Fast dropping temps: your plants may be in danger of freezing

Jacksonville,FL. — With the temperatures dropping fast in the last two days, experts say, your plants may be in danger of freezing.

Action News Jax spoke with a specialist from the UF/IFAS Duval County Extension Office about how to make sure your hard work and money don’t go to waste.

Tuesday and Wednesday morning Northeast Florida saw temperatures as low as 30 degrees in some areas.

Chris Kerr, a Commercial Horticulture Agent for Duval County, said that could injure plants.

“If you forgot to bring them in, likely, they are going to experience some injury at this point,” Kerr said.

However, you may not notice the damage right away.

“The plants that have cold injury, you know, they’re gonna manifest as wilted, water soaked.

There will be darker leaves,” Kerr said.

“That’ll kind of stand out once it warms up later.”

Some crops that can’t withstand the cold too well are your summer foods: tomatoes and jalapeños were examples Kerr gave.

Other crops, including cabbage, broccoli and onions, were made for cold weather.

“In fact, those cold season crops can actually get better flavor with these nice cool frost coming in,” Kerr said.

Going forward, to prevent landscaping, plants and crops from cold weather, Kerr suggests the following

1. - bring potted plants inside or under a covered porch
2. - place a small sheet or frost cloth over the plant/landscape
3. - push mulch around planted, smaller plants

“Whether you do cover or mulch, we move it away during the day, so you can bring that heat in and capture as much as you can,” Kerr said.

“Then at night, before the freeze event occurs, you cover it back up.”

As for crops that may have been injured by overnight frost, Kerr said if it’s edible, to use it quickly, because it will start to deteriorate.

Cox Media Group