Best Ways to Protect Plants from Frost

You grow plant flowers, vegetables, shrubs, and trees in your garden that can survive during typical weather. You pay attention to save your plants from unseasonable cold snaps. But still, you never know when an unexpected frost may ruin your well grown plants. No matter how careful you are, a bad weather can damage your beautiful garden without any warning. So, you should involve effective techniques that will help your plants fight against a sudden burst of cold weather. If you’re not so well prepared, then here you’ll find the best things you can do to protect your plants from frost.

Winter Blanket

Cover up your plants with a lightweight cloth, thin towel, or other sheet of fabric. This will let the moisture to escape and prevent the freezing air to direct contact with the moisture. The fabric material will trap radiant heat from the ground around the plant. Avoid anything which is too heavy, because it can damage the plants. Never use dark-colors and impermeable materials. When the temperature rises above freezing, remove the blankets or else heat can build quickly under covers.

Cloches & Fleece

Cloches are low transparent covers specially used to cover young plants in cold conditions. Basically they are made from glass or plastic sheeting over hoops, or rigid plastic. Use them to cover a row or several rows of sown vegetables and newly grown plants. Fleece is the tanned skin of a sheep or a soft bulky fabric which can also be used to cover your crops during cold weather. It can effectively provide around 2 degrees of frost protection.

Hoophouse

This type of house effectively limits the wind speed. Make sure the house is properly ventilated to reduce plant susceptibility to cold temperatures. When temperature drops, include additional protection by closing vents and covering plants inside the hoophouse. You can also use heaters to maintain hoophouse during extreme freezing.

Greenhouse

It’s another effective way to start early crops and ornamental bedding plants. It helps you properly grow seasonal plants anytime throughout the year, even in bad weathers. You can control all aspects of your plants development in a well protected environment. A greenhouse controls the environmental changes with ease by promoting healthy plant growth.

Wind Machine

In frost condition, air stays warmer in the ground surface. In this case, a wind machine can redistribute the warmer air to crop level. However, wind machines are not that effective for extreme freezing. They require appropriate management and implementation under proper conditions.

Cold Frame

You can either build a cold frame or purchase it from a garden center. If you simply need a temporary frame, then incorporate the use of baled hay or straw. Make a window on the top and stack it around your plants. This will definitely help plants to beat the frost during cold conditions. When the weather becomes warm, open the top for ventilation.