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[BubbleCat]

Does anyone know, is there any anti freeze that is environment friendly and not phytotoxic, preferably natural ?

The reason is: Ice is not good for live cells, water will expand and form sharp ice crystals when forming inside of an organisms cells, effectively rupturing them, this is why frozen veggies for example will become mushy upon defrosting, the cells are damaged. Now some living beings can handle temperatures below freezing very well and simply keep on being active or going in stasis. If that principle could be applied to plants I see some cool potential advantages that have yet to be investigated (I'd like to do so), for example making a plant more cold hardy if one can get the agent in its organism, treating dissication intolerant seeds prior to freezing to increase storage time and,maybe even treating the portion of soil that directly surrounds a plant to,make it stay moist in slight frost conditions. 

Wishful thinking anyone ?

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[Greentoe]

I like this idea.

If your plants are salt tolerant, watering with salt water might be an idea. Adding alcohol to water will also reduce it's freezing point, but I don't know how well plants would react to being watered with alcohol.

Sounds like a little research and experimentation may be in order.

[BubbleCat]

Alcohol is highly toxic, destroying cells, yeah that effect peaks at ~ 70% but then again the rule of thumb says -percentage/2 = freezing point. So say a whole 5 % in a plant will only get us to -2.5 C but probably cause hell a lot of trouble in cfact alcohol seems worst to me. But there must be something that is responsible for the differences in plant, like one dies way later than another one and none freezes at 0, so I hope there is a plant-anti-freeze. If not that of fish and amphibious animals and such could be awesome, if it was available synthetically because ...

edit: ha finally remember ! Toad is hwta one organism is called that can do it, they burry and become cold, below freezing, go into stasis, but dont freeze thus protecting their cells.

Theese: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_antarctica/wildlife/plants/ must be doing it somehow.

This http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze_protein has one explanation, I still hope there is something the organism can take up, instead of having to produce it, since I'm not so fond of bioengineering something.

[ONandONandON]

Very interesting, great idea, nice finds! a quick search came up with some slow starts... (looks like a long way togo though)
MAybe antifreeze bacteria living in the soil Or antifreeze rhizobactia (Acacia, mimosa, bundleflower) Or supplementing AFP's

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[Greentoe]

Ya alcohol might not be the best idea. Ethylene sounds more promising
Ethylene Induces Antifreeze Activity in Winter Rye Leaves

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[MadPlanter]

Somebody told me recently that there was a newer form of antifreeze created that's not nearly as toxic as traditional antifreeze. Meaning a dog licks a puddle of the stuff we have now and will die of liver damage etc but this newer stuff is non toxic enough it won't even hurt your animal if it ingested some. Not sure this is even for real as I only heard of it in passing conversation and never looked into it. If it is in fact true it may be possible to water a plant with this new stuff and cold hardiness might go up in the plant due to not being able to freeze???

[New Wisdom]

When cacti go dormant they excrete most of their water content out through their roots.  The "snot" dries up in the plant and turns into a thick "anti-freeze" that keeps the plant from freezing and the cells from lysing.  I don't think you can transfer it to other plants, but I thought it was relavent to this thread.

[BubbleCat]

Yeah, so far any information is relevant, as no ome knows where to start yet, let alone if there is a answer to it at all, but if there was that would be awesome.

I feel the cacti mechanism truely cant be applied to other plants, because its not one component that does it, but apparently the whole cactus sap in a state of drough.

I'm pretty sure there are several anti freezes that arent phytotoxic at all, that leaves three questions,what is it, is it available by any means and can a plant take it in, like through irrigation.

I remember having a frankenstein moment, injecting a plant with neem... it worked was hard but the plant didnt mind, the bugs did so that would be an option too, still the plant would at least have to be able to distribute the anti freeze from cell to cell.

[ONandONandON]

if only we could somehow cover the plant in insulating fiber optic fur 

i was also thinking, if the plants don't mind, maybe glycerin might work.

Glycerine can lower the freezing point of water when mixed.. See chart.

Useful for many things, including medicinal extracts, hindering bacteria, preserve flowers/leaves by replacing water, ect.

Glycerol /ˈɡlɪsərɒl/[4] (also called glycerine or glycerin) According to this article it may increase plant growth significantly!

