Stovepipe

My heirloom maters started surging this week.  Some of the hemp is 6 feet high.  Overall things are thriving over here although we're getting quite dry and the sprinkler is getting some use.

That was a helluva storm.  Constant lightning.  I was sitting under my deck and a cell phone tower bout 200 yards away was struck.  I almost fell out of my chair!  Best electrical storm I've seen in a very long time and we're grateful for the downpour.  The garden needed it.  

Fortunately, the last 4 or 5 frost advisories did not result in frost at my place.  Still, mother nature gas lighting us has been stressful to say the least.  Hopefully the threat is over for the season finally.  Gardening game on!

As of 6:30 am I'm showing 34 degrees and no visible signs of frost out the window.  Gonna pull off the coverings before the sun gets going.  Hopefully we've dodged a bullet over here.

0z NAM has me bottoming out in the upper/mid 20s, I'm pulling for the RAP at 35 degrees lol.

I wasn't expecting this much additional rain.  Some of my coverings are getting the coffee filter effect and sagging.  At least minimal wind so far (in terms of keeping coverings on).  Just hoping to bust high here on the temps.

44 degrees with a light rain moving through.  Wind calm so far.

Scratch that, 21 mph gusts now wrecking my coverings.  Hold off if you can.

2 minutes ago, Carvers Gap said:

This is what it looked like Thursday night.  Getting ready to head out now and get it ready - in the driving wind and drizzle.  Was trying to let the wind dry things off a bit, but looks like this upslope stuff is going to be here off and on.   For scale, the hoop house is about four feet tall and the fence is 6' tall.

I like your setup Carvers!  You should be able to anchor that down nicely.

Annnnnd the wind just picked up and blew off a bunch of stuff.  FML

Alright, let's see y'all's frost covering pics.  I'm dreading having to take all of this down and then put it up again tomorrow evening but that is 2020 for ya.  Hope it works.

I did hold off on planting the rest of the root bound seedlings.  So probably 30% of my maters are in the garage tonight.  

Well it's not too windy here and the rain has stopped.  Guess I'll start trying to cover plants up.

Trying to cover the garden tomorrow evening during downpours and gusty winds will be fun.  GFS showing upper 20s for here Saturday morning.  What a mess.

11 minutes ago, Carvers Gap said:

I should add that Knoxville is borderline on the Euro, but folks down there will need to keep an eye out.  I will assume the GFS is a cold outlier, but even the warmer models are trouble if they cool just a tad more for the Central Valley.  NE TN, SW VA, SE KY, the Plateau, and W NC need to really keep a close eye on the situation.  Middle TN is not out of the woods either.  This is a really pain in the neck BTW.  I take no joy in discussing this whatsoever.  None.  Just discussing this as a courtesy.  Seeds are tough to find right now as are some plants.  Don't want to waste them.

I've got around 60 plants that are badly root bound in cups.  I'm going to have to risk it and get these in the ground this weekend, otherwise they'll be ruined anyway.  Plant seeds in February they said.  You'll get jump start on the season they said.  Never again.

Man, 2020 is relentless.

The 12z NAM had me at 35 degrees with calm winds tomorrow morning.  Hoping that was a blip and we don't get a surprise frost.  NWS isn't sounding the alarm so that's good.

@Carvers Gap I'm jealous that you found wheat straw.  I'm all out of wood chips and desperately need something to mulch with.  I'm going to call around tomorrow and see if I can bird dog a few bales.

On 4/20/2020 at 2:47 PM, John1122 said:

I never bother with tomatoes before the first week of May. Not uncommon to get to 31-32 during that time frame here. 

Even here in the central valley, I will not be putting warm season stuff in the ground before May ever again.  This has been too much stress and hassle.  Lesson learned.

I'm thankful to have survived the two frost threats so far.  Hopefully we done with it for the season.

2 hours ago, dwagner88 said:

Coming from someone who has lived in East Brainerd for 31 years, this is heartbreaking. This thing could not have hit in a worse spot to maximize damage to homes. This area is essentially 100% developed with very little vacant property. A large number of homes are damaged beyond repair. Not just smaller homes either. There were several 7 figure neighborhoods in the path. The area around and just behind my rental house has been decimated. Most of these homes are solidly middle class and would list for 150-200k. This is an economic group that does not need added expenses during the virus shutdown. The width of the path is the most shocking thing to me. This track is far wider than anything we saw in this area during the super outbreak. 

 

EDIT: We have a official estimate of 12,000 properties damaged in East Brainerd from this storm. I'd wager that this is at least half of the total number of properties in the zip code.

That is terrifying.  I can't imagine dealing with that right now.

Can you imagine having to deal with damage, injury, or loved ones dying from a tornado while everything else is going on?  I'm so sorry for anyone affected.  

The latest RAP is bottoming out at 36 degrees for my area, that's above MRX, I'm encouraged.

I gambled and put out damn near 70 hemp plants and 40 maters figuring we were over the frost.  Tonight is my fresh hell.  I've basically buried the hemp in what I could find in packaged wheat straw at Lowes.  Maters, peppers, basil, cucumbers, etc covered in a redneck array of tarps, buckets, coffee cans, whatever for the time being.  I'm reasonably confident I can survive the night, but the GFS was advertising inches of snow next week lol, so who knows.  

What are y'all's thoughts on frost at this point based on modeling?  Asking for a friend.

All snow on UT campus now, small flakes but dimes are mixing in.