Zone Pushers are In

[bughunter99]

I put the first zone pushing tomatoes in today here is zone 5b-Illinois. Lowest nighttime temp for the next ten days is 45 degrees, so a little cool but they are going in the warmer areas of the garden so we'll see what happens.

Stacy

[TightenUp]

nice and early for zone 5!!

i've got some rainy weather the next 2 days but after that the tomatoes are getting planted. hopefully no later than cinco de mayo. keep us updated with the progress and weather

[Redbaron]

I hope you guys have better luck than I did. I just looked at the forecast and we could possibly get yet another late frost Friday! I don't know how many more of these my poor plants can take. No matter how tough they are, plants just can't take fluctuations from 80's to freezing and back again over and over! I have the worst looking seedlings I have ever had EVER. Even my perennial grape vines look terrible!

I guess I should be looking at the bright side. My garlic looks great.

[Cole_Robbie]

Last year, my season of selling plants was completely over by May 15th. Everyone had their garden out by then. This year, the season has not yet begun. I was rained out at market this weekend and next weekend is forecast to be cold and wet. When it's in the 40's and raining, no one is buying tomato plants. I can see the supply backing up at big retail stores, too. Everything is getting rootbound and looking worse by the day.

[lycomania]

You're giving me an itchy trigger (planting!) finger, Stacy! I am so ready to stick my larger plants in the ground. I'm trying to nail down my plastic mulch situation. I'm using make-shift large plastic bags now, and they give me a good 10-degree increase at approx. 2" depth even at early morning.
I think that will be enough with some WoW's and/or some kind of cover for the 40-degree evenings. Right now I'm carrying everything in at night and putting under shop lights til about midnight so they have some warmer temps to keep growing. It's working, that's for sure.

[KarenO]

I'm not sure I see the point of this? In my experience, nothing is gained and much can be lost by planting out in the ground too early.(planting in pots which can be moved to shelter and with warm soil above ground are a little different) Air temperatures are not the only factor with soil temperatures being equally important. Tomatoes are tropical plants and cold soil will retard their growth and inhibit the uptake of vital nutrients such as phosphorus. If the seedlings are healthy in their protected area I would keep them there until it is about two weeks after the last average expected frost date in your area. In my area, that is at the very end of May or the first week in June. I'd hate to see anyone lose their lovingly tended babies from being a little too enthusiastic about setting them out in the garden early.
just my Canadian opinion...
good luck
KarenO

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by KarenO

I'm not sure I see the point of this? In my experience, nothing is gained and much can be lost by planting out in the ground too early.(planting in pots which can be moved to shelter and with warm soil above ground are a little different) Air temperatures are not the only factor with soil temperatures being equally important. Tomatoes are tropical plants and cold soil will retard their growth and inhibit the uptake of vital nutrients such as phosphorus. If the seedlings are healthy in their protected area I would keep them there until it is about two weeks after the last average expected frost date in your area. In my area, that is at the very end of May or the first week in June. I'd hate to see anyone lose their lovingly tended babies from being a little too enthusiastic about setting them out in the garden early.
just my Canadian opinion...
good luck
KarenO

Hi Karen,

Of course you are right. Soil temperature is critical. However every garden has its warm spots and its cold spots. I have areas in my garden where I successfully have wintered zone 7 plants with no problem. Soil temps and forecast are my two parameters that I follow religiously. My zone pushing plants have gone in where the soil temps are good and I can very easily provide protection if a freak freeze shows up. The advantages of zone pushing are of course the earlier yield, not to mention the not small thrill that comes from a little bit of cheating.

Stacy

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by TightenUp

nice and early for zone 5!!

i've got some rainy weather the next 2 days but after that the tomatoes are getting planted. hopefully no later than cinco de mayo. keep us updated with the progress and weather

Yeah it has been a wet wet spring here as well. Record flooding, yada yada yada. Five of the next ten days more rain is forecast but temps are good -75 today, 83 tommorrow 65-70 rest of the week with low spot being 55 Friday.

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by Redbaron

I hope you guys have better luck than I did. I just looked at the forecast and we could possibly get yet another late frost Friday! I don't know how many more of these my poor plants can take. No matter how tough they are, plants just can't take fluctuations from 80's to freezing and back again over and over! I have the worst looking seedlings I have ever had EVER. Even my perennial grape vines look terrible!

I guess I should be looking at the bright side. My garlic looks great.

Yes, for all the complaining I have done about the flooding, I will take that over the giant temp fluctuations or the snow dumps that MN etc keep getting any day.

My fingers are crossed. I only put out as many as I can easily protect if needed and afford to lose if it all goes bad. The weather is so whacky who knows what will happen but in years where it works, its worth the few weeks of weather channel stalking.

