Kathy, I'm on the border of 6a and 6b here in Dewey, America.

I have found April 20 to be a safe bet. I used to always go by April 15, but a couple of years ago we had weather in the 20's for three straight days right around then.

For cold weather things like cabbage, lettuce, radish, I generally can push the plant date back to March, during one of those extended warm spells we tend to get before we get a reminder that spring is not yet, really, here. But I will go out and cover them during periods of cold. Especially onions. Last year I actually had onions that didn't bolt to seed without bulbing out, FINALLY, after learning that onions are sensitive to periods of intense cold in that they bolt to seed in the second year and intense cold is a signal to them that it's a new year. Go figure, huh? I used the little onion plants that Atwood's sells, 50 or so tied together with a rubber band, but I didn't plant them till April 1. When frosts were expected, I covered them. They were Candy onions and they got softball size. I was tickled pink! I planted potatoes in kitty litter tubs in March, summer before last, but I was bringing them inside more than I really wanted to. That year, a friend of mine in Ochelata had his potatoes in the ground and up by April 15, and he lost them all to that late freeze that lasted for two days. Knowing this, I was very surprised last year to find volunteer potatoes in my raised bed, from the previous plants that had been pulled and buried under soil and amendments after their harvest was over. So I would think, if you plant your potatoes in trash cans and a freeze is expected, you could just throw enough leaves or straw on top, to cover, and put the lid on! I like your idea of using trash cans for this. You would even have enough room in that trash can to plant a companion plant. Last year I planted my bell peppers in office trash cans (about 5 gallon size) that I had bought at a thrift store for $1 apiece. I companion planted petunia and the peppers did really well and the petunias spilling over the side made them really pretty. I used tomato cages to support the pepper plant. Here again, though, I did not find that the plants produced much until fall, even though I babied them all spring and summer. So this year I'm not bothering with starting pepper plants inside under light. I'll just direct sow when the weather is warm.

I found this about companion planting with potatoes: Companions for potatoes are bush bean, members of the cabbage family, carrot, celery, corn, dead nettle, flax, horseradish, marigold, peas, petunia, onion and Tagetes marigold. Protect them from scab by putting comfrey leaves in with your potato sets at planting time. Horseradish, planted at the corners of the potato patch, provides general protection. Don't plant these around potatoes: cucumber, kohlrabi, parsnip, pumpkin, rutabaga, squash family, sunflower, turnip and fennel. Keep potatoes and tomatoes apart as they both can get early and late blight contaminating each other.

Hope this helps! --Ilene

Kathy,

I think this is the hardest question ever and there are no easy answers.

Ilene gave you a lot of great advice and she gardens in conditions slightly colder than yours most years, so her data is closer to yours than mine would be, I'd imagine.

All I can tell you is that spring planting is always risky and there is always a chance of a late freeze. So, you have to consider the OSU-recommended planting dates, and then decide how much of a gambler you are. Also, you have to consider whether or not your house exists in a microclimate that consistently runs hotter or colder than the surrounding area.

AVERAGES VERSUS REALITY:

I'm going to use my average as an example, and then you can check your own county's average on the website of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey and compare it to past data files, also available on the internet in the past data files of the Mesonet, to see if the "reality" of what has happened in your county in recent years matches the average. As far as I can remember, the 'average' data is based on 30 years of data.

Love County's Average Last Freeze Date is March 27th. Here's the dates of our last recorded freezing temperature each year since we've been here, and our Easter date for each year:

1999: April 18th and Easter was April 4th
2000: April 9th and Easter was April 23rd
2001: March 20th and Easter was April 15th
2002: March 26th and Easter was March 31st
2003: April 10th and Easter was April 20th
2004: April 14th and Easter was April 11th
2005: April 24th and Easter was March 21st
2006: April 9th and Easter was April 16th
2007: April 15th and Easter was April 8th
2008: April 28th and Easter was March 23rd (but we went to 35 and had a heavy frost on May 4th)

So, if you compare our last freeze to our Easter date, do you see a correlation? About all I can say is that 5 of the 10 years we had our last recorded freezing temperature after Easter, and in 5 years we had it before.

And, how about my average last freeze date (in Mesonet terms, average last date that 32 degrees was recorded)compared to my real last date that we recorded 32? In only 2 years was our real last freeze date earlier than March 27th, and in 8 years it was after. So, I take the average last freeze date with a grain of salt because a decade's worth of real data suggests my true last freeze date is closer to April 8th-15th.

