Direct Sow Advice needed

[SQWIB]

I'm in zone 7A and wanted some input on when to direct sow my Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach, Black Seeded Simpson and Romaine?
Also when should I direct sow my Snow Peas?
These will be in Raised beds.

Burpee says the middle of April,. I was thinking more like a week or two, especially the peas.

[applestar]

Definitely not mid-april. I think where you are, you can use the St. Patty's Day for sowing peas, which was recommended years ago by Mike McGrath when he was the managing editor of Organic Gardening magazine and living somewhere in Pennsylvania.

I tried it and found out I needed to wait another week for best results here.

You could sow the lettuce and spinach a week earlier.

But remember that at the extra early low temps in the ground, they will all take 2-3 weeks to sprout, though since you are growing in raised beds, the soil may warm up a bit faster (figure another week earlier) --- does this make sense?

[SQWIB]

Definitely not mid-april. I think where you are, you can use the St. Patty's Day for sowing peas, which was recommended years ago by Mike McGrath when he was the managing editor of Organic Gardening magazine and living somewhere in Pennsylvania.

I tried it and found out I needed to wait another week for best results here.

You could sow the lettuce and spinach a week earlier.

But remember that at the extra early low temps in the ground, they will all take 2-3 weeks to sprout, though since you are growing in raised beds, the soil may warm up a bit faster (figure another week earlier) --- does this make sense?

Yeah, I figured Burpee was way off.

OK I updated my planting calendar
Direct Sow Spinach and Lettuces (and maybe radishes) March 11th
and the peas March 18th.

[imafan26]

Your planting dates will depend on the expected date of your last frost. Here a couple of garden calendars that are availble from the Farmer's almanac and Urban farmer. If you look on the back of your seed packages, they will have information on when to start seeds in most US zones. Hawaii has to use Miami's zone. You can start some seeds 4-6 weeks indoors before your last frost date. Some things can handle a light frost.

https://www.ufseeds.com/Pennsylvania-Veg ... endar.html
https://www.almanac.com/gardening/planti ... iladelphia

[jal_ut]

If your garden soil is dry enough to get on, it won't hurt to plant a bit of those things you mention. For the price of a few seeds what have you to lose? Peas? Maybe wait a couple of weeks.

[jal_ut]

Garlic is planted in the Fall. Onions, lettuce, carrots, turnip, radish Parsnip are planted early Spring as soon as you can get on your plot. Beets and Chard two or three weeks later. Beans, pumpkins squash, corn can be planted a week or two before your last expected frost. Cucumbers, those tender things are best planted when all danger of frost is past. Of course we have to contend with the weather. Who can guess what it will do? I have seen frost every month of the year here. One year it froze on the 5th of July after being 90 for the 4th of July parade. Gardening will have its ups and downs. We will experience losses. We may also have success and a wonderful harvest. You plant and hope.

[Gary350]

I plant seeds in the snow. I leave my stakes at the end of each row in the fall then when it snows I go out and pull a string between the stakes. Sprinkle the seeds right on top of the snow you can see how many seeds you sprinkled they are very visible on the snow. It works for, spinach, lettuce, chard, carrots, beets, tomatoes, and maybe other things too. I save a lot of tomato seeds from all my own tomatoes so I have lots of seeds to sprinkle in the snow then I have to pull up all the unwanted tomato plants.

[SQWIB]

Wow, now I'm confused, I will try planting this weekend since I will be doing yard work already, its supposed to be in the 60's this weekend.
I'll plant in my moms bed too,
Here is what I'll try, Radishes, Spinach, Sugar Snap Peas, Snow Peas, Romaine, Black seeded Simpson, Kale.

Worse case scenario, I loose a few seeds.

Do you guys think it would be OK to plant garlic by my Raspberry plants or wait till the fall?
Can I use store bought garlic to plant?


Thanks guys.

[ButterflyLady29]

If you had the garlic bulbs on hand already I would say to go ahead and plant. But if you are buying garlic to plant it would be best to wait until fall. Fall planted garlic actually grows during the fall and winter. You get larger cloves from fall planted garlic but I have read that spring planted garlic holds longer after harvest. Grocery store garlic has not been checked for fungus and disease which can be transferred to your soil. In the fall you can buy garlic for planting at most garden centers or big box hardware stores.

