Protecting the Plants

The final trick to need for weathering your seedlings successfully through their big move to the outdoors is protection. Protection from sun, wind and frost. Leaving new transplants to their own devices usually leads to disappointment. Sun and wind work against their survival for the first week that they have their roots in earth, and even after that, sneak frosts can wither a whole planting in just an hour or so of early morning chill. Protecting Plants from Sun and Wind. Sun and wind damage to a newly set out plant are usually confined to its first three or four days in the ground, but may occur up to a week after planting out tomatoes and eggplant, or bare-root seedlings. Pale leaves indicate sunscald. Cover them promptly and increase exposure gradually over the next week or two. I often cover these plants with protectors used against frost, such as glass clothes, plastic sheeting, or mulch for most of the first two or three days - no longer than that, though; they need ventilation and light. Sometimes I use the pint-sized plastic, open-grid berry boxes to filter out some sun on early lettuce and broccoli transplants. When I must set out young plants in sunny weather, I scatter a light covering of dry hay stems, borrowed from the mulch pile, over their crowns. Just a handful for each plant will suffice. The hay shades the plants while admitting some air and sun. By the time the leaves grow above it, they are strong enough to make good use of full sun. To shield early cabbage from strong winds, many country gardeners push an old shingle into the ground on the north or west side of their plants. (To determine the direction of prevailing winds in your garden, tie cloth strips to several stakes or poles and not in which direction they blow). An opened, bottomless half-gallon milk carton set around the plant makes a good wind and sun shield. Even brush and twigs pushed into the soft earth around the plant will serve to cast dappled shade and deflect wind. One year, when I put out an early planting of head lettuce in a sheltered corner near the back step, I covered the young plants lightly with brush leaf from staking the pea patch. For the first few days, I draped feed bags over the bush to cast dappled shade on the tender plants. It looked perfectly awful, but the combination of varying shade and plenty of air, followed by the lighter shade from the twiggy branches after Ive removed the burlap, brought the plants on gradually without any sunscald or windburn. The first week in the ground is a critical time. The extremes of early-spring weather can prove overwhelming to a tender young plant. A bit of hovering and preventive protection at this time can make the difference between a setback and a head start. Protecting Plants from Frost. Ive had to learn not to be vain about the garden in early spring, but rather to stand ready to cover the young plants with all the odd things I can muster if frost seems likely. Frost watch must sometimes continue for as long as two weeks after you put tender plants inside. Even head lettuce and endive must be defended from severe frost. Improvised Protectors. I use half-bushel baskets, flowerpots, coffee cans, cottage cheese cartons, berry baskets, and gallon plastic cider jugs with one end cut off. The lightweight plastic protectors were sometimes blown off by the wind until we started the practice of routinely topping them with a small stone or clod of earth to hold them down. Two precautions:

Leaves that tough the inside of a metal protector can get zapped by the frost, conducted right through the metal. I use the cans over the smaller, lower plants. A flowerpot has a hole through which cold air can pass, and in a severe frost that can be enough to kill the plant. Its happened in my garden, so I now put a little stone or plug of moss over the pots drainage hole. Berry baskets have side holes, but since they permit air circulation, this problem doesnt seem to arise.

