It's not too often I have to put a sweater on to work in the
vegetable garden, especially in May. But this past week has to be
one of the strangest weeks I have ever experienced since arriving
in Rowan County in 1979.  Record lows and frosts in late May are
most unusual causing concern among commercial growers and home
gardeners.
     Low lying areas experienced some frost earlier this week.
Some homeowners called lamenting they had complete kills on
vegetables such as cucumbers and squash.  Tomatoes did not seem
to be affected outright by the cold temperatures. However, the
effect of the low temperatures may not manifest itself until
later this summer.
     Cold temperatures can have an effect on tomatoes and other
plants setting fruit.  Blooms can often stick to newly forming
tomato and peppers causing problems with cell formation. Hormones
which govern growth and ripening are disrupted by cold and
sometimes do strange things to fruit.  Fruit will often mature to
be rough or "catfaced".  The blossom end of the fruit will be
dark and cracked.  Deformed fruit is unmarketable for commercial
producers and at times inedible for home gardeners.
     During cold weather, fruit often fails to produce seed.  No
seed in tomatoes may seem like a desirable trait, however, no
seed makes fruit deformed and inedible.  Fruit will be lop-sided
and hard. Often the fruit will be puffy and not ripen correctly.
The gel around tomato seed and seed itself provides much of the
flavor in tomatoes.
     Bees don't fly in cold, windy conditions.  Cucurbit crops
rely solely on insects for pollination.  Homeowners and some
commercial producers may experience a lapse in production in
squash, cucumbers and other cucurbits from lack of pollination.
     Oddly enough,  the cooler weather may have helped some
commercial producers. Tomatoes were off to a very rapid start due
to extremely warm weather experienced earlier.  Cooler
temperatures have slowed tomato growth giving producers time to
catch up with certain chores.
     Home gardeners with cool season vegetables may have also
benefited from the unusual cold weather. Cooler weather extended
growth on cool season crops such as cabbage, broccoli, Irish
potatoes, onions, collards and other cool season vegetables.
These would almost be done by now if normal temperatures had
continued.
     Flowers and bedding plants seem to adjust to cool weather
without problems. Many seem to withstand cold weather much better
than tender vegetable crops.