Michelle’s Glore’s lighted and heated row cover enclosure at night.
Growing mirlitons can be physically challenging for people like me, who have health or age problems that limit our ability to get around. Putting up frost protection can be a real headache. Michelle Impastato Glore invented a solution: She uses lightweight row-cover frost cloths that one person can easily mount and unmount with the aid of bamboo sticks. And her frost-protection enclosure keeps her mirlitons safe even when temperatures drop to 20°!
Most mirliton growers build temporary frost-protection enclosures using 6-mil plastic or Visqueen. Plastic works well, but it can be difficult and unwieldy for some people to manage the constant covering and uncovering of a trellis. A high trellis can be especially challenging for people with smaller stature or older adults (like me) with balance or walking impairments. Instead, Michelle chose to use multiple lightweight fabric row covers and bamboo canes, which makes the task easier.
A single frost cover will not retain enough heat to prevent frost, but multiple ones will. Make sure to layer three frost cloths, as Michelle does, to prevent damage. Additionally, row covers allow you to use clips to more easily secure them to the trellis. She also uses heat lamps and incandescent Christmas lights to heat the enclosure.
Here’s how she removes the frost cloths from the trellis using a bamboo stick.
Here’s a video of her explaining the materials she uses.
Here’s a video of how she disassembles the enclosure.
And here’s a video of the vine the morning after the temperatures were 20℉.
These are the tools for her lightweight frost protection:
Fabric row covers (frost cloths ) 10’x50′:
Fabric row covers.
Fabric Cover Spring Clips: 5” long:
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Wireless remote thermometer.