earlier. I guess that means a note for next year is in order.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The weather here is still crazy. Hasn't quit raining since July 4th. We have been down close to freezing, Had one morning with frost Back in August and thought it was going to freeze early but so far it is still raining. Hoping all this rain doesn't suddenly turn into lots of snow.

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    No frost here yet, but we are getting nights in the mid-30s Fahrenheit. It won't be long.

    We took the air conditioners out of the windows yesterday and put them away for the season. The closable lids have been reinstalled on the cold frames.

    I'm now pulling up the remaining summer garden, composting bean leaves and stalks, and preserving the last batches of fruuts and vegetables for the winter.

    The fall lettuce, spinach, and claytonia has sprouted.