How to protect plants from a freeze?

Plant growers take great care in cultivating flowers, vegetables, and other plants, and while we only need to pay attention to how and where each plant variety is planted during normal temperatures, there is one more thing we need to be aware of when the weather is unseasonable, and that is the protection of our plants in the event of a sudden drop in temperature. This will keep the garden ready to harvest for a longer period. What can gardeners do to cope when the weather is bad? Especially with all the snow and ice that has been or will soon be coming again.

Warmer temperatures toward the end of March or the beginning of April are also typical, causing plants to awaken from their dormant condition, but the sub-zero temperatures that follow might harm new growth or newly budding flowers. Protecting plants during the first frost or freeze of the season can allow you to enjoy gardening for a bit longer. Here are some suggestions for safeguarding your garden plants against chilly autumn and spring freezes.

How to handle frosts in the fall？

Protection-needy garden plants

Tropicals, annuals, and vegetables planted outside require the greatest protection from an early frost or freeze. Protecting small trees, woody shrubs, roses, perennials, or other woody plants is unnecessary and advantageous. These plants need to encounter cold temperatures to become entirely dormant. Furthermore, most woody plants and perennials can tolerate temperatures as low as zero or just below it with little harm.

Pay attention to the weather report
It's a good idea to monitor the weather forecast starting in mid-to late-September and look for anticipated low evening temperatures. It will be required to move plants indoors, mulch them, or use hoop tunnels and cold shelters if the temperature drops to about 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bringing indoor plants
The simplest method to shield plants from freezing or frost damage is to bring them indoors. Overnight, potted tropical plants and annual pots can be placed in a warm, sheltered space like a garage, porch, or conservatory.

Plant covering
Mulch can be used to protect plants that are difficult to transport indoors. Sheets, blankets, towels, tarps, frost-proof textiles, and row cover materials are examples of potential mulches. These covers lessen the chance of plants freezing by retaining radiant heat from the ground and preventing frost from developing on the foliage. Snowcity plant guards are available in a variety of sizes and have a solid fabric that gathers ground temperature, preventing plants from freezing while also ensuring that they undergo air replacement. Mulches are often no longer efficient in preventing cold damage once temperatures fall below 28°F. Frost damage can occasionally still happen at temperatures over 28°F even when mulch is applied, particularly if below-freezing conditions last for five hours or more.

To keep the mulch off the leaves, raise it with stakes, posts, PVC pipe, patio furniture, sawhorses, wire loops, or other structures. When it's warmer than freezing the next day, remove the mulch.

Cold Shelters and Loop Tunnels
Cold sheds, growing tunnels, floating inter-row covers, and similar structures also absorb radiant heat from the soil and help prevent frost on vegetables or other plants. Mulches for these structures should be opened or removed during the day and pulled on or off before temperatures drop below freezing. 

How to handle frosts in the spring？

Protection-needy garden plants
Vegetables, annuals, and tropical plants that are planted outside early in the season require the greatest protection against late spring frosts or freezes.

Perennials and bulbs that emerge in the spring do not require protection. The majority of early-growing perennials and spring-emerging bulb plants, including tulips and daffodils, can tolerate temperatures below 30°F and above 20°F. This group includes many early-growing perennials, such as columbine, bleeding hearts, daylilies, and catmint. Generally speaking, these plants' early leaf development won't be an issue in colder climates. 

Fruit plants, shrubs, and trees may sustain harm from frost or freezing to their blossoms, budding buds, and freshly emerging leaves. This is particularly true if a stretch of exceptionally warm days precedes the freezing temperatures since this encourages significant growth and development of the leaves and blooms. However, protecting these plants is not feasible. The freezing temperatures won't kill these plants, but they could harm the blossoms and harm the fruit or blossoming that year. For further details on how to handle woody plant damage from cold, see this article: Damage to Garden Plants from Cold and Freeze.

Avoid sowing seeds too soon
You may be eager to get outside and sow seeds after an early springtime warm-up. However, late frosts and freezes are far more likely to harm annuals, vegetables, and greenhouse-grown perennials planted before the normal frost-free season. Warm-season annuals like impatiens, petunias, marigolds, and waxy begonias, as well as warm-season vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, and string beans, should be planted after the usual time without frost. 

Plant cool-season veggies like spinach, beets, collard greens, kale, carrots, Brussels sprouts, radishes, lettuce, kale, and onions if you wish to cultivate vegetables early in the season. Early spring planting is also appropriate for cool-season annuals including decorative cabbage, goldenrod, chamomile, and pansies. These annuals and vegetables can withstand mild frosts and often withstand temperatures as low as 28°F or occasionally even 26°F with no harm to their leaves and petals.

Before planting in the spring

All plants—annuals, vegetable transplants, perennials, and other plants produced inside or in a greenhouse—should be adequately hardened to withstand lower temperatures.  Hardened plants are more likely than unhardened ones to withstand a frost or mild freeze with little to no harm.  Read this article to find out more about hardening plants: How to Choose, Harden, and Plant Bedding Plants

Bring inside or cover
Like in the fall, spring plants can be protected by being brought indoors, covered with sheets or frost blankets, or placed in grow tunnels or cold frames when late spring temperatures are predicted to be below freezing.  

Putting in inside or supplying mulch
Similar to the fall, spring plants should be moved indoors, covered with sheets or frost blankets, or placed in grow tunnels or cold frames when late spring temperatures are expected to be below freezing. 

What do people still want to know about plant frost protection measures？

What Is the Freezing Temperature for Plants?

The first thing that comes to mind when you encounter cold weather is the temperature at which plants freeze, or, to put it another way, how cold is too cold? This question has no simple solution. Different plants freeze and die at different temperatures. They receive a hardiness rating as a result. Certain plants have a lower hardiness rating (allowing them to withstand colder temperatures) than plants that generate less of the hormone that prevents freezing. However, there are also other ways to define survival. During a freeze, a plant may lose all of its leaves, yet some may sprout back from the stems or even the roots. Therefore, some portions of the plant can withstand a particular temperature whereas the leaves cannot.