from 'comunity garden' - into 'first try at a garden'..

[digitS']

I'd expect things to be okay, Cane'.

Unless you have some "frost pockets" around in your yard. Or, that thermometer is measuring the temperature of your house wall and not the outside air.

Two weeks is enough time for your plants to adjust to the outdoors and they should be able to handle the temperature. Your warm-weather plants will not have grown over night. The peppers seem to kind of shrink in on themselves during the cool weeks of spring. Tomatoes turn purple.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

Most will not be killed by 36 degrees if that is actual, but the warm lovers will be slowed down and stressed some. Warm lovers still not sprouted will be slowed in sprouting and the germination percentage may be reduced.

There are some things that a person can do. Keep an eye on the weather forecasts. Build little protective houses of wood and cloth. A kind of cloth sometimes called Remay or just white garden cloth is good. Heck, just some sticks in the ground as a framework to hold the cloth can work. then the plants are covered at night uncovered during day.

It's a fine line gardeners plant by. Some seasoned ole gardeners seem to be the last to put their tomatoes out or seed their corn, yet seem to have big heads of cabbage going all winter.

Just in case, you have more squash and corn seed? Things like that?

GARDENERS. SURE ARE A PERSISTENT BUNCH.

:happy_flower

that smiley says its a happy flower, i think its a cold sun

didja know blue stars are a bazillion times hotter than red stars? yep. so hot that blue stars end up blowing up.

 

[canesisters]

Thanks yall. I knew it was getting really chilly out there but it just never occurred to me to cover the garden. Lesson leaned. Hopefully they'll be ok - but there was a light frost on my windshield so I'm worried.


Yes Marshall, I've got plenty of seed left. Since my garden is so small, I only started a few of each kind. LOL, only used 4 of each kind of cucumber, 2 in each of 4 little holes - poor little things.

This year is supposed to be all about learning... and I'm certainly trying to do as much of that as I can.
Hey - as one of those 'good to know' things. When covering young plants against frost - how high does the cover go? Touching? JUST above? A foot over?
I assume that the sticks/frame is to keep it above the plants - or is it just to keep it from smushing them?

 

[897tgigvib]

Definitely NOT touching. There is something about a freezing solid object that has more cold to it that freezing air.

When I worked at the greenhouse in montana, during winter the main greenhouse would be packed with plants. Oh, any tenderplant that accidentally touched the plastic wall would have death right there, and that was a double walled with positive pressure between layers greenhouse.

The idea of the framing, whatever kind it is, is to keep the plants from getting smusshed but also to keep the plants from the cloth. Yes, plants should be a good safe distance from the cloth.

I kind of think Digit is the most experienced here. He makes hoophouses and tunnels, and may have the best plans.

 

[digitS']

. . . Hopefully they'll be ok - but there was a light frost on my windshield so I'm worried . . .

Well, that is a little worrisome, yes.

Frost is frost. The ground is often warmer but those very close to freezing temperatures are tricky. It is probably always that way - temperature varied from one place to another, just a matter of a few feet.

Steve

 

[canesisters]

Well... looks like I might have lost about 2/3 of the tomatoes. Hard to tell for sure. Most of them are definately 'stressed'. It's 50 degrees outside right now and I'm waiting for the weather to come on to see if I should rig up some sheets or something for tonight. Last time I checked it was supposed to be 40's at night and 50-70's during the days for the rest of the week. I guess that I'll know for SURE by mid week - weekend at the latest - if any of them are going to make it.
I had intended to only plant 2 or 3 of each of the 4 kinds. But of course everything that made it through hardening off went in the ground - 5, 6 or 7 of each. So if it turns out that only a couple of each made it then I guess that'll be just fine.

(who am I kidding - I'll have new seeds started before the weekend.....)

 

[thistlebloom]

Cane, give them a few days anyway to see if they bounce back. Last year I put my toms and peppers out a full week or two after our last average frost date, and we got a hard frost on June 3rd that pretty much wiped them out. I belatedly covered everybody with straw and figured they were toast.

A few weeks later I finally worked up the courage to take a look and about one fourth of them were growing!

 

[canesisters]

It's GROWING!

A jumble of tomatoes

And they're blooming

A volunteer potato that apparently didn't compost..

Some cabbage and carrots

tiny little squash blooms-to-be

the reason my spinach has done squat

Does this mean that my corn is crapping out at 2' tall??

 

[digitS']

Well, it looks like a happy garden!

Yeah, the corn is reaching some sort of maturity when it begins to develop a tassle. It will still grow some, Cane'.

It also looks like you may soon have some competition problems. I can't see any caging or staking - don't have my glasses handy . . .

I've built literal walls against vining plants to keep them in control. You have to be careful about where the wall is relative to sunlight but the plant can push against boards and go right up them with no apparent trouble.

Caging the tomatoes may help so that they can go vertical and not so much horizontal. The sooner that a cage can be pushed down around them, the better. Stock fencing may be easiest and if it looks like too much damage will result, staking is less likely to result in broken branches. Often, great compromises are required of the gardener in the interest of plant safety but as the season advances, every foot of ground area may need to be fought over just for access. Gentle but firm hands.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

You're doing real good Cane! I agree with what Steve said about caging or staking your tomatoes. Don't let them get too set in their ways or they'll be difficult to contain without breaking branches.

What variety of corn did you plant? That's about what the Gaspe flint and Orchard Baby do, but they're supposed to be runty!