Frost Damage
Leaves and shoot tips go limp and water-soaked overnight, then blacken within a day or two. It is not catching and it does not spread. The damage stops exactly where the cold reached, so protected growth an inch away can be perfect.
Disease checklist
Four things to look for. If most of them match what you are holding, you are in the right place.
What gets rid of it
Gentlest option first. For most backyard cases the first one is enough, so try these in order and stop as soon as it works. If you do spray something, the product label tells you how — please read the notice further down.
1Cover the night before
Drape frost cloth or an old sheet over plants before sunset so it traps ground heat, then take it off in the morning.
frost blanket plant coverTry this first2Water before the cold night
Moist soil holds and releases more heat overnight than dry soil does.
3Wait before you cut
Give trees and shrubs several weeks. Most push new growth from undamaged buds, and cutting early removes wood that would have recovered.
4Replant badly hit annuals
Warm-season vegetables that were hit hard will sulk all season. Start over rather than nursing them along.
5Plant to the frost date
In Zone 6, hold tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and basil until the frost date has passed. A warm April week is not spring.
min max garden thermometer6Stop feeding late in the season
Late nitrogen and late pruning push soft growth that gets caught by the first autumn frost.
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Which plants get frost damage
Every plant we cover that gets frost damage, grouped by type — tap any one to open its page. A note beside a plant came from that plant’s own entry, because the same disease can be a minor nuisance on one plant and a serious problem on another. Plenty of plants we do not cover get it too.
shrub1
Plant families hit hardest
Related plants often share the same problems, so if one plant in a family has it, check the others. The largest group here is Solanaceae, with 3 of the 10 affected plants.
- Solanaceae3 plants
- Rosaceae2 plants
When to treat
Cover tender plants the evening before a frost is forecast; once tissue has blackened there is nothing to do but wait.
Timing only — the label is the law
This page tells you when to watch for frost damage and when treating is worth considering. It is not a recommendation to apply any particular product. Read and follow the product label before you spray — under federal law the label is the legal instruction, and using a pesticide against it is illegal.
- Check the pre-harvest interval. Every product that’s cleared for an edible crop sets a minimum number of days between spraying and picking. Find it on the label before you spray anything you intend to eat.
- Check the re-entry interval before you or anyone else works in the treated area again, and use the protective equipment the label names.
- Confirm the product is registered for your crop in your state. This page groups many different crops together, and a product legal on one of them is not legal on all of them — state registrations differ too. Your state pesticide agency or local extension office can confirm both.
- Rates and mixing instructions come from the label, never from us. We don’t publish them because they differ by product and formulation.
Other problems on the same plants
If a plant gets frost damage, these are the problems it most often gets as well, so they are worth checking for while you are out there. They tend to appear together; one does not cause another.