Winter Storms ForecasttPlanting Cool Season Crops

14 years ago

COOL-SEASON CROPS & THE FEB./MARCH FORECAST: It is now cool-season crop planting time for Oklahoma gardeners in some portions of the state, but all of us still need to remember that even cool-season crops can be damaged by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures. See the NWS weather page linked below and read the 'Winter Storm' portion of that page if you're interested in knowing why we've been so cold/wet here this year and also see how long it is expected to last.

RECOMMENDED COOL-SEASON PLANTING TIME IS HERE: In general, the earliest cool-season planting dates recommended by OSU are February 15th through March 10th for cool-season crops. Remember that the Feb. 15th is for the most southeastern portion of the state and March 10th is for the most northwestern and you should choose a date in between those two if you're in the central portion of the state.

WHY PLANT WHILE IT IS SO COLD? Cool-season crops are planted early because they grow best in cooler temperatures and often bolt (flower and go to seed, which ruins their eating quality) in hot weather. However, they also can be damaged by cold temperatures, frost, and any sort of freezing precipitation.

COLD-HARDINESS OF COOL-SEASON CROPS VARIES: Remember that all cold-season crops are not the same.

1. HARDY plants include cabbage, kohnrabi, onions, peas, spinach and turnips. These hardy vegetables can be planted up to six weeks before the last frost and can withstand frost and very cold temperatures once they are well-established. A hard frost during their first week or two in the ground as plants (not seeds) can damage them, so cover them up when frost threatens if they are very young and newly transplanted. There is a second group of hardy crops that need to go into the ground a tiny bit later than the hardiest crops and those would be beets, broccoli and radishes, which shouldn't go into the ground until March instead of late February even if you are in southern OK.

2. SEMI-HARDY vegetables include carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, potatoes and beets. These semi-hardy cool-season vegetables will grow well in cold weather and can endure a light frost, but can be injured or killed by a severe frost. Since potatoes are generally planted 6-8" below the soil surface, you don't have to worry about them until their foliage is aboveground though.

3. SEMI-TENDER vegetables are rare and the only one I can think of is Swiss Chard, which can be injured by even a light frost but otherwise can endure very cool temperatures. Even if it freezes completely to the ground, it usually comes back from the roots unless it is only a week or two old when it freezes. Rhubarb is similar to potatoes or swiss chard. Its roots are not damaged by cold here, but newly-emerged above-ground foliage can freeze back to the ground.

TENDER and VERY TENDER crops are in the warm-season category and they don't go into the ground until after the last frost unless you can cover them up well and keep frost off of them. However, they will be sluggish and slow-growing in cold soil so you really don't gain anything by transplanting them early since their roots will not grow well in cold soil.

Here's the OSU planting dates for cool-season crops.

Asparagus roots and Rhubarb roots: Fall or Spring

FEB. 15TH - MAR. 10TH;

cabbage

carrot

cauliflower

Swiss chard

kohlrabi

lettuce

onion

peas, green (edible podded or shelling-type English peas, but NOT southern peas0

potatoes, Irish

spinach

turnip

MARCH:

beets

broccoli

MARCH 1 - APRIL 15TH:

radish

Once your cool-season crops are in the ground, watch carefully and be prepared to cover them up if cold temperatures or freezing precip are forecast. You can cover up cool season crops with sheets, blankets, boxes, tightly-woven baskets, buckets or flower pots, etc. You also can use woven fabrics like Agribon or Reemay which come in different weights and provide varying degrees of freeze/frost protection. You cannot use plastic if it will make contact with the plants because the cold will injure or damage the plants wherever they make physical contact with the plastic. You can use plastic if you can suspend it above the plants so it doesn't touch them.

Don't trust the forecast either. Watch the weather and trust your instincts. Forecast overnight lows are general and often you'll see temps significantly lower than your area's forecast low. I have seen our overnight low go down to 32 degrees here at our house when it was forecast to be 50 degrees, and something similar has happened to George in Tahlequah, so trust your instincts and cover up your plants if you think they need it. I try to watch how quickly the temperature drops between about 4 and 6 or 7 p.m. It it is falling more rapidly than I think it ought to based on the forecast low, I'll cover up the plants before dark.

