Have to start all over -is it too late?

11 years ago

Well I lost all my tomato seedlings and most of my pepper seedlings. While hardening them off a bird (or something) decided to pull up half my pepper seedlings. And I guess I didn't harden off my tomatoes well enough because they got burned up by the sun. Every day I'd bring them inside and noticed each time they just looked worse and worse and now I think they are beyond repair.

So I am thinking about just popping some seeds in the ground today. Would it be too late, I'd just be wasting seeds? Or should I go for it?

I have brandywine tomato seeds and I've heard they are very late setting tomatoes. The other tomatoes I have are polish linguisa. And then just some Chinese Giant bell pepper seeds.

Thanks in advance!

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Comments (8)

mulberryknob
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
If you start over with seeds of tomatoes and peppers now, it will be very late in the season, probably fall before you get a crop. If it were me, I would buy transplants right now and hope for better luck next spring.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
OkieDokieArtichokie, It is never too late to start over, but I agree with Dorothy that at this point it makes more sense to buy a few transplants and put them into the ground.Choose varieties with DTMs in the 55-75/80 day range and if you put them in the ground soon, you still could be harvesting tomatoes in June or July. Since we have had such cold weather recurring every week, I imagine the stores have a good supply of tomatoes for all those customers who have had their tomatoes frozen, frosted or snowed upon.

If you sow tomato seeds now, putting them in the ground in the next two or three days, they likely won't sprout for 5-10 days, depending on how warm your soil temperatures are. So, let's say they sprout by May 5th. They likely wouldn't be big enough to start blooming, even if everything went well and the plants had no setbacks whatsoever, until mid-June. Most years, the kinds of temperatures (daytime highs roughly above 90-92 degrees and nighttime lows roughly around 72-75 degrees) that shut down good fruit set arrive around late June through mid-July depending on where you are in the state (and sometimes as early as May, especially in SW OK) so you don't get many fruit forming during that time, except during an occasional colder, rainy day or on cherry tomato plants. So, you wouldn't harvest many, if any, tomatoes until fall. That would drive me up the wall...having to wait so long when everyone around me was harvesting tomatoes in June or July.

With peppers, if you direct sow hot peppers now, you might be harvesting by July or August. Much would depend on the varieties and their DTMs, as well as how quickly or slowly the peppers germinated. Peppers need really warm soil to germinate and we still are having enough cold nights to keep the soils a little cool. Sweet peppers are a little less likely to set fruit well in hot weather. so either from seed or transplant, you could be harvesting sweet peppers sometime in the summer, but maybe not until fall. It depends on how hot it gets and on how early it gets hot. Just because it is mild right now doesn't mean it won't be 100 degrees in May....or 90 degrees this weekend or next week. Our weather is very erratic.

In the future, when you are hardening off plants, if they start looking bad, immediately stop the hardening off process and keep the plants either indoors or in full shade until new growth comes out above the damaged part. Then, you start the hardening off process all over again at 1 hour the first day, 2 hours the second day, etc. Any time the hardening off process is interrupted, like if cold weather causes you to keep the plants indoors for more than 24 hours, it is best to start over at square one/one hour per day again. Tomato and pepper plants lose their hardening-off real fast if you have to move them back indoors during a cold spell. Once damage occurs, more sunlight just tends to intensify the damage if you keep putting the plants outside before they can heal.

Would I pop seeds into the ground today? Only if it was my only option. Transplants would be 1000% better at this point. One problem is that the weather models are showing very cold weather late next week. If the models verify, you could have tiny seedlings popping their heads up out of the ground just in time for a freeze or frost to get them late next week...if they germinated that quickly, and sometimes fresh seeds germinate in just a day or two or three if the soil temps are in the right range.

Brandywine has superb flavor, and if it produced well at all in our climate, I could be happy growing nothing but Brandywine. It has the best flavor of any tomato I've ever tasted. Unfortunately, it produces very few fruit per plant most years here. I have had one great Brandywine year here, and I think it was in 2002. Most other years, I considered myself lucky to get maybe 6 fruit total off a Brandywine plant. That's totally unacceptable when there are so many other varieties that produce tons of tomatoes. The only Brandywine I grow, when I grow it at all, is True Black Brandywine which has produced really well here most years that I've grown it, producing both early and in quantity. Instead of Brandywine I grow a Brandywine x Cherokee Purple cross named Gary O Sena that was developed and stabilized by Keith Mueller. It has superb flavor, produces early and produces many more fruit per plant than Brandywine does in our climate. Another option is a hybrid from Burpee called Brandy Boy. Its flavor isn't as good as Brandywine or Gary O Sena but it still is very, very good and Brandy Boy produces well in our heat.

