Garden and Learn
the big experiment continues
When I grew peppers and tomatoes in zone 7, I could start plants indoors in March-ish, and they’d be ready to go out in May-ish and they’d become big, healthy prolific plants in no time. Here in zone 6, that is not the case.
My seedlings I planted in late March weren’t big enough by end of May to handle the cold snaps that we had. Many of them are stunted, and permanently. So I ended up at a garden center yesterday buying some bigger tomato plants. (Some of my peppers I had already bought, and some made it from seed.)
Compare:
The solution, I believe, is to start my seeds earlier so that I put out bigger plants with more developed root systems. And I’m going to take another measure which is using a cold frame. You can make a cold frame with wood and heavy plastic, for example, but they’re also fairly inexpensive to buy. Here’s one used by one of my favorite gardeners, Joy (@joyf.bsky.social).
My grandfather had one he made by making framing out this shape in wood, and then staple-gunning heavy plastic all around.
🚨Important🚨 The cold frame must have ventilation, like any greenhouse, and you have to remember to open that ventilation when the temperatures rise temporarily during a sunny day. All that work cannot end in fried seedlings, my friends.
In the pic above, Joy can unzip the flaps and tie them off at the top. In my grandfather’s version, he hinged the top of the frame so he could list it open and prop it with a stick.
While the dahlias (and 4 begonias) did fine with this weather none of my other tubers or bulbs are budging. I pulled out 3 tuberose begonias yesterday and they weren’t rotting; they just haven’t grown at all. Too cold. Same with Colocasias (elephant ears), Caladiums, and Cannas. So I bought some Cannas yesterday to be the centerpiece of my deck planters.
This was supposed to be white begonias, but as of yesterday, it’s oregano.
In my previous zone 7, I used the marker of nights consistently in the 50s to put out all plants. And that works here for most plants. But I think I’m going to use a high 50s/60s marker for plants that thrive in warmer temps, like peppers, tomatoes, tropical bulbs, etc. So I’ll keep these plants/tubers indoors longer and then transition to a cold frame, and then transition to outdoors.
The perennials don’t care about cold snaps, by the way.
And things seeded directly into ground at the right time will acclimate themselves. Below are Nasturtiums doing just fine.
Happy gardening💚🌼🐝