CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing in June 2016?

There are two or three postings that should be here but were entered in May, in case you want to go back and read them

I forgot it was the first of the month.  Doesn't time fly when you are having fun?

Kelejan

Pea trellis. 

10yr old son didn't have to be coerced. He does have a short attention span though..... He's good for the 1st 15 minutes or so..... 

He measured out every 6" for the posts and then drilled the holes. He thought it was OK to stop after only drilling 2 of 3 posts. 

He did enjoy threading the twine through the trellis at the end. We fashioned a needle of sorts with a paper clip to get the twine through each post. 

He held the level to make sure the 2 outer posts were plumb in one  axis. 

Yeah he's pretty helpful for a 10yt old.

That's good, petee,  encourage him all you can but do not bribe him.

Got my back yard flower bed done today (not square foot) and looking forward to seeing it flourish.  I did amend the soil with compost, peat moss and vermiculite, so we'll see how it goes.

Had my first baby spinach for breakfast yesterday, and my radishes are coming up nicely.  My tomatoes are growing like mad.  I hope it's a better year for tomatoes than last year.

Is anyone familiar with the 'Black Cherry' tomato?  is it a cherry tomato?  They said so at the garden center but I just wonder.  If it isn't then I don't have a cherry tomatoes planted.  

Trying to plant in succession so I will get new things every week.  So far there is bok choy, onions, lettuces, radishes, beets, and cauliflower and broccoli, which I have never grown the last 2 before.  So, we'll see how that goes.  thinking of putting some netting over them to protect them.

Petee, you have another welcome post in last month's thread that you MAY  have missed.

Margay, I hope you are better then I am  at succession planting.  I always seem to miss the timing.

Kelejan wrote:There are two or three postings that should be here but were entered in May, in case you want to go back and read them

I forgot it was the first of the month.  Doesn't time fly when you are having fun?

Kelejan

I almost did the same thing! Lol

Kelejan wrote:Margay, I hope you are better then I am  at succession planting.  I always seem to miss the timing.

I am mostly just doing radishes and lettuce so far....I do a square of radishes once a week.  Similar with lettuce.  And I have some cauliflower and broccoli seed to sow today.....first time doing this so we'll see how I manage.

Nice to hear about and see pictures of (TD) everyone's radishes. I think I'll have to plant some too. I'll just need to make a new box (and fill it). I have wood in the garage  My biggest excitement right now is the flowers that are popping up on my tomato plants.

Mimi ... why not interplant radishes in squares with other things that grow more slowly.

It's raining!  Our mini drought is finally over!  I'm singing in the rain ...

TD, where are you getting those adorable emoticons?
CC

I am terrible at succession planting. Then I end up giving away all my excess lettuces, which for some reason really hit large and hard then bolt! I could learn a thing or 2 about patience.....

SR, once you have more space let the lettuces bolt and go to seed and then you won't have to plant any the following year since they reseed themselves. It's very cool how well that works.

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:TD, where are you getting those adorable emoticons?
CC

A good question ... 

I just search for them on the InterWeb. When I find one I like, I right click on it and choose "Copy Image" from the menu. Then I paste it into my post on the forum.

Got 3 pepper seedlings from a coworker. The two green peppers were about 3" tall, and a yellow pepper seedling about 2" tall. Transplanted them tonight.

CapeCoddess wrote:SR, once you have more space let the lettuces bolt and go to seed and then you won't have to plant any the following year since they reseed themselves. It's very cool how well that works.

CC

it....

What am I doing in June? Questioning my resolve.  No not really.  If I think back to last year, I was probably in the same situation.  None of my spinach, lettuce, or swiss chard is doing much of anything. I am chalking it up to planting seeds too early as part of the learning. It was a lost cause for the cabbage and broccoli but am going to try it again in the fall.  Beets and radish are doing fine.  The peas are actually slower than I thought they would be but are doing fine.  Planted 12 squares of beans the other day.  Also tried building a cover for the beds that looked better than what I had.  Tried it according to the book and it did not turn out.  I figure my chicken wire is just to big, thus giving no support. Will have to work on something different.

Here is a question though.  When it says on your seed packs to plant in the spring as soon as the soil can be worked.  What does that really mean?  To me it means just that, so I can plant in March with ultimate success, which I know not to be the case.  To use an example of spinach, that is a cool weather plant, but what does cool weather mean?  4-15 deg C or over 15?

p14shooter wrote:What am I doing in June? Questioning my resolve.  No not really.  If I think back to last year, I was probably in the same situation.  None of my spinach, lettuce, or swiss chard is doing much of anything. I am chalking it up to planting seeds too early as part of the learning. It was a lost cause for the cabbage and broccoli but am going to try it again in the fall.  Beets and radish are doing fine.  The peas are actually slower than I thought they would be but are doing fine.  Planted 12 squares of beans the other day.  Also tried building a cover for the beds that looked better than what I had.  Tried it according to the book and it did not turn out.  I figure my chicken wire is just to big, thus giving no support. Will have to work on something different.

Here is a question though.  When it says on your seed packs to plant in the spring as soon as the soil can be worked.  What does that really mean?  To me it means just that, so I can plant in March with ultimate success, which I know not to be the case.  To use an example of spinach, that is a cool weather plant, but what does cool weather mean?  4-15 deg C or over 15?

Short answer - cool weather means the plant experiences most of it's growing time between 4-15C (though some may do most of the growing itself in the last few weeks when it's warmer than that, seemingly suddenly doubling in size.)

