Farm Calls: Evidence-Based Agriculture and Full Moon Frosts

This week, Morris County Ag Agent Pete Nitzsche comments that North Jersey spring temperatures have farmers discussing the relationship between the occurrence of a full moon and frost.
There's good reason for concern. As Dave Robinson reports in his May 4, 2013 summary,

...low temperatures were at or below freezing at one or more locations on 16 April days. Six days saw a location fall to 25° or colder. The first of these days was the 2nd, when cold air drainage resulted in the valley locations of Walpack (Sussex) dropping to 18° and Pequest (Warren) 20°. On the 3rd, Pequest reached 21° and Kingwood (Hunterdon) 22°.

Radiation frosts happen when freezing conditions occur on clear nights with little or no wind, when the outgoing radiation is greater than the incoming, and cooling air temperature near the surface creates a stable temperature inversion near the ground. These same conditions create a crystal clear atmosphere, which makes a full moon appear exceptionally bright.

But, is there evidence that a frost is more likely to occur on a night with a full moon than one without?

How to Know if You Have Enough Native Pollinator Habitat

This month in Sustaining Farming on the Urban Fringe - How to Know if You Have Enough Native Pollinator Habitat Serving Your Farm, we look at whether the global call to set aside cropland for native pollinator habitat applies to New Jersey farms.

If NJ urban fringe farmers manage or set aside land for native pollinator habitat, are they likely to gain any yield benefits?

Related Information on Pollinators

Plants Preferred by Native Pollinators Nesting Strategies	Key Findings Full PDF Honey Bee Health