50 degree temp swing not good

BrotherNorm 4/10/2013, 5:32 pm

So, we're not off to a good start this year when it comes to seedlings. My tomatoes, cuc's and peppers were growing like like a herd of turtles under the grow lights. I set them out on the back deck to harden them with plans to transplant this weekend. Well, wouldn't you know that all of a sudden the weather decided to skip spring and launch into summer in one day; 85 degrees up from lows of 29 the previous weekend.

Killed almost all the cuc's. The ones that are left are not doing so well, out of 20 pepper plants I have 5 that are still kicking, killed all the better boy and cherry tomatoes.

All in all very disappointing.

So, what cuc's and tomatoes that survived I transplanted to the beds this evening. As for replacing what died, I'm not going to start germinating new seed I'm just going to sow directly in the bed and see what happens. I'm open to opinions on this approach.

later...

happycamper 4/10/2013, 7:02 pm

You can direct sow your cucumber seed in the garden without any problems.
While I have never direct seeded tomatoes outdoors I have volunteers that come up every year that I have moved in the past and they have produced fruit, but not nearly as well as the tomatoes started in the house. You live in an area that gets far more heat during the summer than I do, maybe someone in your part of the country will chime in. I am so sorry about your plants, that is a huge temperature swing. Good luck!

Goosegirl 4/10/2013, 7:55 pm

happycamper wrote:...While I have never direct seeded tomatoes outdoors I have volunteers that come up every year that I have moved in the past and they have produced fruit, but not nearly as well as the tomatoes started in the house...

Like Happycamper, I have also had volunteers that I have moved, with very good success. In fact, after accidentally setting my seedlings out in a windstorm, one season I used virtually all volunteers - one of my best tomato seasons ever!

GG

BrotherNorm 4/11/2013, 6:25 am

Thanks for the replies.

Here's an update, I put in everything that survived. I actually found a few betterboys and a cherry tomato called supersweet that had survived as well. They we mixed in, in the same flat as the beefsteaks....good surprise there.

And I transplanted what Nardello peppers survived. And lastly, the cuc's which don't look good at all.

Where there were holes, I sowed from seed, mainly the peppers. And for insurance I sowed some cuc seeds next to the transplants. Whichever survives, wins.

The weather moving in to this weekend is suppose to cool down. More spring temps unlike the summer temps of the last few days so that should help.

Cheers......

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