23,822 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Well, in fact spring is much earlier there, is the point. At least six weeks earlier than where I am, off the Cape. Cherry trees bloom in early March there, late April here. The same maximum frost indicates that similar flora will dominate in both zones, but doesn't say much about the extent of hot or cold weather within the yearly cycle.

I wouldn't start string beans in MA yet. They want warm soil, and it's been going down in the 30s at night recently. I started everything late this year, and my peas are at about 2-3 inches and the spinach is just starting to expand. The best thing you can do is to keep a notebook of when you plant and the weather. Experience at your location will teach you what you can and cannot do.


Depends on whether you prefer white, yellow, or bicolor. I grow 421 W which is superb. Nice large ears and excellent flavor. It is a synergistic and has better corn flavor than a supersweet. 148Y is one of their older varieties and is a supersweet ( needs to be isolated from regular corn). I have not grown it. nor am I familiar with 301 BC It also needs to be isolated from Su and se types and is about 5 days later maturity. I am more familiar with the synergistic 336 BC which has the same big ears and early maturity of 421 W.



I'm in Alpine TX at 30N latitude. We just went from 94F to 24F in 36 hours. Three hails in the last month and only 0.5 inch rain total in the last three months.
I pollinated a watermelon flower under my unheated but well insulated shelter 2 hours after it was 24F.
Try doing that in New England, doesn't happen.


-edit- Deleted...I don't wanna get into it.
Long story short, I agree with the point about keeping it out of the sun and I'd add a suggestion to watch out for garden/home improvement/etc places that store it out in full sun on pallets.
This post was edited by nc-crn on Sat, May 4, 13 at 23:12



LoLauren Yes I plant each one individually so I can fill in and even space areas in the garden. I wait until they are maybe 2-3 inches tall. They aren't very picky and take right off. It is true that the transplanting affects the tap root, but that only matters at the county fair. They won't fork and do crazy things like transplanted carrots.

Yes many folks will start beets in a hot bed - well spaced so easy to transplant - or even in peat pellets, cell packs, etc. and transplanting them works fine. Often done it myself.
Unfortunately that isn't the situation in this case or in most cases where transplanting beets is discussed sine 95% of the time they are direct seeded in the garden.
Direct seeding in the garden or in a container, then thinning and trying to transplant the pulled up thinnings is a totally different situation and gives poor results. If the OP waits until these in this pot are 2-3" tall before thinning the over-crowding will have already triggered heavy top growth with little to no root development.
As with the peas in the other post, planting in rows in a garden is normal. Doing it in a round container doesn't give the best results and wastes much of the growing space.
Dave



For future reference, when using round containers row planting isn't the best use of the available space.
Planting in round circles follow the contours of the container and using the standard 2" spacing when planting allows for more plants in the same amount of space.
Dave


If it's been in place for a year it will have a big taproot and transplanting will just hasten bolting. Eat whatever you can now and sow afresh. You could leave it to bolt and it might self sow. Mine does but my climate is very different, I imagine.


Eventually they will die and fall off anyway.
There's a couple of school of thoughts battling here...
If you leave them on the plant to naturally fall off, the nutrients/sugars/etc that can be translocated (moved) to other parts of the plant will leave the leaves and help the plant elsewhere before dieing off and forming a nicely sealed wound.
On the flipside...the weakened/expose tissue that's damaged and on the plant can invite disease, though it's not a major issue. The leaves are touching the soil or exposed via soil splash through rain/watering can invite pathogens into exposed tissue...still, this isn't a very major issue though it sounds a bit sketchy unless you've had disease issues in that soil in the past.
I'd remove any broken/exposed-tissue yet still "alive" leaves dragging the ground at the very least if you don't want to worry about removing everything, but even if you do nothing the plant will take care of getting rid of the leaves, itself.
It's a limited view, but the non-burnt leaves shown look really healthy and the plant(s) will most likely make it through this as if nothing happened without any additional help. They'll just grow more greenery and keep on chugging along.
This post was edited by nc-crn on Sat, May 4, 13 at 23:31
Thanks, nc-crn. I'll remove damaged leaves at ground level and make sure plants are trellising, then continue checking to make sure that they don't become bug infested or diseased. This particular bed is new, so shouldn't have any inherited problems, but I'll keep an even closer eye on the older ones. After resuscitating them after a little surprise freeze we had a few weeks ago, I was devastated to see this damage. I've learned a valuable lesson about making sure my plants are well-hydrated during periods of high winds. I thought that since it was cloudy, I wouldn't need to water as frequently. :(