I'm so sorry to hear your story. I hope most of your plants make it. A couple years ago we had a similar situation when temps dropped to 33 over night on May 13. Our LFD is April 30. I only had 12 plants and was able to wrap them in frost cloth the night before. They all seemed fine the next day.

Glad to hear about your success. The low got to 31 last night and all the plants are fine... but the real test will be in four nights when they are forecasting lows of 27!

NC,.. I think you should cover/protect your plant if it dips to 27F. I wouldn't want to do a test. Tooo risky.

Sey

No testing being done here Sey! The cover will be on for sure Sat. night.

Here is my day 2 plant out.

Planted 4 dark varieties::

== Black From Tula

== Cherokee Purple

== Indian Stripe

== Daniel Burson.

So this is another competition bed. I have grown BFT and CP in the past. I am happy w/ BFT for productivity. But CP has been a poor performer in my garden. Will I.S. replace it ? We shall see in July.

Anybody else planting out ?

Sey

I might try a few in eartboxes this weekend.

Apparently it was 89 today, 54 tonight (leaving my seedlings out!), but back to 49 at night for the next week, along with a little much anticipated rain.

Will you leave the black plastic on this summer?

Looking good Sey. I have two Indian Stripes this year too. I've never grown them before.

nanelle_gw (usda 9/Sunset 14)(9/Sunset 14)

I might try a few in eartboxes this weekend.

.........................

Will you leave the black plastic on this summer?

_________________________________

nanelle, I will remove the plastic late June. Our normal warm season won't begin until some time in July.I want to build up soil temperature, 65 -70F is optimum. . Right now it is about 50F.

NC.., I have read a lot of good reviews on I.S. They say it is more productive, smaller fruits, same C.P. taste

Sey

I live in USDA 5B, according to Davesgarden website, by zip code, my last frost date is May 10, around Mother's day. However, I will start bring my seedlings outside for couple hours when weather is above 45F (under cover). I plan to pot up seedlings one more time to half gallon/gallon size pots before transplant them to the ground eventually. My seedlings are doing very good this year and I'm afraid they become too big to keep indoor for a long time. Ideally, I would keep them in bigger pots outside during the day and inside at night. By the time when they are ready to be transplanted, they should be well established.

Sey, I'm wondering how do you water your plants with the black plastic on. Do you have irrigation system under the plastic film? I want to use the plastic film to warm up my soil, but I don't have drip system in my bed. I guess that will be a problem.

Julla, I hand water them with watering can for a while. Right now for a month or so they need very little water. Later I water with real gentle shower hear.

I will have about 30 plants in bed and about 10 in pots. So it does not take a lot of time. Come late Jun, I will remove the plastic and mulch with pine bark mulch. The I water the whole bed real well with shower heat , about once a week.

Sey

Little Update:

Today I planted 5 in one raised bed:

== 2 siletz

== 2 Willamette

== 2 Oregon Spring

They are are determinate, bred by OSU for PNW climate.

And I planted 2 Silvery Fir Tree in pots. . I have 4 more beds plus 6 more pots to go. A total of 26 more plants.

Sey

"Later I water with real gentle shower hear."

"The I water the whole bed real well with shower heat ,"

I don't understand "shower hear", and "shower heat". Is that "autocorrect" shenanigans?

I started lamenting that I had started my seeds too late when we had a really warm spell mid-March. But now we're due for snow in a couple of days. Goes to show that going conservative pays off during the wildly fluctuating spring weather of the NE. I doubt I'll chance planting out before the usual time, which would be some time around May 1, given a LFD in mid-April. Of course, we don't face the same pressures as PNW gardeners.

We've had snow flurries twice this week in the Ohio River valley, with more predicted along with lows in the mid-20s over the next few days. According to the local weather forecaster, there haven't been temperatures this low at this time of year since the early 1980s. Just two weeks ago the 10-day forecast called for above average temps. Just because there's been a lot of warmer than usual weather this winter and early spring, don't count on it continuing.

nanelle_gw (usda 9/Sunset 14)(9/Sunset 14)

"Later I water with real gentle shower hear."

"The I water the whole bed real well with shower heat ,"
I don't understand "shower hear", and "shower heat". Is that "autocorrect" shenanigans

_______________________

Sorry ! just a type.

I meant shower HEAD on the watering wand. Auto correct could not detect that.

Sey

Sey, thank you for the explanation. We have a lots of rain here in Spring. I seldom water my plants when the bed is uncovered. So, if I cover my bed with black plastic, I may have to water my plants by hands just like you. Now I'm debating if i should cover my bed for possible early plant out date or keep the bed as is and hold back until early May.

Good news, my local weather sees a big improvement from next Thursday. If the weather keeps this nice, I may have an early plant out date without doing the bed.

Alright . I am back.

I took a short weekend trip to Portland (Sat & Sun.).

Tomorrow I will resume my plant out. After a few days of heat wave ( up to 87F), now it is back down to 60's which is still above April historic averages. The night lows are good : ~ 44-45F.

Sey

Status Report.

I am about 60% planted out. So far planted out about 26 .

Tomorrow is going to be a better day. So i will probably do another 30%. I don't want to rush. My plants in the pots are doing fine and growing slowly too.

My Big Beef (planted on 4/5/16) showing some buds and it is growing. Thats great.

How are you guys are doing ?

Sey

My 45 plants are starting to stand proud again, after being battered by the frost protection plastic covering they were under for 4.5 days. I am starting to hang my jute twine @ three per plant. Today I drenched my garden with Actinivate to try to fight off the Fusarium that I had last year. A lot of the plants have flowers already.

That is good news, NC.., Tomato plants are resilient.

I will end up close to 40 plants, about 10 in containers and the rest in RB.

I do not have soil borne issues here. Have you tried to graft onto certain hybrids like Big Beef ?

Sey

I just don't have the time for all that, Sey. I will end up with 70 tomatoes and about 50 peppers along with all the other normal garden veggies. I added a lot of compost this year, will be using even more beneficial fertilizers and staying away from ammonia based fertilizers, all in an effort to fight off the Fusarium. The added compost is primarily for dilution purposes. You know what they say..."The solution to pollution, is Dilution".

I have been managing about 50 tomato and pepper plants in four inch pots, under two sets of lights, and some going outside during the day, in at night. Remote thermostats monitoring each site. Sheesh. This is when I (and others) start to question my sanity.

I am planning to give a bunch away on Friday, pot up remaining tomatoes into quart or gallon pots this weekend, and plant out in two weeks.

I would LOVE to limit my self to one of each tomato variety this year, but then think what if one dies? What if I REALLY like one I only have one of?

I can not bring myself to grow only one plant of any variety except for my cherries and my annual trial plants. Other than those exceptions I at least do two of each variety and some of my favorites get 3 or 4 plants.

One of the most difficult times of the season is when I am sowing seeds...

Sigh. You are not helping.

Okay, maybe you are. What are "annual trial plants"? I think my eight "dwarfs" are trials.

I have two years of seed sowing recovery.

NC, you don't need to graft. Just purchase seed of Fusarium resistant varieties. Some varieties have resistance to multple races of Fusarium. Some of varieties were developed in your back yard by Dr. Randy Gardner. But he also set the grafting frenzy in motion.

30*F now in my front yard. I planted cherry/grape varieties and a few beefsteak varieties yesterday into high tunnel. Today I'll finish the 74 varieties that are waiting to go into soil. I'm a week behind my revised schedule. A few years ago I would plant them in early March but that resulted in a month of nights with little sleep.

Sey, this is the first year in many years that Big Beef will not be my predominant variety planted. I have 32 BB plants in tunnel and 36 Big Dena. Leaf Mold resistance was a deciding factor.

Nanelle, I trial at least 5 new varieties every year. If they seem promising, I will keep them for good. I'll usually keep one of these trials around for the next season.

Barrie, where do I find this guys list of fusarium resistant varieties? I've been reluctant to fdo this, because i like heirlooms and I like to grow the varieties that I have experience with. I am also speaking to a company in New Zealand right now in regards to a drench of beneficial fungi that supposedly will kill of the fusarium.

Starting this past Monday, it cooled off a bit and has been lightly rainy and cloudy. I planted additional 4 in one of the beds. I am holding off til Saturday when high is forecast at 68F. And it will follow 8 days of nice n warm weather., with night lows getting into 50's. I've got about 15 more plants to be planted out.

Sey

I don't have a reference to a specific list of Fusarium resistant varieties but all Mountain series are from NC State and looking at seed catalogs like Johnny's Mt. Fresh Plus(f2), Mt. Merit(f3) and Mr. Magic(f3)- where f2 indicates resistance to Fusarium races 1 & 2 and f3= 0,1 & 2 races.

The problem you have with the heirloom varieties that you like to grow is that you are vulnerable to Fusarium losses.Dr. Gardner specifically mentioned about that problem in the southern states years ago when he was promoting grafting. If the beneficial fungi drench product works that would be great.

