In my previous post, I said I would not disclose how I covered my backyard St. Vincent vines. I will say that I used plastic and leave it at that. The temperature at 6 this morning was 30, suggesting that the freeze was not hard enough to do serious damage to the buds. However, when I removed the plastic at 8 a.m., I found mixed results. Some buds that were pressed against the plastic were damaged or killed, and others that did not come into contact with the plastic looked bad but not dead. Still others survived.
I
hope that my commercial-vineyard friends, who have so much more at
stake than I, are facing conditions no worse, and hopefully much better.
Possible conclusions for the urban vineyard:
- The plastic covering might have harmed some of the buds.
- The covering might have saved many buds.
- It had no effect because the freeze was mild, not hard, causing spotty damage.
Evidence —
Not so good:
Very bad: 
In fine shape:
One rule of thumb for the onset of frost damage is four hours at 28 degrees. According to KYTV's weather app, temperatures will be in the 27-28 range from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. tonight.
I covered my vines, which I can do because I have just eight vines. I will not disclose how I did the covering because the materials and the process are absurd. The protective measures probably will do as much harm as the hazard (if it happens).
We'll see.
