The weather report projects that temps will be in the lower 60's following this weekend when I checked the 10 day forecast. My raised beds for vegetables are build, filled, and irrigation system installed this week. I'm keeping the seedlings under the lights for a few more weeks (at least), but I would love to direct sow the peas and any other cold veggies. I just don't know WHEN.
What would you advise? I'm a transplanted Minnesotan and even though I've lived here almost 9 years, I still have a lot to learn about this wonderful zone 7.
Can I start my "cold" vegetables now?
Seeds are pretty smart and seem to know when it's safe to come up so I'd go on and plant any seeds you want .. In looking at your 10 day forecast for your area, I'd wait until next week to plant the seedlings.
X
That's just what I'm going to do this weekend then! (doin' a happy dance) Thanks for your expertise, Xeramtheum. I appreciate it.
I think you'd be a good candidate for winter sowing.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/coldsow/all/
X
I always go by soil temperature to determine when to plant my veggies, Ms Carolina, and it's worked well for me so far. I checked a couple of weeks ago, and the soil temp was 46 degrees---coldest I've measured in the past 20 years! It never got down to even 50 degrees before! And we've had a really mild winter here in Charleston, so go figure... But thanks for reminding me---I stuck my thermometer in the garden today, and forgot to pull it out!
Do you need a "special" thermometer to test the soil? Or will any ole' butt/armpit/tongue thermometer work?
Not a joke...just very curious...
most human thermometers don't go low enough. You need one that will at least get down to 50 and below.
X
Hey Ms. Carolina! When I pulled that soil thermometer out today, it read 54 degrees. That means it's time to plant peas, potatoes, spinach, asparagus, broccolli...all the cool weather crops. I started a bunch of cool weather things in the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago (Kohl Rabi, Broccolli, spinach, carrots---I know, I know , "you can't transplant root crops"...but it worked real well last year, so I thought I'd try it again this year on a larger scale). Have no idea of what I'll get this year. Our growing season for cool weather crops is so short in the spring here in Charleston that I'm trying to take as much advantage of "cool weather" as I can.
Thank you, StonoRiver. I did plant the strawberries and the first rows of peas last weekend, as well as putting up all the supports for tomatos, peas, and beans. Despite the wind. I'd swear we've had windy days for weeks now and I've had enough. Might as well live in the Midwest!
I had started broccoli, head lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, etc., indoors a few weeks ago, but I don't have a greenhouse, just a plant light and they're all hanging in there. Some are a bit leggy though, so this weekend I'll put them out and plant some seeds too. I was hoping to get a head start on some of those cold veggies. You'll warm up a little bit quicker than I will, but not by a whole lot. Good luck on your transplants!
I wound up planting all my "cool weather" crops this past week, Ms Carolina. And then (of course) we had a cold front move in, with temps down to 30 degrees. Doesn't seem to have affected them at all (can't really tell about the seeds yet). But I even put out some corn seedlings---and they don't like cold weather!---but they didn't seem much affected by the cold either. Too soon too tell---frost damage often takes awhile to show itself. It's a guessing game...
Well, most of my leggy broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage didn't survive as I imagined they wouldn't. (Cold frame for fall project?) Have started new seedlings that I'll put in as soon as they show their little faces. For first time vegetable gardener, my DH and I both expect it'll be a learning year. The strawberries look wonderful though and the blackberries are showing buds! This weekend I'll plant the second batch of peas (first batch are coming up), the blueberry bushes and whatever else I have time for. My English roses arrived today from David Austin, so planting 14 of those will be first priority Saturday morning. Maybe I should take Friday off from work for extra planting time. I'll probably need it!
I hope your corn didn't suffer any and every thing else should be okay. I had put some seeds in and I noticed when I got home from work today that some head lettuce seedlings had showed up.
Better check the weather forecast for the next 10 days.