In case you're new to gardening, understand this....sometimes the forecast low is based on conditions that can change abruptly. The forecast might be based on cloudy skies (which help hold in the heat) and light wind (which prevents frost from settling on the plants). If for some reason, the skies clear overhead and/or the wind stops blowing, you can have a freeze or frost even though it was not forecast. This is especially common on the night or two or three around the full moon.

I'll be planting onions this week, and potatoes shortly thereafter, but I'll be ready to cover up those onions nightly if needed.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Explanation for Our Cold Weather & More Is Forecast

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Comments (8)

southerngardenchick
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
OH, man... I've been trying to figure out when to start my stuff. Our dates are about the same. I'm thinking I'll start next week and do the list like this...

potatoes (store bought russets)
carrots
swiss chard
lettuce
spinach

Then my beets and radishes in the first week of March. Of course, all weather depending, LOL! (ugh) AND I'm starting my tomatoes at the end of the week. I've got one of our renters and a friend of mine all pumped for the garden season this year! We're all going to plant the seeds you sent me, plus whatever they come up with... hopefully between the three of us we can have a banner year! :)

Beth
jeffinok
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
i would love to plant some of my onions . i recieved mine today .
we just need some more sun to dry things out.
guess im gonna have a mud garden this year.
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Miraje, For green onions and scallions it depends on how early you want to harvest. I just plant my onions twice as thick as they should be when transplanting to the garden and then pull every other one for green onions. If planting for green onions you aren't worried about them forming large bulbs so you could always start and transplants some later. I don't as I like to get all my onions ect planted and out of the way so I don't have a lot to do when it is time to pot up tomato and pepper plants. If it was me I would try to get them started by the first of Feb. I have seen some say you can start them for green onions and scallions as late as 28 days before you average last frost. TO me that is a little late. But then like I say about planting garlic. Today is better than tomorrow and anytime is better than not planting at all. Jay
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Sherry, Well, I think you can plant them and have limited success. Onions have to be in the ground and achieve a certain amount of growth before bulbing is induced. Since bulbing is induced by a combination of daylength and temperature, it is going to happen when the daylength-temperature combo is achieved, whether the onions have been in the ground for one week, one month, or whatever. So, that is why we have to plant onions so very early--to get maximum growth before initiation of the bulbing process begins. Most onions needs to be in the ground a minimum of 90 to 100 days before bulb initiation starts in order to size up fully, and some need 100 to 120 days. Short day-length onions will begin to bulb up once the daylength (hours of sunlight) reaches about 10-12 hours in combination with the right temperature. Intermediate day-length onions need 12-14 hours days to bulb up. Long day-length onions will begin to bulb up once the daylength is 14-16 hours and the temperature is right, which is why the long daylength onions are not grown in our part of the county. (Our daylength here maxes out around 14 hours.) So, if the onions go into the ground late, they will grow and they still will bulb up once bulb initiation occurs. They'll just be smaller when bulb initiation occurs, thus, they will be smaller at maturity than onions that were planted earlier. One reason that short day-length and intermediate day-length onions planted in the southern third of the country get bigger than those EXACT same varieties grown in the upper 2/3s of the country is that our weather allows us to plant the onions up to 5 months prior to bulb initiation, and the northern states' colder weather does not allow them to plant until approx. 75 days before bulb initiation. So, if you plant late this year, you'll get onions that are "northern-sized" instead of "southern-sized", but you'll still get onions! If you don't mind knowing you'll get smaller onions, go ahead and go for it. It would be a good learning experience if you've never grown onions before. Some commonly-sold short day-length onions are TX 1015Y (aka Texas Sweet or Texas Supersweet), Yellow Granex, White Bermuda, Southern Belle Red and Contessa. Some commonly-sold intermediate day-length onions are Candy, Stockton Sweet Red and Superstar. Some commonly sold long day-length onions (and these should NOT be sold in our region) include Borrettana Cippolini, Red Torpedo Tropea, Ailsa Craig (there's also a tomato by this name), Copra, Big Daddy, Red Burgermaster, Red Zeppelin, Walla Walla, Yellow Sweet Spanish and Ringmaster. I've already planted my main crop of onions, but I do continue planting onions in various spots around the garden as companion plants, and I will, probably through mid-to-late April. Of course, I don't care if those companion-planted onions bulb up or not. Sometimes I leave the companion plant onions in the ground until the following year, and let them bloom in the spring. Their tiny flowers attract a TON of tiny pollinators and beneficial insects, and are quite attractive as well. Dawn
