Plant veggie seeds soon for bountiful garden crop LAST KILLING FROST DATES

April 4, 2008 12:15 am

Guy J. Mussey is an agent in Virginia Cooperative Extension's Stafford County office, specializing in environmental horticulture. Phone 540/658-8000; fax 540/658-8006; e-mail
Email: gmussey@vt.edu.

FEW THINGS in life can surpass the simple pleasure of tasting that first vine-ripened tomato picked from the garden that you have planted, cultivated and nurtured. And nothing tastes better than fresh, sweet peas cooked to perfection in your favorite stir-fry, or recently harvested new red potatoes boiled in their skins and served with melted butter and fresh parsley.

I could go on and on describing the pleasure of eating fresh vegetables grown in your own garden, but that would only make people hungry for something they can't have--yet. Instead, I'll look at how to get a head start in planting your vegetable garden, and specific, properly sowing the seed that will reward you with a bountiful harvest.

Vegetable seeds can be started indoors to get an early start to your garden, or they can be sown directly into the garden soil. Of course, in either case it is important to know the last frost date in your area. That can be a little tricky in the greater Fredericksburg area.

According to the Planting Area Map published by Virginia Tech, Fredericksburg is squarely on the dividing line between the Mountain and the Piedmont areas. These two areas differ by as much as three weeks in their last frost dates. The average last killing frost in spring for the Mountain area is May 10 to May 15, while the date for the Piedmont area is April 20 to April 30.

Spotsylvania County is in the Mountain area, while Stafford County is in the Piedmont area, with Fredericksburg on the line between the two regions. With such a large difference in a relatively small area, common sense is key in determining the last frost date.

For gardens in Spotsylvania, I would use the early part of the range for the Mountain area, May 10, and for those in Stafford, the latter part of the range for the Piedmont area, April 30. Of course, the weather pays no attention to the map and has a mind of its own. Keep in mind that these dates are averages, and in some years a killing frost can occur much later.

Once you have established the date on which it is safe to plant your tender seedlings, you can determine when to sow the vegetable seed indoors by counting backward from that date.

The particular vegetable for which you want to get a head start will determine the actual sow date. For example, cucumbers take about three weeks to reach transplant size. If you live in Spotsylvania, you would count back three weeks from May 10 to sow your first seeds, which would be about April 19.

Most vegetable transplants need about six weeks before they are ready to set out in the garden. Cucurbits (cucumbers, cantaloupes, squash and watermelons), however, need only three weeks.

To get a steady harvest later in the season, it is wise to sow in successive weeks as well. Keep in mind that if you start your plants too early, they will become etiolated--too spindly to plant in the garden.

Tomatoes are fairly forgiving when transplanted as mature plants, but many plants will drop flowers or fruit after transplanting. Transplants should be about 4 inches tall, well branched and stocky, rather than 10 to 12 inches tall, when set out in the garden. This will ensure faster regrowth with the least amount of transplant shock.

It is easier to use a soil-less starter mix rather than soil from your garden to start your transplants, because of disease organisms that can be highly destructive to small plants. If you choose to use garden soil, however, it should be sterilized in the oven by baking it at 200 degrees until the internal soil temperature is 180 degrees. It should be held at that temperature for 30 minutes. This will create an unpleasant odor, but it works.

Most seeds should be planted from to inch deep, except small seeds, such as celery seeds, which should be planted inch deep. Seeds that require light for germination should not be covered at all. After sowing, place them in a sunny room or on a back porch with a southern exposure. Seedlings must have enough light to grow properly. More home-grown seedlings are probably lost to this one factor than to any other.

Before transplanting into the garden, transplants should be hardened off so that they will easily adapt to the environmental change. This can be done by restricting the amount of water they receive and by slowly exposing them to more sun. You can accomplish this by putting them outside for a few hours each day, but not during the heat of the afternoon sun. When they are ready to set out, transplant on a shady day, in late afternoon or in early evening, to prevent wilting.

Protect the newly planted transplants for the first few days by placing cardboard or newspaper on their south sides to protect them from wind and sun. Water once or twice a week for the first few weeks if it doesn't rain.

Despite the many factors to consider when planting a vegetable garden, it is not rocket science. If you take a little time and follow some simple steps, your reward will be a bountiful harvest.