FREEZE VS. FROST: To make things worse, there's freezing temperatures, which end at 32, and there's frost, which can occur at 38 or even 39 degrees if all the conditions are right (or, maybe I should say if they are "wrong"). The conditions that give you frost? Clear, wind-free nights with temps in the 30s and adequate moisture in the air. In southern Love County, I can have a lot of nights with frost even after my "average last freeze" on March 27th, or even after my "real" last freeze between April 8th-15th. And, I am in a low-lying microclimate near the Red River where the temperature at our house can drop as much as 10 degrees lower than the "official" temperature.

So, I have to be prepared to cover plants, or plant "late" for my area. Most years, I gamble and plant early and cover stuff as needed.

COOL-SEASON CROPS: I have learned the 'worst' cold weather that each crop can tolerate without dying, bolting, etc., and I try to look at what my weather is doing in any given year and adjust my planting dates accordingly. Even then, I know that I need to be prepared to mulch heavily and cover crops with Agribon-type frost blankets or row covers. I seldom lose cool-season crops to cold weather, but only because I do cover them up religiously if there is even a chance of temperatures falling into the wrong range for that crop.

WARM-SEASON CROPS: Because these are more likely to die, I try to be patient and plant later as opposed to earlier, except with regards to tomatoes. I always plant tomatoes far too early in an effort to get: (1) ripe tomatoes as early as possible, and (b) maximum fruit set before June temperatures rise high enough to impede bloom pollination and fertilization.

Because I raise my own plants from seed, I just raise enough that I have replacement plants of each variety to replace any that freeze.

With most other warm-season crops (except corn, which can handle pretty cold weather), I tend to plant later rather than earlier. Many warm-season crops do not like any cold weather at all, so it doesn't pay to expose them to much cold. Peppers, for example, will remain stunted and produce greatly reduced yields if you expose them to cold air or cold soil early in their growing period. So, I plant peppers, melons, black-eyed peas and sweet potatoes ONLY when the soil has warmed above 70 degrees and stays there for several consecutive days. Some crops, like green beans, can take some cold but not a lot and certainly not freezing cold.

WHAT THE "OLD GUYS" DO HERE: I think our freezes and frosts are coming later and later, in general. One of the "old farmers" near me tells me he has always planted the last week in March, and he is in his late 80s, so "always" takes him pretty far back in time. However, more often than not, he loses some of his early plantings to frost, and he is on higher ground than I am, so I think that what may have worked for him 20 or 40 years ago may not be working for him now.

The smartest local gardener I know here, with regards to planting dates, seems to put in his cool-season crops fairly late--maybe mid- to late-March, and his warm-season crops only after April 1st and often it is closer to May 1st than April 1st. He also stops watering July 1st, no matter what. Why? Because time and experience have taught him that it is not worth it to him to water later than that--his decrease in yield because of the heat is such that it is not economically feasible to spend money watering. He always has a great garden, by the way, and is pleased with his yields. I used to think he was crazy to "give up" on his garden July 1st but, after a couple of drought years in which our water bill exceeded our summer electic bill, I realized he was smarter than me. : )

So, Kathy, if I were you, here's what I think I'd do: look at what Ilene, Carol, George, Dorothy, Jill, Moni, Scott and a few others in the northern half of OK do with regards to planting dates, and adjust your plans accordingly. Pay very special attention to the dates that Randy moves his plants out of the greenhouse because he is careful and does not jump the gun and expose his plants to freezes or frosts needlessly.

Look at the average last freeze date for your area, compare it to real recorded data in the mesonet's past data files, and let that guide you.

Look at the OSU-recommended dates for northern OK, and--if you want to be perfectly safe, plant a week or two later than those, or even later.

Choose your battles. You cannot cover up everything, so decide what matters most (surprise, surprise, for me it is tomatoes!) and do your best to use protective measures to preserve early plantings and ensure good production from your plants. I usually stagger my tomato plantings a great deal--putting my earliest plants in containers I can drag into the garage, and then planting a row every week for about a month until they are "all done".

EASTER:

I don't know if anything I said here helped, but I do have to agree with your dad about Easter. No matter when Easter falls, it seems like we always have a round of very cold weather in the week or so after Easter. It may not always drop to freezing here after Easter, but I usually get a hard frost that requires I either cover plants or lose them. And, that whole Easter-cold weather thing was just as true in zone 8 in Fort Worth as it is here in zone 6 or 7 Oklahoma.

