For Those Gardening in the North

[digitS']

Do you want to post pictures of your seedlings?

These Sungolds showed up for Spring!

Steve

[AnnaIkona]

Cherry tomato seedlings

php5cYVknAM.jpg (35.06 KiB) Viewed 401 times

can't wait to plant them outside, once the weather allows (hopefully sometime next month)

[digitS']

Very nice, Annalkona.

Box #2. I think every seed may have come up! You might be able to see that I like Yellow Jelly Beans .

Steve

[Dirt]

Planted 3/11:


Some jalapeños on 3/17, 6 days


Some tomatoes on 3/25, 14 days


Tomatoes today, 4/2, 22 days

[Dirt]

No participation. Not even the OP.

[rainbowgardener]

You are the third person recently to complain about lack of responses. This Forum is not usually like that. I think it is spring and everyone must be actually out working in their gardens, instead of in writing about them. That would not be all bad.

Your seedlings are looking good!

[digitS']

[Well yes, I've been busy.]

It may be 65°f , tomorrow. That will be our warmest day in 2017. It should be my 3rd day outta this greenhouse, away from working on my fence, and in the vegetable garden!

Steve

[AnnaIkona]

I wish I could be outside gatdening right now but the warmest it's been is 15°C, and I'm scared to plant my seedlings outside just yet, I'm worried of losing them due to the cold. The poor tomatoes and cucumbers have been indoors for 1.5 months already, some cucumbers have even started to flower
I hope that the weather gets better!!
Last year at this time of year it, in BC, everybody's gardens would be already started, lilac trees would be blooming and treed would be green. But right now, not much is planted in gardens, and trees are mostly still bare.

Anybody else experiencing weather like this?

[digitS']

Stayed home from garden, today. There have been off-&-on showers all day. Last week, we had a one day record of .51 of an inch of rain. That's not gonna sound like much to people most anywhere but in this dry part of the world, it's a fair amount and comes with a lot of cloudy weather through the month.

Annalkona, we have just topped your 15°C on 5 April afternoons but 14 days out of 24 had mornings below 4°C (in the 30's or colder, fahrenheit). And little sunshine ...

I think we are okay and on track for sunny May days and, a hoped for, warm June. It hasn't been terribly cold so my 2017 greenhouse fuel bill shouldn't be too bad and the tomatoes and such seem to be on track for a normal set-out time in mid-May. If we are so lucky.

I moved the taller ones in the last photo to 3 1/2 inch pots today. They are in something of a jumble but I'll hurry out to get a picture of them in their shady corner if the sun ever lights up the other parts of the greenhouse.

Steve

[digitS']

No sooner said than we had a 20 minute sunbreak:

basil in the foreground

Steve

[Dirt]

You are the third person recently to complain about lack of responses. This Forum is not usually like that. I think it is spring and everyone must be actually out working in their gardens, instead of in writing about them. That would not be all bad.

Your seedlings are looking good!

Well, no. If you were up here in the North, which is who this thread was targeted towards, your know that we're not outside gardening. Even if we were, It only takes a second to respond.

[digitS']

tomatoes at 48°North latitude in early May .

The plant starts in the greenhouse were crowded so tomato plants are now taking up space across the center path between two covered beds in the backyard.

The greenhouse has a natural gas heater but I have to set up an electric space heater in this hoophouse. There is a small fan on a crate behind it, helping to move warm air throughout the 9' by 20' space. This is at dawn and yesterday, it was freezing outdoors at this time.

Bok choy plants are what one mostly sees there in the garden beds.

Steve

[digitS']

My plan this spring is to direct-sow Coyote tomato seeds.

I was given seed for this tasty and unusual variety by a very kind gardener in New Jersey. For the 3 or 4 years I have grown them, Coyote has volunteered and, surprisingly for this area, matured ripe tomatoes! I may see some volunteers of this tomato in 2017.

Coyote is an indeterminate. The Gold Nugget variety could likely also be grown here direct-seeding. It is another little, yellow tomato but a determinate. It hurt my feelings that the little plants would just quit and begin to die, after maturing a huge crop. Still, it had run-its-course. Now, if that was to happen in September, frost would save me the pain of seeing the shortfall of Gold Nugget during the final weeks of a growing season.

I see Coyote listed as a 55 day variety and Gold Nugget as 56 days. Imagine that earliness! Quite a few seed companies have them. I will link Southern Exposure as a little attempt to show that Coyote isn't just something for a northern gardener to play around with. It is, after all, a variety from Veracruz Mexico.

Steve

[digitS']

My experiment with the Coyote direct-seeding failed. The seed was from last year, the weather was okay -- not one seed germinated in the garden soil. Maybe I should have sown that seed in April . I had several volunteers of unidentifiable tomatoes here and there in inappropriate locations. Disappointed. The idea was that I'd know what the plants were and could probably count on them ripening before frost.

However, the first ripe tomato will be a Sun Sugar cherry!

The plant is in 5 gallons of good compost in my backyard. That's a much more protected environment than the open garden, altho the 25mph wind gusts this afternoon might make one wonder!

There's no question that I will have a golden ripe tomato this month ... if DW or the squirrel don't get it first !

There are only 2 tomato plants in my backyard with the others in the garden. I've stared at the green Yellow Jelly Bean tomatoes for weeks now! I have no idea when they will even develop a blush ...

Steve

[Gary350]

That is amazing. 20 years ago when I was more energetic i grew a lot of plants in trays but nothing like what your doing. We were in Michigan to visit relatives first week of June they had frost 2 days before we arrived and stores had just stocked up with plants to sell. I guess your getting ready to plant your garden seems like it should have been planted already? I remember your growing season is short it use to get cold and frost in Oct and snow by Halloween. It was hot here today maybe 95 humidity is suffocating. Most of my garden has been harvested and gone but tomatoes will last until frost about 2nd week of Nov. I use to plant a second crop but not this year I don't need more, beans, corn, potatoes or anything. I think we are returning to Michigan in August.