Mitigating frost damage on highland vegetables

This cool season of the year highland farmers are worried they might lose millions of pesos due to frost that destroys their crops. It happens during the months of January and February.
Frost will occur when the temperature is 10 and below degrees centigrade, as it destroys the vegetable tissues causing death of the plants.
The damaging effects of frost can be mitigated by growing early nurturing cultivars of crops with horizontal leaf display, short growth habit, and thick cuticle to trap ongoing heat from the soil to warm the plants.
To enable the plants to synthesize carbohydrates for heat and energy to survive, application of additional potassium fertilizer is needed.
Overhead watering, sprinkling or spraying water to wet the plants late in the afternoon to prevent rapid condensation of water molecules during the night when the temperature goes low is also recommended.
Doing these can save crops grown during the cool season. — PERCIVAL B. ALIPIT, Baguio City