I am always anxious to get my plants out as soon as possible and sometimes it is imperative given the contraints of the seasons. It is important to not get complacent after you have planted, particularly in the Spring. Most of us are aware of frost free dates and how they affect when you should plant. But as all of us should be well aware of, mother nature can be fickle.

The national weather service for my area publishes April 30th as the frost free date (10%). Note the 10%, that means that 10% of the time it will frost after April 30th. This is important because while 9 years out of 10 it will not frost after April 30th, sometimes it will. Technically, no one can officially publish a sure fire, never will happen frost free date because, lets face it, anything can happen. 10% is usually close enough. Therefore, I have a few suggestions during this critical period.

Keep an eye on the weather min and max predictions each day. By keeping an eye on the weather each day you may be able to save your plants from an early death. If the temperature is predicted to go below 40 degrees (F) then consider protecting your tender starts during the night.

Tender plants include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, corn, potatoes and others. If these plants are just a seed and have yet to germinate then I would not worry about a chilly night since the ground temp probably won’t freeze after your frost free date. But if the plant has green out then you can protect the plant with a hotcap (click to see picture). If the plant is a bit more sturdy then you can throw some thin plastic over the top, making sure to drape over the plant and secure so that the wind/air won’t blow right through or blow it away. Make sure to take it off in the morning before the sun gets too hot or you will burn your plants.

There are several other measure you can take, you just need to keep the temperature above freezing around the plant so that it won’t die. You do not need to do this for your hardy plants such as lettuce, broccoli, carrots etc.

I would keep a keen eye on your plants until about two weeks after your frost free date (10%), after that you should be good. For more information about frost free dates, check out this video on the subject.

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I did a couple of book reviews for the Home Garden Seed Association and I decided to include them here since I would recommend both books to those who read this blog.

The New Organic Grower: A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener

By Eliot Coleman

This book is pretty well known in the gardening community, particularly with those interested in organic gardening. In fact, for those looking to learn more about organic gardening, this is the best book I have read on the subject because it is geared toward the average gardener looking for practical advise and simple prose, without the “save the planet” preaching that other organic gardening authors needlessly include in a gardening book.

Eliot Coleman not only explains the different processes of how to produce vegetables organically with authority but continually invites improvement and even expects the reader to do it better by standing on his shoulders and years of experience. I was looking for a book that would help me understand why organic gardening is worth trying and Mr. Coleman has convinced my to experiment with his tried and true techniques.

This book is for both the home gardener and small commercial farm and the ideas presented in the book make a lot of sense and are backed up with Mr. Coleman’s years of experience.

I am not sure if after all is said and done that I will never buy conventional fertilizer again or even invest in some of his recommended hand tools, but he has made the case and then some for me to experiment with the virtues of organic gardening. For those who do not understand what organic gardening is or why it is important than this is a must read.

The Secret Life of Compost: A “How-To” & “Why” Guide to Composting-Lawn, Garden, Feedlot or Farm

By Malcolm Beck

I wanted to learn more about composting and got this book from my local library. I was blown away by what I learned and read this 150 page book in one sitting. Try telling someone you know that you couldn’t put down a composting book. Well that is what happened to me and I feel very capable of producing my own compost now.

Malcolm Beck did exactly what I was hoping by telling me how to compost, instead of trying to explain the science behind it. Paraphrasing his own words, “the science of composting will mean something to you after you figure out how to do it.” Therefore, he doesn’t waste any of my time by trying to cram a bunch of science that would be better in a textbook.

He also spent time discussing why to compost and shared some experiences with how to “revive” soil that has been left for dead. Toward the end of the book he shares how one might start a composting business for themselves and includes many pictures of his own composting facility.

Unlike many “how-to” books, I came away from this one with a simple plan and felt less overwhelmed then when I started the book. That to me is the best praise I could give any “how-to” author. If I come away overwhelmed and unable to proceed then the author failed. In this case, Mr. Beck hits a home-run for composting.

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It is that time of year when you start to see garden centers large and small open their doors to allow consumers like you and me to purchase their vegetable starts, among other things. Hopefully, this post will give you a few things to think about before making your purchase.

First and foremost, you must consider timing. The large box stores in particular are great about providing an overgrown tomato start for you to purchase before anyone else does much like you can buy Christmas decor before Halloween, however, unlike most of your Christmas decorations, these starts don’t store. Usually, there are ready to put in the ground right away and you may be in an area that is still waiting for the correct weather to put them outdoors.

