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LinkedInA Word About these Cold Temperatures and our Berries
As we look to be in for some freezing temperatures for the next couple of days on the Central Coast, it is a good time to review what sort of frost protection would be necessary for our berry crops.
The real key right now is that pretty well our entire berry crop is free of flowers, which would be the plant organ most susceptible to freezing and subsequent loss. With some exceptions, raspberries and blackberries have dropped their leaves and are growing very little, if at all. With strawberries, there might be some concerns about newly emerged leaves experiencing some frost damage, but the temperatures being discussed right now being in the low 20’s, I just don’t see there being any freeze damage to the crown and subsequently damaging the plant for the long term.
Be that as it may, it is still good to know what to do if the concern does arise about a frost causing damage to a berry crop. I had a great discussion with my colleague Steve Tjosvold at the office this morning, and really the best option is to load the bed with water during the day by irrigating it (drip is fine), allowing the bed to accumulate heat which will then be radiated out of the moistened soil during the night, keeping the immediate environment around the plants warmer than the ambient freezing temperatures.
For fuller, in depth discussion, see the excellent summary attached below:
