If you recently did some outdoor planting you may want to take precautions Monday and Tuesday night as the mercury dips near the freezing mark.
White County UT Ag Extension Director Scott Swoape said plants are always at risk during these first few weeks of spring. Swoape says his office receives a lot of calls every spring from folks wanting to know how they can protect what they planted.
“I’m a home gardener myself, and we jump the gun and we get some of those vegetable crops out there,” Swoape said. “Some of these are kind of forgiving, but some of those plants are not. If you’ve been excited and maybe some some of those vegetables plants like tomatoes, peppers, any of those things out you need to make sure to get some coverings over those.”
Swoape said if you have planted bulbs in a pot then simply bring them indoors. If you have plants in the ground, Swoape said there are a couple of options on what type of covering to use.
“One is a type of frost blanket, a row cover, something like that, that’s meshy material. We would want to put that on,” Swoape said. “If it’s a plant that’s put in the ground, we’d want to put that cover on before dusk so we can take advantage of some o those ground temperatures and stuff. It also helps to water those plants and stuff because that increases the temperature as well.”
Swoape says wait until the next morning after the sun comes up before removing the coverings.
Swoape said folks in the Upper Cumberland Region will have a few more weeks to worry about the freezing temperatures when it comes to their plants.
“According to all the statistics and stuff, they keep a lot of records and stuff for the Upper Cumberland area, you look at Cookeville, that last spring frost is scheduled for April 20th.” Swoape said. “And so hopefully, this is going to be our last cold spell, but probably not.”