If I was getting a late start, Brandywine would be the last variety I'd plant because I'd know it wouldn't set fruit until very late summer or fall, and the fruit have a good chance of freezing before they ripen. For fall tomatoes, you want varieties with a relatively short DTM of maybe 55-75 or even 80 days. Brandywine in our climate is more of an 85-95 or 100 day DTM. It simply won't flower and set fruit in excessive heat and guess what kind of heat we tend to have all summer long?

I don't know which part of the state you're in, but if you would mention at least your region...central OK, northeastern OK, etc., there might be somebody here on this forum who has extra plants they'd be willing to share. You certainly don't have to give your exact location or town or even county, but you might have a forum member in your general area that might have extra plants to share. A lot of us who grow our own tomato usually grow extras because the weather and the wildlife have so many ways of destroying our plants that it makes sense to raise extras. I'm planning to meet with a forum member on Sunday so I can give that person some of my extra plants as replacements for freeze-killed or frost-damaged ones. You might have someone near you who would be willing to do the same.

Dawn
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slowpoke_gardener
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Often, or at least around here you can buy plants that the Agri class at school has started. The ones like that I can buy cheaper than I can start my own, but there is not much of a selection.

Larry
OkieDokieArtichokie
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you all very much!

Thank you Dawn for all the advice and information! I really appreciate it! I guess I'll see about getting some transplants then. I think I remember seeing some Brandy Boys at the store... or maybe it was big boy. Either way I will check out the transplants that are ready to harvest earlier & do well with heat.

I am in Norman. Zone 7a I believe.

The cold spells we've had made me have to start over with hardening off, but I didn't know I needed to start all the way back to square one. I think thats where I must have gone wrong. Thank you so much again for all the helpful information! I will be better prepared next year at least! :)
CatLady100
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
OkieDokieArtichokie

I have been lurking on here for the past year or so, I'm pretty new to gardening. I registered so I could let you know I have extra tomato seedlings to give away, and I live in Norman too! I have some Brandywine Red (didn't research them before starting, figure I'll try my luck), Bloody Butcher, and Big Boy plants you can have. I might still have an extra Red Currant also if you want, as well as some Corno di Toro sweet peppers and Anaheim Chilis that I started from seed. I hope I can help you out. Let me know.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
OkieDokieArtichokie, You're welcome. Always happy to help. Hardening-off is much more difficult here some years than others. Seems like it has been 2 steps forward and 1 step back the whole spring. We all learn these things the same way you are learning them by going through exactly what you're going through. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger....

CatLady100, welcome to the forum. Now that you've stopped lurking, I hope you'll chat with us regularly! Y'all may have a good Brandywine year---this could be the 1 year out of 10 that we have the type of long, cool spring they like. The year in which we had so many Brandywine tomatoes that we were giving the extra fruit away had a long, cool spring. Thank you for offering to share your plants. I love the way that forum members here help each other out at times like this.

After last night's hail storms I suspect a lot of people will be looking for replacement plants.

Dawn
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
OkieDokieArtichokie, You're welcome. Always happy to help. Hardening-off is much more difficult here some years than others. Seems like it has been 2 steps forward and 1 step back the whole spring. We all learn these things the same way you are learning them by going through exactly what you're going through. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger....

CatLady100, welcome to the forum. Now that you've stopped lurking, I hope you'll chat with us regularly! Y'all may have a good Brandywine year---this could be the 1 year out of 10 that we have the type of long, cool spring they like. The year in which we had so many Brandywine tomatoes that we were giving the extra fruit away had a long, cool spring. Thank you for offering to share your plants. I love the way that forum members here help each other out at times like this.

After last night's hail storms I suspect a lot of people will be looking for replacement plants.

Dawn
OkieDokieArtichokie
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Well thank you very much CatLady100! I really appreciate the kind offer! I actually just got back from buying some transplants from the store before I saw your post. You might want to keep your extras just in case anyway, but I really appreciate the kindness. If I somehow manage to fail with these plants as well I may take you up on it! Lol
And good luck with your brandy wines! I hope they do well for you!

Have to start all over -is it too late?

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mulberryknob

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Have to start all over -is it too late?

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