Dan I don't know that I believe anything except that agribusiness refuses to thoroughly test and release the results of those tests to the public, and others are raising grave concerns. I'm only "arguing" that agribusiness has NOT tested its products to alleviate or disprove the alarms raised by people, legit or not. We simply don't know what the truth is, but we certainly know about the research and observations made by non-agribusiness agencies, including large numbers of scientists in the field. Though I think you don't disagree with that. But without the truth, how can we possibly know what are illogical or fallacious or rhetorical alarms? The state of public consciousness could certainly be be educated by testing and transparency, and I don't CARE if those alarms are illogical, fallacious, or rhetorical. I don't think those conclusions are up to me or anybody else not involved in agribusiness. That is THEIR responsibility. What I DO care about is the refusal of agribusiness to provide sufficient information to prove or disprove those alarms. That's MY point, not to explore or denigrate the alarms for veracity, etc. There are so many of them and some have existed for so long that agribusiness is being extremely irresponsible for not addressing them.

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

Welcome, Betty in Georgia!!! I think I've seen you somewhere before *g*. I am so happy to have been a part of your conversion, and you are going to love it here (especially the OT threads, those are my favorites...we like to get friendly). OK, look up at the top of this page, there is a green bar that says Blogs, Forums, Photo Galleries, etc. Hover your mouse over "Forums" and you will see "Garden Forums" as one of the choices. Click on that and it will take you to a listing of all (and there are a LOT!) of the garden forums. Scroll down a ways on the page and, on the left side, you'll see "Georgia Gardener". Or, follow this link: Here is a link that might be useful: Georgia Gardener

Amy's notes, which obviously are the result of much research and growing experience, are more oriented to when to plant, mine are more about how to grow. With anything that gives you trouble, just keep trying and eventually you'll master it. There is almost nothing that absolutely, positively will not grow here, so you just have to keep trying until you figure out what the plants need in your garden in terms of fertility, moisture and timing. BEETS: For beets, the fact they are long-day has little to do with us gardeners other than meaning they won't set seed until the day length reaches the right point. Since we aren't growing them for the seed, this is irrelevant to getting a crop because we grow the beets for their root/tuber/whatever you want to call it and/or for beet greens. If you want to save seed, you'll probably have to sow beet seeds in the fall and let some of them overwinter in the ground. The ones that overwinter in the ground should flower and make seed once the right day length is achieved in Spring. When you say beets won't grow for you, do you mean they don't germinate or they don't grow after germinating? Beets originated in the Mediterranean so they ought to do well here. Most folks sow the seeds too early and it rots in cold soil before it can sprout. To get them to germinate and grow well here, wait until your soil temperatures are consistently staying at or above 50 degrees. Soak the seeds (which, like chard, are capsules containing multiple seeds within) in room-temperature water overnight. Sow 1/2-1" deep in a trench made in a raised bed, sowing seeds 1" apart. Cover with compost or soil-less mix to avoid issues caused by soil crusting over. It will take 2-3 weeks for them to sprout. Be sure to keep the seeded area moist but not dripping wet. After they sprout, you should get multiple sprouts per seed. Using tiny nail scissors or something similar, cut off all but the strongest-looking sprout from each clump. A week or so later you can do further thinning. If they aren't growing for you after they sprout, then they may have fertility issues. They like to be fed. A lot. Or, they are too cold. Growing them under a row cover can help keep them warmer and encourage good growth. Plus, it keeps the flea beetles off of them. If you sow the seed once the soil reaches 50 degees, then by the time the seeds germinate and are growing, we ought to be warm enough for them. But, you know Oklahoma weather. After a warm winter or early spring spell, the weather can turn back cold again. The only other thing I can think of that causes crop failures with beets is a lack of boron in the soil. You can add boron by sprinkling a small amount of Mule Team Borax (found on the laundry aisle) on the soil surface and working it in before planting. Google to find the right amount to add. I don't have to use it because my soil has boron. Too much boron is toxic, so whatever you do, don't add too much. BEANS: The earlier you plant, the better the harvest. It always is a race to beat the heat. I like Provider and Contender because they are so fast, and Purple Queen always does well for me in Spring and Fall. Bush beans give me much better yields than pole beans most years because pole beans often are so slow the heat shuts them down before they can produce. Half-runners