Houston Progress

[feldon30]

After 2 months of the coldest weather in my 10 year memory of living here, it's finally Springtime! I can hear the grumbling and muttered curses from New York and Massachusetts already.

It was 70 and sunny today and temps are expected to stay above 48 for the foreseeable future. I've begun hardening off my plants and taking a good inventory of what I've got ready to go in the ground as early as the middle of next week.

Anyone who has been bored enough to check out my Photo Gallery knows that my seedlings are getting quite bushy, at least some of them. I diligently started 4 seeds of each variety (2 per cell) on December 26th and I patiently waited. And waited. And worried. And then panicked. The homemade potting soil I mixed up was either too coarse (I did not crumble or sift the peat moss) or had some residual fungus in it. I got many headless seedlings and the few that did open up failed to thrive.

Due to some fantastic advice here on T'V, I potted the 12 strongest looking seedlings (which barely had true leaves) into pure seed starting mix watered with a light dose of fish emulsion. They took to it like a duck to water and those brave early birds are now 10-14" tall and ready to go in the ground. Note that it was very spotty which varieties came up and which didn't. If I had stuck with just that first batch, I'd only be growing a dozen varieties this year.

The "panic" batch that I planted on January 17th are looking reasonably good but, of course, a month behind. Interestingly, all 4 oxhearts are all looking sickly, with crisping and curling of the leaves and general slow growth. I'm not going to pull the trigger and said "CRUD!" until it is positively identified by someone who knows more than me, but it does seem possible since it's all oxhearts that are looking pitiful.

Anyway, it looks like I will be double-planting a few vars.

Notables from the Dec 26th batch:
Sungold x 3 (no surprise there)
Brandy Boy x 3 (ditto)
Red Penna x 3
Tidwell German x 2
Cherokee Green x 3

At the other end of the spectrum, my Silvery Fir Tree, Jet Star, Orange Russian #117, Cherokee Purple, Kimberly, and others are all disturbingly small. The SFT looks much younger than it is -- nothing like the healthy seedling I got out of it last fall. I'm not sure how I ended up with two puny-looking Cherokee Purple plants.

The best laid plans of mice and men.

[kwselke]

I agree with Feldon, it was a glorious day for tomatoes in Houston today. My starts got four full hours of direct sun today before being brought back inside. It's been decades since I used plant lights to get seedlings going, but this year's weather forced me to beg, borrow, and buy anything that would provide light to my tomato babies. I'll declare it spring in Houston and get my hair cut short this week, but I know the weather around these parts and will be ready to deal with a late frost if it comes. Good luck to all for a successful growing season.

[Adenn1]

The best of luck to you both...and I really mean that!

Mark...muttering about the snow and ice on the ground and the fact that he won't be planting for another three months...

Darn you Texans

[tylenol]

Darn you Texans is right,

I just sold my largest Tomato and it's heading to the largest city in Texas that begins with "Y"



YOUSTON

[kwselke]

Tylenol,

That looks like a hybrid tomato to me. That's ok, hybrids have their good points too.

[Tomatovator]

I don't know what your window is for planting out but I have several seedlings I would be happy to send you if you need them. They are all rooted cuttings from seeds I planted several months ago. They are probably 3 to 4 weeks away from being ready to go into the ground. Hopefully by then it would be warm enough up here for them to survive shipping. If you need any send me a PM and I'll tell you what I have. Good luck this season.

[sirtanon]

I have to say that living in the southwest as we do is awesome for being able to get the plants out early.

Most of my plants went in the ground about a week ago - about 18 tomato plants and a couple Big Jim chilis..

...although I have a couple that went in about a month ago that are coming along nicely

[Bryan24]

God, I love Texas!! The green beans, sugar snap peas, squashes, and peppers went in the ground yesterday(I wore shorts and everything). We probably would have planted the maters, except we have to finish building the two additional raised beds first. I think Bryan is planning on getting those babies in the ground around spring break (I'm scared of the March frost taking out all of my bi-color grow outs). I think within another month, we should have everything in the ground, off and running. Can't wait to see what the projects bring about this year!

I LOVE SPRING PLANTING!!
laurel-tx

[duajones]

Looking pretty good here in Corpus Christi as well. most of my seedlings are in the same age range as feldons and of all of them, the cherokee purple is the scrawniest looking plant . Black Krim already has several blooms. Plants that I started a couple of weeks later are catching up quick. Hope to have them in the ground within a week.

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by Bryan24

God, I love Texas!! The green beans, sugar snap peas, squashes, and peppers went in the ground yesterday(I wore shorts and everything). We probably would have planted the maters, except we have to finish building the two additional raised beds first. I think Bryan is planning on getting those babies in the ground around spring break (I'm scared of the March frost taking out all of my bi-color grow outs). I think within another month, we should have everything in the ground, off and running. Can't wait to see what the projects bring about this year!

Sounds late for sugar snaps and early for squash and peppers, but what do I know? I say best of luck to anyone growing veggies in Texas.

[feldon30]

It's 80 outside.

Houston winter (30's-50's): Dec 1st - February 17th
Houston spring (60's-70's): February 18th-21st
Houston summer (80's): February 22nd-

Not the first time we've had roughly 3-4 DAYS of spring in Houston before the boiler kicks on.

[kwselke]

No Feldon, summer does not start in Houston until Memorial Day, 5/28 this year. From that time until October expect high temps of 92 - 95, low temps of 80 - 82, 90% relative humidity, and a 20% chance of rain. Folks around these parts may want to know that my family's annual picnic is scheduled for May 26th in Huffman, TX, expect torrential rains on that date.

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by Tomatovator

I don't know what your window is for planting out but I have several seedlings I would be happy to send you if you need them.

If this is addressed to me, I will be planting out the larger plants on Feb 27, and the smaller ones probably March 3, my birthday.


Some more info, re: Hardening Off:

Yesterday was full shade. Today was 15 minutes of sun and the rest of the day, shade. Tomorrow is 15 minutes in the morning AND evening of sun. This will ramp up to 1 hour, then 2 hours, then 3 hours, then 5 hours. All told, 7-10 days of hardening off. I'll be tired of moving plants around, and I only have 25 I'm planting in the ground, plus another ~40 transplants I will be finding a home for with friends and at the Farmer's Market (anyone in Houston need a few extras?)

On planting out, I will be using Earl's "Hole planting method" which is 10 lbs of compost, a handful of Espoma TomatoTone 4-7-10, a handful of Epsom salts, and a handful of bone meal, all thoroughly mixed into the 2' ball of soil that EACH plant will be centered in. The plants will get a thorough spray of daconil and an aluminium foil collar 3-4" above, and 2" below the soil to prevent cutworms. I MAY get talked into a light dusting of Sevin just to keep opportunistic insects away from the plants for the first 2 weeks of their growth. I do not want to harm honeybees, but hopefully they aren't active until mid-March anyway.

[duajones]

are you leaving your plants outside all the time now or are you bringing them in every day? Mine have been outside for at least a week and I was bringing them onto my covered deck until a couple of days ago. Now they are in my dilapidated spring house where I will probably leave them tomorrow as we are expecting a quite windy day. All of them have been sprayed with daconil and I plan to get them in the ground soon. Hadnt thought about the aluminum collar for cut worms and was thinking cut up aluminum cans might work. My DOB is March 2nd by the way.

[Araness]

well I'm itchy and waiting till March 1st to plant out...I've gone through my 65 seedlings and picked the best 18 of em...I've had the fan on them to toughin the lill buggers up and I've given them a pep talk so we are ready to go....