Here's a guide which contains a list of selected disease resistant varieties... Tomato Wilt problems

I had an interesting experiment this year. In the early spring I bought a soil warming cable and I put it under a small bed and planted some tomatoes and peppers in the bed. There was a small tunnel made to keep them warm. It was in the beginning of March. Tomatoes and peppers did surprisingly well, so I planted out more tomatoes in the bed. In the middle of March during the freeze the soil warming cable stopped working. Some of my plants had frozen tops and from now on they had to grow in the tunnel without warming support. We had several more freezing nights and many nights when temperatures were below 40s. The plants did not grow well and they did show signs of stress. Still I wanted to keep them going because I was curious and I had an extra plants in the basement. Along the way I learned several tricks how to care about the plants in this situation. Finally, after all freezing weather we have very warm nights in 50s (!) so the tomatoes and peppers were planted out on their permanent spots yesterday. After all that they were through they were completely hardy and did not need any hardening at all. Our LFD is April 27 by the way, but the weather is way warmer than it should be.

On the picture above you can see how the plants looked yesterday when I planted them out. Below picture is how they looked in the middle of March.

Antmary, I am definitely considering trying that next year!

My tomatoes are still small. Plant out in 3 weeks.

Not too many... still have cans and cans of sauce and frozen tomatoes that hasn't been eaten. My wife can't eat them. :(

I made up for it with extra peppers and tomatoes. Making roasted red pepper sauce and eggplant meatballs and veggie burgers.

" Keep your head cool and your feet warm !". George Bernard Shaw

That applies pretty much to tomato plants. They don't mind cool air ( as long as they don't freeze) but need warm soil. That is why I cover my beds with black plastic two months before plant out.

Anther trick. First the picture:

As seen above, on plant out day I dug 4 holes about 8" deep, 6" in diameter (one per plant), Spread the soil over the plastic, in sun for several hours until it get up to 65F.

NOTE : the soil was already at 54F before that.

Take about half of the soil put in the bottom of the hole ; put the plant in an fill the hole with the remaining soil, around the plant.

In the meantime water was warming up in the watering can in the sun. Now I water the plants with lukewarm water. and then mulch around the plant to keep the heat in .

During the next few waterings , i do the same, warming the water. You can get warm water from your kitchen too.

This is keeping the plants' feet warm ;)

Sey

Welp, today I potted up all the tomatoes and eggplants that were started on 3/26. The peppers, started a little earlier on 3/15, I've been potting up as they get the 3rd set of real leaves. Everything is, please god, in the last pot it needs before I pull the trigger starting in mid May for the tomatoes and June for the peppers and eggplants.

Sigh. It all looked so manageable when I started, the whole tray of 72 peat pellets fit so neatly on the heat pad and under the lights. (Yes, I used the Jiffy pellets, I'm probably going to hell, but I've used them for years...) Now I have plants everywhere. I have space for all the peppers and most of the eggplants under lights, but the tomatoes are a different story. Some will go in bins to be brought outside during the day, some to a friend's solarium, and the rest to be determined...

It's snowed twice in the last two weeks, and night temps are still in the low/mid 30s, but we have a spate of days coming up with highs in the upper 60s/low 70s, so the end is in sight, if not quite in reach. Our next chance of snow isn't until Friday.

I have three gardens to populate this year, and have found a home for any extra plants, but so far it looks like I have work-related travel on three weekends in May in between my regular jobs, so this could be rather interesting.

Today (Monday) I was going to finish up my plant out. But it got so hot that I postponed it. How hot, You ask ? Over 90F. haha . Never imagined that high heat could be a problem, this early in the season.

My plants were droopy, even though the soil was moist. So I water them and they perked right up.

Tomorrow I might do it early in the morning. I am getting impatient. Have about 10 to go in the beds and a couple in the pots.

How is your plant out is coming along ?

Sey

I planted out most of mine last Thursday, April 14th. That's incredibly early but all of the forecast indicators told me to "go for it". And the weather has turned out to be even warmer than expected with several days in the 80's.

So I now have 37 of 42 tomato plants planted. I got a late start with my Black Cherries and Rutgers 250's, so they'll probably go out around the end of the month or very early May.

Way to go, Nitsua .

For me chance of frost Has been ZERO after April 5th. But usually we get cold weather (especially at nights) not so tomato friendly. But this year it has been exceptional. It feels like late May in mid April. Few of my plants have tiny buds. And most have increased in size by about 50%. That shows that the plants roots have grabbed the soil.

Sey

Over N Out

Today I finished my plant out . Feels good :)

By the last count I have planted :

== 31 in raised beds

== 11 in containers.

GRAND TOTAL OF 42 from 27 VARIETIES.

