Why I start early.

[Worth1]

Some of you and many folks down here think the same way. They think I start too early.
The reason I plant seeds of all kinds early has multiple reasons.
seeds are cheap and the weather is unpredictable.
If a late freeze gets them I start over no worries.
I also like to get ahead of the grasshoppers.
If I start too late the devils will come along and eat every sprout that comes up.
Rain, I don't have to water as much because in the summer it dries up around here.
Heat I cant stand the heat and wont work in it so when it heats up in July my stuff is played out and I pull it up.
The only thing I will mess with is Okra because it likes the heat.

Some if not most people down here don't even have their gardens out yet.
many of them are from up north and don't realize just how early we can start a garden.
I look at the native trees here when they bud out I plant seeds and put my tomatoes out.
For some reason the native trees get it right almost every time.

7 years ago the oaks budded out in the 2nd week of February so I planted tomatoes.
People thought I was nuts but guess what there were no more cold spells and I had tomatoes in April the time many folks here are just getting started.


This year they budded out here in the middle of march so I planted then.



Worth

[duajones]

Amen, an early start down here can mean the difference in how successful your effort is overall. I was at a local nursery yesterday and there were alot of folks buying real small tomato plants and are just now getting started. Wont be long until the temps arent cooperative and fruitset will be hard to come by. Starting late down here is probably one of the main reason some folks give up when what they should do is start earlier.

[pdxwindjammer]

If we started planting out in Feb. up north we wouldn't have a tomato to speak of! You folks down south are fortunate! Tomatoes are a tropical plant and love heat and humidity, which we don't get much of in these parts!

[b54red]

Worth, I couldn't agree more except I'm a stubborn and don't give up in the heat. I just keep finding more varieties that can take it and make a few maters until it cools off. I will keep starting tomato and pepper seed right up until late June or early July. My last tomato set out last year was on Sept. 18; but I only got one blushing tomato off of it before the freezes set in. Some years I get fairly good production out of late planted tomatoes and peppers. Another reason to keep starting seed is to have replacements for the inevitable failures.

[kath]

I start things as early as I can, too, and each year try to begin earlier and end later, extending the season as much as possible both for the sheer pleasure of gardening as well as being able to have the fresh produce for as much of the year as possible up here in the more northern part of the country. I overwinter spinach and lettuces and am planting new seed in early February. Potatoes planted in March do well, corn under plastic is already up and growing well, peas are several inches tall already, celery is out, etc. Neighbors and relatives who garden think I'm crazy, but with protection, I've never lost anything. I haven't pushed it with tomatoes and peppers too much though, as I believed what I heard about the cold setting them back permanently, but I think it's time to experiment there, too. In a warm year, I've set them out in early May, but never before that. Obviously, if you can't protect them from frost, they'd be dead, but will low temps for a few weeks in the beginning reduce the amount of fruit the plant will produce?

[Worth1]

The only difference I have seen with putting my tomato and pepper plants out early is.
My plants take off like a rocket when the night time temps stay in the 60s.
People that put out plants when it is warm all of the time (here) have plants that don't put out fruit.
As we speak the night time temps are in the 40s and my plants are still putting out blooms.
I also think that the reason behind this is the plants are developing a good root system in the cool weather.
I cant prove this but I think it is so.

All to often I see folks at the store buying plants in late May and early June only to have them grow for a while and then dry up in the heat.

Another little bit of misunderstanding is tomatoes do well in high humidity and heat
The only ones that I have seen that do well in this weather are the smaller cherry type wild cherry being the bast producer all summer long.

They hear tomatoes were first grown in South America and they automaticly think of the amazon rain forest.
Not true the Amazon is made up of differant types of climats and only the area around the river is a true rain forest.

One of the places that food was produced including tomatoes was on the very dry western side of the mountains along the coast. The only reason these folks could grow crops was they made gardens along the rivers that ran off from the mountains.
only along these rivers was food produced.

