September 4th and Frost.

I was out first thing in the morning checking the big pumpkins since I was worried with what I saw the temperature doing the night before.  Our house hit a low of 35.1 this morning so I figured I had dodged a bullet and that there would be no frost. Upon further investigation, it appeared that my vines and leaves were okay on the big pumpkins. 

Another local grower contacted me this afternoon and asked if I had lost any leaves.  I had only checked the big pumpkins and had assumed if they were okay, the rest of my garden was too.  Boy was I wrong, I lost about 40% of the leaves on the rest of the garden.   I did have the water running on the garden as well, but since it’s by zone, maybe it had switched over too soon. 

I really don’t know why the big pumpkins survived without apparent damage, but it might be a combination of the hail netting and getting lucky with when the water starting hitting the pumpkins.  My hunch is maybe it was a combination of the two that saved the leaves of my big pumpkins.  I guess the important thing is that my big pumpkin’s leaves survived and the pumpkins still have a chance to grow a little more.

I also learned a lesson.  I thought frost damage would only appear if it was below 32 degrees, but that’s clearly not the case.