The wind is whipping it up here now after getting another 1.25" of rain overnite. Waiting for the rain to switch over into snow for a while before temps drop into the upper teens by Sunday morning. That will toast the one blooming plum tree for sure. Will cover the broc/cabbage transplants before sundown and keep fingers crossed. Looks like a sunny 60's expected all next week.

It's snowing here and pretty heavily. Over an inch on the ground already and the temp is holding steady at 32 degrees right now. Plus, the winds are kicking up. During the night is was sleeting.

Jack - The weather guessers were right this time, surprisingly.

The guessers said we were to get 2-4". But we were near the 3-6" band. Officially we got 8 inches, I see a definite 6 or 7 inches lookin out the window.

I dug up an apple rootstock out of my nursery bed and cut a couple Golden Delicious scions for my neighbor. He had bought an auto cutter to make the grafting cuts. so I made sure he had some material to work with.

Good luck in the snow belt friends.

^^^ Thx, may need it tonight Len. Our predicted "dusting" amounted to 2" of powder, just enough to cover the spinach with a blanket from the 18F tonight. I got the young brocs and cabbages covered with styrofoam caps and various buckets but it's a gamble I took planting them last week when it was 70F, nyuk. Just glad I haven't yet re-mounted the hose reels.

Our low is predicted to be 16 tonight. Right now it's 24 degrees.

According to the local news we got 3.8" of snow here. Hopefully, this is the last time it will snow this season.

It bottomed out at 20F here, will be uncovering the transplants in a little while as temps rise into the 40's. The snow covered spinach is most likely a-ok but the broc/cabbages? Fingers crossed....The daffodils, Forsythia, and plum blooms are surely saying bye-bye till next year.

Wish you luck with the baby plants vgkg! My Forsythia buds are starting to swell but probably a couple weeks yet to blooming.

The snow is melting fast here. Some melted with yesterday's sun even though it barely got above freezing and it stayed in the mid 30s overnight which helped. 60F today and all week before it dips a little and rains on Friday. I hope they guessed wrong on the rain because I plan to plant out my DD onion starts next weekend and want to till the beds beforehand. Might have to put some plastic over the beds before it rains.

As Gomer would say "Surprise & Golly," it looks like all plants survived ok, the broc/cabbage are smiling today, hopefully it's not a frozen smile but I'll know for sure this coming week. Even the plum blossoms are looking perfectly normal but it may be too soon to tell. The plum blossoms were covered with a layer of light snow overnite so maybe they were protected? I let the transplants get about 6 hours of sunlight today before just now covering them again, predicted temp tonite ~30F and the winds have picked up late in the day here so they need a break from that punishment too.

Add to that I cheated again, went to Home Depo today and saw they had tomato plants for sale.....say wwwhattt? So naturally I bought 1 plant, at 8 leaf stage. It's a Park's Whopper (only one I liked). Usually it's around Apr 1st when I buy a couple of heirlooms at HD to nurture indoors before planting out in May.

Yikes! Here it is nearly the middle of the month and I have not posted in this group. That is possibly because I haven't done much relating to gardening. I DID get my peas planted on March 3rd, only a couple day's 'late'. Yesterday I was curious about how they're doing, so I carefully dug around in a couple rows and found that they are working at putting down that initial root. Yay! I've got to get potatoes in the ground this week before I'm away from the garden for a week.

I spread some nitrogen on the strawberry bed and the garlic bed back on the day I planted peas. Hopefully that was the right timing.

I long for retirement so I have more time for everything!

Margi thanks for the heads up...I need to get some blood meal out there on garlic! I sowed more tomatoes in 6 packs yesterday for the outside beds. The ones for hoop house are growing like mad with about a month to go before transplant. Peppers are still tiny but most have sprouted. I did have a few failures so have put more seeds into plastic bags in paper towels, hopefully to get them going. Some of those seeds are kind of old so maybe not happening.

Happy pi day!

My gardens are still covered with snow and the ground is frozen. It will be a few days until I can work on them.

