Successive planting

[Blueberry]

Hi all,

One more question....

I read on another post here to do successive plantings of lettuce as young plants will be more resistant to bolting once the heat of summer arrives. Is this true for spinach and collards as well?

Thanks for your help!

[jal_ut]

Lettuce doesn't want to germinate when the soil temp is too warm. I have seen it lay dormant until toward fall then germinate after you thought you had a failure.
Best to plant a little every two weeks and see how it does rather than wait for the crop to finish then plant again. You can plant some quick warm crops when space becomes available as the early crops mature. Bush Beans is a good one for this. Cucumbers also make a good warm weather crop. You may want to trellis cukes. They can go all over otherwise.


Welcome to the forum and have a great garden.

[digitS']

Pam, I start lettuce in containers in the backyard and did no direct sowing of lettuce seed in the garden the last few years. The seedlings are set out in little "clumps" of 4 or 5 plants. Sometimes, they are harvested that way - 4 or 5 at a time.

Only romaine works for me as a cut-&-come-again. This is quite an arid part of the world and it is kind of a tuff climate for lettuce. Keeping the seedlings in containers until setting out gives me the opportunity to find the best location in the backyard - move them around, day to day. I'll try full-sun early and mostly afternoon shade later in the season but once they are in the garden, they have to tuff it out wherever they are plunked in.

I seem to remember growing collards once but it was so many years ago, I don't remember much about them. I grow guy lon (kai lan) an Asian green that is very similar, probably. It only does real well when it grows in a plastic tunnel early in the season. I did try it as a fall crop last year and it grew okay. Guy lon transplants easily, maybe collards does also.

Spinach can be sown very, very early. Maybe 1 more sowing about 3 weeks later and that will be it for me. It just bolts too quickly to seed when sown too close to hot weather. Even a shady location doesn't allow spinach to grow for very long. I don't remember ever trying to transplant it.

I hope this is a little bit of help to you.

Steve

[Blueberry]

Thanks Jal_ut Planting every 2 weeks was my plan and what I meant by successive planting. Probably got the terminology wrong - still learning

Cukes and beans are in the game plan too once things heat up here around June. I hadn't thought of bush beans though - thanks for the idea!

Thanks for the welcome! I'm having a lot of fun planning my garden

[Blueberry]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the advice. My climate is very arid too - it sure does make gardening a challenge. I have one "cooler" area I can plant in that is a more northern exposure and a neighbor's honeysuckle provides shade. Hopefully, that will end up being a good spot for lettuce.

Guy lon sounds interesting. Once I get some experience under my belt, I'd like to give it a try. I thought about planting bok choy, but the plant description made it seem a little like the Goldilocks of vegetables - can't handle too much heat or too much cold.

Thanks for your help
Pam

Pam, I start lettuce in containers in the backyard and did no direct sowing of lettuce seed in the garden the last few years. The seedlings are set out in little "clumps" of 4 or 5 plants. Sometimes, they are harvested that way - 4 or 5 at a time.

Only romaine works for me as a cut-&-come-again. This is quite an arid part of the world and it is kind of a tuff climate for lettuce. Keeping the seedlings in containers until setting out gives me the opportunity to find the best location in the backyard - move them around, day to day. I'll try full-sun early and mostly afternoon shade later in the season but once they are in the garden, they have to tuff it out wherever they are plunked in.

I seem to remember growing collards once but it was so many years ago, I don't remember much about them. I grow guy lon (kai lan) an Asian green that is very similar, probably. It only does real well when it grows in a plastic tunnel early in the season. I did try it as a fall crop last year and it grew okay. Guy lon transplants easily, maybe collards does also.

Spinach can be sown very, very early. Maybe 1 more sowing about 3 weeks later and that will be it for me. It just bolts too quickly to seed when sown too close to hot weather. Even a shady location doesn't allow spinach to grow for very long. I don't remember ever trying to transplant it.

I hope this is a little bit of help to you.

Steve