On Tue, 11 Feb 2003 12:09:52 +0000, Jim Carter wrote:

On 11 Feb 2003 08:41:16 -0800, (simy1) wrote in
rec.gardens.edible:

Tomatoes are particularly sensitive to cold soil. The plants will
still be good, but you won't see tomatoes until september. What you
can do is lay plastic (clear or black) on the bed for a month before
transplanting.

Thank-you to everone who replied to my query. Yes, I live where we have a short
growing season, although temperatures can reach well above 90°F when summer is
at its peak. I am near Ottawa, Canada and my zones should be in my signature
line. The US and Canada use different scales for their zones; the US zone shown
is the equivalent of the Canadian zone.

I am just contemplating our weather forecast for today and find myself wishing I
were "down south". sigh

Temperatures are in celsius: -15°C is about 5F and -34C is about -30F (done in
my head).

Today..Increasing cloudiness. High minus 15. Cold wind chill minus
34.
--
Gardening Zones
Canada Zone 5a
United States Zone 3a
Near Ottawa, Ontario


I have my garden in 2' tall planting boxes. I am anticipating (this is
just the 2nd year for this garden) that these boxes will warm up more
quickly than flat soil would.

I add lots of organic material as mulch because I feel that the heat of
decomposition helps with the frost situation and that the dark color
absorbs heat during the day to release at night.

But what do I know? I'm an amateur.

Bill

On 10 Feb 2003 21:35:08 -0800, (Lee Hall) wrote:

(Frogleg) wrote
On Sun, 09 Feb 2003 15:45:07 -0500, Jim Carter
wrote:

Our last frost date is May 24. Does this mean that tomatoes may be planted at
this time even though the soil is still cool?I would, of course, have hardened
off the plants prior to this.

"Several weeks" after last frost date is recommended. A last frost of
May 24 is pretty cool (temperature-wise, not 'groovy'). I can never
remember whether it's Johnny's or Pinetree seeds that specializes in
short-season varieties.

Here's an interesting chart I came across:

http://www.naturalgardening.com/shop/frostdatesa-n.php3

Interesting, yes. Accurate, no. Don't I wish that the last frost
date was March 28 for Nashville, Tennessee. If you believe that you
could wind up with a bunch of frozen transplants. Sure, I have
planted that early but not without row covers, plastic bags and
wall-o-waters. They are off by slightly over a month. We get an
early April frost almost every year and May 1 is the accepted date
here according to the Dept. of Agriculture extension office.

To be fair, I didn't *say* it was accurate. Just something I stumbled
across. The relevent info was advice to set out tomatoes "several
weeks" after last frost date. Seeing as the date is just an average,
not a magic guarantee, many other factors come into play. If it's been
80 degrees the 1st weeks of April, I expect the soil would have warmed
up sufficiently for successful planting around my 'last frost date' of
15 April. If it's been snowing, maybe not. :-) The community garden I
participated in for several years had the field plowed around
mid-April. Another week for marking out the plots, and then the
gardeners moved in to till and plant. With tomatoes planted around May
1, the first ripe ones generally appeared in time for a July 4th
salad. OTOH, I recall (brief, light) May 1st snowfall, too.

May 24th as 'last frost date' is 5 weeks later than here, and I'm
assuming 'first frost' would be similarly displaced in the other
direction -- a pretty short growing season, and cool-climate
indicator. Which is why I recommended looking for short-season
varieties.

On Tue, 11 Feb 2003 12:09:52 -0500, Jim Carter
wrote:

Thank-you to everone who replied to my query. Yes, I live where we have a short
growing season, although temperatures can reach well above 90°F when summer is
at its peak. I am near Ottawa, Canada and my zones should be in my signature
line. The US and Canada use different scales for their zones; the US zone shown
is the equivalent of the Canadian zone.

I am just contemplating our weather forecast for today and find myself wishing I
were "down south". sigh

Temperatures are in celsius: -15°C is about 5F and -34C is about -30F (done in
my head).

Today..Increasing cloudiness. High minus 15. Cold wind chill minus
34.
--
Gardening Zones
Canada Zone 5a
United States Zone 3a
Near Ottawa, Ontario

Don't know exact temperature figures, but a friend in Reno, NV has
similar conditions -- frost late and early, and a good dose of high
heat in the summertime. She keeps starting tomato plants and bringing
in green fruit just before the first snow flies. You may want to look
into greenhouse arrangements of one sort or another. In a particularly
cold spring, I kept tomato plants (putting into bigger and bigger
containers) 'inside' 'til they were 2' tall. If the growing season had
only been 2 weeks, they would have produced tomatoes. :-)

On Mon, 24 Feb 2003 13:11:37 GMT, (Frogleg) wrote in
rec.gardens.edible:

Don't know exact temperature figures, but a friend in Reno, NV has
similar conditions -- frost late and early, and a good dose of high
heat in the summertime. She keeps starting tomato plants and bringing
in green fruit just before the first snow flies. You may want to look
into greenhouse arrangements of one sort or another. In a particularly
cold spring, I kept tomato plants (putting into bigger and bigger
containers) 'inside' 'til they were 2' tall. If the growing season had
only been 2 weeks, they would have produced tomatoes. :-)

I don't how pronounced the effect is here, but some very long season tomatoes
can be grown in Alaska and the Yukon! The length of the days tends to
"lengthen" the growing season, I guess. Have a look at

http://www.tropicals-north.yk.ca/titanic.htm

for your first laugh of the gardening season.
--
Spelling and grammatical errors are deliberate
to catch copyright violators. ©¿©¬
Perth, Ontario, Canada