One of the interesting things about operating the most northern gardening blog is we always know when it’s getting cold in the lower 48 just from our site’s analytics! But, when we start getting traffic from places like Florida, something is definitely sideways!
Curiously, yesterday, it was actually warmer in Kodiak, Alaska than it was in parts of Florida. And, as expected, the Floridians came out in force by digging up our old blog entries on dealing with and preparing for frosts!
There’s a considerable difference in how us northerners deal with frost and southerners deal with frost, though. In the south, one of the more common practices is to drench their plants in water with the hope that it will actually freeze over the plant’s leaves. This seems totally counterintuitive, so let’s explain!
As we’ve discussed here, it’s not the cold temperature that harms plants. Rather, it’s intracellular freezing. The ice layer helps the grower “guarantee” a temperature of 32F/0C around the plant, even if ambient air temps get colder, which helps the plant resist that intracellular freezing.
This practice is also rooted in a concept that might baffle many northerners! The physics of freezing actually creates heat! Each gram of water that freezes generates about 80 calories of warmth during the transition. Remember, these folks aren’t dealing with 20 below zero. A single degree, or maybe two, for a few hours is all they really need.
Lastly, the ice around the plant creates a “sort of” mini-greenhouse effect, allowing the sun to warm the plant’s leaves just ever so slightly above freezing. All of these things work together to create borderline survival conditions!
The reason us northerners don’t practice such things is all about the climate. Up north, cold is persistent. But, in the south, daybreak will bring immediate relief.
We are hoping the long term affects of this cold snap won’t resonate too deeply! Much of the US fruit supply is dependent on places like Florida and an unexpected frost is no joke in these places!
