Frost - let's find out!

Last night it hit 30 for several hours, it might have even dipped below 30 for a bit. Woke up to see frost. Ventured out around 8am (still around 36 degress) to find frost on my buds They looked like snow-cones. Not a lot I can do as I have a patch which will take a lot of time to harvest. I'm doing a little harvesting, but judging by the trichs and overall appearance they still need time. Meanwhile I have read what seems like 1,000 frost posts here, which do not reach a definitive conclusion. Answers tend to range from 'it will kill them' to 'they like a few frosts' or 'harvest in the snow!' Unfortunately it is not practical or possible to try to cover in my situation (if I did that I might as well hang a sign!)

So I'll find out the tried and true way - personal experience. I'll let ya'll know how it goes.

sounds good! My plants have gone through 3 frosts now and last night was a fairly heavy one so it will be interesting to see how it made out.

messman said:

Last night it hit 30 for several hours, it might have even dipped below 30 for a bit. Woke up to see frost. Ventured out around 8am (still around 36 degress) to find frost on my buds They looked like snow-cones. Not a lot I can do as I have a patch which will take a lot of time to harvest. I'm doing a little harvesting, but judging by the trichs and overall appearance they still need time. Meanwhile I have read what seems like 1,000 frost posts here, which do not reach a definitive conclusion. Answers tend to range from 'it will kill them' to 'they like a few frosts' or 'harvest in the snow!' Unfortunately it is not practical or possible to try to cover in my situation (if I did that I might as well hang a sign!)

So I'll find out the tried and true way - personal experience. I'll let ya'll know how it goes.

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It depends on the strain, but most strains won't take much frost, and ones temperatures get that low growth slows. Outdoor growers in the midwest didn't have the greatest season; wet cold fall, and now early frosts... global warming my @ss!

Just had frost...i covered way before my soil, and it survived it well..so thats the conclusion....Plants can survive a good 5 frosts if you have done everything on your power to keep them healthy....

They were fine. They were fine, but at this pace, I'll be harvesting in the snow. More cold and wet stuff on the way...

Well now we're getting down to it. After several weeks of beautiful weather, now we are paying for it with some unseasonably cold and wet stuff. Going down to 30 tonight, upper 20's tomorrow night, then 3-4 days rain with temps in the 40's to 50's - downright nasty weather.

So let me throw this question out there - anyone ever lost a plant to the cold? If so, how did it go? What will eventually happen? Do the buds just melt into piles of goo? (I have a feeling I'll find out!)

i feel your pain bro, i was on herelast week trying to get a str8 answer on the frost issue, however answers are like assholes, everybody has a different one... although the average answer was to bring them in at night...not really a possibilitiy as mine are in the ground, so i took 3 tomato plant cages and fastened them together, i then put that over my plant...then wrapped it with a burlap sack, then with a contracter garbage bag. i cover it just afterdusk and uncover around 8 ish or whenever the frost melts...thusfar 3 frosts and buds/plant looks good...2 weeks left.

budence1979 said:

i feel your pain bro, i was on herelast week trying to get a str8 answer on the frost issue, however answers are like assholes, everybody has a different one... although the average answer was to bring them in at night...not really a possibilitiy as mine are in the ground, so i took 3 tomato plant cages and fastened them together, i then put that over my plant...then wrapped it with a burlap sack, then with a contracter garbage bag. i cover it just afterdusk and uncover around 8 ish or whenever the frost melts...thusfar 3 frosts and buds/plant looks good...2 weeks left.

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I had the same problem, worried about frost, so I covered at night with clear plastic worked well, now it's raining hard. Don't want to cover a wet plant, not sure about mold, don't want to harvest early, but will to avoid mold.

just put bin bags over them and they should be right but DO NOT put a bin bag over a wet plant mold starts to grow

i compleatly understand what you are going through it recently got down to 28 and 30 two nights in a row and i also cant cover them up it would be way to obivious. but yeah dont rely on anyone else but yourself if it gets cold and your plants start to die then harvest them early otherwise just keep an eye on them and they should be fine. This weather sucks i thought i had untill halloween untill the first frost not the first week of oct. this was a shitty year for us midwest growers cold all summer and now colder and wet all fall

Thanks for the replies, and sympathies. I can't really cover them - I have a patch too large to cover. I've started to harvest but they still need a couple of weeks. Calling for a hard frost/freeze tonight, and I'm not liking it one bit. I'm afraid this might kill or at least damage them.

https://www.rollitup.org/outdoor-growing/249235-heat-em-up-you-nervous.html

This will help, but I don't know about a hard frost/freeze without covering.

i noticed that my plant had sweated while in the plastic bag idid the same thing with the tomato cages and put bag ova that. next morning the plant had water dripin from it .. is that bad? would this be a good way to draw out some moisture day or two before harvest?

I think this would contribute to mold.

So much for the hard freeze last night - I don't think this ever happened. If it did, they came through just fine. 4-5 days of rain and possible sleet to go through now...

I'm in the same exact boat. i just need to make it through sunday then its smooth sailing. I got an inch or two of snow last night. Dreading to see what they look like. Hopefuly they made it.

me too dudes. fortunately I have harvested most all of my crop already but I have some drag ass flowering sativas that will not make it. I've seen temps in the mid 20s already almost a week ago and the highs have been in the 50's if were lucky. this past week has been shitty...but its starting to slowly warm up and this weekend its suppose to hit 60 again so basically since I know that they will not make it I am just waiting to pull the plug. So if anyone wants to see the ultimate test come check out my thread as I am going to go take pics right now and will have them posted very soon. "6ft tall and starting to show preflowers" is the name of the thread.

From Indoor Marijuana Horticulture By Jorge Cervantes:

":If the temperature dips below this mark (freezing), the freeze with rupture plant cells and foliage will die back or at best, grow slowly. Growth slows when the temperature dips below 50 degrees F."

So if it doesn't warm up, your buds won't ripen, and frost make do more harm than it's worth...