<Can you expand on this relationship with frost and ground cover?>
I am not Randy but I can answer your question.
A ground cover reduces the amount of heat stored in the soil because vegetation reflects solar radiation during the day and it transpires to cool. So the soil underneath the ground cover does not warm as much as it would if it was bare and compact. So a cover crop reduces the amount of stored heat in the soil which means colder nights since the ground is not giving off stored heat. So the Almond growers must want the heat transfer that bare ground gives.
Karen
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