COOL SEASON CROPS
Time to get some cool season crops growing! Cool season crops can handle light frosts and low temperatures, especially if you use a hoop house or similar structure. However, most cool season crops cannot handle high temperatures.
The following crops, according to ISU, are good cool season crops:
Broccoli
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Chinese Cabbage
Kale
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mustard Greens
Peas
Radishes
Rutabagas
Spinach
Turnips
STARTING PLANTS INDOORS
You can start most of the plants listed above indoors to help get an early start. Root vegetables are usually better to sow directly, but I have known people to have success with everything indoors.
DigginFood has some good lists on plants that are good to sow versus plants that better planted as starts. This website and this website also have pretty good discussions about planting seeds and planting starts.
I have started my leafy greens indoors:
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| Lettuce seedlings! My friend and personal extension agent, Brit, recommended I thin the seedlings down to two or three plants per spot. |
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| Spinach seedlings. Some of them already have true leaves. |
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| The kale seedlings are not germinating very well. I think there will be enough to plant and harvest. |
The Urban Organic Gardener says its better not to start the following indoors:
Beets
Carrots
Dill
Garlic
Onions
Peas
Radishes
WARM UP YOUR SOIL
Cover your soil with a hoop house, greenhouse, or layer of plastic to get it warm and ready for your plants or seeds.
Here are some extremely good instructions on how to make a small garden tunnel.
PLANTING UNDER COVER
Here are some extremely good instructions on how to make a small garden tunnel.
PLANTING UNDER COVER
Cool season crops, like spinach, still need reasonable temperatures to grow. Here is a great picture from an excellent USU publication.
It basically says spinach does best at 67 degrees F and can live between 36 and 84 degrees F. Spinach grown above 75 degrees will have a bitter flavor. Early in the season, a crop cover, like a low tunnel can help you keep your early season crop in that optimum range.
This figure, from the same publication, shows that a low tunnel can add make the air temperature up to 20 degrees F warmer.
WHEN TO PUT THE STARTS/SEEDS IN THE GROUND
Frost dates for Salt Lake City area from http://climate.usurf.usu.edu/reports/freezeDates.php
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| I put up my low tunnel last week. All of the snow under it has melted and the soil is thawed. As soon as my baby plants grow a little more, I will thin them out and harden them off, then replant them. |
WHEN TO PUT THE STARTS/SEEDS IN THE GROUND
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| Average temperatures for Salt Lake City from www.city-data.com. This year temperatures a re lower than shown on this chart. |
Frost dates for Salt Lake City area from http://climate.usurf.usu.edu/reports/freezeDates.php
Station Name
|
Last spring freeze
|
First fall freeze
|
Freeze-free
|
Period
|
Years
|
|||||||||
Early
|
Avg
|
Median
|
Late
|
Early
|
Avg
|
Median
|
Late
|
Short
|
Avg
|
Median
|
Long
|
|||
19-Mar
|
13-Apr
|
13-Apr
|
02-May
|
11-Oct
|
31-Oct
|
31-Oct
|
21-Nov
|
175
|
202.7
|
204.5
|
233
|
1928-1954
|
26
|
|
31-Mar
|
27-Apr
|
29-Apr
|
13-May
|
18-Sep
|
18-Oct
|
22-Oct
|
03-Nov
|
139
|
173.6
|
173.5
|
216
|
1990-2005
|
10
|
|
11-Mar
|
25-Apr
|
26-Apr
|
28-May
|
17-Sep
|
18-Oct
|
19-Oct
|
14-Nov
|
125
|
177.3
|
179.5
|
237
|
1948-2012
|
64
|
|
20-Apr
|
05-May
|
04-May
|
18-May
|
15-Sep
|
04-Oct
|
06-Oct
|
25-Oct
|
127
|
151.3
|
155.0
|
176
|
1967-1978
|
9
|
|
16-Feb
|
08-Apr
|
19-Apr
|
01-May
|
27-Oct
|
06-Nov
|
05-Nov
|
21-Nov
|
182
|
212.0
|
204.0
|
261
|
1985-2012
|
8
|
|
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