There go the tomatoes...
 

Planted my 'maters on Friday.

This morning, it's snowing. Power outages, car wrecks - and lots of dead gardens. An inch on the ground right now, but that's enough to kill 'maters.

Oh well, that's Utah.

We may...or may not... be a little more lucky than that. It looks like a really, really wet snow, which would be at about 32 F. We might have missed losing the garden by a degree or two. Or not.

I'm a little bit higher than you, denton. Bench temps may only be a degree or two colder than yours, but....

All I know is: I've been looking for the receipt for those "guaranteed" plants.

Re: There go the tomatoes...
 

Man that is a rough way to go. I got mine planted finally two nights ago, I feel like I am running so late getting the garden in this year. Normally I have it in by the 20 - 30th of April.

Good luck getting those plants replace :D

Uh huh. Our average last frost date is May 15. But there's always such a rush to buy the most popular tomato type (Celebrity) that there are hardly any left on shelves by May 1.

I found exactly one left in a large garden store on May 6. I decided to plant five different varieties this year to see if any of them is as good as Celebrity. Naturally, it was the lone Celebrity plant that died first! Broken right over - must've been hit by a lump of snow falling from a power line.

I can replace the others, but I doubt I'll find another Celebrity plant this year. So no "control" plant in my experiment, I guess.

Gratsilfligulwapingpalligumtion!

Rocky, Rocky, Rocky, I'm no gardener, but I think my fiance's uncle is on the right track. He starts growing his tomato plants indoors at the end of March/beginning of April. Should try doing the same thing and then planting them in the garden on May 15. Probably have a better chance of the plants surviving at that point.

Good luck.

Yeah Rocky Most people in out area, So. MD as Fabs said don't put out the plants until the 15th, the early birds put out on Mother's day weekend ( the week before) I normally stick my neck out and plant in late April. Every Year it has paid off. I normall have to go out 1 or 2 nights around 11:00 pm and water everything down because of the light frost warning. But I normally always get a vine ripe tomato by July 4th.

I put in 4 varieties, Rutgers, Marglobe, Better Boy and Roma. Rutgers and Marglobe are great slicing tomatos, nice and round with little to no hard core. Bette boys are bigger and sometimes odd shaped but work well for salsa, and Romas are great for sauces and canning. I am almost done planting all my seed. Hope to be done tonight.
the list includes
Tomato
Cukes
Peppers Green bell, sweet wax and Jalepeno
radishes
turnips (mostly for the greens)
Squash ( yellow crook neck, zuchinni, and Patty Pan)
Green Beans
Watermelon
Canteloupe
Corn
Lettuce
Sunflowers
Potatos
I think that is it this year.
Well anyway good luck on your tomato and the rest of the garden.
I'll post a picture of the first vine ripe on I get. :D

My garden is small, and borders a fence with a tree the other side of it - and that's the south side. So there isn't much room or sun.

I manage to get sugar pod peas, lettuce, radishes, spinach, a few pole beans, herbs and tomatoes out of it. This year, I tried one plant each of Celebrity (my favorite), Better Boy, Red Beefsteak, Yellow Pear and Roma varieties.

I'm already eating the spinach, lettuce and radishes, and the edible pod peas are almost ready to set blossoms. Good stuff.

I usually get one or two tomatoes by mid-July, but the bulk of them don't come in until mid-August. Last year, I was still picking a few (still not frost killed) after Halloween!

When it's all done, I pull up everything, spread the summer's compost and till it in, then sow the spinach. It comes up and just bides its time under all the snow until spring, then POW!.

A little change of strategy on our garden-- put in lots and lots of the new jumbo blackberries, plus a bunch of raspberries, including a new "mammoth" variety. Can't hardly kill the durn things, but can't keep ahead of the grandkids when it comes to picking them, either.

There is a new blackberry that gives plum size fruit... wife vetoed it, since the thorns are directly interchangeable with a K98 bayonet.

As I gaze out my window I see plenty of snow and more coming.

I can't tell yet how many of my tomatoes are going to pull through. By this time, I would expect the dead ones to be black, and laying on the ground. Some of them are dark green in a few places, and peculiar looking, but definitely not black. A few look like they weathered fairly well.

