two weeks to planting

Last frost date is around May 15th, although new maps were issued this year and now they say last frost date is May 10th. Just to be safe I have some floating row cover I will use for a couple of weeks after I plant.

Now is the time to resist temptation. With all the warm weather I really want to get my plants in the ground but that would be a bad thing for two reasons - cold and sunshine. I already touched on the cold part. A frost could settle in and kill young plants. I lost several last year in just such a manner. But the other thing to worry about is sunshine. Setting out plants that have been started and growing under lights will cause a plant to die, just like frost. Think of it as a very bad case of sunburn.

You have to slowly acclimate your plants to the sun. This will take several days. First, you have to realize that all but the most brilliant and specialized lights are very dull compared to sunlight. Even shaded areas are brighter than your grow lights.

At my house my deck gets morning sun and afternoon shade. What I do is set the plants in the afternoon shade for about an hour, less if it's windy (the plants aren't used to wind either so you need to limit the time spent outdoors until they get stronger). I do the same thing for 3 straight days, increasing their time spent outdoors each time and always bringing the plants back indoors when done. Next, I set the plants in an area that gets mostly shade with maybe some morning sun. My deck works perfectly for this. The spindles in the railing partially shade the plants until the sun is shaded by the house. I leave them there all the time unless it's too cold at night or if the wind really kicks up. It's VERY important to watch their water and the condition of the leaves. You can't let them dry out. You may have to water them every day. Also, you'll be able to spot the signs of sunburn, the leaves will start to turn yellow and papery. Once this happens you can't save the leaves, but you may save the plant. Bring it back indoors and see what kind of growth you get if you get new leaves, set the plant outdoors. The new leaves will be adjusted to the brighter light conditions. If not, toss the plant and make a mental note for next year. Once the plants are acclimated, I keep them outdoors until planting time; unless it's going to get cold overnight or for a few days then they come back indoors.

I'll start this process for the tomatoes and peppers this weekend. The peppers can probably wait a week but with the floating row cover I am going to plant them right along with my tomatoes. Peppers like it a little warmer than tomatoes.

Final rain tally

From Monday Night through Thursday afternoon I got 2.4 inches at my house. I also got .6 on Sunday so that is right at 3 inches in the last week. Places to the northwest and southeast all got a lot more than me, some as much a 6 inches in the last 3 days. There's quite a bit of localized flooding, but nothing major where I live.

Rain - Rain - Rain

And even more rain...In the last day and a half I have exactly 2 inches of rain...and it's still coming down..a good soaking was needed so I'm happy with it. The rain keeps me inside and that's not a lot of fun. The rain will help those seeds I just planted to germinate.

On Sunday I planted my onions. I usually start mine from seed but didn't do that this year. I bought some sets at Earl May and am planting them. I have 3 varieties; Walla Walla, Texas Sweet 1015, and Candy. I've grown them all before and have good luck with them...

Seeds planted...

I always feel so much better once I get seeds in the ground.

Yesterday I finally planted some seeds...

Broccoli Raab - Spring. An heirloom variety from Burpee. This is my first time with broccoli raab.

Spinach - Harmony Hybrid. A variety from Burpee. I usually have good luck with spinach, but this is my first go with this particular variety. Early, upright plants and slow to bolt. Sounds good to me.

Swiss Chard - Rhubarb. The variety is named 'rhubarb' and it comes from Seed Savers Exchange. I think it's because the stalks are very red and the plants look like rhubarb. This is my first time growing it. Like spinach, I grow chard just about every year and do well with it.

Radish - French Breakfast. An heirloom from Burpee. Everybody has grown radishes at one point or another. I don't recall if I've grown these or not, but the package was not opened so I will guess I haven't.

Snap Peas - Sugar Snap. From Gurney's. I usually grow some peas every year. I can usually harvest for about a week, but that's okay. fresh from the garden ALWAYS beats from a can or frozen...ALWAYS!

