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milford, CT,

I live in Connecticut and we are supposed to get the coldest temperatures around here in decades over the next week. _5 deg F (without the wind chill) I was wondering if this has any impact on pathogenic bacteria and fungi...in addition to beneficial bacteria and fungi. Mark

1/14/2009 9:32:20 PM

Mill Creek West by god Virginia

Mark, i live here in west virginia with a elevation of 4000feet or so, therefore we experience alot of below zero temps, are ground freezes in october and is just unthawing come april, so in my experience i do beleive the cold helps to kill off the bad soil born bacteria etc, i also think it helps to destroy alot of pest that the southern growers experience such as the squash vine borers etc, ive been using beneficial bacteria in my patch for two years now and my weights keep coming up so i do not think cold effects this, anyway as far back as i can remember after a bad winter temp wise we have always seemed to have a better garden so who knows! take care hope this helps keith from antartica west by god virginia lol

1/14/2009 9:46:07 PM

Springfield, Missouri

Mark, If you are adding ammendments the cooler weather will slow down the chemical reactions in the soil, therefore your soil pH will take longer to adjust.

1/14/2009 10:21:08 PM

South East

bacteria and fungi wil go dormant,,,they wil wake up when it warms up. Not all of them though.

1/14/2009 10:44:19 PM

Anamosa, IA [email protected]

We are supposed to get to -20 the next two nights in Iowa. Nothing new for us. It doesn't seem to hurt things for our heavy hitters. Deep frost actually helps to break up soil compaction, which is a good thing. We just had over 20" of snow in the past 5 days over an existing snow pack, so the ground will be well insulated.

1/14/2009 10:57:26 PM

Minnesota([email protected])

I hope the cold is a good for the soil. We had about -30F this morning, and likely colder tomorrow morning.

1/14/2009 11:11:28 PM

maine USA

I would think that it really depends on how much snow cover you have. I have a daylily business and last year I wasn't worried a bit about my soil or my plants because we had a lot of snow. It was like a protective blanket.
This year we had a lot of rain, which then froze. Following that we got some snow. This year I am worried. Benefits, maybe pathogenic bacteria and fungi may be killed or at least knocked back. Hopefully, cucumber beetles might be fewer this year. Hard to say.

1/15/2009 9:45:57 AM

Waquoit Mass

good for bug killin

1/15/2009 10:15:29 AM

[email protected]

Doesn't matter. Nature always finds a way. These soils have been through (& were made by) ice ages.

1/15/2009 7:17:40 PM