Theres usually about a month between the setting out of lettuce and cabbage in April and tomatoes and peppers in May, when I keep the garden cart loaded with my motley plant caps, ready to wheel out to the field when needed. Heavier protectors such as flowerpots, pans, or cans may be left right beside the plant, but the lightweight plastic containers tend to blow away, so I usually collect them and bring them out when needed. In addition to the items you might find around the house or yard, there are other types of covers and there are certain methods that ward off early frost damage. Glass Clothes . These can be made by cutting off the bottom of glass jugs. They will not only keep out frost, but also act as miniature greenhouses for risky early plantings. Ventilate the top during the day (remove the cap),or the plant may cook in the suns heat. Tents of Plastic Sheeting. Support sheeting by draping it over wire U-forms, and weight down the edges of the plastic with soil or stone. These tents let in sun and keep out frost and wind. Be sure to ventilate them at the ends and at the bottom rather than the top to prevent the escape of the rising warm air. Kelp. Plants sprayed with a dilute solution of this seaweed (see chapter 19) have shown greater resistance to frost. In one study, treated tomato plants survived a temperature of 290F (20C). Mulch. Loose straw or hay drawn closely around plants and lightly over their crowns provides enough trapped-air insulation to ward off a light frost. Water. Water can insulate, too. In experiment reported by Professor Frederick Fay of the University of Toronto, plants continued to grow in a cold frame topped by water-filled plastic bags (set right on the glass), even though at temperatures outside averaged 200F (70C). A space of at least four inches must be kept between the plant and the outside air. Freezing Water. You can even take advantage of warming effect of freezing water. Thats right - water gives off heat when frost hits it. One pound of water releases 144 Btus when it freezes. In an enclosed space like a cold frame or a plastic tent, several wide, shallow pans of water will help to take the edge off the frost as they freeze. Its important to use shallow containers that will chill rapidly. Deep bowls or pans will not cool quickly enough to do your plants any good. Letting the sprinkler run directly onto vulnerable plants also protects against frost kill. Rescue. Then theres the morning-after rescue. If, despite your best efforts or because of an extra-sneaky frost, you wake up to see the characteristic darkening of frost-touched leaves in your brave new garden rows, keep calm and reach for the hose. Frost damages plants by forming sharp-edged ice crystals, which puncture cell walls. If you can hose the plants with a fine spray of water before the sun hits them, you can often prevent the cell damage that kills the plant. If a hose isnt handy, use the watering can with the sprinkling head on it as Ive done more than once, or use your trombone sprayer. If the sun is coming up fast and you have many plants to spray, toss an old sheet or blanket over the plants that must wait to prevent their thawing - and consequent collapsing - before you get to them.

16 Cold Frames, Hotbeds, and Cloches

Trying to extend the growing season a little in either direction can be a gamble. However, using structures like cold frames, hotbeds, and cloches or row covers often pays off in more garden food and earlier flowers by protecting your fleshly sown seeds or just transplanted seedlings from harsh conditions.

Cold Frames
Once you have a cold frame, youll wonder how you ever get along without one. My own simple cold frame adds several weeks to the productivity of my garden, in both spring and fall. Heres how I use it: To start seeds in early spring. To harden off spring transplants. For late-summer plantings (or transplants) of easy-to-cover fall vegetables like endive and lettuce - and even to winter-over parsley. For late-fall sowings of vegetable seeds, such as asparagus, sorrel, or corn-salad, that will come up in early spring but would get plowed over if sown in the big garden.

My small three-by six-foot frame cant serve all those functions at once, of course. I really need several more cold frames. (Are you reading this, Mike?) However, by careful planning and prompt rotation of plant populations, I keep the frame busy from March to December. Location and Design. Your first consideration in planning a cold frame should be location. A southern exposure is a must, and some protection from cold winds will help to maintain the sun-generated warmth in the frame. If the site slopes slightly to the south, so much the better. The spot should be well drained, too. Dont place your cold frame in a hollow where water will collect. Your aim should be to build the frame so that the suns rays will strike the glass at as close as possible to a 90 degree angle. Since the suns position in the sky changes with the seasons, from its low, weak point in winter to its commanding summer position high in the sky, you obviously cant ensure a 90 degree angle at all times. Because March and April are the critical months for seedling protection for many gardeners, the greatest good for the most plants can

probably be obtained by making the angle of the cold frame cover in such a way that early-spring sun will hit it head-on, perpendicularly. (See the box, The Angle of Your Cold Frame Lid, for specific detailed on how to determine this angle). The Angle of Your Cold Frame Lid Most gardeners will be content simply to build a cold frame with a sloping lid, but if you want to fine-tune yours, here is a formula that you can use. The angle of the suns rays from the horizon will be equal to 90 degree plus the amount of the suns declination (its angular distance from the equator at noon - this figure, which is different each day, is published in almanacs) minus the latitude where you live. Now to determine the angle of your cold frame lid, use this formula: lig angle = 90 degree - suns angle