IS IT CLIMATE CHANGE:

When I lived in Texas, I didn't have to cover up plants nearly as much as I do here. Partly, of course, that is the difference in zone 8 and zone 7, partly it is the fact that my microclimate there was warmer than the surrounding area while here it is the opposite, and partly it is that I think we are having more erratic weather the last 10-15 years.

Based just on what I have observed, and not on any data that could 'prove' anything, it seems like our part of Oklahoma is trending towards colder nights later in the year, so more late frosts and sometimes more late freezes. It seems like our rainfall is becoming less consistent and a lot more irregular, and that periods of drought are occurring more often. If the 2005-2006 drought was the worst ever, or the 2nd worst ever, or whatever it was (depending on your region of Oklahoma), then how is it that we have drought conditions in parts of the state now, just a couple of years later, that are as bad or almost as bad. And, it is identical in Texas. The "Exceptional Drought" of 2005-2006 was their worst drought ever, and here they are in 2008-2009, and they one again have "Exceptional Drought" in much of the state and it continues to worsen there and spread into Oklahoma. It's like having 2 100-year floods just a couple of years apart.....which I think also has happened in parts of our region in the 2000s. Clearly, something is going on with our weather that makes gardening/farming/ranching more of a challenge than it has been since, probably, the Dust Bowl years.

I lived in the Fort Worth area all my life until we moved here in 1999, and I only remember one year--ONE YEAR--that we had a bad-enough wildfire year that the fires got national news coverage. Then, along came the wildfire season that ran from the fall of 2005-summer 2006, and we just thought it was "the worst ever" and never would happen again. Now, here we are, just three years later, the it is happening again. While I realize that some parts of the states are not yet having very bad wildfires, we have had them since August or Sept. in southern OK, and this weekend they had some very bad ones in northwestern OK. How many "worst ever" type years are we going to have this decade?

I don't really understand why the weather patterns have changed, and I don't want to turn this into an argument about global warming and what may or may not cause it, but clearly something is going on. Maybe we're just having an extraordinary decade like they had in the 1950s when there were many back-to-back years of drought weather.

CHANGING HOW YOU DO THINGS:

I am a garden gambler to a certain extent, but I am becoming more cautious as time goes on. In just the 10 years we've been here, I've started planting my warm-season crops later and later and later, well--except for my beloved tomatoes. I feel like I understand the weather less every year, whereas logic would say I ought to understand it more.

So, look at all the data you can find, decide if you want to go conservative or be more of a risk-taker, and then just do the best you can. The weather will do whatever it will do and we all just have to do our best to roll with the punches.

Dawn

Kathy,

Sorry. I was so focused on the whole realm of when last freezes/frosts really occur and how to figure all that out, that I completely forget about the seed-starting, onions and potatoes.

POTATOES:

With potatoes, you plant very early for a reason--and, of course, that reason is to get the maximum growth and yield. Here's the key temperatures you need to remember.

The best potato growth occurs when daytime temperatures are in the 60 and 75 degree range during the day and when nighttime temperatures are in the 45-55 degree range, so I think for many of us, that kind of weather most consistently occurs in May, and for the southernmost parts of the state, usually in April as well.

The complicating factor is that in order to get a maximum yield, potatoes have to set and size their crops before soil temperatures reach 85 degrees consistently. So, I think for most of us, those soil temps arrive in June, but I am not positive, because I pay less attention to soil temps after they are in the 70s. It might be that in parts of northern OK, you might not see soil temps in the 85 degree range until July. And, of course, with very heavy mulch, you can keep your soil temps lower for a much longer timeframe.

In Texas, we always planted around Washington's Birthday, which nowadays is "President's Day", I guess. Depending on what the temperatures are like, I aim for that--but, realistically speaking, I can plant up to a month after President's Day and still get a good yield. And, most years, I hedge my bets by planting three varieties--an early, a mid-season and a late. Remember that if you plant in a container above grade level, though, you have less insulation and are, essentially, planting in conditions one zone colder than your actual zone.

When my potato plants experience frost or freeze damage--even if they freeze to the ground--they usually recover, but my yield is reduced. So, planting a little late is good. Mulching very heavily with hay is very good. If I expect a very late freeze and my potatoes are already a foot or two or three tall, I take a bale of hay and hold handfuls above the plants and "shake" my hands to hay falls gently onto the potato plants and the plants are just about totally buried. This will protect them from the hardest frost, and because it is a light "scattering" of hay, the plants aren't damaged. This works better in drier years. In rainier years, I think burying my plants in hay leads to increased foliar disease. And, I've been astonished at how late (well, it seems late to me here in zone 7B) people in zone 6 can plant here in OK and still get a satisfactory yield.