Long answer, because I had the same question and spent way too much time researching everything to figure it out... :
"As soon as the soil can be worked" refers to dirt gardening, rather than gardening in MM. Dirt, in the spring is often too mucky and cold to plant in (seeds rot and die before they germinate); MM drains perfectly and/so the raised beds warm up faster so you can get a head start -- but not as much as "as soon as the soil can be worked" implies.

Ultimately, number-wise, you're looking at two things
1. soil temperature vs germination temperature
2. air temperature vs cold tolerance/ bolt-triggering

For 1, Measure in the early morning with a thermometer angled in so you're measuring the temperature close to where you'd be putting the seed at close to the coldest part of the day.) Many cool weather plants will germinate down to 4C=40F. (BUT they don't germinate as quickly as they would when it's "warmer", up to a point at which it's too warm and germination drops off again, with the optimum varying for different types of plants.) The soil needs to be 'warm enough' for several days for the seed to germinate, so the first occurrence of 4C=40F soil isn't a green light for sowing everything. You have to have enough of a forecast to see whether it's likely to stay above that for a few days to a week. Even then:

For 2, Most cool weather vegetables will tolerate a light frost during temperatures down to -2C=28F, but a heavy frost that occurs below those temperatures, especially if stays cold for a longer period of time, can kill or stunt the seedlings/plants. Again, how much they'll put up with varies for different types of plants -- and how they react depends on the age of the plant. There's also a problem for some plants experiencing temperatures they think are "just right", followed by "too cold" then nice again -- they think they've gone through a winter cycle and bolt. Per the internet, rather than any data collection of my own, young spinach plants that experience weather below 4C=40F survive, then bolt, where as mature spinach plants (I don't know at what age they are considered "mature"...) can survive colder temperatures but still  bolt when it gets too hot (at/above about ?24C=75F?)  Wind and humidity can also play in to how air temperatures affect a plant.

What's easier than figuring out all these numbers for each plant and trying to figure out the forecast is determining the hypothetical last (and first) frost date for your area, and counting weeks. The Planting Charts in the back of the ANSFG book uses this method to show you when to sow and transplant different vegetables based on the time to/from the frosts (from last frost in the spring for spring vegetables, and counting back from the first frost in the fall for fall harvest vegetables.) Yes, some years the last frost will be sooner or later, but on average those tables show the safe planting times.

So, for cabbage and broccoli, the chart shows starting them inside 12-10 weeks before the last spring frost, and then (after hardening them off so they don't get shocked) transplanting them 7 weeks after you sowed the seeds -- which is 5 to 3 weeks before the last spring frost. Even so, one might not succeed some years with spring broccoli because if the temperatures see-saw (too cold then nice again), the broccoli sets a tiny head early; or if it gets too hot too fast it again forms a tiny head too soon, instead of a nice big tasty one. Some years the weather won't cooperate and you just won't get enough time at what a plant thinks are nice temperatures. Do try your cabbages and broccoli again for the fall - its more likely the temperatures will cooperate. (Hm. Looks like I'll need to start my fall cabbages and broccoli inside in just a few weeks!)

Succession planting and growing more than one variety helps because it means you're more likely to get some of your plants growing in the right weather. So even though we had see-sawing temperatures where I'm at, I have some spinach that's bolting, and other spinach that isn't (yet).

It's another beautiful day here in Canada's capital. The lawn needs mowing but I don't want to do it. The pond needs attention but I don't care. The vegetables need watering ... well maybe I'll get to that later. 

Mr & Mrs TD 

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:

Long answer, because I had the same question and spent way too much time researching everything to figure it out... :
"As soon as the soil can be worked" refers to dirt gardening, rather than gardening in MM. Dirt, in the spring is often too mucky and cold to plant in (seeds rot and die before they germinate); MM drains perfectly and/so the raised beds warm up faster so you can get a head start -- but not as much as "as soon as the soil can be worked" implies.

Ultimately, number-wise, you're looking at two things
1. soil temperature vs germination temperature
2. air temperature vs cold tolerance/ bolt-triggerin

..............................................

you just confirmed some of what I thought I knew and some I did not.  So I will keep plugging away at it.  My greens have not done well the past 2 years as I said.  In some previous posts of mine beetles, I said I was going to use this as a learning year.  And I am learning.  Thanks for the answers.  I always prefer the long by the way.

That was excellent info, Beetles! I learned lots!

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:That was excellent info, Beetles!  I learned lots!  

CC

You're welcome - both of you! I'm glad the time I spent could benefit others.
What I don't know is whether my broccoli is doing the small head thing. I understand how it all should work, but lack the experience to know what I'm seeing. How do I know whether it's going to get bigger or not? I got farther with the broccoli this spring than my attempt last fall (I bought transplants and they just never did anything; I blame the sunchokes), but I'm worried the hot weather tripped me up a few weeks before the finish line. The cabbages are likewise doing way way better than last year... but I have to wait and see if they form heads. I don't understand how they do that. How do the new leaves keep growing from the inside once the cabbage is a ball?  Or do they do half curls in the right spots to make a hollow center that fills in? I'm guessing this will be like the whole sewing pants/shorts for the first time, with the "wha...? WOAH!" when you figure out how to sew the two halves together.

CapeCoddess wrote:That was excellent info, Beetles!  I learned lots!  

CC

Thank you so much, Beetles, for your work.  Gold Star.

Kelejan wrote:

CapeCoddess wrote:That was excellent info, Beetles!  I learned lots!  

CC

Thank you so much, Beetles, for your work.  Gold Star.

Beetles with her shiny gold stars: