Weather modification due to the spraying of atmospheric aerosols- ie. chemtrails.

You do realize Japan has shifted 12' toward the US right?? I wouldn't be surprised if CA fell off the continent!

sumith2008,

You have a really nice looking garden, except for the water. Didja fergit ta turn off the sprinkler? j/k It really is a nice looking garden. Sorry you are getting slammed with the bad weather. It's all a part of farming and dealing with Mother Nature.

Right now it is sleeting/snowing here. *sigh*

Betsy

Many of us in CA dont actually know what weather is. After spending a few years in TX I made that discovery and came home. We sure dont usually get this much rain, wind and cold. My toms are still hangin and I have spares under the patio. Even my Glacier which has a few maters is none to happy with this weather. LInda

We're less than a year from 2012, which is the end of the world. This is just a prelude, along with the earthquakes, tsunamis, revolutions, tornadoes in Sacramento, etc.

Seriously, if you are in zone 9 (Sunset 14) you planted your tomatoes too early. April 15 is the earliest you should try. Too bad about the broccoli and kale. My ground is so wet, I'm, thinking of converting to an aquatic garden, -- papyrus, etc.

RB

Well Bob obviously knows very little about growing tomatoes in zone 9 since the plant out date would be around the first of March.
April 15 is closer to my plant out date.

Agreed, Bob. In N. California (I garden in Sacramento) nighttime low temperatures aren't consistently above 50 degrees until early May. April 15 is a good goal date for planting and most of mine won't make it out to the garden until May. Sure, we've had unusually wet weather, but wind, rain and cold nights to some degree or another are par for the course this time of year.

Sunset garden zones are much better guides for west coast gardeners than the generic usda zones.

Not sure if you're just misinformed or trying to pull the wool over someones eyes but I lived in the Antioch/Oakley area from 1964 to 1994 and there's absolutely no reason you shouldn't have ripe tomatoes by the middle of May.

I'm in Sacramento, and you left CA about the time I graduated from high school. I suspect that the bay influences mellow the weather in Antioch and make for warmer nights than we get further inland?

IMO Valentines day is a good time to start seeds where I live, which gives you seedlings ready to plant out in April. Sure, my last frost date in Sacramento is in March, but nights aren't consistently above the 50 degree threshold that tomatoes prefer until May. If you want to protect seedlings (and/or use techniques to warm up the soil -- the original poster's boxes do that to some extent) or take a gamble, they might survive a March planting. In my experience, they won't thrive and really take off until the soil gets a lot warmer.

FWIW, I do have two tomato seedlings in the garden right now, in walls of water. I might have some tomatoes in May. However, we've had two hailstorms this week (among other horrendous weather) and the walls of water protected them. Without protection, I'm not sure they would have made it through this past week. The bulk of my plants are still tiny because I got a little bit of a late start this year.

Here is a link that might be useful: my blog

Flooding, too much rain is one issue and when to put out your mators, is another. But The general rule to plant mators is when there is no chance of frost and the nights lows are in high 40s or higher(48F ++). This means that the soil will not cool down too much at night. Otherwise, the air temperature is not very crucial.

Sunset garden zones are much better guides for west coast gardeners than the generic usda zones.

I suspect that the bay influences mellow the weather in Antioch and make for warmer nights than we get further inland?

That's funny for two reasons.
1) Now you're saying sunset zones aren't much better.

2) The bay area is from 5-10 degrees colder.

The bulk of my plants are still tiny because I got a little bit of a late start this year.

Now the truth comes out.

Wow. Let me try again.

I'm not sure where the original gardener in this thread gardens. USDA zones are big wide brushes that don't apply to California as well as as the more detailed Sunset garden zones so it behooves California gardeners to get familiar with Sunset's zones.

I pulled out my Sunset Western Garden book and it looks like Antioch is in zone 14, but it is also close to zones 15/17 and the page has a note about that. Where I garden is Sunset zone 8 (but close to 9/14 -- the line is fuzzy) and the description of my zone specifies that it is different from zone 14 in that 14 has some marine influence (like I suspected in my post above.)

Anyway, I'm not sure what you mean by, "The truth comes out." It seems like you're accusing me of jealousy-motivated sabotage of fellow gardeners or something of the sort, but that would be silly. I'll just assume I'm misunderstanding you.

Sunset recommends planting out in April, May, or early June for Sunset zones 7-9 and 14-24. Farmer Fred (local radio garden guy) recommends April or May http://www.farmerfred.com/tomato.htm. The Sacramento Vegetable Gardening blog recently posted about it being too early to plant out his tomatoes (and HIS seedlings were started way baby on Superbowl Sunday, no green monster of jealousy coming out in his post). http://sacramentogardening.blogspot.com/2011/03/tempted-by-fruit-of-another.html

Here is a link that might be useful: my blog

Seysonn,
In the area I garden in, and the area that Taz6122 gardened in in the past (which may or may not be the same area that the original poster of this thread gardens in) the overnight lows reach an average of 48 degrees around April 20, give or take a few days. In my experience, that's a very sensible time to plant tomatoes here. Those sound like good guidelines to follow.