ONIONS: I don't know if you mean that you're going to leave the onions in the containers "forever" or eventually move them into the ground.

So, assuming you intend to leave them there in the containers, I think they will be fine.

If you intend to start with bulbs in containers and then move them outside, I don't know that it will work. If you are using plantable peat pots, it ought to work as long as you wet the pots really well and cut a big "X" in the bottom as you set them out so the plants can grow down into the soil. If you intend to start with multiple onion bulbs in large containers and then transplant them into the ground, though, the very act of transplanting will likely make them bolt and you won't get a crop.

With onions, the key temperature that causes trouble is a prolonged period (10 days to 2 weeks) of temperatures below 45 degrees, but only when/if your onion plants exceed 1/4" in diameter at the neck. Why? Because onions are biennials and it only takes two weeks of winter weather (for them, that's anything below 45 once they're that size) for them to think it is a 'new year' and bolt to set their seed. If bolting occurs, both the quality of your onions and their size are severely impacted.

So, one way to reduce the chance of bolting is to plant only plants that are less than 1/4" in diameter.

And, it just occurred to me that you said you are going to use 'bulbs' which makes me think that you mean the little 'sets' sold in cellophane packages in the stores. Is that what you mean? If so, I wouldn't do it. Such bulbs are almost always northern-grown, long-daylength types and never will bulb up here. In addition, they have been held all winter in cold storage, so the minute you set them out here, they are more likely to bolt because they've gone from cold storage to warmer weather in transit. If you are absolutely determined to use the sets, only plant the ones that are 1/2" or smaller to reduce the likelihood of bolting. It is far better to use smallish onion plants (below 1/4" in diameter) of short-daylength, intermediate daylength or neutral-daylength types because they reliably bulb up once the correct # of daylight hours arrive.

For the rest of the crops you mentioned:

GARLIC: fall planting is recommended

ONIONS: I plant them in mid-Feb. to late Feb. They can take pretty cold weather if mulched.

PEAS: I don't plant them here because my weather goes from cold to hot overnight and they don't set a good crop here. If direct-seeding, take your soil's temperature daily with a thermometer, and don't plant peas until the temp is regularly in the 50s. If starting indoors, keep in mind that they grow quickly so you can't hold them too long indoors.

TURNIPS: These grow best when temperatures range from 40 to 80 so plant early--pretty much as early as the soil can be worked. Germination is slow at colder temperatures, but if you wait until the soil is warm enough for quick germination, it will be too hot for good growth after germination.

CARROTS: Like beets and turnips, carrots germinate slowy in cold soil and quickly in warm soil, but you have to plant them early so they can grow during the temperatures they like best--at a range from 40 or 45 degrees to abour 85 to 90 degrees. I like to plant them in March, but you might be able to get away with planting them in early April. The old standard advice is to plant them about 3 months before daytime highs regularly begin exceeging 85-90 days, but you can plant later with carrots that have a shorter DTM.

Broccoli: I like to set out my plants in early March, mostly because broccoli grows best here at the temps we have in March and April--nights in the 40s and days in the 70s/80s. Some years, May gets so hot so early that a later planting flowers pretty early in the month if I haven't harvested it all. You're further north, so I'd think you could plant 2 or 3 weeks later than I do. Don't transplant your plants out into the garden until you're pretty sure that your area is done with overnight lows in the 20s. I like to set out broc plants that are 3-5 weeks old because older ones sulk and don't take off as quickly.

LETTUCE: Lettuce cannot handle temps that drop into the 20s for long (well, it might, if you cover it up pretty well), so plant at about the same time you plant carrots. Planting about a month before the last frost is expected is pretty safe.

BEANS: Once again, I have found it works best to plant by the soil temperature, and not the calendar, with this crop. Don't plant seed until your soil temperature at planting depth is consistently 60 or above, and for lima beans, I'd wait a couple of weeks later than that. Just use a kitchen thermometer with a metal probe--no need to buy a 'soil thermometer' which is the same thing but can cost 4 times as much. Beans planted while the soil is too cold won't grow as well, may remain less productive throughout their life, and are more susceptible to disease in rainier years. Also, early plantings of beans are VERY attractive to sowbugs/pillbugs and cottontail rabbits too.