I would like to think they had little clay pots they used to start seeds in and then plant out when the weather permitted.

Worth

[bigbubbacain]

The real trick behind starting early has got to be knowing HOW early. For years they always said we could start them around Valentine's Day, but it was still a little cold then. I started the first week of March and I still had some "hiccups" in the garden when we had two night of temps in the 30's in mid-March. So many of my plants looked stunted after this happened, but they all pulled out except for two.

It such a short window between cold & hot around here. I think my new strategy is going to be dividing my plant selections between early cold tolerant, and more heat tolerant types.

[creister]

I agree, I usually watch the local trees for budding, trusting mostly the larger mesquite as my standard. Sometimes, they are a bit early, this year, they leaved out just this week, so am planting this weekend. Insurance policy for late freeze/frost is grow cloth on cages and extra plants.

[mdvpc]

I agree with Worth. I start my plants in January, set them out the first week of March-the cages are wrapped in plastic as a wind break.

[ArcherB]

I also started mine in the first week of January and planted them out in the first week of March. I live just south of Austin. My average last frost date is March 15th.

I did have to cover them once when night time temps dropped to 33 for two consecutive nights. All plants made it. Waiting until after the frost date wouldn't have helped because the near freeze came after March 20th. Last year, this happened in April. I have 24 in the ground and one in an experimental container.

How's it going? Well, I'm getting blooms and I confirmed actual fruit set before Easter Weekend this year. That's three weeks from plant out to fruit set. (that is good, right?) Was it an Early Girl? Nope! Some kind of cherry? Nope. It was Cherokee Purple. Currently, the fruit is about two inches across and shows no signs of cat-facing. Before I break my arm patting myself on the back, it is the only confirmed fruit as of yet, but I have tons of blooms on nearly all the other plants.

So, yeah, planting early has paid off for me, so far. Next year I plan on planting out at least six plants before Valentine's Day in WOW's just to see how they do. Maybe I'll actually get a Brandywine to set fruit that way.

To you Northern folk that get jealous, don't. My season is over by the end of July. However, I may have found a way to extend the season by spraying the plants down at least every third day with water. I was able to revive several plants last year in August and even had a couple set fruit in 100 degree weather (lows in the mid 90's). None of them were edible. The birds got most of them and rest were sunburned as the plants mostly defoliated themselves before I started spraying them.

Anyway, so far, so good, but most of my plants are barely a foot tall. We'll see how they are doing when they top six feet and temps top 100.

[newgardener_tx]

I planted out from 03/15 to 03/25. I bought some plants and they are all in blooms at 2 feet tall. My own starts are about 1 foot tall and I start to see little buds. They will all grow to at least 7 feet. My earliest is sungold. I may harvest soon. Planting early is the key for harvest in central Texas. I also plan to fertilizer them often this year so they will grow faster meaning more fruitset before the hot summer? Usually I use the Earl's hole method and no fertilize during the seasom. I will try some experiments this year. I harvest 2 Brandywine (1 lb each) from one huge plant last year, none the year before last. So doing better. The Marianna's Peace sets huge fruits like crazy. If you are in Texas, strongly recommend!

[sfmathews]

I'm with newgardener. I planted out a week prior to the frost date. Covered everything when we got the snow. Yes they were smaller than I'd like (I started from seed), but now, they have been in the garden a month and are really going to town. I've seen some buds, but none open yet. I planted earlier than I ever have before, based on other TX TV'ers recommendations. After seeing it for myself, I'll plant earlier than predicted from here on out. And yes, I always keep back ups for those hiccups.
Susan

[jungseed]

Worth - I start early because it's gotta be after noon somewhere.

[chalstonsc]

b54,
Which varieties take the heat and put out some fruit for you during the summer?
Tom

[newgardener_tx]

Sweet million, Juliet

Originally Posted by chalstonsc

b54,
Which varieties take the heat and put out some fruit for you during the summer?
Tom