I'm betting we've seen the last of freezing weather for the season, Ms Carolina, so I planted the whole cool weather veggie garden the last 2 days. It's a gamble, but we have such a tiny window for cool weather crops in the spring I'm willing to roll the dice. Leggy veggies are a bad sign. It's more about light than temp, once they germinate. I think your cold frame solution will work well for you, if you remember to open it early in the morning! I fried my seedlings more than once by forgetting to open it, or open it far enough! I now start mine in the greenhouse in January on a gro-mat (set at 72 degrees), and the germination rate is scary! The very minute the first true leaves emerge, I shift them to the "cold greenhouse" (a 6x8 "greenhouse" I found at Costco) with clear plastic panels, located in an area where it gets 4-6 hours of direct sun. It's basically a coldframe with height, so you can layer multiple trays. I haven't seen any "temperature shock" moving them from the warm environment to the cold so far, and I don't spend any time "acclimating" them to the temperature change. I just stick them out there (growth does slow down for a week or two, though, but when growth begins again, it's not at all leggy, and it's rigorous!).
Here's another non-professional observation: Everyone knows you can't transplant root crops. So just for S&G's, I started 6 carrot plants in the greenhouse last year, and transplanted them among two 15' rows of carrot seed tape. My total harvest was 5 carrots---all of them the transplants. Carrots seem to germinate so slowly here in Charleston that weeds took over, and I couldn't effectively weed them. So I started 40 plants in Park Starts this year. Put them out a week ago, and they're growing rapidly---in spite of the freeze. No sign of germination in the 30' of seed tape I put in at the same time...same for spinach, I'll let you know how my "tilting at windmills" experiment turns out...Ain't it fun??
Yes, it is fun! LOL Thanks for the tips. I'm taking off work either Friday or Monday so I have a 3 day weekend to plant. I'm hoping my replacement seedlings will be ready to go in too.
Ms Carolina, I've found that planting seedlings out even if they're "not ready" (lacking 2-4 'true leaves') works just fine, as long as I keep the water to them for the first 2-3 weeks. And they respond better in the garden than in the greenhouse---grow like kudzu, IF I keep the water on them! After that initial 2-3 weeks after transplant, they seem to become "normal" plants, and require only "normal" maintenance (suspect it's because the roots have worked their way the out of the initial growing medium into the surrounding soil, but I really don't know). But I've gotten harvests of pure "cold weather" crops this way (Broccoli, Kohl Rabi, Broccoli Raab, Arugala, Spinach, Brussels Sprouts, Collards, etc.) in the spring. But it all comes in at once! You'll need to take another day off just to process it...
We planted ours out first of the month! :)
Broccoli, lettuce, onions, spinach, carrots (just to see), peas, and celery
They don't all look great but they are doing okay. We only lost one broccoli plant in that cold spell.
Seeds we planted are coming up, too.
Last year we planted our summer veggies the first weekend of April.
Thank you StonoRiver for the reassurance about the young seedlings. Our landscaper, Larche, put in an automatic watering system for the raised beds, so they should be okay. I put the new seedlings out Saturday morning. Some of the head lettuce seeds I put in a week ago or so have come up. My garden peas and sugar snap peas are about 1.5 in tall now and look really healthy. The second batch of each (seeds) were also planted Saturday Morning. A few leggy broccoli are still there and actually growing some, so maybe there is hope for them! If it all fails, I'll try a fall crop of the cold vegetables.
We get to keep our newest grandson (8 mos) for the whole weekend next weekend, so I plan on getting out some of the summer veggies out on April 7th.
Hi Tropicanna! I'm glad to here that you made it through our cold snap. I surely hope there won't be any unwanted surprises in the next few weeks. Can you believe how warm it has been?
Here's been my experience with "automatic watering systems": they are an absolute Godsend, once you figure out the right cycle for the area! Took me years to figure this out for all the different growing areas on this property (full shade, semi-shade, half shade, semi-sun, partial sun, full sun, etc., etc. Let the plants and your budget tell you what's right for them...takes longer. And you'll kill a few. Chalk it up to "Lessons Learned", and move on. It's part of the fun of it all!