Zone 6A - Too late to plant anything?

[shaefins]

After this long, cold winter I couldn't get my chit together in time to start any seeds. Now that I've finally gotten around to clearing out my rasied beds, is it even worth it to plant anything? I did pick up some cheapies today in small pots (Early Girl and some other hybrid tomato, bell pepper, hot pepper) and will throw them in this weekend, but even they don't give me high hopes.

What about bush beans? Or summer squash? Or should I just wait around for some fall planting?

[valley]

shaefins, It not too late to get results, we're in much the same area. You can put some greens on the table, radishes and a few other things. Even if you have to pickle your green tomatoes enjoy it. Bush beans, sure we just recently planted some. Plant your fall veggies now, get as many cuttings as you can.

A friend was saying "If I start now I won't get everything planted till July." I asked him " What month will it be if you don't start now?"

Like to see what you're doing there, so if you get a chance Post. Have some good planting.

Richard

[applestar]

Haha no way! It can't be too late. What am I going to do with all my tomato and pepper plants I haven't *finished* planting yet if it were. Eggplants too. This summer growing season is just getting started for us in the mid to northern states. With tomatoes, longer maturing varieties will just depend on how big and well grown the plants are -- as long as they are not in tiny pots and too stressed, they should do fine. Really late maturing varieties may not be ready to harvest until mid to late August though. As long as you can get good quality started plants, you are still good.

Don't bother with the cool weather crops like lettuce, spinach or potatoes or onions -- it's getting too hot for that, but you might still be able to get beets to sprout. You can grow Swiss chard for greens. Get some basil plants if you can or sow seeds.

I'm still sowing bush beans and some of my pole and runner beans just sprouted. Just get earlier maturing varieties for quicker gratification and sow cucumbers and summer and winter squash/pumpkins, too.

If you want to grow fall broccoli and cauliflower or Brussels sprouts, technically you could start seeds for them to have little plants to put in the ground mid-July or sow direct in early July. But I haven't been very successful doing that because it's too darn hard to keep them alive through the summer cabbage butterfly and moth and harlequin bug pressure.

If your hot peppers don't produce in time before frost, I recommend digging them up and bringing them inside for the winter. Look for "winter pepper" threads for details. What kind of hot peppers? Depending on mature size of variety, it may be easier to grow them in containers this summer so you can bring them right in.

[JC's Garden]

If your first frost date is Oct. 15th, that's 120 days. Plenty of time to get some tomatoes on a vine. Some of the best tomatoes I've ever grown were planted late and picked green then put on a shelf to ripen. I'm sure you can find other plants that will mature in 120 days. If you enjoy growing things, do it.

[JC's Garden]

If your first frost date is Oct. 15th, that's 120 days. Plenty of time to get some tomatoes on a vine. Some of the best tomatoes I've ever grown were planted late and picked green then put on a shelf to ripen. I'm sure you can find other plants that will mature in 120 days. If you enjoy growing things, do it.

[rainbowgardener]

I'm in zone 6 also and I agree, not too late! You can put in peppers or tomatoes if you can buy big, well started plants. Otherwise focus on the faster growing warm weather stuff. The beans and summer squash you mentioned would be fine (if you aren't too plagued by squash vine borers) or other squash family members like cucumbers and melons. If you have enough room you could also plant corn now.

[sunflower13]

I would say no, not too late. I am in 6a and I debate even when to put my warm stuff out. Last year I planted my small pie pumpkins out in June by seed and still got pumpkins. I put out my tomatoes last year around this time. Maybe the first week of June and got tons of tomatoes. My area is really weird and usually has a cold spell in June that can last a week and can stunt my plants so I always try to decide which is best. I had a friend who said he would put out his tomatoes almost in July because of our weird June and he gets great results so I think you could really be successful! Of course, in my area, we sometimes have really hot Septembers until about the 3rd week so I do have that advantage and not sure about your area.

[valley]

sunflower, I just planted pumpkins. Pie pumpkins? I'll have to see about them.

Richard

[sunflower13]

Richard, I should have called it a, "sugar pumpkin" lol. I always want to call them pie pumpkins. This year, I am growing the winter luxury pumpkin because I hear that it is sweeter that the sugar pumpkin but it is small too. Also, I am growing baby blue hubbard because people say it is good in pumpkin dishes too. I haven't tried either of these two yet so I can't wait. I love growing pumpkins and squashes ! What kind did you plant?

[applestar]

I finally got my hot peppers planted in the Spiral Garden. Now I have to plant the ones I intend to plant by the front porch. I have tomato plants that are starting to suffer from not being planted and some that are getting attacked by some pests, and others that are looking great.

I think I'm going to plant the great looking ones first. My stunted petunia seedlings are finally looking like I might be able to plant them out, too.

@shaefins what did you end up planting? As it gets hotter, thing to remember is to make sure to water the plants in well at planting -- I make the holes, add amendments/fertilizer if necessary and work that into the bottom of the holes, position the plants in their containers in the holes and go around watering them and filling the holes with water. Then I go back to the first plant, unpot and plant in the hole -- the water should have soaked in -- using the drier mounded soil from around the hole to fill with, and so on down the line. Sometimes, I find holes in which the water didn't soak in -- that's my clay subsoil. With these, I fill in the holes and plant higher, mounding the soil around the rootball instead.

After finishing, if the ground was particularly dry, then I go around watering the newly planted as well as the soil around the them in the beds. Otherwise, the dry ground will just suck away the little bit of water that was added to the holes.

[jal_ut]

I think you should be good to plant most things except for the very cool weather crops. Melons, cucumbers, squash, corn, tomatoes and peppers should do fine. I just planted some corn and cucumbers. Zone 5 here.