Do you want to elevate your meals and increase their flavors?
Here’s my secret: spicy crops.
Spicy crops can brighten your meals, adding much flavor, and allowing you to skip seasoning.
But the frost and heat can take a toll on your tasty plants, damaging them and ruining your dreams as a gardener.
Don’t worry because I’ll tell you in detail how to identify frost and heat damage and most importantly, how to protect your spicy crops from the elements.
First, How Can Frost and Heat Damage Your Spicy Crops?
Growing your crops in the wrong conditions affects their growth and if you aren’t careful, they can die. But how does this happen?
Frost Damage
When you plant your crops too early or too late, frost can destroy them.
You might think that a little drop in temperature isn’t too serious, right? Think again!
When the temperature drops drastically, the water inside the cells freezes and the ice crystals can puncture the cell walls, causing them to burst.
As a result, the plant cells will die and your crops will wilt before you harvest them or invite your friends over to admire your home garden.
But that’s not all. Frost can also cause dehydration.
When the ice forms on the plant leaves and stems, it draws the water out of the cells due to the osmotic pressure. And yes, this will cause your crops to wilt and die.
Even if frost doesn’t kill your crops immediately, it will hinder their growth. As a rule of thumb, growing your plants in less-than-perfect conditions will slow the growth.
Moreover, the damage to the plant tissues will interrupt the photosynthesis. And…. you’ve guessed it right. Your crops will die.
Heat Damage
Plants need heat to grow, but too much heat is also bad for your crops.
Extremely high temperatures increase water loss and your plant becomes dehydrated. The rate of transpiration increases, and the roots can’t absorb enough water to compensate for the lost moisture.
The heat can also break down or change the traits of the proteins inside the plant cells.
Finally, too much heat can damage the chloroplasts that perform photosynthesis. Without these chloroplasts, your plant won’t have enough energy and will wilt.
What Are the Signs of Frost and Heat Damage?
Here’s what to look out for.
- Your leaves will turn brown or black due to cell death—a depressing sight.
- Your crops look wilted and weak no matter how much effort you spend in the garden.
- Flowering and fruiting will be delayed, or even diminished.
But what about heat damage? Here are some tell-tale signs.
- The leaves have scorched edges that look yellow or brown.
- You can see sunburn signs that make the leaves look bleached or discolored.
- Flowers and fruits drop because of the high heat – begging you for shelter.
- Your crops look wilted due to water loss.
How to Protect Your Spicy Crops from Frost and Heat?
Now that you know what to look out for, here are my tried and tested tips to protect your spicy crops from the elements.
- Cover your plants using frost sheets or burlap to protect them. Make sure the cover reaches the ground to trap the heat.
- Add a thick layer of mulch to warm the soil. Mulch can also keep the roots moist in hot weather.
- Water your spicy crops properly before the frost to avoid dehydration.
- In hot weather, use shade cloth or umbrellas to block the heat.
- Water your plants early in the morning in hot weather and use drip irrigation to avoid dehydration.
Final Thoughts
Your spicy crops are prone to damage from the elements. It’s important for you as a home gardener to identify the signs of frost and heat damage.
Follow these tips, and you’ll have a beautiful garden full of delicious spicy crops to brighten every dinner.

Growing up with a mom who filled her home (inside and out) with all sorts of plants, Lisa got her start in gardening at a young age. Living now on her own with a home and yard full of plants (including an indoor greenhouse), she shares all the gardening tips she’s gained over the years.