Frost protection - Strawberries Alternating warm and cold weather in the spring can lead to frost damage to strawberry blooms. Injury is worse if the low temperature lasts for several hours and the wind is blowing.
Unopened buds are more hardy than open blooms.
Some protection from frost can be obtained by covering plants with 2 to 3 inches of straw, old cloth, paper, or row covers. Sheets of plastic give little or no protection. Commercial growers protect their crop by running the irrigation system continuously during freezing weather. As water freezes, heat is released by the freezing process. If the irrigation is interrupted, turned off before all the ice melts, or is insufficiently applied, the irrigated blooms will suffer more damage then if they had not been irrigated.