My leaves froze last night and I picked them today. Tips?

[Figuring it out]

Are the leaves going to color cure though they have been frozen? Did the freeze maybe damage them beyond being usable? Any tips on what to do at this point? I plan on stacking them in a cardboard box for color curing, as I've done with maybe half the leaves so far as I've been picking them, and which has worked pretty good. Thank you!

 

[deluxestogie]

Did the freeze maybe damage them beyond being usable?

Maybe. All you can do is attempt to color-cure them.

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Bob's right. Proceed as normal, and when it's done, separate the good from the ok, and the questionable.

Future reference: if it freezes and the next couple days it will be above 32°, don't pick it. Living plants can repair some of the frost damage before the next freeze.

 

[Figuring it out]

I put the leaves in a box, each separated by a paper, and they ended up mostly moldy when I checked them 2 days later. I can see how the freezing lets a lot more moisture out than when the plant cells are intact. I'm disappointed, and frustrated that I didn't take action earlier to get them harvested before the freeze. I had read that the leaves were frost-tolerant, so it was an experiment to leave them and see what happened.

I was also curious how close to yellow they would get on the stalks, so I wanted to wait until the last minute. I did have maybe a fourth of the leaves that I harvested earlier and are currently curing, but I'm bummed I lost most of the crop. Some good lessons learned.