I stagger a little, just in case I lose smothering to disease or storm. It seems to work. I was able to replace my mom's tomatoes last weekend that got infected by a virus because I had plenty of seedlings.

I often stagger because I can not have enough space ready at the right time. I think we all stagger in one way or another and I have never heard anyone complain about it. You can often extend the harvest that way.

Larry

Thank you so much!!! I came back to post another question I remembered and was so glad to see your answers! I guess I will keep planting for the next couple of weekends.. I really would like to see success this year.

I'm not an "expert gardener" like several on this forum are who I hope chime in. I'm an "experienced gardener" here in my soil and my semi arid climate. I garden more by what I see, feel in my bones and from what successes and failures have taught me.

In theory staggered planting times will mean staggered maturity times. But many factors have an influence on what actually happens. Germination times are affected by soil temps and moisture levels. When planting early I've seen germination times take 2 weeks or longer and seeds planted a little later germinate in 5-7. Early plants many times will grow slower due to cooler soil and air temps. Those planted later will germinate and take right off. One way I handle it many times is I don't plant another planting of a crop till the previous one has germinated. �nd if early and the plants are growing slow I may wait a few extra days. I stagger corn plantings many years due to the different types. And have learned early in the season to give plenty of time between plantings or I will have them all maturing at once. And here in our region no two years are the same so that is where I tend to go by my gut feeling. I take soil temps, watch air temps especially the early morning temps and then observe germination and growth rates to decide when to plant again. If you are just stagger planting the same variety then it isn't as critical. You may end up with a big harvest at once and then a lean period but otherwise you will be ok. There is no exact science to it as far as I'm concerned. As an old farmer I worked for always told me. "I will tell you the right planting dates this fall after harvest." I believe in stagger plantings. I even stagger my tomato planting times. This year I'm gambling with some very early plantings and then will plant some through mid June for fall production. In a normal year(if there is a normal year here) my fall plants will usually be my heaviest producers. So my opinion is too try different planting dates and see what works best for you. And what works best this year may not next year. Jay

Brenda,

Jay is one of our most expert gardeners. Do not be fooled by his modesty!

I agree with Jay.

Staggered plantings in my garden sometimes do give a harvest that is spread out more over time, but often the plants that were planted later will catch up with earlier plants because the later plants have warmed soil and warmer air temps than the earlier ones did.

For what it is worth, I always "hold" a lot of backup tomato plants and pepper plants in case a storm destroys the ones in the ground. That gives me peace of mind at least through the end of April when I give away the backup plants. That's my best strategy for overcoming storm damage----just having extra plants for replanting at least up through a certain point in time. When gardening in a climate as erratic as ours, all you can do is put out your best effort and hope the weather is kind to you.

Sometimes despite your best efforts the staggered plantings all produce simultaneously. I like to grow 2 or 3 kinds of corn, staggering the planting times significantly, so the corns all are not pollinating at the same time. When I have tried to stagger the plantings by timing, often the late plants catch up with the early ones even if they are seeded 3 or 4 weeks apart. So, now when I stagger corn plantings, I wait until the early corn is silking and then plant the late corn, which makes it impossible for them to cross-pollinate one another.

Gardening is part science, part art, and your results can vary highly from one year to another or even from one month to another. I always think a person should trust their instincts and do what "feels" right regardless of what anyone else does or what the experts say to do. Sometimes what feels right to me is to do something that directly opposes what the experts say, so I go ahead and do it...and don't regret it because following my instincts tends to pay off. Clearly if I try something and it fails, my instincts likely won't tell me to try it again the next year.

Dawn

I stagger some things too, most notably sugar snap peas and corn, but also early salad veggies, lettuce and radishes especially. This year, inspired by Dawn I sowed my first tomato seed in early Jan and the rest in late Feb. So right now I have a few tomatoes set on those early plants and lots of bloom on others, and much smaller later plants.

Thank you again... I was wondering about the harvest part also. Without weather conditions, it would seem that I could harvest once per week, but I was wondering if the temperatures would simply slow one and speed another. I have been perusing your forum and have learned a LOT so far. Gardening in Oklahoma seems a bit more tricky that most of the other places I have lived, but it makes it a bit more competitive for me.
As I said, last year was such an abysmal failure all the way around for me, that this year, I just keep going out there and adding things in the hope that I get a few home grown morsels..

I can not extend my harvest to one day a week. I check my garden every day, and after harvest starts some plants like okra will need to be picked every day or two. The harvest will slow on most summer crops when the weather starts turning cool.

Larry

I planted peas on a trellis, then waited until I saw them breaking through the ground before I planted the next trellis. Right now they are the same size and look like they could have been planted the same day. Sometimes staggering gives you staggered harvest, and sometimes the weather interferes with you plans and they all come on at once anyway.

Scrapbetter,

Last year was a very tough year for gardeners in Oklahoma and several surrounding states. That kind of extreme heat and extreme drought, particularly in combination, affected the production of everyone's gardens. Every year will not be as extreme. Some years we have the extreme heat but not the extreme drought, or vice versa. Some years we have flooding rainfall. Some years we have fairly good rainfall all summer long. The weather here is prone to extreme behavior and we just have to deal with it the best we can.

The most important thing about Oklahoma weather that someone pretty new to gardening here needs to know is that it is extremely critical to get some warm-season crops planted as early as possible so they can produce a harvest before the onset of hot temperatures adversely affects pollination and fruitset. Tomatoes are the most common garden veggie hurt by the high temps here, but corn that's planted too late and which is subjected to very high temps while pollinating often forms poorly filled ears, and beans will drop blossoms once the temps are too hot for them. I've learned that when gardening here, the earlier I can plant (within reason), the better the yield.

Plants in my garden are a lot like Carol's in that later plantings often catch up with earlier ones. I succession sow something almost every week so I have "more" of any given thing coming along right behind the ones planted earlier.