There’s much weather talk about the possibility of a cold spell next Monday and Tuesday. Well, I’m sure it won’t be colder than the early hours of Wednesday morning. The temperature fell to 0°C (32°F) and our potatoes at the allotment weren’t too impressed.
All those lovely green shoots that we had been waiting to see had been turned to a dark green mush by the frost.
No matter how carefully we plan to plant our potatoes they seem to get caught by a frost every year. Of course, we could leave planting them until later in the season but that increases the risk of them being infected by blight as summer progresses. Frost damage is probably the lesser of the two evils in that potatoes always recover whereas blight can devastate the whole crop.
To add insult to injury Thursday then turned out to be the warmest day of the year as the temperature reached 23.8°C (74.8°F) in the afternoon. In the sunshine, it was difficult to keep young seedlings from drying up in the greenhouse and all this after another cold early Thursday morning starting off the day at 2.3°C or 36.1°F.
The potatoes at the allotment have been covered with soil so they should be protected from any more frosts. I’ll have to check them over the weekend to see if any fresh shoots have emerged and cover them with more soil if necessary.
Hopefully, next week will see an end to the frosty nights for this spring.