Turning soil

Today I turned the soil on my garden beds. I didn't do this last fall so I had to clear up some plant debris. When you turn your soil in the fall the freezing and thawing break it down so that all you need to do is rake it and plant. That may be oversimplified but that's pretty darned close to the truth. Turning in the spring has no real negative problems other than the soil has had a few months to compact a bit. That's not a huge issue. My two garden beds are, 16 foot by 4 foot raised beds. You'll see pictures later. It takes me about 30-45 minutes to turn the both by hand with a garden fork. That's about the hardest physical work involved in the garden. I have built up the soil quality and height by adding organic matter, soil, sand; just about anything I can get my hands on. I have a large compost bin next to the beds and I get one good batch a year. I think I would get more if i spent some time and broke up the items before i put them in but I'm in no hurry. Since I wont be planting tomatoes or peppers for a good month or so i am not going to smooth one of the beds. I'll let nature do that. the other bed will get planted with spinach, chard, onions and other things in another day or so. I'll rake it then. Now is a dangerous time. The weather seems nice but our last frost date wont pass until May 15th or so. Last year we had a frost on the 13th. I had planted my tomatoes a few days before and left for vacation. I lost all but 3 plants. this year I will remember to cover them...

How To Start Tomato Seeds - part 5

Time to cull the herd

For some people this is very difficult. They can't bring themselves to eliminate one single plant. If you do this you'll end up with too many plants and TONS of tomatoes. That may be exactly what you want but I recommend having one plant per cell. The plants root better and aren't competing with each other for limited nutrients. Here is the flat before we thin the plants. Notice there are as many as 4 plants per cell.


Here is a close up of the young plants. As I stated in post 4 you should wait until you have true leaves before you do any of this. In this picture you can really see the difference between the true leaves and the cotyledons. Also notice that one of the plants is considerably larger than the other (it's just to the right). When deciding which plant to keep I almost always go for the larger more robust looking plant.
Here is the actual process. ALWAYS cut the unwanted plants out. DO NOT pull them. The roots are larger than you know and when you pull them you will probably damage the plant you want to keep. Get yourself some scissors or small shears and CAREFULLY select the plant you want to remove. If you check the picture below you see I am removing a plant. I cut only with the very tip of the scissors since I don't want to inadvertently take out a wanted plant. I've done this in the past and it is very frustrating.

Here are the results. The plants can now freely grow without any competition. They now have room to grow. One other cool thing is the smell of the cut plants - they smell just like tomato leaves (cause that's what they are!) - it just reminds me of whats to come this summer when I reach into one of these plants and pick a ripe fruit. I can't wait!

For the next few weeks it's all about making sure they don't dry out while also preventing them from being over watered. It's a fine line but after a while you can tell just by looking at them. Keeping the plants as close to the lights as possible will help them grow without getting too thin. We'll talk more about that in the future.

How To Start Tomato Seeds - part 4

Seed progress: All the seeds have germinated and are about 1-2 inches tall. This is the easiest and hardest time when it comes to raising tomatoes. Easiest? Because if you have everything set up correctly you don't really have to do anything for a while. Just make sure they don't dry out and are getting the correct amount of light. My lights have are plugged into a timer that comes on at 5am and turns off at 10pm. That's 16 hours of light a day. They need a good 12 to 16 hours a day to gather the light needed to grow. They also need the 8 hours of dark to grow. It's during the dark that they actually grow. Gather the light during the day - turn it into growth during the night.

I know you are wondering why this would also be considered the hardest time as well? Simple - You have to resist the urge to do anything to the plants. That means no fertilizer, over watering, touching, moving, playing with and fawning over these little things. LEAVE THEM ALONE UNTIL THEY HAVE THEIR FIRST TRUE LEAVES. I'll show you what I mean:If you look at the leaves on these plants you'll notice the shapes. Two of them are long and plain, while others are small and have a strange shape with scallops and lobes...in short...they look like tomato leaves. The larger ones in the picture are not true leaves - they are cotyledons - it's part of the seed and give the plant the ability to photosynthesize light until the first true leaves are formed. They eventually shrivel up as the plant gets larger. My general rule of thumb is to do nothing but make sure the plants have water and light until the true leaves are larger than the cotyledons.