[rainbowgardener]

If you look at the seed packets for many cold weather crops, it says "plant as soon as the ground can be worked." That means it is not frozen and has dried out enough not to clump up when turned. That is now for me in my part of zone 7A. I've actually been planting things for a couple weeks already. I have spinach and carrots sprouted already and broccoli, kale, and two kinds of peas planted. I am planting more when ever I can get the time, in between continuing to build garden beds, refinishing our deck, building a chicken run ....

Spinach and broccoli especially are extremely cold hardy. They actually do best fall planted. They can be planted in Sept for fall harvest, and/or planted in late Oct/ early Nov for late winter harvest. I used to do that even when I lived in zone 6A, with much colder, snowier winters. The late planted spinach and broccoli sprout and then go dormant and just sit there covered with snow and ice. In late winter when the days are getting longer and sunnier, they start growing again. At that point they have a lot more growing time before it gets hot, so they do a lot better than the spring planted stuff, that bolts too soon.

[SQWIB]

If you had the garlic bulbs on hand already I would say to go ahead and plant. But if you are buying garlic to plant it would be best to wait until fall. Fall planted garlic actually grows during the fall and winter. You get larger cloves from fall planted garlic but I have read that spring planted garlic holds longer after harvest. Grocery store garlic has not been checked for fungus and disease which can be transferred to your soil. In the fall you can buy garlic for planting at most garden centers or big box hardware stores.

I'm Gonna do that, thanks.

[imafan26]

I broadcast seeds, but I end up not thinning out as much as I should. I have found it a little more economical to plants some seeds like lettuce, beets, and chard in 4 inch containers and plant them out with correct spacing later. I still have not worked out the number of seeds to plant. Sometimes I get 10 lettuce seeds germinating and sometimess I get 50 but it is still less seeds wasted than when I direct sow. Starting short crops like lettuce and bok choy in pots to transplant out later also allows me to plant for succession. I can continue to sow seeds in pots every 2-3 weeks for a continuous supply of greens.

[Gary350]

I plant grocery store garlic in my garden every Sept and harvest it n June I have very good luck with it. Walmart has a bag of garlic bulbs $3 enough for 75 garlic plants and then some. You could plant garlic now n large pots, keep them warn n the house at night, set them out n the sun during the day. When warm weather comes dig a 12" hole for each pot, remove pot plant them in the garden. One of my best experiments was composted cow manure mixed with soil n 12" pots.

[jal_ut]

Starting out with garlic I tried a bunch of varieties. Finally found one that excelled in my garden, so I have propagated this one. When harvesting I always take a bunch of the best bulbs and put them in a box to be held for planting later in the fall. When planting I just poke the cloves in far enough to stay put. They don't need to go deep. Have fun!

[rainbowgardener]

For several years I did that, saved some of my garden garlic to replant in the fall. If you save the biggest cloves, it will tend to keep getting bigger. It worked very well for me, but I didn't manage to bring any with me when I moved, so I started over last fall with grocery store garlic. I have nice well started garlic plants now, 6-8" tall.

[applestar]

There ARE different varieties of garlic and they do behave differently in growth and winter hardiness vs. warm winter/chill-less winter tolerance. Then there are storage/keeping qualities and flavor differences according to garlic connoisseurs (though I personally don't have enough experience to know or recognize/evaluate -- I'm only up to 4 different varieties so far).

It's fun to try out more than the ordinary small-cloved white ones that are usually sold in grocery stores.

[Taiji]

For several years I did that, saved some of my garden garlic to replant in the fall. If you save the biggest cloves, it will tend to keep getting bigger. It worked very well for me, but I didn't manage to bring any with me when I moved, so I started over last fall with grocery store garlic. I have nice well started garlic plants now, 6-8" tall.

Interesting how with garlic you want to save the biggest cloves to plant, yet with onions when planting bulbs you want to plant small to medium sized bulbs instead of large ones or else the onion is more likely to bolt. I've been curious as to why that is?

[applestar]

With garlic, they are true bulbs and bigger they are, the more energy/stored nutrients they have.

But with onion "bulbs, they are simply baby plants in interrupted state of growth, and, because they are biennial, bigger ones think they are in their second year, ready to bloom and set seeds. Onion "bulbs" are simply thickened base of leaves -- the flower stalk ruins the onion by stealing nutrients, occupying a large central space with inedible tough stalk, and making them impossible to cure and store for any extended period of time.

[Taiji]

Ah, I get it, thx.