Newbie - When to start planting in Zone 9b

[princealexi]

Hello and thanks for reading!

To start off, I'm not new to growing plants. I actually have one of the greenest thumbs of anyone I know. last year we grew tomatoes, eggplant, green peppers and few other things that weren't too great from local nurseries. So, we bought a whole bunch of seed over the summer and fall and bought a great light / seed setup. I come from a salt water reef tank background as well, so I know I have strong light to get seeds off right (and a heat mat with thermostat). What I am new to is starting a real garden off right with respect to timing. It seems everything I'm finding says after the last frost this and after the last frost that. Well, it doesn't freeze here, so I'm a little at a loss for folks like us. Some seeds also say transplant 'after the soil is at x temp' (peppers). So what I'm wondering is if there is some sort of blanket alternate date for us non-freezing climates, or what? And can you somewhat 'wing-it' for the soil temp or should I just bite the bullet and get a solar mulch plastic to be safe for peppers (and I worry about water absorption then).

Thanks,
~Matt

[rainbowgardener]

Hi and welcome to the Forum! Did you look at the Similar Topics? Near the bottom of the page, there's an orange-ish bar labelled Similar Topics. Below it are threads that the search engine recognizes as having similar titles. It doesn't always work real well in what it gathers, but the first one on the list for you was this: I'm in Zone 9, what can I start growing now? and it had some good information in it.

But I think the real answer is that it is harder for you to figure out, because it doesn't matter as much. Looking at your graphs, you have a remarkably even, mild climate, never cold, never very hot. You can pretty much grow anything you want, any time you want. Lucky you!

So don't stress. When ever you plant, things will do fine!

[imafan26]

This is planting calendar for zone 9 in the U.S. but if you have a similar climate it should still be helpful
https://www.ufseeds.com/Zone-9-Planting-Calendar.html
If you want to hedge your bets you can plant by the phases of the moon. Planting by the moon determines the best dates for planting roots, foliage, seeds on the outside, seeds on the inside based on the phases of the moon.
https://www.the-gardeners-calendar.co.uk ... anting.asp
https://www.almanac.com/gardening/seed-s ... s/FL/Tampa

It also helps to keep records of your temperatures and rain patterns. Watch the trends especially in these crazy El Nino years and with global warming likely to greatly impact the planting season, skewing things a bit with a shift to the left. Italy is like my area where we saw the ocean temperatures were an average 2 degrees warmer and we had record high high temperatures last summer as well as a lot of tropical storms getting very close. The Pacific High is our main protection.
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/service/g ... 201511.gif

It has been unseasonably warm for me with crazy nights. One night it is 59 degrees and a day or two later it is 65. I took a chance and started some warm crops early and they are actually sprouting. I am waiting on the plants that like it really warm like the superhot peppers. Even the eggplant is sprouting and that is usually fussy about the night temperatures. Normally they would dampen off, but we are also having crazy sun/rain wind/no wind periods too. P.S. Big surf is on time with faces 30-40 ft but unfortunately it makes looking for the debris from the Haleiwa CH3 chopper collision very difficult and dangerous.