Northern Zone Pushers: watcha doing?

[bughunter99]

Definitions: Northern: zones 1-5 and 6A

Zone Pusher: a) Those that take measures to get earlier harvests by disregarding published frost dates. OR b) Those that attempt to grow things that are not supposed to grow in their area.

It is still winter for many of us. Here after our delightful day of melting/flooding/tornado warnings/power outage/ice, I am still looking at 14" of snow on the ground, more coming, and another week with highs in the teens and twenties. My ground is frozen to 14". Yet...I plant. I have a plan to be harvesting some stuff in April and it will be happening.

This thread is for the still winterbound zone pushers that have started or about to start their season. Lets share what you are doing you awesome optimistic rule breakers!

Me: Today I am planting:

Onions: Walla Walla, White Lisbon and Flat of Italy (I am a little late with these).
Kale: Russian Frills, Russian Hunger Gap and Kale Coalition ( a mixed group)
Cicician Parsley
Thai Lemon Basil
Korean Licorice Mint
Selma Fino Fennel
Spicy Curls Mustard
and probably some lettuce.

This week, if work allows the tomatoes and peppers are getting started.

Stacy

[Labradors2]

I don't know about zone pushing, but I am hoping to get some edible tomatoes this season before the end of July for a change .

I plan to grow some early varietes in 3 gallon containers, small enough for me to be able to carry them out on the deck or inside the house, depending on the temperature.

My choices are: Early Annie, Jagodka and Sophie's Choice

I will also grow Bloody Butcher out in the garden.

Linda

[NarnianGarden]

It's zone 4 here. I don't know if I'll manage to push anything, but at least I have started my seed sowing already.

My first tomato seedlings are doing fine - mini varieties that will grow indoors on the windowsill and hopefully produce the first fruits when other seedlings are only getting ready to be planted.

Planning to concentrate on some early cold resistant varieties this year, in addition to hoping to get fruit from some of those labeled late.

I've got some eucalyptus and a citrus seedling peeping up from the soil - didn't know one can grow them in this climate, but apparently they do just fine, indoors and outdoors Thinking of sowing some guava seeds too. Am I bananas? (yes, some folks here are trying all sorts of tropical fruits ... banana and pineapple included... and there seems to be no limits to what one can grow if one just tries hard enough..)

Plus, I have kale and broccoli as micro greens. The season is in full swing!

[KarenO]

Hiya,
My onions and leeks are growing nicely as well as some annual flowers. Peppers will be sown at the end of this month and tomatoes at the end of March. Currently I have two very large F1 tomatoes I crossed growing in my kitchen in an effort to beat mother nature and save a year in my breeding project by having F2 seed for the spring. There are a few small tomatoes on them so may just pull it off yet
KarenO

[Anthony_Toronto]

I'm staring at 18 inches of snow in my backyard. Some of my grape plants are completely buried, can't even make out the outline of my raised-bed garden. I think I see the tip of a lawn chair...

[bower]

Well... I had to start something on Feb 2, if only because the mustard greens froze in the greenhouse and nothing left to scavenge but leeks. (Amazingly, the leeks have been standing tall in a frozen solid tub of soil... zone pushers, take note of this fine vegetable!).
So... I am already eating microgreens, of seed from the 'promiscuously pollinated' kale in my garden..
My White Lisbon onions are close to 4" tall, spaced fairly close in a tub that will go to the greenhouse when it warms up.
A dozen Genovese basils have survived to the true leaves and are ready to pot up.
Also ready to pot, cilantro, parsely, and chinese leaf celery.
Dill is already potted, and some bok choy and pak choy "Ching Chiang". They are with the onions under lights in the cold window.
I have a pair of Pencil Pod Black Wax bush beans to go into a larger pot in a window, now about 6" tall. Also one surviving Passandra cucumber (all female type hybrid) is being coddled along for a window spot when it's not so freezing.
108 pepper seedlings are in cell pack in a cupboard under the lights... none have true leaves yet..
Utah Celery... OMG I've never grown celery before, they are mass planted in a small former mushroom container and there must be over a hundred.
Last but not least, I confess I have three early tomato plants, just in the first true leaves. Jagodka is determinate and Red Dwarf is a dwarf... both are cold tolerant they say, so if they become troublesome indoors I will huck em and see how they fend.
I hear the ol Vortex is planning to take another swipe into early March. Enuf already.

[Father'sDaughter]

I spent the day chopping the remaining ice pack off the driveway. My garden is still buried, as is the whole yard, although I did see my first robin today hopping around on the edge of the back lawn where the glaciers have started receding...

I also spent some time shuttling some of my newly sprouted sweet pepper seedlings from the heating pad in the dining room down to the basement under lights. They are joining the eggplants, hot peppers, a few cooler weather herbs, and five varieties of onions that I started from seed last month.

Oh, and I do have two Capperino (F1) peppers that I purchased seeds for before Christmas and decided to do a germination test on...just because. They are now about five inches tall, very stocky and bushy, and starting to load up with blossoms. I think I'll transplant them into larger pots and see if I can actually get any peppers from them.

It'll be a while before I can even think about getting anything actually planted out, but it's comforting knowing that as soon as the snow melts and the weather warms up, I'll be seeing the green shoots from the garlic and shallots poking their way through the mulch!

[disneynut1977]

I have started my peppers, sweet and hot. My basil and some other slow to sprout herbs. I usually have a hard time sprouting seeds,s o I start very early.
This year I decided to upgrade for my seed starting. I switched to HO t5 lights and am now using heating mats. In a few days time I already have sprouts, lol. Going to be potting up in larger pots before putting outside this year I think.

