AxisOfBeagles wrote:
Anyone have additional thoughts on reducing / eliminating frost damage?

Our vineyard is at about 2800' here in the Sierra Foothills. April
frosts, soon afer budbreak, are an annual anxiety. Last night was a cold
one, and we've got some notable frost damage this morning.

Tonight looks to be another cold one, probably worse (no wind), so we're
irrigating heavy today, trying to get the soil around the vines as
saturated as possible in an atempt to try and change the soil heat
radiation profile as much as possible.

Anyone use any additional frost protection strategies? Sprinklers and
fans are not possible for us jst now ($).



Would covering the buds with a little 'tent' that doesn't touch the bud
work? If there's no wind, a layer or three of newspaper (folded like
smaller versions of the pirate's hats we made as kids?) might suffice;
otherwise something a little more substantial might be needed. This
would keep frost from settling on the buds, though wouldn't stop direct
freezing of the buds.