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Keith, I don't plant by an almanac or moon pnases or whatever, as I find the more important factor to be whether soil temps and air temps are in the right range that each plant needs. I plant based on knowing what our air/soil temps are likely to be at any given time, the DTMs of plants I am planting, etc. and I seldom have a problem getting a crop. When I do have trouble, it tends to be related to some sort of weather extreme....flooding that leaves the soil too wet for weeks or temps that get too hot too early in the year and shut down flowering, fruit set, pollination, etc. If using the Farmer's Almanac works for you that's great, but I find it hard enough to make sure we have the right air temp, soil temp, moisture level, etc. to plant anything at the 'right' time. Trying to wait for the right phase of the moon in addition to all the above just makes gardening more complicated than I want it to be. I like to read Farmer's Almanacs for historical data, averages, etc. but I ignore the moon phase stuff so, since I don't use it, I cannot comment on its effectiveness. One of the local 'old timers' here told me from the first year we moved here that I should ignore all that 'outside' info, including most lists of recommended planting dates, and learn to 'read' my own microclimate (he didn't use that word but it is the one that best describes what he meant), weather conditions, soil temperature, moisture level, wildlife clues, etc. For example, he told me to wait until the native pecan trees had leafed out before planting tender heat-loving vegetation in order to be sure the last freeze or frost has occurred. I've tried it, and it seems to 'work' about 9 years out of 10. I think we've only had a hard freeze here after the pecans leafed out once or twice in a dozen years, making his method of forecasting the last freeze more accurate than local forecasters, almanacs, the NWS, etc. So, every year I try to observe and understand what is happening in and around my garden and adjust planting dates accordingly. It works better for me than planting by any other method, although of course I have the planting dates memorized for reference purposes. There are a couple of folks near me who try to plant by the moon signs and I don't know how good they are or aren't at doing it, but they have not had highly productive gardens. However, you know, we don't know if their gardens would be any more productive if they weren't planting by moon signs, now do we? Dawn
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Johnny, That's how I harvest all edible podded peas too. I consider eating peas in the garden as I harvest them to be just one of the perks of being the gardener. I was thinking about Cali yesterday when I looked at the U. S. Drought Monitor and saw what horrible shape they are in. The snowpack map is horrifying to look at. I cannot even imagine how many family farms may be driven out of business. Last year Tim and I noticed shortages periodically in the produce section at the grocery stores and wondered if those could be blamed on the situation in California. I'm willing to bet most of them could be. I try to raise all our own produce anyway, or at least as much as I possibly can, and I try to preserve all of it that I can for the future. It is something I enjoy but which wasn't really necessary----after all, if we have crop failures here, we just go to the grocery store, right? Well, maybe in the past. If California's drought continues, produce in grocery stores will be so expensive (not that it is cheap now) that no one will be able to afford it even when the food makes it to the stores. That just makes the work you do to produce food for the food bank so much more important than ever before. It is too bad the northeastern states which have snow piled up everywhere can send all that surplus to California.
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elkwc
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Just one word of experience about onions. 3-4 years ago I planted onions in mid March like I usually do. In late April we had a hard freeze. I had them mulched good so didn't worry. Over half of them bolted and flowered. The bulbs were smaller also. The cold temps fooled them. So I've been a little more hesitant to put them out as early since if I can see any real cold weather coming. They were growing well and no real visible damage till the they started flowering. Jay
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Jay,

I always worry about that kind of weather-induced bolting and some years it is inevitable because onions are biennials. I am particularly worried about it this year, just because we've had such abnormally cool weather much of this winter.

For anyone reading this who is new or fairly new to growing onions, the key is that onions which are less than the diameter of a No. 2 pencil (approx. 1/4") generally will not bolt even if exposed to temperatures below 45 degrees Fahrenheit for a prolonged period of time. Once the onions have reached 1/4" in diameter, prolonged or repeated exposure to temps below 45 degrees push them into dormancy, and they 'think' that dormancy signals the end of their first year of growing. Then, when they warm up and start growing again, it is the second year and they do what biennials do in their second year.....they send up a flower stalk to set seed.