Going to plant my tomato seeds today, indoors.

Good to see you Margi. Your timing for fertilizing the garlic was spot on. I fertilized mine about the same time. I'll fertilize it again in a couple weeks.

All of our snow melted yesterday except for some piled next to the driveway and that should be gone today.

I am going into the office tomorrow and will pick up my onions on the way home. I made a note to cover the onion beds before it rains on Thursday and Friday so I don't have to plant the DD onions into mud.

Jack - Let us know what you paid for DD onion starts. No one here sells them, no one here knows what onion starts even are. You ask at a garden center they think you're talking about onion sets.

Has anyone pulled the little bulbs on scallions after cutting some greens and then drying the bulbs and replant in the late summer for fall scallions.

John - they were selling the DD onions for $3.25 a bunch this year. IIRC they were $2.95 last year. They got their DD shipment in on March 5 and by yesterday they were running out. They were out of both Candy and Red Candy onions that I usually grow. I ended up getting one bunch each of Superstar, Red Zeppelin, Patterson, and one just labeled sweet red salad onion.

Jack - That's an excellent price. I would have to pay DD $14.75 for one bunch, much of which goes to shipping. Their best price is $105 for 30 bunches which is $3.50 per bunch. So your seller is providing them as a service, I guess....... So far I haven't ordered any bulb onions as I'm on the fence.

Need to get into the garden today, maybe finish the "to be" lettuce beds. We called about mushroom compost. The only seller that will dump off my driveway still doesn't have any for sale. My concern is I need to spread out the digging over as many days as possible. But I want to use leaf mulch for the lettuce so I'm OK for today.

Yeah John, I don't think they are making much if any money on the onions but I do think they get them for less than $3.50/bunch. They send their own truck down to Texas to pick them up at DD farm and they buy hundreds of cases. Usually they make 2 trips a year but this year the owner's son said they were only doing one trip. I'm glad I didn't wait any longer to buy mine. He said they would be sold out by this weekend.

They also did not have as many seed potato varieties as usual. I only saw 5 varieties. And the price of Promix went up from $40 to $47 a bale. I still have about 3/4 bale left from last year so didn't have to buy any this year. Sungold tomato seeds also went up to $3.99 for 10 seeds. I figure that's about $0.0005 per tomato so still not too bad.

You get 4 bunches for what it costs me for 1 bunch. And they're the same product!

I did finish digging the leaf mulch into the lettuce bed. I have enough dug for four 9 foot rows and 5 varieties, all leaf lettuce. I also hand shredded some radish seed pods hanging on the fence. They're probably frozen but I'll plant some later that were stored in the house over winter.

Jack I can't get Promix BX here this year at any price.  They have a new product that is ok but pricey at of all places Home Depot.

Another rainy morning here, just a light rain. My peas are starting to break ground now and the broc/cabbage transplants still appear to be ok after the big dip down to 20F last week. Even the plum tree blossoms appear to have survived ok as the mason bees, asst bumble type bees, and even some honey bees were all over the blooms yesterday. We'll see if the fruits set once the blooms drop. The pear trees are starting to bloom now too.

My experiment with the spinach shows no difference between the mushroom composted and the my composted rows after 2 weeks, will see how it goes. I should be picking the first spinach in a day or two. The new spinach seed that was planted 2 weeks ago is now up so it'll be interesting to see how the 2 separate plantings (one last Nov) compare with production and later bolting times. As I was weeding the spinach there were dozens of tiny ground spiders racing all around the plants, a welcome sight to see.

Moved bok Choi out to garden today,  aspabroc needs a bit more growth.

Len - I had to look up: aspabroc. New one on me.

Leah introduced me to aspabroc and I had A small fall crop This is good for me because I can't grow Broccoli after many tries. We will see how these babies do in the summer.

Len - I've grown aspabroc a few times. As long as you keep harvesting it will keep producing in your area I think. You will need 6-8 plants to get a meal sized amount every few days. You can plant them much closer together than broccoli. Maybe 8-9" apart.