Here is a picture of a tomato start that I found in a big box store 7 weeks before it should have been planted in my area.

If you were to purchase this tomato start your chances for success are very small because it is too big to keep for 7 weeks, even in a wall-o-water or hotcap. If you are growing directly in a greenhouse, then of course, timing is not that important, but don’t be suckered into buying this start because you have “Spring Fever” and are ready to start planting when the timing is not right.

Next, quality doesn’t equal size. In the example above you see a large tomato start, but you should know that if you were to plant a start half that size the difference in when you will start harvesting will not even be perceptible. This means that you should buy healthy looking, vibrant, vigorous starts that are not root bound. This means that the root system is still appropriate for the size pot it is in. I guarantee you that the tomato roots in the above picture are circling around inside that pot looking for more places to root. This is not good for a transplant and ideally the roots should not be circling.

Therefore, I would prefer a tomato half the size of the one pictured above that is dark green, no dead or wilting leaves, and ready to put in the ground the day I buy it, which for my area is the first week of May.

For reference here is the size that I believe a tomato start should be when transplanting to the garden. These are 4 week old.

Those are 2″ pots and you can see that they are much smaller than what you find in the big box store. My neighbor bought the big ones a month earlier, put them under wall-0-waters and they were almost 2 feet tall by the time I plant these guys, however, when it was time to harvest, ours were equal in size and I actually started harvesting earlier because I planted an “Early Challenge” variety with my other varieties.

I am all for trying to get vegetables out in the ground as earlier as possible, but if it is too early, then you increase the chance of failure in order to really gain no benefit.

In summary, biggest is not best and you have to keep an eye on the calendar before you rush to your local nursery and buy a bunch of starts. Of course, I don’t have to buy any starts anymore because I just grow from seed indoors and save a bunch of money, but I realize that not everyone is that ambitious. However, the store bought tomatoes are about $2-3 dollars a start and limit your selection to just a few. Growing from seed yourself is about $.20 a start and you can pick whatever seed you would like. Admittedly there are some costs associated with getting a light stand and providing electricity, but you make that back fast.

If you would like to learn more about seed starting indoors, check out one of my posts on the subject and for more on when to plant any of your vegetables get a free account at VegeNag.com

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This year I am trying a new method of planting seeds indoors called soil blocks. I read about this method in a book called “The New Organic Grower” which I enjoyed very much and would recommend reading. I show you how to make soil blocks and share with you some of my experience doing it. Hope you enjoy. I have posted the soil block recipe below or you can click this link for a PDF.

BLOCKING MIX RECIPE *

A standard 10-quart bucket is the unit of measurement for the bulk ingredients. A standard cup measure is used for the supplementary ingredients. This recipe makes approximately 2 bushels of mix. Follow the steps in the order given.

-3 buckets brown peat (standard peat moss, use a premium grade)

-1⁄2 cup lime.

Mix ingredients together thoroughly.

2 buckets coarse sand or perlite

3 cups base fertilizer (equal part mix blood meal, colloidal phosphate, and greensand).

Mix. 1 bucket garden soil

2 buckets well-decomposed compost.

Mix ingredients together thoroughly.

Moisten the mix thoroughly using one part warm water for every three parts blocking mix. Successful soil block making depends on the mix being wet enough, rather than wet like soil mix in traditional flats. The mix should have the consistency of soft putty or wet cement, so that a small amount of water oozes through small openings in the blocker as the blocks are made, and that the individual soil blocks cling to the blocker without falling out prematurely.

* From The New Organic Grower, by Eliot Coleman.

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Great news, now VegeNag is free for unlimited vegetables. Up until now, you could get a free account, but were limited to one vegetable. VegeNag has now become an ad supported website. Therefore, this means that you can now have full access to VegeNag for free, however, in order to support the great value VegeNag provides and to keep the site running, you will see ads. We believe these ads will be highly relevant to you as our user and hope that you will find out about great gardening vendors this way. Hopefully, this is a win win for everyone. Many of you have asked that we make the service free and now we have.

So what about all of those who have paid for a subscription. Well, you get the option of not having any ads or you can obtain a full refund by emailing support@vegenag.com. I have already talked to some of you about this and those I have talked to have graciously been pleased enough with the service that they are not seeking a refund and will enjoy the site ad free for doing so. That being said, for those that don’t mind ads, then we are more than happy to apply a refund.

Anyway, please tell your friends about this great service that is now free for the new 2011 season.

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