Will it frost again?

Hello Cascadia!

I am here in Olympia and the weather is amazing! As you know sunny 60 degree days are not all that normal for Olympia in April. So, is there another frost coming this spring or do you think it is safe to plant out the tender seedlings?

It's not safe until mid May. Even then there is a chance,  slim but terrible,  that it will frost.

It just frosted at my place--plants are all fine but we aren't safe till early to mid-May depending on the year. These clear warm days are actually more likely to have frosts in the mornings than our normal partly cloudy and rain mix.

Out here average last frost is early may so we are only talking a few weeks earlier. It is a tricky thing because bnb it is all about averages. Maybe this year the frost ends early!

I still need to let my seedlings grow a bit more before I harden them off anyways. I am a few weeks out at the earliest, just curious what other people are thinking.

I really hope not. I have seedlings under the carport hardening off. They're doing fine, even the termaters. I might put out half of the tomato plants this weekend and hope we don't have a hard frost. Or maybe not. I can't decide.

Put them out but give the tomato's a "wall of water" to protect them. Use  hoops & plastic to give the babys protection at night.
If you were east of the cascades it would be June before you dared put things out even with the sunny warm days.

We have a little hoop house this year and I will definitely utilize it for gardening off. The trick is once they are in the ground I can't put a hoop house over them (garden is too big). I have a little bit of floating fabric cloche yo cover the tender seedlings once they are in the ground but not enough to cover everything.

Beth Johnson wrote:I really hope not. I have seedlings under the carport hardening off. They're doing fine, even the termaters. I might put out half of the tomato plants this weekend and hope we don't have a hard frost. Or maybe not. I can't decide.

I live in the same county. Last year it frosted in May. I really wouldn't put them in the ground without serious protection. The wall of water that was mentioned is a good suggestion.

If we get a late frost likely it won't be a hard one. Sometimes I just toss a large pot or a bucket over plants for the night that won't like late frosts. Not as much protection as a wall of water but it's quick and easy and works if it's just a light frost. Just don't forget to take it off the plants in the morning--the sun can turn that pot/bucket into an oven very quickly.

Old timers use bedsheets or towels on their tomatoes at night. In the past it was the only way to grow them in the foothills even in the height of summer

After I realized that I'll never amass enough plastic bottles or jugs to create a DIY wall of water for 20ish tomatoes, I bought the wall-o-water contraptions. I hope they're sturdy and will last for a few seasons.

I absolutely love this thread. Thanks for starting it, Chris. :)

May we talk about trellises while we wait for the last frost? I don't want to threadjack. I have rebar on the way!

They should last. Just be sure to take them down and store them properly when they're no longer needed. I've got some hand me down walls of water that have been used for years. The quality depends on the brand though.  I believe "Wall O' Water" was a well regarded brand by my friends

Wall-o-waters are worth having.  I've got mine set up in the raised beds, just warming the ground beneath.  I haven't put seedlings into them yet.  

The green ones I had in Wisconsin lasted for years, maybe 10 years.  They sold replacement single tubes you could use if a tube developed a hole.

These Wall O' Waters are quite nifty!

I had frost this morning - not a hard frost but enough to raise my heart rate.

Last Saturday I turned over a ~3 foot wide row of sod. Not. Fun. At least my dog helped dig (I think she smelled a gopher tunnel). On Monday I threw the sod back into the row grass side down and covered it with cardboard and set up 12 Wall O' Waters on the cardboard.

Today I planted a ~6" tomato plant: I cut an X into the cardboard, planted the plant under the cardboard up to its first true leaves and pinched those off. I threw topsoil on the cardboard and mulched with old straw from the duck house. About four top leaves are above the straw. We'll see how this works out. It looks like we're going to have a bit of a windstorm, so I placed most of the other tomato plants that are still in the pots in the Wall O' Water teepees because they were getting blown about the yard.

Pics to come!

ETA: Do you think these will work for zucchini? Let's find out!