I don't know any way to prevent that sort of bolting because it is a natural process. The best chance of preventing it likely would be to grow them under a low tunnel and hope the low tunnel keeps them warm enough during cold spells that they aren't pushed into dormancy. It might work even better with a frost blanket added inside the low tunnel Eliot Coleman-style during colder spells. I guess you could keep the low tunnel warmer by painting milk jugs or 2-liter or 3-liter bottles black, filling them with water and using them as solar collectors. With low tunnels, I'd be worried about excess humidity on sunny humid days though. (sigh)

Jeff, I think we only have two kinds of growing seasons here....those that are too wet and those that are too dry. I am not sure which is worse. As much as I hate drought, I almost think I'd rather have drought than a rainy year. At least in a rainy year, you can irrigate, at least for as long as you can afford the water bill and as long as you are not under mandatory water rationing. In a wet, year, though, we can't vacuum up the excess moisture out of the ground.

I've had the idea in my head for months that this would be "the year of the bean" because my beans didn't produce well last year, and of course, it is always the year of the tomato at our house. However, I'm starting to fear it will be "the year of mud and floods".

Dawn
soonergrandmom
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I have my potatoes cut and sprouting, but it is much too early here to think about anything else. According to the Tulsa weatherman, they have not had a day above 70 degrees since the day after Thanksgiving, and I am a long way north of Tulsa. We have had consistently cold weather, and it has been weeks and weeks since the ground was dry. In addition, we have had less sun this month, than I ever remember. It's not miserable cold, but it's too cold to want to be outside.

In preparation for planting a few things inside this weekend, I brought in a dishpan filled with potting soil. I was in the shed in a jacket and gloves digging out trays and seed starting mix. It is just hard to get inspired when it is still that cold. The only time my garden soil isn't muddy, is when it's frozen, and that has been the condition lots of mornings lately. LOL I'm afraid that I will be getting a very late start. I didn't order onions because I couldn't justify the cost of just ordering a few and I didn't have room for many. I need to find a gardening buddy to share cost with, I guess, so I could get the best onions.
ezzirah011
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I have my seeds started indoors, but everything here is just too cold I think. We are still going freezing or below at night and more snow is expected I heard today, as a matter of fact, that another big storm is moving in. I think it is just going to be a late start, which is ok, considering I have way more to learn!

I didn't even try onions, I think they are "tricky", maybe next go 'round I will.
elkwc
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Really onions are easy to grow. But there are exceptions. The year I mentioned was one. It was warm from mid March when I planted them till the late April freeze. And they were really growing and like Dawn said many were bigger than 1/4". And the bigger ones are the ones that bolted. When I heard the freeze was coming I even added mulch. Also was a one night freeze. Temps hit 18 degrees F. I really felt I would be ok. The only options are like Dawn said it too cover them or plant them later where they are smaller during that time. This year I have a gut feeling maybe more of a normal year. So plan on planting in mid March. With the cooler temps now I hope we don't see the abnormal late cold spells we saw for 3 years. Jay
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Ezzirah, Actually onions are normally really easy. It's just that the last 3 or 4 years we've had very cold weather very late in spring and it messes up the onions so we're all a little wary of the weather at onion-planing time. A nice normal spring might restore our faith in normalcy.

In a 'normal' year (if anything weather-related could be considered normal here), onions are the easiest thing in the world. You plant them, make sure they stay weeded and watered and harvest them when the tops start falling over on their own. Then you cure them, store them, and use and enjoy them.

Jay, I'm hoping the same, but after three abnormal springs, I wonder if I'll recognize a normal spring if we have one. LOL

I have been watching a storm off in the Pacific that may cause us problems in a week or ten days, but except for that, I'm feeling a little shift in the weather....partly from the sunshine (yippee!) and from the birds migrating and from the slightly longer daylength now.

Still, it was 20 degrees here last night and we had a hard frost so I know winter isn't finished with us yet.

Dawn

Winter Storms ForecasttPlanting Cool Season Crops

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