Common household remedies request
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Submitted by lambert on Sun, 05/06/2012 - 4:12pm
I put a couple of basil plants in the ground two days ago (more as a favor to a friend thatn anything) and boy, are they unhappy! So:
Is there a phenological principle for when to plant? Like the Xth day after honeybees appear?
On the one hand, Summer in March makes us all want to plant really badly. And yet the trees aren't even leafed out.
On the other hand, the average last day of frost in my part of Maine is May 10.
On the third hand, everybody here has Memorial Day as the rule of thumb. But that's calendar-driven, and hence a totally artificial construct! Or does all the car exhaust from travel on the three-day weekend warm the air, or something?
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cool plants vs warm plants
For most plants, it's the soil temperature not the air temperature that dictates when they grow and thrive. Cool spring soils are a favorite of peas and onions and lettuce. But for basil, tomatoes, corn zinnias (and other "tropicals) the soil temps need to be above 55 degrees.
I have a soil thermometer for the compost pile so sometimes I check... but when you see the crab grass sprouting...the soil is warm enough for summer stuff.
Phenology!
Yes, I measure for soil temperature, and it's not 50 yet.
On the other hand, speaking of phenology, I've got quack grass, dandelions, and the clover is sprouting (though took a bit longer than I thought). But the basil says, No summer!
I'm gearing up for the lettuce and the peas and onions now, so I guess I'm not that far off...
Average
over probably the last hundred years. It is too early to plant crops like basil outside, without protection. Not only is the soil probably not warm enough, but the night time temps are too low too. Warm days are less than half the battle. Nights below 50 are incredibly hard on warm season crops.
People wait until Memorial Day because while your average is 5/10, you're probably not reliably frost free until the end of May. The serious gardeners in the area probably plant their cool season crops earlier, and may roll the dice on an early spring. I'd imagine most of them don't push the warm season crops too early into May because the odds are stacked against them, and the conditions are such that the plants won't be doing very well during the cool nights anyhow.
No, there isn't. There's night time temps, frost (lows being lower than the dew point), and engineering controls to bend the weather related rules.
Frost blankets (which can be an old pillow case or sheet) will stop true frost damage in most cases, but the only solution for early planting is a low tunnel/cold frame ... and maybe a soil heating cable. I've got two tomato plants that have been in since mid-April (i'm Zone 5 too). They currently live inside wall o waters that are inside one of my low tunnels. ...they're now outgrowing the wall o waters and about to set their first flowers.
My two low tunnel beds are completely planted, though mostly with cool season crops but including seedlings that are up before they could be outside. If we get through this week and the weather holds, i'll plant the third one with warm season starts ... knowing that i may have to frost blanket the interior since i'd still be two weeks off of Memorial Day. I won't even bother with the final two beds or the ground garden until the end of May; it's not worth the effort to just have to redo most of the work.
A low tunnel...
.... like in the earth? I've heard of a system that uses rocks for themal mass; not going the electric route. That wall of water stuff sounds impressive. Got a photo? Because I'd love to see that (and copy it ;-)
My seedlings are still small and they're in milk jugs; that means they start out warmer. The drop cloths saved the seedlings when it went down to 28 a week or so ago, in fact, the seedlings in jugs I didn't cover came through fine, too, and that was with strong wind from the cold north.
So, we'll hope this time as well.
No, not in the earth
I wrote up a description of the ones i built last fall. Low tunnel is the common term for a poly enclosure without heat. A high tunnel is one big enough to walk through without heat.
The wall-o-water is pretty standard fair at garden centers. When all the tubes are partially filled with water, the top collapse to make a cone. The more full the tubes, the more a cylinder the unit forms. It's like a cloch, but of plastic and the water forms an insulator.
Mine, being in the tunnel as well, are very warm. On a sunny and 50 day, the closed tunnels will be more like 75. Better weather than that and they have to be opened. Even the days are more sunny than warm, the in the raised bed warms. It then gives off heat when it isn't gaining. It can still get cold enough to damage plants if the weather turns sour for a few days, drops well below freezing, and especially with strong, cold winds. Some things survive, some don't.
I've had to replant beans because i jumped the gun, but they were first leaf seedlings when i lost them and i'm still ahead of schedule with a reseed. Carrots, beets, bok choi, and spinach haven't minded. Napa cabbage, lettuce, daikon, beans, cukes and broccoli are all up but tiny. Some corn planted but not yet up and the tomatoes, with a batch of starts waiting to fill those two beds out.
Those low tunnels have changed my gardening life. Which is why i'm building another, and will experiment with adding much classier wooden ones to the other two beds this summer.
I've always been leery of "tunnels" because of the plastic
We call them "hoop houses" up here, and after a couple winters, the plastic starts to look cheesy and flimsy. I don't have a better solution, though. A greenhouse is expensive, and I like to work in situ, where the plant will actually grow, and not move pots back and forth and about.
thath's another word for them
I don't leave them covered for the winter. The plastic is rolled up and on the ground. They get covered in the spring and when the weather turns for good, i'll remove the plastic and store it until fall. It's not the winter that kills the plastic so much as the sun in the summer.
Poly made expressly for the purpose is impregnated with an infra red inhibitor and rated for 5 year use, generally in Israel. I see a lot of home designed and built hoop houses around, and you're right. I also note that most people use 3 mil poly. It may be significantly cheaper but it's the wrong choice. 6 mil is the horticultural industry standard.
I expect at least three seasons from the poly (barring rips), and then it will be washed and used for drop cloths or such around the house until it can't be used at all.
Cool wet soil and U get fungus
Even if you protect basil from a cold night with plastic or glass protection, they will not thrive until the soil is warm. Many warm season plants succumb to Fusarian or Verticillian wilt ( root disease), or some other nasty fungus when the soil is cool and moist.
A month later, and those same plants will be just fine planted out. Soil temps will be 5 deg higher...Never try to push the seasons with the warm tropicals.
When the dirt is warm, these plants will germinate from a seed in 5 days and grow an inch a day.
( granted...I live in N Cal where it is never winter. ) Even here I never plant corn or basil or zinnias in the dirt until May.
The Oregonian had an article on growing basil in
yesterday's paper. Nighttime temps above 51, warm soil, well-drained soil, etc.
Here it is. It's written for growing conditions here in Portland, OR, but I think the info applies to your Portland, also.
The basil was more a favor for a friend...
What happens, happens. It's heavily mulched, and if it dies back, maybe it won't go all the way to the roots and I can bring it back.