Some years I start beans in peat pellets and transplant them out once they have 2 leaves. However, this is risky if a cold spell hits and you have to hold them inside as they grow big fast in indoor temps. You can pre-sprout them inside and then put them in the ground and you'll have your plants up out of the soil (if it is at least 60 degrees) just a few days after you plant the pre-sprouted beans.

TOMATOES: Always use transplants, always plant as early as you dare if you can protect them, or two weeks after your last freeze date if you can't protect them, and be prepared to cover the up as needed. Planting when it is perfectly-warm is safe but then you'll have significantly lower yields if the heat arrives in May as it did last year. This is one crop that I risk planting early to maximize yields.

SQUASH: Notice I placed these after tomatoes and that is when I plant them--later than I plant tomatoes. Nine times out of ten, planting squash at the same time I plant tomatoes means I'll lose them to a late frost, if not a late freeze, or I'll have stunted growth and lower productivity. Wait until your soil is really warm and then either direct-seed or transplant. Wait until your soil temps at planting depth are at least 65 degrees, or if the nights are abnormally cool, wait until the soil temps are consistently at 70. I plant the seeds in Pro-Mix in the 3 or 4 oz. bathroom sized paper cups, and I plant them a couple of weeks before I am going to put them in the ground. At planting time, I use a very sharp knife to slice off the bottom of the cup, and plant cup and all into the ground. Most years this works fine. I can plant summer squash a bit earlier than winter squash, pumpkins, gourds, etc.

PEPPERS: Along with sweet potatoes, okra, melons of all types, and black-eyed peas, peppers are the heat-loving divas of the garden and you have nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by setting them out early. However, because peppers do best when air temps are in the 60-80 degree range, you still have to get them into the ground as early as you reasonably can but without exposing them to soil and air temps that are too cold. Many hot peppers will set fruit later in the summer than sweet peppers, so I often plant my sweets a couple of weeks before my hots. I like to start pepper seeds at the same time I start tomato seeds. Since peppers germinate a little more slowly and grow a little more slowly, planting at the same time as tomatoes works for me, but I set out pepers in late April through mid-May, never in March to early April like I do with tomatoes.

You can grow anything you want inside as transplants, including corn, but you have to be ready to get some of these transplants into the ground--like corn, squash and beasns--quickly because they grow quickly. Carrots are extremely hard from transplants, but it can be done if you use the cardboard rolls from toilet tissue or paper towels as your 'pots'.

For most plants, I sow seed indoors approximately 5 weeks before I am going to set them out, although earlier than that for peppers and later than that for anything in the squash, melon, and cucurbit family.

Most years I start everything I can as transplants, although not lettuce, carrots, turnips, or other root crops. For me, it is a matter of getting maximum growth before the heat arrives in southern OK and, also, I garden biointensively and don't want to waste an inch, so growing from transplants lets me get solid, full beds with no "holes" or "gaps" where something didn't germinate.

With cool season flowers, I direct seed in Jan.-Feb. for most, and even in the fall-early winter for plants like Bluebonnets that are wild in nature. With cool season flowers, I direct seed in Mar.-May, depending on the conditions and the plants. I never have good luck with marigolds planted too early whether they are from transplants or seeds.

Dawn

My first real garden is this year, and I just started my cool-weather veggies and a few things that will need a head start inside over the weekend. Broccoli, Celery, romaine, and salad bowl lettuce, plus my tomatoes and peppers for my main crop (which I'm now a bit worried I started too early). I live between tulsa and claremore, so I was shooting for somewhere in the middle of the OSU planting date range. I'd originally planned to transplant the above cool-weather things along with planting onion sets, potatoes (in the trash can method)and carrot seeds right around March 1, but I'm now wondering if it might be better to bump that back a week? We're at the top of a hill but sheltered on the north side by a small rise and some trees. the garden spot gets almost full sun except for a few late afternoon hours when the house provides some shade, and our microclimate is really just a bit more extreme in temps rather than consistently hotter/colder than our surrounds, again because of our pretty hilltop lot. Being our first time to do anything more involved than some herbs and a lone tomato plant, Any yield at all will be a success. advice is welcome! :-)

OKLibrarian,

Hi. I hope you have great success with your first real Garden.

