Watering to prevent frost damage?

[Two_Sheds]

I was only half listening to GQT yesterday, and I'm sure I heard Chris Beardshaw explaining how you could water your plants to prevent frost damage. I'm sure he said that watering the leaves warms the plant up enough to prevent frost ?

It sounds nuts .. did I dream it?

I can't find anything on the interwebby, and I don't have time to listen to the whole programme again (it was towards the end) BBC - Radio 4 - Gardeners' Question Time - Homepage

[plantsbypost.com]

No. you heard right. It can be done, and can work very well, but needs to be done right so i'm not going into it, in case i get the blame when it goes wrong!!!!

Some have systems set up in apple orchards, etc, to automatically do this in case of late frosts in the spring.

Personally for the gardener its easier just to pull extra fleeces over.

Regards

Neil

[krazy_krok]

I saw this on the allotment dvd. A bloke watered his gooseberry's before an expected frost - the leaves and the flowers/fruit. The idea being the water would freeze on the plant creating a thin protective layer of ice which stop the fruits falling off. The thin layer stops the liquid in the fruit from freezing and expanding which makes them fall off.

[janeyo]

Interesting. I read about watering frosted leaves with warm water to prevent the damage as they thaw too quickly.

[burnie]

I was told of a theory,seemed daft at the time but it worked.Tatties had poked their heads through and were frosted,a kiwi neighbour told me to water them quickly .His theory was,the sun shining through the ice "burns" the leaves(bit like a magnifying glass I guess),so melt the ice and no damage.I did it that once only,but it did work.

[PAULW]

From wikepedia used on apples and cherry and plums as well

Oranges grown for commercial production are generally grown in groves and are produced throughout the world. The top three orange-producing countries are Brazil, the United States, and Mexico. Oranges are sensitive to frost, and a common treatment to prevent frost damage when sub-freezing temperatures are expected, is to spray the trees with water, since as long as unfrozen water is turning to ice on the trees' branches, the ice that has formed stays just at the freezing point, giving protection even if air temperatures have dropped far lower.[

[Eco-Chic]

GQT said to give a very thorough ground watering and to mist the leaves in the morning if frost is forecast. I don't quite get it though, because I would have thought any ice would thaw during the day

[bazzaboy]

Two_Sheds, it's the same principle as your defrosting car windscreen method (http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ale_27520.html). But it isn't a new idea, I recall being mystified by it as a youth living in Kent (1950s!) when the most modern orchards used the technique (automatic sprays as temperatures dipped towards freezing) regarded as ultra techie. Now few of the orchards remain... b.