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Rapid City, SD

Ok, this is Lisa (PumpkinFam), and I am at school....been keeping my eye on the weather and a couple of changes are coming up in the next week. We have been having typical 70 degree days and mid-40 nights most of the time...but, we are going to get low 90's on Sunday followed very likely by frost on Tuesday. My questions are...

#1...There is no way I can cover and protect all 6 pumpkin plants. If I protect the fruit and the plants suffer frost damage, what will happen to these young (30 to 40 day old) fruit I have? Will they rippen on a weak or dead plant or even off the vine?

#2...I have a ton of tomatoes and peppers that haven't rippened yet, I know I can cut them and put them in a grocery bag to get them to rippen, but they don't taste as good then. So if I trim back a lot of the dense foliage and expose the fruit more, will they mature faster?

Any advice is greatly appriciated.
Thanks...Lisa

9/17/2004 12:45:43 PM

You can rinse off the leaves with water if frost is on them; do this before the sun hits them in the morning. That can keep your plant alive until a hard frost kills them.

For the tomatoes.... I don't know if this would work or not, but you can try to put paper bags around the fruit when they are still on the vine. It would protect them from light frost, and the bag might help build up ethylene gas around them, which causes them to ripen.

9/17/2004 1:05:17 PM

Northern Cambria, Pa.

It is even better to run sprinklers through the night. A coating of ice will form that will protect the plants.

9/17/2004 2:07:27 PM