Stimulation of Short-term Plant Growth by Glycerol Applied as Foliar Sprays and Drenches under Greenhouse Conditions

The effects of aqueous solutions applied as foliar spray and drench applications of glycerol were tested on the ‘Chantenay’ carrot (Daucus carota L.) family Apiaceae, corn (Zea mays L.) family Poaceae, and spearmint (Mentha spicata L.) family Lamiaceae under greenhouse conditions. Foliar sprays and drenches were administered to carrots at concentrations of 0, 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, or 50 ml·L−1. Fresh weights, dry weights, and taproot diameter from carrot seedlings sprayed with a solution containing 5 mL·L−1 (50 mm) glycerol increased 105.6%, 158.4%, and 53.8%, respectively, when compared with untreated carrots. Foliar sprays were administered to corn at concentrations of 0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 1 ml·L−1 and spearmint at concentrations of 0, 1, 5, and 10 mL·L−1. Growth responses increased in corn and spearmint by using certain glycerol concentrations. Fresh weights, dry weights, and shoot length from corn seedlings sprayed with a solution containing 0.5 mL·L−1 (5 mm) glycerol increased 83.5%, 154.6%, and 90.9%, respectively, when compared with untreated corn. Fresh weights, dry weights, and shoot length from mint plants sprayed with a solution containing 5 mL·L−1 (50 mm) glycerol increased 46.6%, 68.7%, and 102.5%, respectively, when compared with untreated plants. Glycerol applications can stimulate growth responses in diverse plant species.

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[BubbleCat]

Sadly 5% wont do much in freezing point, especially since in the study the treatment solution was up to 5%, not the concentration in the plant.
I cant get rid of the feeling "traditional" amti freeze like alcohols and similar wont work because of (ignoring questions of toxicity) the concentration that has to be achieved throughout the plant. Also a solution of water and ethanol will not instantly freeze at one point, water can individually "drop out" as crystals, which is often applied as a purification method that opposed distillation.

I just remembered I have a herbs seeds, the herb is said to be salty, like Stevia is sweet, i might have to dig it up and find out why is it salty and how cold can it withstand.

[ONandONandON]

5% would theoretically reduce the plants temperature tolerance by 2* degrees. Also glycerin is natural and NONtoxic.

Still theory, if we can get 25% concentration in the plant, the temperature tolerance would drop 23*F below freezing.

In that paper they used 5% glycerol, but also all the way up to 50% Here is some interesting exerts from that page...

"Glycerol has also been used to prevent freezing of branches, leaves, buds, and blossoms if used as a spray consisting of water, glycerol, a spreader, and alcohol (Anonymous, 2011). In this case, the protective coating that formed on the plant surfaces insulated plant tissues from the freezing temperatures. "

"Carrot plants given 25 and 50 mL·L−1 glycerol sprays had 101.3% and 82.1% increases in fresh weight over untreated controls (Fig. 1C–D). The greatest fresh and dry weights were observed in the 5 or 10 mL·L−1 glycerol treatments."

"Spearmint plants increased growth when treated with foliar spray treatments containing glycerol (Fig. 3). Spearmint cuttings given the 5 mL·L−1 concentration exhibited 46.6%, 68.7%, and 102.5% increases in whole plant fresh weight, whole plant dry weight, and shoot length, respectively, compared with untreated controls. "

Probably, it won't be so easy, but this one deserves research. Maybe it is!  i will experiment next winter or sooner.

[Greentoe]

Sounds like we're on the right track. I found a foliar spray called freezpruf, it claims it can increases a plants cold tolerance by 2-10 deg F. I looked up the MSDS and it contains

2.00%           Polyethylene glycol 8000
0.06%           Glycercin
0.038%         Bicyclic oxazolidines
0.188%         Silicic acid potassium salt
0.13%           Silicone polyether copolymer
97.6182%    Water

We had 2 of their ingredients figured out.

[BubbleCat]

Oh wow, sadly its not the right time for experimentation in the northern hemisphere, but I can start growing my model organisms peppers maybe ?

[BubbleCat]

[Mr. seeds]

i haven't read any of the replies yet because i wanted to reply immediately but i know of some kinds of fish that actually have natural anti-freeze in them. they live in the arctic i believe. but you'd have to extract the anti-freeze from them i think. and i do believe it's currently being researched for applications. i forget what specific applications there are so far but i remember reading about it and being extremely interested.