I just put my cool crops out in the garden this week. It's normal planting time for them up here but, dang, this warm spring is gonna leave me with nothing from them. It was up to nearly 90 the past couple of days. We do have some cooler weather coming later this week so maybe there's still hope.

Diane

So far my peas are growing well, and so is the lettuce, but the cabbage plants croaked almost as soon as I planted them. The cauliflower plants are still holding their own, but they were much bigger when planted.

I planted the peas from seed on March 10th. The lettuce was stuff I kept going in my old garden through the winter and transplanted to my new garden about three weeks ago.

Here's hoping we all get something from our cool crops after all that work!

I planted my cool crops on 3-13. I just had to mud them because the soil was so wet. They did pretty well for a while, but now the soil has settled, hard and cracked. I have not had time to care for them properly and have lost a few plants. if we dont get some cooler weather and rain my plants will be gone.

I have not had time to plant any warm season crops yet.

Larry

Melissia, I don't think that you necessarily planted your peas too late. I just think it got hot too early.

I planted my peas early in an effort to beat the heat, but it didn't help. For the best quality, your peas need to mature before the daytime highs begin exceeding 75 degrees. We were hitting that high temp when my peas were an inch tall and, for the month of March, we were at or above 75 degrees about half the days that month. The temps in the 80s haven't helped either. Usually my peas do well even when the temps begin exceeding 85 degrees in late May although their days are numbered by then. The plants are larger and are further along and can tolerate that heat then better than they can handle it while small.

The heat hit early like this last year and then some significantly cooler weather returned and the pea plants perked up and produced a few pounds of peas. I don't necessarily see a cooler spell coming, or at least not one cool enough to make a big difference. My peas usually run out of steam in May when the temps are in the mid- to upper-80s. Well, my temps were in the mid- to upper-80s last week, so as far as the peas are concerned, it is the end of May and not the beginning of April. I just hate this weather.

With temps up near 90, the plants are just burning up in the heat and we cannot do much about it. We went through a warm spell like this in the early 2000s and I stopped planting almost all cool-season crops for a few years. I'm already thinking about using that strategy next year.

The peas are exceptionally unhappy, spinach was OK until yesterday's 88 degrees and it looks much less happy today, the lettuce is OK but I've been shading it to keep it that way, and all the brassicas (kale, cabbage, broccoli, mustard) are fine. The root crops are fine, although the potatoes are happier than the onions. The carrots are growing great, but their flavor will not be as sweet if the heat continues.

In our climate this is just what we have to deal with. Some years we are too hot too early for the cool-season crops to perform well, and the further west, southwest or south your location in Oklahoma, the more likely it is that early hot weather will hurt the cool-season crops.

I am not going to exhibit a lot of patience with the cool-season crops. If they are faltering in the heat, I'll yank them and replace them with something that will perform better in this weather. I'd rather use the space for something that is guaranteed to produce, and not spend the next few weeks waiting for a harvest that may not happen. So, at this point the peas are on the edge....and the spinach is not far behind.

Diane, Last week when our forecast for this week was showing significantly cooler weather, I had hope my peas were going to be able to bounce back from the heat stress, but now we are not going to be as cool as they said, so I feel like the peas won't produce much of anything if something doesn't change.

Dawn

My peas are only about a foot tall but still look good at this point. I didn't plant regular cabbage, but have Chinese Cabbage and it looks alright except for a few bug holes, which are probably slugs. My carrots are tiny, tiny, so probably will get hit by the heat. I'm just amazed that they came up.

If I have dry days this week, I will be adding some hot weather crops seeded directly into the garden. I think it is time. Famous last words.....and all that!

My peas and onions are still looking okay, but my lettuce is looking a little pouty and wilty. I put shade cloth over everything on Sunday morning, so I'm hoping that helped them beat the heat.

My green beans are up and look happy, so I guess it might be time to get other warm season stuff planted. My cucumber trellises are almost finished!

Our peas seems to be doing great. I am surprised see so much of the growth in 10days, now they reach 1-2 ft tall. First batch peas are blooming now. I was worried that too early warming up will ruin peas again this year, but I am glad weather become cool! I am also thinking to provided some shade if temperature crosses 80. here are some pics take this morning;

Super Sugar Snap

-Chandra

Your peas look great! I planted mine a bit later, so they're only about a foot tall right now. The lettuce is nearly ready to be picked, and I've been harvesting a few green onions for cooking to thin out the bed.