Blackberries and raspberries... what snow? Fresh sliced raspberries on your hamburger???

'maters
 

I'm with Rocky on the 'maters. Celebrity is my favorite also, same thing happened here. Mom's been down with a broken foot so I've been trying to get her garden in, was a little late with mine, all the Celebrity plants had been sold. Did manage to snag a few German pink, my wife likes those. The cold set some stuff back here but the cold wind hurt gardens the worst, wind burnt plants turn black the next day. Hope all y'all manage to salvage something, still a lot of growing season left.

PS check out a garden site,...gardenguides.com...I enjoy it a lot.

best to you and yours...
ears-

I can't believe it, but they might all make it - even the Celebrity plant that got clobbered and broken by a falling snow clump. I did go out and put buckets on them, but they already had two inches of snow on them at the time, so I didn't have much hope.

But when I pulled the buckets off yesterday, they were all limp but green. A day of sunshine and they are all perky again today. Unbelievable.

fellas i used to plant them as early as tax day around here NC blue ridge foothills my dad and i usually have a contest to see who gets the first red one off - reason i tell ya this - now i start mine out in a small greenhouse and transfer but i have figured out that unless someone grows in a pot and brings in at night - thats cheating by the way lol - everybody usually gets there first ones off at the same time - unless it stays warm at night the tomatoes wont grow and usually a cut worm or the wind breaks them off right at the top of the ground - so if you feed them good and plant after it starts warming up at night then you cant go wrong even if your neighbor gets the first red one- cold set is usually the first to turn here and that celebrity is hard to beat but if you like a good average tomato canning or sandwich then the old tried and true marglobe is the one for taste -have had trouble finding them in the last few years but for seeds i found a lot of old varieties here www.rhshumway.com and rocky buddy i dont know how i would ship them to ya but if you need some plants you cant find let me know - i will be more than glad to send ya whatever you needed - that would make me smile - i know it can be done because gurneys and others ship plants somehow - i usually plant a dozen or so varieties then a couple new ones just to see how they are - gardening i guess is my second hobbie right under punching paper

...callin' for frost here tonight...

Many thanks, scooter! For a desert, we have a surprising number of nurseries and such in Utah. If I call around, I can almost always find examples of just about anything.

Marglobe, huh? I'll try that one some time.

Finally got my tomatoes in today (5/15). What a crazy winter. I usually have the tomatoes in by mid/late April using "walls of water". Not this year! Also planted corn, green beens, spinach, lettuce, cucumber, watermelon, and several varities of squash. Might plant some beets in the next couple of days.
muledeer

Just built another fire in the wood stove.
 

Possible frost tonite and tomorow nite.

I learned long ago not to plant my tomatoes untill after the traditional Memorial day. That hasn't always worked either. We had 21* on the 10th of June one year.

It even froze the new growth on the Chriistmas trees in the plantations. It took 3 years to get the trees back on track for harvest.

Wolvie does it like this,...
 

I usually don`t plant outside until around June 1st or the 1st week of June.
The weather around here (The Adirondacks) is so wishy washy you never really know whats coming from the Ohio Valley or the Great Lakes region.

I planted seeds about 3 weeks ago in the garden itself,.....and I am seeing some green popping up already.

I have a very rich soil,......I add manuer and peat moss in the fall and till it once before winter and twice after the snow melts.I also put in fertilizer(Miracle Grow),during the non growing season and then regular apps when the plants are growing.

I usually end up with so much produce that I send some to the local soup kitchens and so on.
Or I invite people over to pick what they will use and NOT waste,.....whatever is left the women in the family start canning.
This year i am trying my hand at WaterMelon,.....I LOVE WATER MELON,....YUMMMY!!!

By the way last year I had a 150 lb pumpkin,.....it killed my carrots,...lolol
The groundhogs had a hand in keeping my lettuce from being harvested.

Later All
SAFE HUNTIN~
&
HAPPY PLANTING

When most places ship them now a days they use that goopy stuff that you get out of a baby diaper. It sucks in the moisture and holds it in for days. When I bought field plants the past couple years they put that stuff around the roots, wet it and wrapped in brown paper. keep plant wet for a couple days (long enough to ship)