Plants that are in the cold frame over summer are often being protected from strong sun by slatted covers or screening, as in the case of summer lettuce, so the summer angle isnt important. Fall plants need frost protection and intensification of the gradually waning sun, which is somewhat lower in the sky than it was in early spring. You can build a cold frame that will be a remarkably effective sun-catcher during both spring and fall if you make it in sections that can bolted together, and make a special fall insert to catch the pale, weak, late-year sun. In a Farmstead magazine article, Rocky Roughgarden describes the modular cold frame he built for his Massachusetts garden. The glass side of the basic spring section slopes at a 35 degree angle from the earth. A wedge-shaped fall insert, bolted on in early autumn, raises the angle of the glass to 55 degrees from the earth. The Roughgarden cold frame boasts, in addition, an extra cover insulated with scrap Styrofoam. The exact angle of the sun will vary, of course, in different latitudes, and at different times. Unless you want to build several inserts, youll need to decide when you want to capture the most extra light and plan the angle of the insert accordingly. Dimensions of the cold frame can be suited to your site and the materials at hand, but in most cases a maximum width (front to back) of three feet is ideal. A frame that is too wide - over four feet - will be difficult to reach into when you tend the plants. Length of the frame is not critical, but make it is as long as possible; soon after its built, youll wish it were longer. If you will be creating the top of the cold frame from windows or storm sashes, consider the number of windows you will use and their length when deciding exactly how long to make the cold frame. Practical dimensions range from 6 to 12 inches high for the front board and 12 to 18 inches high for the rear. Construction. The construction of the cold frame, for most of us, is determined by the materials we have at hand. We make ours out of discarded wood-framed storm sashes and twoinch locust boards milled from trees cut in our woods. Locust has the advantage of lasting a long time in the ground. Cedar, cypress, and redwood are also decay-resistant woods that should outlast the more easily replaced sash. When using pine, oak, or other less rot-resistant woods, brush on several coats of linseed oil or copper naphthenate to retard rotting. Avoid using creosote, pentachlorophenol, or mercury compounds to treat wood intended for use around plants.

Some gardeners, make a deep frame of especially rot-resistant wood and bury it eight to ten inches in the ground. Others simply set the frame to make it portable so it can be used to cover special row crops in the garden. Frame sides may be screwed, bolted, nailed, or hooked together. Youll want to reinforce the corner unless the frame is designed to be taken apart for moving or storage. We nailed two-by two-inch stakes of scrap wood in each corner of our frame. Purists object that inferior supports interfere with placement of seed flats; some who wish to make very efficient use of very square inch of the frame may prefer to nail one-by three-inch boards to the exterior corners for bracing. It is often a good ideal to drive supporting stakes into the ground around the cold frame to keep it well anchored. We did not add struts to support our windows, but in a long cold frame or one using heavy windows, or where snow cover is heavy, you might want to nail one or two one-inch-wide strips of one-inch-thick lumber across the frame to support the sash. These cross ties may be countersunk in the front and rear boards of the cold ties. Wood is a good insulator, far better than metal, and so the boards should be a good inch thick, if possible. Two-inch-thick lumber will protect your plants even more, although it will be more cumbersome to handle. Either 10-inch or 12-inch-wide boards would work well. Dimensional lumber would be my first choice, but you could also use 1/2-inch, 5/8- inch, or 3/4-inch exterior plywood. Construction of the cold frame is simple. Just follow these steps: 1. Dig a hole bout about a foot deep and three to four inches larger in width and length than the dimensions of your projected frame. 2. Cut the side pieces, the front, and the back from sturdy wood. If youre using plywood, nail a length of scrap lumber about two or three inches wide and three-fourth inch to one inch thick to each end of the long back and front boards. Then use nails (or, for stronger construction, screws) to attach the side boards to the front and back boards. To further brace the frame, nail a length of one-by two-inch scrap lumber to the upper edge of the back board (see the diagram on the facing page). The two short side pieces of the frame should taper from back to front to give you the desired angle, and the long back board, of course, will be higher than the long front board. Check to determine whether the rectangles are true by measuring from corner to corner in an X. Both lines should be the same length. Nail or screw the pieces together. 3. Reinforce the corners with metal braces or short two-by-fours, unless you have used the scrap lumber described above for plywood. 4. Position the cold frame in the hole, taking care to level it well. 5. For the sun-catching top of the frame, most people use secondhand windows or storm sashes hinged to the back board. Here again, wood-framed windows will retain much more warmth than those that are metal-rimmed. On frigid nights, insulating the cold frame from the outside can help to keep internal temperatures above that critical frost point. You can pile old blankets, leaf stuffed bags, boards, or rugs over the sash and also blank the frame with hay or bags of leaves. An extra layer of glazing, even a simple sheet of clear plastic, will trap heat by blocking convection and conduction - the often-cited greenhouse effect -and this can reduce heat loss by 34 percent. A few variations. Variations on the basic box-frame and glass-sash construction of the cold frame can run from the substantial to the makeshift. For a more durable structure than wood, you could build a brick, stone, concrete block, or poured concrete frame. For any such frame that is