I did cover the cool season beds with shade cloth for the two days that we were in the mid-upper 80s because I was afraid it would cause the lettuce to bolt. I'm also happy to see temps coming back down, though now I'm a bit hesitant to plant my warm season crops. The green beans I planted are looking a bit unhappy at the moment.

Chandra, My peas look better now and I think the cooler weather is helping them, as is the fact that the immensely wet soil has dried up a lot.

Heather, If you see any weather-related reason why I should not put pepper plants into the ground this week, please speak now or forever hold your peace. : )

The beans will snap out of it as long as they are up and growing. They can grow pretty well at temperatures that are cooler than the temps they need in order to germinate well.

Some of the folks that were commenting on the D-FW Tornado post at wunderground were hinting at something perhaps happening next week but I am too uneducated, weatherwise, to understand what they were hinting at, although I think they were talking in terms of potential severe weather and not frosts. At least that's what I hope.

Potential severe weather doesn't deter me from planting unless my sky is turning greenish-gray, but a potential frost might. You know, if we postponed planting here every time hail was in the forecast, we'd never get the planting done. If it is going to hail at my house, it doesn't do it until after I've thinned the fruit off the fruit trees, and thinning fruit is on this week's To Do list.

Dawn

Dawn, I don't see any cold snaps in the long range forecast. As you know things can change, like how the cold temps that were supposed to hit this week aren't as bad as was forecast a few weeks ago. But, since the trend so far this spring is for things to be warmer than expected, I think we're safe.

The weather they're talking about next week does appear to be of the severe variety around Wednesday night. So, even if you don't get hailed on, I can almost guarantee it will be windy.

Speaking of wind, that burlap cloth I put along my rabbit fence around the garden is working wonders. My plants don't look beat up at all. I don't think the wind this year has been nearly as bad as previous years, but it hasn't been exactly calm either.

Chandra, thanks for posting the pictures, everything looks beautiful. I don't get out a lot and looking at your pictures is about the only garden I see other than my own, but mine never looks as good as yours.

Keep up the good work, Larry

Heather, Thanks. I guess I'll go ahead and plant peppers tomorrow or Saturday then. I have row cover if things change and in my garden it protected a few things when we went down to 23 degrees a few weeks ago, so I am not too worried about a lot frost. I'd be worried about late sleet or snow if that were to happen.

Severe weather always scares us gardeners. My DH tries to help me keep it in perspective by reminding me that if gigantic hail, extra-strong winds or a tornado hits us here, the garden will be the least of my worries. Our first few years here we never had tornadoes anywhere close to our house and the hail kept missing us. Then our luck changed, but still, the only tornadoes we've seen near our house have been small funnels up in the air that never touch down, for which we are very grateful.

I am glad to hear that the burlap is adequate to the task of providing the necessary wind protection. That's good to know for anyone else looking for a quick fix.

The tomato cages of the first 53 tomato plants I planted were wrapped in clear plastic 2' tall for wind protection but I removed it yesterday since the tomatoes were growing up above the plastic now. It is amazing how much more they have grown than the unprotected plants that were transplanted a week later but had unwrapped cages.

We have had more wind at our house lately than we had in much of March. It isn't a big problem for my garden at this point because once all the plants in the woodlands on three sides of the garden have leafed out, I have a great natural windbreak for three seasons anyway. Only the east side of the garden has no windbreak, but we don't get a whole lot of wind out of the east....except on days the rancher to our east has a crew spraying a herbicide. On that day, the wind always comes out of the east.

Dawn

Our temps are always a tad off from everyone else. I guess It's because I'm living on the edge.

It's been so cool I had to bring my pepper plants in onto the porch and the eggplants don't like it, either.

I think one of my chinese cabbages bolted in the heat. I never grew cabbage before so I don't know if that is normal or not (It has a yellow flower on top, so I am assuming so). My peas are looking great this year and I am surprised with the heat. My tomatoes are doing ok, lost a couple to the wind and a cut worm. All my lettuce bit the dust! I walked out the door and found them all pulled up out of the ground. I have no clue how it happened. Pulled up by the roots, I tried to replant, but they didn't make it. I planted almost a whole pack of kentucky wonder bean seeds and only one plant came up. I don't get that either. All where planted in the same condition, soil is not disturbed, they just didn't come up. All my cukes are looking great however. I am thinking of putting out peppers....

You all are so far ahead of me. I did plant 2 tomatoes on Sat. and some Roma11 beans and early sunglow corn a couple of days ago.