Based on your location, I would have chosen the absolute latest of the OSU recommended dates. And, to be extra safe, I might go a week or two later than OSU's last recommended date. However, it does help that you are on a hilltop as that higher location might give you some protection from cold air, as cold air tends to settle more into low areas. Also, on the hill, you'll have better air flow, and even a light breeze can often keep frost off plants.

I think that Ilene or George or others who garden in NE OK could give you better advice than I could.

Do you know how to access the Mesonet data for your county to look at the various months and see what the weather has done there the last few years? If you don't, let me know and I'll link the mesonet and provide some very basic instructions about the data you can find there.

Dawn

I've peeked at the mesonet once or twice, but it was a while back--I'll take a look and see if it's self-explanatory. As far as planting, sounds like I will be well-served backing things up to at least the March 7 if not the 14th--I might use the extra time to harden them off on my back porch before they go in. I had just been worried about the warm weather stuff going in too late, and not giving the tomatoes enough time to grow before it gets crazy hot. I didn't start our first tomato plant (bought from lowe's) last year until late may b/c we were moving house, and got all of 6 tomatoes, and don't want a repeat of that--however I don't want to jump the gun either.

Liking the mesonet site--they've added some goodies since my last visit! being as geeky as I am (see username), I see lots of potential for fun ocd data gathering and analysis. :-) I also think that I'm going to bump planting back to March 14-15 (the end of the OSU window for spring crops) and delay everything else accordingly. now, I assume the OSU days to maturity extimates count from when I start the seeds, not when I plant them? Thanks for the patience on all the clueless newbie questions...

OKLibrarian,

We all were clueless newbies once, so we don't mind questions here. How else will newbies move (quickly too!) from clueless to clued-in?

I think the end of the OSU window for planting cool-season crops is about the week of March 10th. Is that what you mean? Because the end of the window for warm season crops is April 10th-30th, and even into May for watermelons and other heat lovers? Let me find the Spring Planting Guide and link it because those the dates I rely upon.

I understand very much the need to get tomatoes into the ground so they can grow, flower, pollinate and fertilize before the heat shuts them down. One way to get your plants into the ground early is to use either Wall 'O Water or Kozy Koat plant protectors, which are circular plastic plant protectors you fill with water and set around the tomato plants. With their protection, Gordan Graham (world record holder for largest tomato ever grown, and it happened in Edmond, OK) planted out his plants in Edmond in either Feb. or March. If you have access to Marvin Meisner's book on growing Giant Tomatoes, he reprints Mr. Graham's booklet in which he described his growing techniques, including the use of WOWs to extend his growing season by planting very early. He not only used WOWs, he'd stack a second on top of the first so his plants could get really tall and still be protected.

I can't use WOWs because I garden on a steep slope, but if I gardened on level land, I'd use them.

And, are you familar with the webpage for the Oklahoma Climatological Survey. If you click on your county, you can view either one of two county summaries that detail climate data you might find helpful, including average last freeze dates in three categories--32 degrees, 28 degrees and 24 degrees.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: OSU Garden Planning Guide

to clarify, yes, I meant the end of the cool season planting period. I'm planning to use the same garden space for both, so I want to make sure i get enough cool weather crops done by the end of april so I can put in the warm stuff. I may look into the wall o' water thing as well!

Dawn, Could you explain more about the Mesonet? Actually I saw something about it on TV and it sounded like there is a wealth of local temperature, ground moisture and other data that farmers use to decide when to plant their crops. Something like 122 stations across the state.

Hank

OKLibrarian,

So, you're saying you have to plant cool-season crops first and harvest them in order to make room for warm-season crops? That can be very difficult since there is some overlap.

I have some raised beds for cool-season crops and I begin planting onions and potatoes in them in Feb. of most years, but other raised beds reserved only for warm-season crops, and I start planting in them in late March of most years, or earlier with plant protection like buckets (to cover tomato plants on cold nights) or frost blankets.

The first couple of years that we lived here, I had to use the same beds for cool-season and warm-season crops, and it didn't work well for me because I needed to plant warm-season crops like tomatoes early enough to "beat the heat", but my cool-season crops were still a month or two from being ready for harvest. After I enlarged the garden by adding another raised bed or two for several consecutive years, I finally had a large enough space to plant both in separate beds.

Now, when cooler-season crops are harvested and a bed is "cleared", I just succession sow a warm-season crop in its place. This succession planting allows me to plant something virtually every month from Feb. through Sept. or Oct., if enough rainfall is occurring that I can plant in the summer for a fall garden.