[RobinB]

I have been using Wall O' Waters for a few years now. It allows me to get tomato plants out much earlier than "normal" (which would be mid-June.) It works for some, but not all varieties. Every year, there are a few that do not respond well to being outside when the lows are in the teens to twenties, even when protected. This way, I'm not stuck with just early varieties. I can start some late season varieties and actually get of those tomatoes by August. I plant early varieites too, and have tomatoes from them starting mid-June. Here in the high desert, we are fortunate to have more than 300 sunny days in an average year so that helps!

Additionally, there are always some tomatoes planted in pots. Last year, I was successful at growing three early dwarf tomato plants in 15 gallon pots by getting them out on my South-facing porch starting in mid-April. I don't have a hoop house or greenhouse, so I lug the pots inside the house at night. Last year, I grew three plants in pots in this manner, this year it will be six. In 2013, I was rewarded with tomatoes starting in late May. Coming inside each night, they grow quite quickly -- much faster than those planted at the same time in the ground inside the WOWs. This year, my six plants (all growouts for the Dwarf Tomato Project) are scheduled to go out on the porch a month earlier than last year (mid-March.) Ten plants got potted up yesterday. I'm also going to try to get the four extra plants in the ground inside WOWs, just to see what happens. The weather here has been unseasonably warm in the daytime (mid-50s to low-60s) but the nights are average (teens). It is still possible that we may get some actual Winter around here before it's all said and done, but I'm going to take that chance. It's always interesting when the plants get taller than the WOWs before it's warm enough.

I also have a flat of Red Russian Kale, Bok Choy, MacGreggor's Beets, Spigarello Liscka, Broccoli Raab, Bright Lights Chard, Mizuna and Romanesco Cauliflower ready to be hardened off and be put in the ground. They go out in filtered sunlight today. All my peppers are started and have their second set of leaves. These will will stay under lights for another few weeks and then eventually they will also get potted up and will spend their days outside on the porch until it's warm enough for then to be in their final places. At the end, it's quite a project to get everything out on the porch in the morning and inside again at night! It's a lot of effort, but it works!

Seeds for about 60 of my main season tomatoes will be started next weekend to be put outside inside WOWs in mid-April. I have accumulated approximately 65 WOWs, so some plants will get started in early May to go outside without protection in mid-June. Then, I will start just a few tomatoes in May, to be planted in 15 gallon pots in July, to then be carried inside at night whenever it starts getting cold again.

Whew, I'm tired just thinking of what's ahead!

[joseph]

My zone pushing focuses on selecting for genes that are able to handle my intensely radiant-cooled nights and short growing-season.

I am tickled as anything if frost kills 50% of my tomato transplants. Sure there is a bit of randomness about frost, but I have discovered families that thrive in cooler weather. Year after year I have been selecting for tomatoes that survive frost and that grow well in cooler temperatures. It was so clever to me last year that the tomatoes survived frosts that damaged the corn.

I have had good success using this method with cantaloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, common beans, and squash. I am still working on favas, runner beans, okra, and mixtas.

The other zone pushing I do is to plant things on the south sides of buildings: To create a slightly warmer micro-climate. I don't like using plastic. I find it difficult to afford enough to make much of a difference.

Sometimes the zone pushing I do is to adapt for things that can handle the summer days better. Same principle just applied at a different time and to different species.

[bughunter99]

Some of you have me feeling like a Zone Pushing Slacker! I'm behind. LOL

Bower you reminded me that I forgot the celery. All I have in my stash is 2009 tendercrisp seeds. The plan was to plant 9 cells. Home grown celery is awesome. It doesn't taste anything remotely like the watery grocery version and it is so easy. I grow mine under the cherry tree.

Unfortunately when I broke out the seed, I didn't notice that the bottom of the packet was compromised. I planted nine cells and then looked down and saw that seed had been dribbling out into all the rest of the cells too.

That seed is so fine, that it was easier just tossing the surface soil then trying to pick it out.

So this morning before work
Planted Thai Red Basil-two cells
Planted Tendercrisp celery-9 cells

Sprouted so far:
Culinary Ginger

Transplanting:
Nothing for some time.


Stacy

[PaulF]

In this Zone 5/6A the gun got jumped a couple of weeks ago with seed starting herbs and last week by starting peppers and tomatoes. Mid-February rather than waiting for March. And it snowed a little here last night again.

[Darren Abbey]

I've still got a foot of snow on the ground, so there are limits to what I can do.

I did just set up and test a surplus lab-grade incubator for precision temperature-control to encourage germination. I'm planning to set up lights in my cold basement for cold-stressing a batch of tomato seedlings, as well as selecting for micros out of a F2 population I've got.

Experimentally, I've got some of last years carrots growing on the windowsill… hoping I'll be able to get seed out of them early enough to be of use this year.

The last item of "zone-pushing" I've got is a couple mature peppers that I've overwintered in an insulated light-pod. Night temperatures in my basement have pushed them into dormancy, but they are ready to wake up as soon as it gets a little warmer. One is a super-hot Datil-type. The other is a squat, purple bell that sprouted and grew at temperatures which killed all 78 of the other seeds I planted early last spring. (I will be testing seeds from it for cold-start ability under lights, as well.)

[salix]

... just admiring the six foot snowbanks alongside the driveway...

Will start the onions, leeks, shallots etc. in a week or two.

[goodwin]

We are south of the snow line with unseasonably warm weather. Some of the trees are beginning to bud 4 weeks ahead of schedule. My garlic is up and I planted onions because the soil is completely thawed. In the unheated greenhouse are spinach and other greens.
Some tomatoes, like Rancho Solito, are showing clusters of buds so I will need to move them out to the greenhouse and then fire up the big wood stove.
The tomatoes will be in the field by the end of March in walls of water. I would be surprised to get any apples or peaches this year. They get tricked into blossoming and then fall to a late freeze. Darn it!
Lee