do really well here, but for me they climb vigorously so that they can get as tall as pole beans but produce more quickly. Pole beans do a lot better for a fall harvest than a Spring harvest in hot years. I have to keep the garden gate closed and keep the cats out of the garden after planting bean seed or they will eat every single bean sprout shortly after the seed germinates and the bean sprouts pop up above the soil. BROCCOLI: Ridiculously easy as long as we don't get too hot too early. I now grow it under insect netting type row cover to keep the caterpillars off of it. Have found this easier than hand-picking the cats after they show up and less work than spraying with Bt. BRUSSELS SPROUTS: Down here, BS seedlings show up in stores in mid- to late-January. If you buy them then and plant them immediately, you can get a good crop as long as the heat doesn't arrive in April like it did in 2011. Or, from seed, start the seed in mid- to late-December inside and transplant out in late January. Cover with row cover to help hold in what little heat there is in January for faster growth. Rubine is the earliest one for me, and one of the prettiest. Shade them when the heat arrives and they will produce longer. CABBAGE: Easy to grow under row covers, low-care. I only grow varieties with 50-60 day DTMs but that is because I want the cabbage to grow and get the heck out of the way so I can plant succession crops. When I grew the ones with longer DTMs, they often weren't fully sized up until mid-June, so I just stopped growing those varieties. Very heat tolerant considering they are a cool-season crop. They normally don't bolt until we get really, really hot. If you want maximum harvest, harvest by cutting the cabbage high on the stem. Then, cut an X in the remaining stem, maybe 1/2" to 1" deep, leaving you with a main stem that is divided into 4 sections. Each section will form a new, small head that can be harvested at whatever size you choose. The small heads are tender and very good. Don't plant too much cabbage unless you can store it long-term in an extra fridge in the garage or unless you intend to make sauerkraut or freezer slaw. CARROTS: Other than needing loose soil that won't impede growth, also easy. Hardest part is just getting them to germinate. Sowing them later than recommended works best for me. They germinate better in warm soil so the ones I sow late are up and growing fast enough to make up for the late sowing. They need moisture most in their first 6 weeks of life as that determines their ultimate length, and need moisture less as time goes on. Avoid overfertilization or you get hairy roots all over the carrots. I believe the cool weather in fall causes more sugar development inside the carrots. ANY stress the carrots encounter (heat, drought, weeds, pests, etc.) seems to hurt their flavor, so keep these garden divas happy and unstressed in order to get the tastiest crop. As long as your soil is loose and friable, you can grow any variety. In heavier clay that is not very well-amended, the shorter types do best. COLLARDS: Easy, take up lots of space as they enlarge, and don't mind the heat as much as most people think they would. Are pest magnets, but you can use that to your advantage, planting away from other cool-season crops to draw the pests away from them. CORN: Easy, sprout easily, grow well. Must spray plants with Bt often to control corn earworms and European corn borers. The earlier I plant and harvest, the less trouble with the caterpillar pests. Takes up lots of space, but the flavor and tenderness is worth it if you have plentiful space available. Heat causes pollination issues with sweet corn so I plant early or don't plant at all. If rural to semi-rural, you have to fight the coons for every single ear and since coons will harvest and eat your corn before it is mature enough for human consumption, you can lose the whole crop in just a couple of nights. COWPEAS: Easiest things on earth as long as you don't sow the seeds too early. Love heat, don't mind drought and are impervious to insect damage. Often prone to having aphids if you plant them in an area with too much nitrogen or if you overfeed them. CUCUMBERS: Easy. Grow and produce quickly. Biggest pest is cucumber beetles. To get around them as much as possible, I start some slicing cucumber seeds indoors a month early. Put them, still in paper cups, on a table in the garden to serve as a trap crop for cucumber beetles. Kill every beetle that shows up on them. By the time I am planting my actual crop, I've made a serious dent in the cucumber beetle population. County Fair is my fave because of its superior disease tolerance. I put up 100-150 jars of pickles and pickle products per year. You have to harvest pickling cukes early and often because if you let them get too big, production halts. GREENS: Easy but short-lived in our heat. Prone to leaf miners. Row covers protect them. For greens that tolerate heat, grow Swiss Chard and Kale. KALE: I never was much of a kale eater, but I just kept making myself eat it chopped up in salads and now I like it a lot. I grow tons of it, and grow several varieties of it. Holds exceptionally well in our heat as long as it is well-watered. Chickens adore it, so it must be well-protected from them. LETTUCE: So easy a caveman can