My Shop has be commondeered.

[TB Roye]

We are expecting extremely cold temps. here in Sacramento overnight. Just got back from BIL's helping run some wiring in his garage shop and went out to my shop. Opened the door to find all LOML 's potted plants are now in my shop which leaves out woodworking for the next couple of days. All my drop clothes are covering up the tender plants outside. It is ok as I will watch the playoff games Saturday and Sunday and keep the peace. LOML has invested a lot of her time and her money in those plants so if it saves them good. My shop is only 10 X 12 so it doesn't take much to fill it up. Might take a drive down the Rockler store Tomorrow (60miles) haven't been there for a while. Low 20's is extremely cold for Sacramento, I know it a lot colder in other parts of the US but the temp over the next couple of days are rare.

Tom

[JR]

Tom, it's supposed to get pretty chilly down here, too. Gonna make the row-crop and citrus growers nutty, I'm sure.

Do you know if I can put the plants under my deck and expect that to be sufficient? LOML's also got a lot of sweat equity in her plants. Does throwing a sheet over them do any good?

JR

[Ed62]

This is some crazy weather. Low 20s in Sacramento? FWIW, a sheet over the plants can keep them from frost, but you'll need more than that to keep them from freezing. Good luck guys. LOML is also a plant nut.

Ed

[JR]

Yeah, it's pretty weird all right. Of course, low 20's in Sacto is pretty cold, but not completely out of the question - they're just about in the foothills of the Sierras.

When you move over to the coast and South 400 miles and it gets in the low 20's, you've got some very confused happenings. The farms in my county go year-round, producing over $1.2B. These crops will not survive that kind of cold snap:

Rank Crop Value

1

st Strawberries $328,567,000
2nd Nursery Stock 213,661,000
3rd Lemons 179,228,000
4th Celery 114,759,000
5th Tomatoes 74,988,000
6th Avocados 54,803,000
7th Raspberries 54,430,000
8th Cut Flowers 51,751,000
9th Valencia Oranges 23,248,000
10th Peppers 23,053,000

[TB Roye]

I think under the deck would help and maybe a sheet or cloth drop cloth over them and they should be fine. They don't recommend plastic over the plants as the lets the cold through. Some of plants out side we covered with a drop cloth and put as string of Christmas light around them. A lot of the pipes up here are not insulated and could burst. In the early 90's we had a cold snap over the holidays temps down into the low high teens a couple nights, there were a lot of burst pipes in houses of people who left town for the holidays and turned the heater off. You could drive down a street and see water running out from under garage doors of people with burst pipes. Lot of cars, and inboard boats with cracked blocks also.

Tom

[LinuxRandal]

We are expecting extremely cold temps. here in Sacramento overnight. Just got back from BIL's helping run some wiring in his garage shop and went out to my shop. Opened the door to find all LOML 's potted plants are now in my shop which leaves out woodworking for the next couple of days. All my drop clothes are covering up the tender plants outside. It is ok as I will watch the playoff games Saturday and Sunday and keep the peace. LOML has invested a lot of her time and her money in those plants so if it saves them good. My shop is only 10 X 12 so it doesn't take much to fill it up. Might take a drive down the Rockler store Tomorrow (60miles) haven't been there for a while. Low 20's is extremely cold for Sacramento, I know it a lot colder in other parts of the US but the temp over the next couple of days are rare.

Tom

Where is your shop? Have a basement? Ever think of building her a cold box, for plant starting/storage?

[TB Roye]

You won't find many basements in California, most newer houses are on concrete slabs, very few are even on traditional foundations. These temps are very rare maybe once every 10 years. They don't last long maybe 3-4 days. I thought about building her a Greenhouse when we built the shop and Garden storage shed and relandscaped the backyard 3 years ago but ran out of space for more buildings and she didn't think it was necessary. LOML wanted a private garden area with a pergola in the side yard by kitchen and that's what she got. Temp inside shop at 5:30am this morning 60F outside 28F

[JR]

Temp inside shop at 5:30am this morning 60F outside 28F

28F!? Oh, the humanity!

[steve-norrell]

Temp inside shop at 5:30am this morning 60F outside 28F

Life must be really tough down there in California. And Arnold wants to combat global warming!

It has warmed up to about 25F today, from a low of -14F two days ago.

My 'shop' gets appropriated every winter. Seems like the spouse does not like getting into a cold car . . . and this old guy doesn't like getting into a cold truck; we keep the thermostat at about 55F when it is being used as a garage. I usually get the 'shop' back in April.

Stay warm, Steve

[scmhogg]

JR

You left out the true number one crop---Marijuana.

Steve

[JR]

Hmm, Steve, for some reason the county Ag Commisioner left that off the report! Of course, your work might sensitize you to the issue more than the rest of us...

It might be public service for me to take a hike this afternoon. See if I can "save" some local crops.

JR