Today I marked the official farming wall calendar with the weekly weeks-to-transplant countdown: 11, 10, 9,… I do this every year, and usually a lot earlier than this! Because so much is kinda, well, UNKNOWN this growing season as far as overall production conditions on the new farm, my reaction is not to overplan and not try to anticipate every last possible potential problem. I suppose the approach varies by the person! Anyhow, having those numbers finally up there on the wall somehow really gets the adrenaline going…
What that “11” represents is 11 weeks to average last frost date, which around here is May 18 (I actually backed it up by one day, to start on a Sunday, just felt like it). This is a pretty arbitrary number, weather conditions have consistently varied SO MUCH in the last few years, last frost is ony a loose guideline. It’s something to base the gambling on.
So, it’s now 11 weeks until the odds are even that there’ll be no more frost, the soil has warmed up sufficiently, and it’s reasonably safe to transplant. From this, I can figure the timing of seed starts.
It goes like this… For tomatoes, I aim for about 6 weeks from sowing the seed in plug sheets to transplanting, so I still have FIVE WEEKS before starting toms. But, I usually want to have at least 100 tomato seedlings ready to go 2 weeks earlier than that, in case the weather’s really good, and for that I have to start in 3 weeks. Peppers I aim for 8 weeks, so that’s start in…3 weeks.
Broccoli, cauliflower and other brassicas are only around 6 weeks, BUT, they’re quite cold-hardy and can be transplanted out 3-4 weeks BEFORE last frost, sometime in the last half of April, so that means the first wave starts in a week or two! Onions and leek can also go out early, and are indoors for around 10 weeks. Some onions are already started, and the rest have to be started right about NOW.
And so on, for around 20 veggies that start as transplants…
The scratchy “11” on the calendar was originally a “7”—at first, I accidentally started numbering backwards from April instead of May. For a moment there, that was a shock! :)
We have our official last frost gambling date in…10 days—march 16th! Its actually been a pretty warm winter except for a couple blasts of arctic air from your area…this week is in the 80s, the trees and plants are all budding out so it looks like spring is here. Except for the usual trickster blast of arctic air that descends around the end of March and catches everyone off guard!
Tomatoes takes 12 weeks to grow from seedlings to the blossom stage.
I’m a vegetarian & Macrobian.
I love vegetable so much!!
I can’t wait for the time when I can plant everything out! It just seems to be a matter of hit and miss and a bit of judgement and some risk! Who knows what might happen with the strange weather we have these days!
That has always been my concern with the “last frost” dates, the weather is so crazy here that one never can tell… but I’ve got a countdown too! I’m itching to see the seedlings head out into the sun.
i’m a’coming! almost have that new set of wheels that will bring me out your way. i’m itching to help with the seeding!