I just potted up my 12 broccoli plants on day 12.

I set out my Dixondale onions today. Also planted some sugar snap peas and a row of gladiolus. Yesterday I started some seeds indoors.

Below is today's pic of our fall planted spinach (test row) of which I will be picking today for dinner. 3 weeks ago the left side of the row was treated with mushroom compost, the right side with my homemade compost. So far I see no advantage using the mushroom compost, I'll update this pic again closer to bolting time.

vgkg - that spinach is looking good! Enjoy your dinner!

Yesterday I planted ~180 Dixondale onions in two 4'x8' beds. 4 rows per bed with about 22 or 23 in each row spaced 4" apart. I had enough left over to plant another ~100 over in a friend's garden.

I think my peppers are done sprouting after 15 days since sowing. I got 42/48 and the only variety that wasn't 100% was a orange bell that was only 3 for 9 which is not very good unless you are a baseball player. Need to put orange bell on my 2023 seed need list.

It's about to start raining here and will continue until sometime Wednesday. That should water in the onions well and dissolve the granulated 13-13-13 I mixed in the soil.

I'm going to start my tomatoes sometime next week. I don't want them to get too big this year.

Len, the aspabroc should do really well for you, I grew it all summer and it's certainly warmer here (especially last summer!). I set out fourteen plants on Tues, it was such a lovely warm day, hoping for an early harvest.

I finally started some lettuce and spinach, then I started some more lettuce-it never seems like too much, until it is. Snap peas are growing well, I'm trying two new-to-me varieties this year.

Richard, how are you doing? I wish you would check in, since your diagnosis last year I think of you.

Here we go again, temps are predicted to dip into the upper 20's by Mon & Tues mornings here. The cool weather crops can handle it ok but the blooming fruit trees could be hurt if the temps are below freezing for too many hours. Once this cold snap is over I'll then plant the carrot and beet seeds outside. Right now the broc & cabbage transplants are doing great, the peas look very good as well as the lettuce which is popping up now. The spinach (fall planted) needs picking every 3rd day now so we're eating and freezing the excess.

Good luck VGKG! I don't want to see any frost here now with peach trees having bud break!

These tomatoes sown February 9 are having their last dose of indoor lighting. I have been taking outside for hardening over the past several days. Most will be planted out in hoop house this weekend; the balance will need to be potted up to 1 gal and kept in greenhouse until it is warm enough to plant outside.

Same here, vgkv. I'm most concerned about my peach tree blossoms. 21 degrees predicted for Monday night.

Ouch Cindy 21 ! Two nites in a row at 28F here just might do in my peaches, plums, & pears, all of them now in full bloom or a little past it. The sweet cherry is at bud swell but the apples, persimmons, figs, and pomegranate trees are still all dormant. The Blueberries are almost at blooming stage too but we're hoping for the best. Very Windy here today, surprised the power didn't go out (yet). Luckily the trees here are still leafless. Good luck to all in this cold snap zone!

Tonight - 24 degrees, tomorrow night - 20, and Tuesday night - 29.

Not looking good for the fruit trees.

My grandson absolutely loves my peaches. I hope some of them survive, though it's looking doubtful.

I think I'm fairly safe here. Last night and tonight was predicted for 19 and 20°. Fruit trees haven't gotten past swelling buds. Only thing up is garlic. Lettuce, radishes, and scallions haven't sprouted yet. What has sprouted, today, is my tray of tomatoes. Just started popping their elbows up out the ground today. I did some grafting this past week and have a lot more to go. Still not sure if all of last years grafts made it over winter. Those were the 4 cider apples and 4 antique "Delicious" apples. This year i bought one scion; an Ashmead's Kernel and I need to graft a cutting from my dwarf Rome apple onto a semi large rootstock as it ripens late October so I think it'd make a good candidate to supply sweet apples which is the majority of what goes into hard cider. I have rootstocks in a nursery bed.