Here is a link that might be useful: Daily averages for Oakley from Weather.com

Sumi, just found your other seed starting post way back when where you gave your zip code/area (as well as your great garden pictures -- beautiful garden back on the east coast!) Modesto is (the warmest driest part of) Sunset zone 14 and it is warmer there earlier than where I am in Sacramento. Your overnight lows average 48 on March 31, a good 20 days or so before mine.

Here is a link that might be useful: Daily averages for Modesto

You're missing the point that the sun warms the ground as much as ambient temps.
In mid march with lows of 43 and highs of 80, I would think the ground would already be in the 60's. Ground temps only need be 55 or above. Some protection may be needed (as with any zone) on cooler nights or windier days or when hail storms occur.
Cherry tomatoes could be ripe by mid may and others by june.

This year may be one exception because of the earthquake in Japan. I'm sure these wind and rain storms are connected in some way and both will add to cooler ground temps.

Our plants deal with thunderstorms which include high winds, rain and hail storms through the entire growing season.

No, I don't think I'm missing the point (and neither are Sunset or the university of California master gardeners)

I understand that ambient temperatures warm the soil, but Farmer Fred's blog post has soil temperature averages for the region http://farmerfredrant.blogspot.com/2011/03/it-began-in-mid-february-and-picked-up.html

Average Soil Temperatures/2009-2010/Mid-Month Readings
Four-Station Valley Averages (Sacramento, San Joaquin, Yolo, Sutter Counties)

(Soil temperature readings (F) taken 6" deep)
January: 48
February: 50
March: 52
April: 57
May: 63
June: 69
July: 74
August: 73
September: 70
October: 64
November: 58
December: 49

Here is a link that might be useful: Master Gardener's planting schedule

I agree with Lunita. I follow the Sunset zones because they tend to be more specific to the micro climates that California has. And seeing as you live in Arkansas and according to the info posted here, the last time you lived here was about 17 years ago, you really don't have much of a say in the matter Taz. I know Antioch is a lot warmer a lot sooner than a lot of California. And some people in warmer places like Antioch and Modesto can put their tomato plants out early. Also, seeing as you don't live here, you don't know how extreme the weather had been these last few years. If you did live here, you would know that the suns rays wouldn't be able to warm the ground because there is constant clouds and rain, with a bit of sun here and there. Any tomato plant out would either freeze to death, get so waterlogged that it couldn't get oxygen through its roots or get blown over and broken from the wind. Also, don't be so rude. I have seen many of your posts were you have been very blunt and rude. This is sight for people would need advice or converse about different gardening topics. Don't ruin it for everyone else who has to put up with it. No one should have to defend themselves from petty people like you on this site.

Anyways, I am not putting my plants out until April 15th or 20th. I am going to transplant all my plants into quart pots deeply so their roots can develop more.

:) wow did not realize there was so many replies, last time i checked it was only 2 replies. If i could survive today (last of our wind rain atlease from the 10 day forecast) i will do just fine. I was just bummed because the plants were doing so well and If i just put up some good support i would not have lost those 2 tomato plants. It was just a stupid mistake. I'm trying to re-root them so they can go back in the garden. The two plants that snapped at the stem got replaced by 2 Black Krims that i planted in the ground.

Thanks for all the replies gardening friends! I've learned so much from all of you. Happy Gardening!

I've grown tomatoes before the average frost dates all the time. This year i was not anticipating these type of winds. The plan today is to setup our plant supports just incase we have anymore super winds.

In general, folks should take Taz with a grain of salt. He's just trying to be a curmudgeon. Outward appearances are deceiving, we all know that inside he's really soft and fuzzy like his namesake.

Betsy

I like Taz :) he has helped me countless times with my gardening questions on several forums and he is pretty darn knowledgable to.

awwww what a lil' cutie your little one is!! :D

I am sorry to see you have some set backs to your gardening... hopefully everything will work out in the end.

I would love to get a rainstorm like that over here (this year we barely had any rainfall and its summer weather now so most likely no rain till next year)

I hear you! The problems aren't so much the temperatures, it is just the dang rain that won't stop. I usually plant out the beginning of April when most of the rain is gone.

The following post TAZ6122 made on another thread in response to one of my posts may explain his attitude towards people from California.

Posted by taz6122 N.W. AR.6b (My Page) on
Thu, Feb 24, 11 at 16:42

Well obviously you can't read. I know how much fixtures cost because I've bought plenty. Modifying comes natural for an electronics and electric DIYer. It's a pleasure to spend my extra time doing such hobbies not a chore. Who cares about warranty's when you're getting an HO fixture that would cost at least 5X the price if bought new and why would you need one when they've lasted over a year anyway.
BTW I hate CA and the people in it. Lived there for 29 years and met nothing but thieves, liars, drug addicts and litter bugs. I say let Mexico have the broken down, overrun and useless state with most of the people that live there and their attitudes.

The following post TAZ6122 made on another thread in response to one of my posts may explain his attitude towards people from California.

What I posted in this thread has nothing to do with any attitude towards people from CA. In fact I've met many good people "from" CA.

Betsy said it "He's just trying to be a curmudgeon","trying to be" being semantics of course.

Here is a link that might be useful: curmudgeon