I also use containers to raise some early tomatoes because above-ground containers (mine sit on a southward-facing concrete slab with a metal barn wall north of them) warm up faster than the soil in my raised beds, and I can drag the containers into the barn if really cold weather threatens. It also fills my "need" to plant something in Feb. (that's when I put purchased plants from 6" containers in the 5 large containers on the slab) and I usually harvest tomatoes from them in April from a mid- to late-Feb. planting date. The plants I buy are very large, with main stems about the size of my index finger, and often they are in bloom or about to bloom when I buy them. With luck and if the container plantings are successful, my tomato harvest starts in April and continues until frost wipes out my in-ground plants, which occurs in November of most years.

Hi Hank,

The Oklahoma Mesonet was developed and implemented as a joint project between OU and OSU and has been operational since 1994. It consists of 110 observation stations, with at least 1 in each Oklahoma county. Each station has various weather measurement instruments located at on near a 10-meter transmission tower. Mesonet station observations are made every 5 minutes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every week of the year. The data is bundled and transmitted to the Oklahoma Climatological Society every 5 minutes and the OCS verifies the data and provides it to Mesonet customers. When you are viewing current data, you're seeing observations recorded in the last 5 to 15 minutes.

The type of data observed includes air temperature, dewpoint, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, soil moisture levels, soil temperatures at several depths, etc. The types of weather events tracked via the recording of this data includes dry lines and the movement of cold fronts, thunderstorms, heat bursts, wind gusts, etc. You can use the section labeled "past data and files" to view observations for any month and year for any station dating back to Jan. 1994, assuming the station you're requesting was operational then.

So, for example, if I am trying to determine when my county's average last frost "really" occurs, as opposed to the average last frost date based on 30-year averages, I can pull up data for March and April of each year and see the last freeze date and figure out what planting date seems safe for me, much as I detailed in my orginal answer to the original post on this thread. I use the mesonet a lot in the spring to track air temperatures and soil temperatures and use that data in making planting decisions.

Mesonet data is used by many research groups and government organizations, like NASA, the National Science Foundation, the U. S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Energy, and the Oklahoma Water Resource Board. Yet, much of the same data is available online to citizens like you and me. Basic mesonet use/data is free, although you'd need to download the free Weatherscope software in order to be able to use the Mesonet's features. Some people and organizations subscribe and receive access to more data.

When you go to the Mesonet's main screen (linked below), you see a state map showing current temperatures. In a litle box beneath the map, you'll see the weather observations for the station you've selected as your "home" station (mine is Burneyville) and the data in that box includes the most recent observations for air temperature, heat index or wind chill as appropriate, dewpoint and relative humidity, recorded rainfall, and wind speed and direction.

On the left side of the page is a menu and you can click on the categories there to see various data brought up and displayed on the map. When you click on a category at the left, you get another index box at the right with sub-categories you can see. For example, if you click on the soil temperature at left, you get an index at right where you can click on soil temps at various depths.

I use "Mesonet Data" the most and one sub-category I often use is "Past Data and Files".

Sometimes I click on "Decision Products" in order to view Agweather Data or OK FIRE data. Since my spouse is the local VFD's fire chief, and my son is a professional firefighter and a volunteer firefighter on his "days off", we use OK Fire data a lot when we have grassfires or wildfires because the data helps us understand the current fire data, and it helps predict fire intensity, ignition, spread, direction/speed of forward movement, etc. Many agricultural producers and even simple home gardeners use AgWeather to make decisions about planting, irrigation, harvesting, spraying (dispersal conditions),etc.

I find the mesonet data to be very helpful. Combined with the NWS's Enhanced Weather Page, I can sit down at my computer and spend 2 to 4 minutes viewing weather data and have a good understanding of what is occurring in Oklahoma, weatherwise, at any given point in time.
' I hope this info is helpful.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Oklahoma Mesonet

Lots of great info! Keep it coming! *scribbling in journal* LOL

Kathy

Okiedawn,

Correct. we're doing 1 4*8 raised bed this year (SFG-style)-I will be adding on more down the road, but I'm keeping it small this first year. I think what I may do is simply leave a few squares empty so I can start a few peppers and tomatoes right off the bat, and then proceed with succession planning as things mature. As far as mesonet goes, I'm still exploring the depths of the site, but at first pass agweather looks awesome, as well as all of the wonderful back data.