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Posts Tagged: frost
Elizabeth Frost, The Bees, and The Fires
The wildfires that raged through California, crippling and/or destroying beekeepers' homes and their livelihoods are heartbreaking. One victim,...
Boone Vale, a volunteer with the Bodega Bay Fire Department, took this heartbreaking image of a fire reaching the Pope Valley hives of Caroline Yelle, owner of Pope Valley Queens. Yelle credits him for saving some of her hives. (Photo by Boone Vale, used with permission)
UC Davis alumnus Elizabeth "Liz" Frost (foreground), employed with the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, transferring nucs in a holding yard. (Photo courtesy of Liz Frost)
UC Davis alumnus Elizabeth "Liz" Frost worked at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Alfalfa Crop Surviving Frosts in the Central Valley
Put on that jacket! This winter has been cold and dry, and many of our crops have felt it, including almonds, but also alfalfa! ...
For the Love of Honey Bees: Elizabeth Frost Now Back In Australia
Elizabeth "Liz" Frost, formerly of the University of California, Davis, is taking her love of honey bees back to Australia. She's the newly hired...
Elizabeth "Liz" Frost in the pollinator garden she installed at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Elizabeth Frost getting ready for an after-hours bee beard activity. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bee-covered Elizabeth Frost in a lighter moment at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC research center in Tulelake commemorates UCCE centennial
The annual field day at the UC Intermountain Research and Extension Center held last week provided an opportunity to mark the 100th anniversary of UC Cooperative Extension with leaders of the organization, reported Todd Fitchette in Western Farm Press.
The research activities at the Intermountain center, situated near the California-Oregon border in Tulelake, focus on peppermint, horseradish, small grains, wheat, potatoes, alfalfa and onions. At the field day, UCCE researchers discussed the progress of alfalfa production in the Klamath Basin, suppressing white rot disease in processing onions, maximizing profitability of wheat, pest management in peppermint and other topics.
The Intermountain Research and Extension Center is one of nine centers under the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR). The 140-acre facility provides UCCE advisors and specialists the space and support needed to conduct agricultural research in a high mountain interior valley climate zone.
Frost or Freeze: What Does It Mean?
FLately we've had some unusually cold weather and I've heard several different warnings in regard to overnight temperatures. According to the National Weather Service, a frost advisory is issued when the temperature is expected to drop to 36ºF or lower. Frost is formed when the earth itself loses enough heat that the temperature at ground level drops to 32ºF. A freeze warning foretells a coming temperature of 32ºF or lower and a hard freeze warning indicates that temperatures are expected to drop to 28ºF or lower. When there is a freeze it is because cold air is blown in from somewhere else (like the Arctic air we're getting right now). Freeze temperatures, clearly, can go much lower and it's those freeze warnings that need our immediate attention.
Freeze damage to plants can be anything form leaf and fruit damage to complete death of the plant. If you've had lingering tomatoes and basil this year, you've seen it first hand. They're finished, but we expected that. However, lots of people have citrus trees in their yards. In the citrus family the lemon, limes and citrons are the most sensitive to freezes, some of them suffering damage at 28ºF. Following them are the grapefruits and regular lemons. 'Meyer' lemons, oranges and mandarins are the most hardy and will be affected when temperatures get closer to 20ºF. Avocados, guavas and loquats can also suffer in cold temperatures.
So what to do?
Generally, if the tree is mature and healthy it will survive. Newly planted or young trees should be protected by wrapping the trunk with cardboard or other insulating material. Be sure the soil around the tree is irrigated and free of mulch to let the water and the earth radiate to the tree the warmth that they have. Hanging a low-watt light bulb or a string of Christmas lights in the interior of the tree will also provide just enough warmth to protect it. Still, the fruit and the leafy canopy of any of these trees may suffer damage. Fruit like lemons or oranges that are hit by a heavy freeze will quickly dry out. If the fruit is picked within the first few days after a freeze it may still be usable, but left on the tree will begin to rot.
If you do see freeze damage on your fruit- or nut trees, don't rush to prune. Be patient. Some years ago the temperature in our area dropped to 19 on two consecutive December nights. My 'Eureka' lemon was hit very hard. It lost all of its leaves and appeared to be dead. I was on the verge of taking it out the following spring, but Sunset Magazine recommended waiting to see if anything sprouted. It took quite a while, but by May we saw the first little green shoots. We now have a magnificent lemon tree that at times produces fruit the size of a small grapefruit. I suspect it is no longer a Eureka, but it sure does produce great lemons!
The University of California website http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/8100.pdf can give you even more details on how to protect your garden.
Cherry tomato plant after our first freeze. (Photos by Marian Chmieleski)
The "bionic" lemon tree after the first freeze.