I have lost 2 cabbage plants and a broccoli plant. A cutworm got one of the cabbage plants. My Chinese cabbage really varies in looks. This garden is the one that I had the Rootknot Nematodes in last year, and the Chinese cabbage is planted where the heaviest population was. I tried different methods of treatment in different areas but it is to soon to tell if any worked.

Larry

Bon,

Our temperatures have been all over the place. I am liking this week's cooler daytime highs though I am not as crazy about the cooler nighttime lows. At our house we've hit 43 and 44 degree low temps this week, which is one reason the peppers aren't already in the ground. Hopefully the worst of the cool nights have passed because I intend to start planting peppers this afternoon.

Ezzirah, It's been so warm at times that I'm surprised more plants haven't bolted. And, yes, the yellow flowers are a sign the plant has bolted.

If the lettuce was pulled up while still small, it likely was birds but that's just a guess. I keep bird netting over my lettuce until it is time to start harvesting it, which we are doing now. I love growing lettuce but it gets so hot so fast here that we usually only get to harvest for a couple of months in spring.

If your beans aren't germinating, the soil may be too cold. Check your soil temps and plant bean seeds only after the soil has reached 65 degrees at planting depth and is staying there. You can plant seed even at 60 degree soil temps, but often the germination rate is quite a bit lower. The other possibility is that the soil has crusted over following recent rainfall. That is extremely common and even seeds as large as beans can have a hard time pushing their way up through crusty soil. I have seven bean varieties in the ground and they went into the ground about 2 weeks apart. The ones planted earlier probably had a germination rate of about 65% and the ones that went in later averaged a germination rate of about 75%. The Federal Germination Standard for beans is 70% so even with fresh seed you won't always get real high germination, and if the seed is older, it often will germinate at lower rates.

I've been so wrapped up in transplanting, caging and mulching all those tomatoes that I haven't even thought of seeding the warm-season stuff yet. I need to drag out the seeds and get with it, right after I thin the fruit on the fruit trees which will take me hours and hours. I need a couple of days with 48 hours in each one of them to get me caught up.

Larry, I hope you have luck with growing stuff in the nematode-infested areas.

Dawn

Larry, don't feel bad.....I am way late in planting anything at all. I am so thrilled that Little Lucy came up and I have several plants now to find homes for. I am gonna have to get some more gro bags.

I only got 1 tomato planted - yep, just 1 - and I feel guilty about that. It was quicker for me to just pot them up into gal. pots and hopefully I will get them planted this weekend. They are FAST outgrowing those gal. pots and just potted them up this weekend. Juliet is the only one planted out in a 20 gal, container - Dawn, do you think that is big enuff for her? She already has green tomatoes.

My cukes need to be planted as well. They are looking fantastic. Maybe I have a little green on that flesh-colored thumb after all. My little Spineless Beauty zucchini is up, too.

I ordered 3 tropicals because I like to have pots of flowers for the hummers and butterflies. Got an orange flowering Esperanza (commonly called Orange Bells), Hamelia patens aka Hummingbird Bush, and a Lavender flowering Porterweed.

Nothing has shown any indication of dying back. I only have lettuce and broccoli. I am trying to pull up one of my humongous Swiss Chard plants, but the tuber must be the size of Dallas. Guess I'll have to chop it off at the base instead. Are the tubers edible, like beets?

I hope, based on the temps we're having this week, that the cool crops will continue growing for a bit longer.

Carol, if you see this, didn't you say you grew Winter Density lettuce and it came back from the heat in summer and continued to produce in fall thru winter? I also have Red Sails, but don't know if it does the same or not.

Susan

Regarding Germination of direct sown seeds, I would like to share my experience, it makes every viable seed to germinate.

I place seeds in a hole, surface of the soil or in trench, then place little amount of seed starting mix or peat moss just enough to cover seeds. It helps three ways-hold water better to steady supply of moisture, hold temp and make it warmer than soil and avoid soil crust formation. It also help you to know where you sown seeds.

I have sown seeds of beans, okra, cucumbers, corn etc 10days ago, now all seeds have germinated. I see some of the beans leave crippled or eaten by some soil dwelling insects. I hope they will recover. I also noticed some variety if the beans doping better than other.

I am planning to sown all kinds of the warm season crops this weekend. I am waiting for garlic harvest to make room for more warm season crops.

When you are going harvest garlic this year? I pulled one garlic yesterday, they have already formed god size bulb and few leaves tips started yellowing. All hard-neck types have poked scapes. What you all do with scapes? Leaving them seems to be not making much difference in bulb size, that is what I noticed last year. Somewhere I red that retaining the scapes will increase storage life of the garlic bulb.

Garlic Beds