Stacy

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Last year, my season of selling plants was completely over by May 15th. Everyone had their garden out by then. This year, the season has not yet begun. I was rained out at market this weekend and next weekend is forecast to be cold and wet. When it's in the 40's and raining, no one is buying tomato plants. I can see the supply backing up at big retail stores, too. Everything is getting rootbound and looking worse by the day.

Home Depot was a mad house this yesterday. Rain again in the morning, but the sun came out at noon and it was short weather. I ran to get some landscape fabric and people were there is hoards buying everything is sight. I think all the rain and cool has people really anxious to get moving. I bet as soon as it turns for you, you get cleared out fast. I think we have turned the corner here.

Stacy

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by lycomania

You're giving me an itchy trigger (planting!) finger, Stacy! I am so ready to stick my larger plants in the ground. I'm trying to nail down my plastic mulch situation. I'm using make-shift large plastic bags now, and they give me a good 10-degree increase at approx. 2" depth even at early morning.
I think that will be enough with some WoW's and/or some kind of cover for the 40-degree evenings. Right now I'm carrying everything in at night and putting under shop lights til about midnight so they have some warmer temps to keep growing. It's working, that's for sure.

Yeah I'm still carting a large part of the brood in and out too. Only a portion got put out. I never put all the eggs in one basket.

I'm going to pot up the peppers again today because those do get pretty peeved with even a single night of cool temps. I have a thick chunks of rubber pond liner that I've been using for soil warm up. You can't leave it down all summer because it gets too hot but in spring, its perfect for weed control and soil warming.

Stacy

[KarenO]

smart thinking to "not put all your eggs in one basket" and It's plain you know what you're doing. I was mainly worried somebody who is new to the tomato growing biz would read the post, jump the gun and lose all their seedlings.
As I look out the window at yet another spring snowstorm up here I even worry about my 100+ "babies" in the greenhouse. but it isn't too cold outside and it's 70 degrees in the greenhouse (with the heater on) so they are all fine just as long as that heater doesn't fail me.
I hope you get some early fruit from your "cheater| plants. I have some cherries starting to ripen in the greenhouse so I know about cheating too although in my part of Canada there is no such thing as cheating outdoors until the end of May at the earliest.
enjoy!
KarenO

[Sodak]

Trying Wall of water (three red and two blue - one blue just would not stand up). Also using 25 gal smart pots. FIRST TIME FOR BOTH.
Hope it works.
Black cherry, Bush Beefsteak, Forest Fire, Isis Candy and Native Sun under the W o Ws. Nebraska Wedding was the one that had the faulty W o W. Or maybe I was just inept, but falling over twice in an hour seems like it was the problem. The other 5 are fine.
I also used squares of a red plastic mulch around all of them.
Gave away my extras of these "breeds" but saved a Nebraska Wedding since SNOW is forecast for Wednesday. Should give the W o Ws a test!

[bower]

Where I live, it's cheating to put tomatoes in the greenhouse before the end of May. Last year was so fantastic, though, the April cheat really paid off. It's been much colder this year, with night temps in the greenhouse around 40 F instead of around 50 F at the same time last year.

But since I'm trialing new varieties for cold tolerance, and they matured way quicker than I expected, I've planted em anyway, and used plastic and/or row cover to cut down on chilly drafts on the colder nights. So far I've only lost one leaf - it was sticking out the cold side on the night after transplant, so double shock. Since then, the plants have done just fine under cover on nights as low as 40 F. Seven of eight nights below 48 F.

It's been warmer for the last few days - last 4 nights above 50 F - and the plants are looking mighty fine. I had to put my enormous "extra" tomato plants outdoors in their beer cups too. Can't risk stressy pest/disease problems since my house is full of peppers (which are also starting to pep!). I made some drafty enclosures for those extras, and by golly they look fine enough as well.

Ah well, so far so good is all I can say. Hope they don't mind it dipping down again, and hope they really do set fruit in spite of cold nights - several plants are already flowering.

On the left in the photo below are two BIG Siberian Pinks, planted in January and already loading up with fruit, just moved down from my living room window. Got to get some early fruit!

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by KarenO

smart thinking to "not put all your eggs in one basket" and It's plain you know what you're doing. I was mainly worried somebody who is new to the tomato growing biz would read the post, jump the gun and lose all their seedlings.
As I look out the window at yet another spring snowstorm up here I even worry about my 100+ "babies" in the greenhouse. but it isn't too cold outside and it's 70 degrees in the greenhouse (with the heater on) so they are all fine just as long as that heater doesn't fail me.
I hope you get some early fruit from your "cheater| plants. I have some cherries starting to ripen in the greenhouse so I know about cheating too although in my part of Canada there is no such thing as cheating outdoors until the end of May at the earliest.
enjoy!
KarenO

Thanks Karen, its always a gamble but is delightful when it pays off and no big deal when it doesn't because of my back-ups. My issue this year is going to be all these rains keep the soil temperatures down.