Tool Time: FreezePruf
Like everybody else even vaguely associated with garden writing, I have received a bottle of FreezePruf in the mail.
The product, made by the people who produce Liquid Fence, is new this fall, and it is designed to increase the cold tolerance of your tender plants by 9 degrees. This includes annuals, ornamentals, fruits and vegetables.
According to its makers, the product strengthens the cell walls in the plants so that they stay in tact when the cell expands in the cold.
The goal here is not to have your tomato plants last until Thanksgiving. The goal is to protect your tender plants from one of those dreadful Arctic blasts that comes and then goes. And it is also designed to protect seedlings in the spring from a sudden cold snap.
"It is like moving 200 miles south," the manufacturer proclaims.
"Like anti-freeze for your plants," is a less appetizing claim.
The weather has been wet but warmish here in my part of Zone 7. But I am going to apply FreezePruf to a few of the tender plants on my deck and in my borders, and wait for that first frosty night. The application should last six weeks, according to the manufacturer.
I will let you know how it works.
Comments
Hmmm...I would like my plants to feel like I've moved 20 miles south. I think Liquid Fence is a pretty green product. How about Freeze Proof? Anti-freeze comment makes me think, perhaps not.
I'd like to be 20 miles south sometimes, too. We will see how this works. It might be just the ticket for your containers, Kerry!--Susan
Posted by: Kerry | November 1, 2009 8:19 PM
As lead inventor of Freezepruf, let me address Kerry's post. All the ingredients in FreezePruf are already present in food or used to grow food. As such, there are no toxicity issues, and it may be used directly on fruits and vegetables. It will add several degrees to the frost tolerance of tender plants, and add ca. 1/3 to almost a full USDA Zone equivalent to the cold tolerance of hardier landscape plants.
Posted by: Dave Francko | November 4, 2009 2:52 PM
Does this product work internally, externally or both? How does it get into the plant if it works internally? I found other posts suggesting a patent was pending, available for public viewing but can not locate it. Can I get a link? What about the pending peer reviewed journal article?
Posted by: Consumate Sceptic | December 3, 2009 9:10 PM