Hello:

I have deleted the text from my original post as this represented an adulteration of this forum (i.e., a double posting).

My thread in 'Growing Tomatoes' went through some exaggeration regarding the use of chemical pesticides. Several shallow and childish diminutions of my original intent to garner thoughts from others on topics related to my gardening. In particular my suffering from extreme whitefly and aphid infestations!

However, thanks to the persistence of those who are in consideration of open-mindedness and do not overly obsess concerning topics they are sensitive to, the thread will survive I think. I reposted here (the exact same information) as I believed those of us in SoCal are separable from areas that frost repeatedly and persistently on the same seasonal schedule. The experience of these areas as to planting times, pest problems, soils, and fertilizers are of course different. These differences are occasionally marginal but, for instance, in the case of planting schedules more likely to be extreme.

As we know, our area can be experiencing 80 degrees when the states immediately west of us will be in severe freezing (below 20 degrees at night). Such is the case this December in my area. The week of the 9th will move from the mid 60s to the mid 80s by Wed.

I spoke with Adrianne at Johnny's seeds yesterday. She said her weather was in the minus Fahrenheit during the nighttime. That of course is the extreme opposite side of our great nation. Still I mention it to underline the importance of talking with folk locally.

AS a result of the weather I have decided to set-out my tomato seedlings the week of the 14th. I am currently in the process of hardening them off. My garden and strategy for tomatoes can be found on the 'Growing Tomatoes' forum as noted below in mrclint's posting. If you decide to review the specifics of my gardening strategy there one note:

Please forgive the (until recently) muted hostility that occurred due to my inabilities in dealing with whitefly explosions during the hotter periods of summer. I do not wish to revisit this issue here. I will entertain your views there within the constraints of openmindedness.

One last reference to the Growing Tomato thread; recently a contributor to the thread pointed out that I might have luck modifying my raised beds to induce cooler temperatures. I won't labor through the specifics of what I've been doing as I've written, that's all posted for others to view on the above-mentioned forum.

I will however begin talking about what is currently in the works.

I will continue this thought in my next post.

Happy Gardening it's gonna be spring soon.

psient

This post was edited by psient on Wed, Feb 12, 14 at 9:25