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| My DH printed out the planting calendar from the farmers' almanac and thought we might try following it this year. The schedule seems to be all over the map! Saying to start things for us that are fall plantings and very late things for way late in the season, such as planting tomatoes in June, root crops in May, seeds will rot in May etc.. It seems like they are planning things for a colder climate, maybe back east? I'm in No CA, mild winters and Mediteranian 3/4 of the year. It just doesn't add up! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| I prefer EDIS and the local Ag center for better info. |
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- Posted by terry_neoh 5b (My Page) on Wed, Apr 16, 14 at 23:42
| My wife's family are farmers. They obviously had a lot to do in springtime. But they always planted a vegetable garden. And it always got planted during Memorial weekend. So if you have the time to sweat it, go ahead. If you don't, don't sweat it. |
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| The Farmer's Almanac belongs on the coffee table or near the toilet for most effective use. It's general information mixed with "fun" and overall a bit of time wasting reading. Also, there's different ones for different regions (at least the original Farmer's Almanac). For the most part the only differences in regions is their localized "predictions" for weather events and planting calendars. |
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| It is. something of the past. With today's knowledge based source it it out dated. IMO It is better to follow your university Ag extension recommendations, based on science and facts. Another source to use is the seed marketers recommendation. And lastly watch your weather forecasts closely. |
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| I'm glad you asked this as I sometimes wondered if I was the only one who found the info useless. Just checked out the Almanac website again the other day when someone asked about planting by the moon. Discovered that I should plant my root crops today and tomorrow (per the 2014 moon planting calendar). Problem is it is pouring rain so I guess it is good that my root crops are already planted.. Tomorrow and Saturday when it is supposed to be 70 degrees and partly cloudy is listed as a poor planting day. I think I'll risk it. :) Dave |
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- Posted by nancyjane_gardener USDA 8ish No CA (My Page) on Thu, Apr 17, 14 at 20:55
| Good. I'm glad I'm not the only one! LOL. About the only thing I pay attention to is the last frost date (April 15th for us) and check the weather for the next couple of weeks just in case! Pretty much everything is going in this week. Nancy |
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| Any 7a people out there?? When are you planting your tomatoes, green & hot peppers, squash, egg plant, especially after the cold snap with heavy rain earlier this week? Although temperatures are rising, this is my first garden and I'm unsure. |
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| One of the way is to visit HD, Lowes and other nurseries. Are they selling tomato, pepper, eggplant plants ? Are their plants are left in the open day and night ? If the answer is "YES" then YES you can plant yours too. Actually plants in the ground are better protected agains cold than small 3" pots. Another indication is night lowe: I plant when the night lows average about 42F, NO lower than 38F. I, MYSELF, have planted most of my tomatoes and peppers base on the above criteria. It has been longer than 10 days for tomatoes and about 4 days for pepper. Tonight's low is forcasted 41F and tomorrow night will be 39F. That is no problem. Those lows last for about one hour. It goes like this: .....Day before.>>> 45, 44, ...43, 42, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45 >>>day after |
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| In response to Glo47, I am in zone 7b, which is close enough to your zone. I planted a few tomatoes and peppers last weekend and they survived the frost just fine because I covered them. I always plant a few early in hopes that I get a tomato by June 1. Still hasn't happened. :). Anyway, I try to plant close to April 20th for tomatoes, but I watch the weather carefully and wait until there are several warm, dry days in the forecast. I don't usually plant peppers or eggplant until the beginning of May (the pepper plants this year are an exception, an experiment). I used to plant them with the tomatoes but they really prefer warm weather and seem more likely to go into transplant shock when I plant them in April. These are all plants that I started indoors. I'm with seysonn that if the plants have already spent a lot of time outdoors then they can be planted in the ground earlier. As for squash, I direct seed as early as possible so that the plants get a head start before the vine borer invasion. I started all of my squash seeds the weekend before last. A couple have emerged. The others will come up when they're ready. I've never had a problem with the seeds rotting. -Anne |
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| No, no tomatoes or peppers or squash out yet. I generally don't before sometime in May. Yes, they may come up/survive if planted early but they will just sit and sit and sit until the hot weather arrives. As for using Lowe's and Home Depot as an indicator for when to buy plants I disagree- a) you're banking on them having someone who actually knows something about planting in your area and they often don't, and b) they don't really care if all the plants you buy succumb to cold weather, you'll just be back for more. But a "real" nursery might be a good indicator, if you can tell the plants are left out all night. |
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- Posted by nancyjane_gardener USDA 8ish No CA (My Page) on Fri, Apr 18, 14 at 21:02
| Sunni, exactly what I was going to say! The big boxes had stuff out a month ago! Our last frost date is April 15th, and we are a bit colder than our area. I was at HD today, and I overheard a man asking if they had any organic tomato plants! I sidled up to him and told him about a 100YO farm that is now in the middle of town that starts all of their starts on site, are organic, healthy and half the price of most nurseries! Still family owned and run!They are also a produce market if you aren't into gardening! Nancy |
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| Nancy, it was really timely, the UMD gardening e-newsletter yesterday had a warning about checking for frost damage before buying any plants at the big box stores and had a picture of frost damaged tomato transplants to illustrate. |
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- Posted by nancyjane_gardener USDA 8ish No CA (My Page) on Sat, Apr 19, 14 at 21:01
| Non of our local organic nurseries (We have MANY in Sonoma Co!) have frost sensitive veges out more than a week or so before our last day of frost date (April 15th) and even then they usually have a sign that there is still a possibility of frost and to protect your plants and look at the weather reports for a few weeks. The big box stores had them out mid March! Buy em, plant em, come back and buy em again when they freeze! Nancy |
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- Posted by theforgottenone1013 5b/6a MI (My Page) on Wed, Apr 23, 14 at 11:02
| I concur with the others about not using the big box stores as a timing for when to plant stuff. Lowe's already has tomato and pepper seedlings for sale here. In Michigan. We're still at least 3-4 weeks away from the time tomatoes can be planted (even then we have to look out for an occasional frost/low temp). And it's more like 6-8 weeks for peppers. It's still getting down to the 30's at night and it's only 40*F here as I'm writing this. As for the original question about the Farmer's almanac, I never used it. Rodney |
This post was edited by theforgottenone1013 on Wed, Apr 23, 14 at 11:03
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