I forgot to say. It snowed much of yesterday, but nothing laid. Overnight we go a coating, which hasn't all melted today.

My updated temps are now 27 & 25F so I did cover the one fruit tree possible (all the others are too big). A young peach I planted 2 years ago is just 5' tall and in full bloom. I already had it caged up for deer protection and now the cage is covered by blankets and bungee cords. Might work? I'm mostly worried about the pears and blueberries.

Meanwhile I picked another load of spinach today for supper and freezing, it won't be bolting anytime soon with these temps. There may be some severe weather hitting the state on Thursday, ugh.

I saw that, vgkg. They are already hyping Thursday’s forecast. Weather guy also said it’s very unusual for them to be cautioning people this far out.

They dropped the predicted low for tonight to 19 degrees. And there could be flurries. Last night it was 28 so not as low as predicted. The temperatures today are already dropping though. Was up to 40 and is now 37, at 2:30pm.

Urg.

ETA: Make that 36 degrees now.

Our low temp was 29F so not as bad as predicted here either Cindy, tonite should be 2-3 degrees lower. The present temp is 50F @ 4:30pm so that might help slow the drop. The fruit trees appear to be ok today, that's the 2nd freeze for the plums so they may be goners by tomorrow. I really need another week to determine overall damage to the fruits. Will re-cover the young peach again tonite, hopefully for the last time. The winds have been wicked for 3 days now, poor young broc/cabbages are like sails in the wind out there. The 3 indoor store bought tomato plants are looking happy, got a couple of sweet banana plants too for that jump on 1st picks.

The highest I saw was 21° this afternoon. Wednesday they're predicting 72°. 51° difference over two days! Lots of tomatoes are sticking their elbows up toward the light.

Good luck with the freezing weather: (

I planted tomatoes today in hoop house and really don't want any frost! https://youtu.be/UAkB06wnlKc

The weather certainly is nuts this year. We will get to the low 70s today with winds around 30 mph with gusts near 40. Rain tonight and tomorrow and then snow Thursday morning and a low of 28 Friday morning.

I hope everyone's fruit manage to survive somehow!

It was 14° last night and it got up to 40° this afternoon. Nice and sunny, perfect for digging semi composted leaves into my potato bed. Got 3.5' X 5' dug up.

It dropped down to 23F this morning but things seem to be ok. The plums are most likely shot but will know about the pears, peaches, and blueberries by next week. All the veggies look ok too (lettuces, brocs, cabbages, spinach, and peas). The brocs/cabbages are wind weary but should recover ok. Predicted to drop to 34F tonite. I watered everything for a refreshing boost. Next rain is on Thursday, maybe stormy?

Just like oklahoma weather.

But now we're having to start worrying about tornados.

Okie HU

Only down to 29 overnight. Some snow/rain early this morning but the temp is now up to 39 so no big deal.

Jack - Did you have nasty weather overnight?

Cindy - we had thunderstorms and high winds overnight but nothing nearly as severe as what they are predicting for the mid south today.

I need to prep a bed for my broccoli this weekend so hopefully we will stay dry until I can get that done. I'll start hardening off the plants on Friday.

I still have a dozen or so peppers to pot up and need to start my tomatoes this weekend too.

I just counted 13 deer walking across the field behind my house. There seem to be more around than ever and it won't be long until they start having even more!

71° and sunny so I put the pepper and tomato seedlings out on the porch for 15 minutes or so.

I dug up two semi-dwarf M-111 apple rootstocks and grafted a purchased Ashmeads Kernel and a Rome apple that I freshly cut off my dwarf tree.

March 31, 2022

I managed to get a wheelbarrow load of a nice compost out of three piles and am digging that into the potato plot. I'm glad I didn't graft to in ground plants yesterday as today is really windy. There were tornado warnings to the north that, thankfully, didn't touch down. Hail the size of a penny. but we missed all that.

April's thread:

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6250850/veggie-tales-april-1-2022#n=2