grow it. Perform best for me in hot weather if in morning sun/afternoon shade and if well-watered. My main Spring crop grows in full sun, but I plant some lettuce at far west end of garden to be shaded by the pecan tree as the heat arrives. Partially shaded lettuce grows more slowly and produces less, but survives longer in the heat. As long as you keep the lettuce well watered, you can prevent most of the bitterness associated with the heat until at least the end of June. I prefer leaf lettuce and crisphead/summercrisp types and Tim likes Iceberg, so I grow them all. MELONS: True heat lovers so don't plant too early. Muskmelons slip off the vine when ripe, true cantaloupes do not. Flavor is best when grown in hot, dry weather in well-drained soil with enough, but not too much, moisture. Excess moisture waters down the flavor and ruins the texture. I trellis all of these to save space and to keep the melons up off the ground. Sow bugs and pill bugs will start eating melons touching the ground long before they are mature, often burrowing into the part of the melon that is resting on the ground so that you don't even see them and know they are there. ONIONS: Short-day types and most intermediate day types are sweet onions, which store for a shorter period. For better storage, also grow the intermediate day or long day ones that are not sweet but instead are more pungent. They will store for a much longer period of time. I grow Red River and Highlander for storage, and in the past have grown a red type called Red Creole. All three of these store for a long, long time for me indoors after being properly cured for a few days outside. Copra also stores for a long time and sometimes Southern Bell does, but sometimes (rainier years) it does not store well at all. PARSNIPS are persnickety and I stopped growing them long ago. PEAS: Great producers if planted early enough. Early arrival of heat can shut them down too quickly some years. Once PM arrives, they are done and I just yank them out because it is too hard to fight it. I take PM as a sign from God that it is time to move on from the peas and plant a succession crop of something else. I only grow sugar snap types, as shelling peas produce such a small amount of yield compared to the space they occupy. PEPPERS: Hots produce early and often for me. Sweets are slower. I harvest the early sweet peppers green in order to get them out of the way so the plant can set more peppers before the summer heat sets in. I let later fruit stay on the plants until they reach their full mature color, which is red, yellow or orange for most of the sweet types I grow. Peppers will wear you out with their productivity but are easy to preserve via drying, canning and freezing. SPINACH: Barely worth growing in Spring as the heat shuts it down so early, but does much better in fall/winter. If you get the plants large enough before daylength falls too much in the autumn, you can leave these in the ground (preferably under a row cover and well-protected from chickens, and harvest throughout the winter. SWISS CHARD: produces all summer as long as you continually harvest the outer leaves before they get too big. I like to grow it at the west end of the garden for afternoon shade in the summer months. Doesn't bolt all that easily. I've had chard go 18 months before it bolts. I like chard and use it a lot, especially as a part of veggie soup where Tim and Chris (who don't like it) will eat it without realizing they're eating it. Chickens like it, but not as much as they like kale. SQUASH: Discussed here all summer long because of its pest issues. Row covers, row covers, row covers for anything that is not C. moschata. TOMATOES: I plant early like the tomato maniac that I am and use row covers to protect the plants from cold weather. I'd rather be doing all my tomato canning in June and earliest July than in July and August in the heat. Very easy to grow, but often will not produce much of a crop if transplanted when OSU recommends or later, so we get caught between a rock and a hard place because of the heat which often arrives not too long after the end of the OSU-recommended transplanting period. I transplant as soon as my soil temperature is staying at or above 50 degrees consistently, which generally is in early March down here. Y'all know I'm not happy unless we are harvesting tomatoes in April, and the harvest generally extends through late November. TURNIPS/RUTABAGAS: Easy from seed in spring or fall. Most people let them grow too long/get too big and they turn woody. I like them small, tender and sweet. WATERMELONS: I grow the tiny icebox melons (tiny compared to full-sized watermelons) on trellises and get so many at once that we end up sharing them with the chickens. They are very easy and surprisingly pest-free when trellised and relatively disease free most years. Yummy, yummy, yummy. The varieties that have produced best for me are Yellow Doll, Yellow Baby, Sugar Baby, Bush Sugar Baby, New Orchid and Tiny Baby. Last year I grew the even tinier Sugar Pot and will grow it again this year. Mary, How about keeping your notes on those large index card, one card per veggie. That's an easy way to keep track of the info for each separate thing, and then you can just keep lists of what planting dates work best for you there.