frost

"Washing the frost off" is done with a hose pipe before the sun gets onto the plants, so that means before 5am at this time of the year. The idea by washing the frost with a hosepipe is that you defrost the leave and bring the temperature of the plant up before the sun gets to them and really damages them.

Whether or not this works is debateable, I did it a few weeks ago to my spuds when we had a particularly cold night and fleece had not protected the spuds...the top growth was frozen solid.

I washed them off with the hose pipe but later in the day the top growth still turned black, they have recovered now but who knows how much more damage could have been done if I had not washed them. Maybe the frost and sun combo could have further damaged them?

Steve...

 

I once got caught out by an unexpected frost so duly got up early and hand watered the lot with a watercan and there was no damage. It's also supposed to work on frosty apple blossoms.