I have 2 more vacancy that I might try filling by store bought, if I find something that I really like.

I started my P/O on 4/5/16 , that is 2 weeks ago. Some of my early ones are about 14" tall and growing buds. It seems that I will make new record in getting the first ripe tomato this season. I did according to my plans but the weather co operated nicely.

HAPPY PLANT OUT !

Sey, the gardene(e)r.

I'll also have a grand total of 42 plants, however, consisting of only 23 varieties. 30 in raised beds, 4 in containers, and 8 in ground.

That's a lot of plants, but this is going to be one of those serious years for canning and replenishing the supply of quarts of tomatoes, salsa, and so on. The kitchen will be quite busy starting sometime in July.

Great , Nitsua. Where in MO are you. I have live in Joplin for a few year. That was quad state area (MO, OK, KS, AR)

Alright. Now have to work on my support system. Right now the plants are tied to thin bamboo stick.

East Central - northeast edge of the Ozarks. My Florida weave T-posts are all in. There are so many posts sticking out of the ground, my backyard looks like an antenna farm.

Thanks , Nitsua

Yeah, posts and tall stakes at this time don't look very pretty.

I am going to put 4 posts per bed ( about 5ft tall), one at each corner and make a rectangular wood box Each plant will also get a shorter stake to hold the main stem. Then I will run ropes to do some kind of weaving. It will be something like a giant cage.

I have lots of cedar lumber to use.

Sey

UPDATE:

No more plant out .hehe

I started PL on 5/5 and finished on 5/19/16.

The ones planted out on 4/5 are close to 3 ft tall and setting an more buds growing.. Here is a view of my garden on 5/16

Now is the time to support them . Preliminary stakes are in place but I will add structures like a box frame around each bed, kinda like a rectangular wooden cage.

Maybe some of you northerners out there are busy planting out. Good luck and have a happy one.

Please post your diaries here, if you like.

Sey

Here is my update:

Most of my tomatoes were seeded on March 8/9, except two (Parkers' CR improved whopper and nectar were on March 22). They were all planted out on the May 7. They are not very tall but with strong stems. Here is how they look today.

Parkers Whopper vs. Big Beef

Pink Brandywine vs. Nectar

Big Beef, Black Krim, Brandywine, Yellow Pear, Italian Ice, Nectar

I am so impressed how well the Parkers' whopper and nectar are doing. Whopper quickly catch up the other variety from the look and set a few flowers already. Nectar grow a bit leggy (maybe because of the cherry type) and are the first variety setting fruits.

My Big Beef has the first fruit today (even just a tiny one) !

Jull, your plants look very good.

And you have fruits, already !

But that is cherry type. I think they fruit early.

I,ll check mine today to see if any fruits have been set. Some flowers started about 2 weeks ago.

Sey

I planted my seeds March 15 and planted out on April 30 (our LFD). A week ago we broke a record with an overnight low of 33, but my plants were wrapped in frost cloth and seem OK. In the past week several fruits have formed including: Mortgage Lifter Estler (2), Anna Russian (4), Big Beef (2) and Bush Early Girl (8). The Bush Early Girl is only 18 inches high and already has eight fruits, two of which are larger than a golf ball. It is an improved version of EG that tastes decent and usually provides ripe tomatoes in about 50 days. Not as tasty as the others, but an early treat. This is a photo of Anna Russian with four fruits forming. It's about two feet high.

Today I pretty much finished planting out tomatoes. 6 plants in the raised beds, one in the wine barrel, one or two more in pots on the porch. The rest of the raised beds will be for peppers and eggplants in a week or two. Ignore the weeds; we've had a wet spring and everything that didn't come up last year is making up for it now. I would have started earlier, but the weather just is not cooperating. It's been unseasonably cold for most of May, with a few 80+ days thrown in here and there. Snow flurries last Friday. Cloudy and cool. I think I have your weather, Sey. Please take it back :)
Believe it or not, this week is the most favorable it's been all spring. So I went for it. Hopefully the plants will acclimate before this weekend when I'll be gone for 4 days and I can't keep an eye on them.

Planted my tomatoes outside this past Monday. Our average last frost date was May 15 but we have had two frosty nights since then. Glad I waited another week.

Happy Plant Out !

Glad to see the zone 4 gardeners are also planting out. Well, it is almost end of May.

Good luck to you all ! Have a very nice season !

Sey

Anybody not planted out yet ?

Just wondering !!

Well, I did plant out some tomatoes yesterday, but we can get a frost up to June 15. I checked the weather and there is no frost predicted for the next 10 days so I thought I would chance it but I did keep 16 plants as a back up.