Gardening Where You're At

AlittleSalt · March 31, 2019

I started writing this on the Weather thread, but had second thoughts. This one is going to be kind of long:

The weather is doing what it likes to do most in Texas - changing from hot to cold and then from cold to hot.

I have tomato and pepper plants that are fully hardened off and ready to plant out. Then today happened - the low is going to be around 35F in the DFW area of Texas which means that it could be around 5 degrees warmer or colder where we live. I brought the plants inside. It's the last day of March and this weather is to be expected here...sometimes. By next Wednesday, the high temperature will be around 80F or so.

What gets to be irritating is when the low temperature gets to freezing in late April/early May. With peppers, it's not as much problem because they can live right through the hottest days of summer. I did the math and peppers can have over 200 days to grow/produce here. Tomatoes have two short seasons and is another reason why I grow cherry tomatoes = shorter DTM with a wide variety of taste.

In a different thread, I described how I messed up my tomato seedlings by transplanting them into solo cups filled with a potting mix that was poor in quality. I was tired and hurting that day and didn't want to go somewhere else, so I bought what the store I was at had. A bad decision on my part, but it gave me a reason to try something that I have been thinking about for years.

While gardening in our main garden at the time, I couldn't help but notice the volunteer tomato plants - they were growing like weeds

They started showing up from mid April through mid May. The volunteers were little tiny plants just breaking ground compared to my tomato plants that I started months before inside. I weeded most of the volunteers out, but left some just out of curiosity. Sure enough, mother nature knew more than I did, because those volunteers caught up in a hurry.

Five days ago, I started tomato seeds to mimic those volunteers of years past. I chose 4 varieties: Porter, Japanese Pink Cherry, Medovaya Kaplya, and Brad's Atomic Grape. I'm interested in seeing how they do.

March 31, 2019	#1
AlittleSalt BANNED FOR LIFE Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 13,333	Gardening Where You're At I started writing this on the Weather thread, but had second thoughts. This one is going to be kind of long: The weather is doing what it likes to do most in Texas - changing from hot to cold and then from cold to hot. I have tomato and pepper plants that are fully hardened off and ready to plant out. Then today happened - the low is going to be around 35F in the DFW area of Texas which means that it could be around 5 degrees warmer or colder where we live. I brought the plants inside. It's the last day of March and this weather is to be expected here...sometimes. By next Wednesday, the high temperature will be around 80F or so. What gets to be irritating is when the low temperature gets to freezing in late April/early May. With peppers, it's not as much problem because they can live right through the hottest days of summer. I did the math and peppers can have over 200 days to grow/produce here. Tomatoes have two short seasons and is another reason why I grow cherry tomatoes = shorter DTM with a wide variety of taste. In a different thread, I described how I messed up my tomato seedlings by transplanting them into solo cups filled with a potting mix that was poor in quality. I was tired and hurting that day and didn't want to go somewhere else, so I bought what the store I was at had. A bad decision on my part, but it gave me a reason to try something that I have been thinking about for years. While gardening in our main garden at the time, I couldn't help but notice the volunteer tomato plants - they were growing like weeds They started showing up from mid April through mid May. The volunteers were little tiny plants just breaking ground compared to my tomato plants that I started months before inside. I weeded most of the volunteers out, but left some just out of curiosity. Sure enough, mother nature knew more than I did, because those volunteers caught up in a hurry. Five days ago, I started tomato seeds to mimic those volunteers of years past. I chose 4 varieties: Porter, Japanese Pink Cherry, Medovaya Kaplya, and Brad's Atomic Grape. I'm interested in seeing how they do.