It has been an interesting “non-winter” this year. Mild weather all through January and into the first part of February. I so badly wanted snow for Christmas. I was concerned that all the shrubs, spring bulbs and trees would think it was looking like spring and starting to bud.
In February, the weather started to look more like winter; we had really cold temperatures, like in the single digits, for about a week and a half, and then we had 6 inches of snow over a few days, with a little warmer temperatures.
In the meantime, I am holding seedlings under lights and watching them grow taller and taller. When we had cold temperatures, we didn’t want to risk losing plants that needed to be transplanted. We have the experience of losing 1500 tomato plants a couple of years ago. It just got too cold. I am happy if we can keep the greenhouses at about 40 degrees.
We did get the peppers transplanted about 2 weeks ago. They went into the greenhouse that we were keeping heated to winter over some geraniums and jasmines and keeping dahlia tubers from freezing.
As usual, some were looking spectacular, and others not so much. We are trying something new this year, we are putting the not-so-great plants back in the house for more light and warmth. After they were transplanted in the number two greenhouse, Steve placed one of those translucent plastic domes over the flat to cart them over to the pepper house. That protected them from the nasty cold air.
Back to the tomatoes. I just finished transplanting all the tomatoes that we are putting into gallon containers at 1:00 pm today. I am so glad that it is over. I transplanted 3662 plants over 4 and a half days. My back hurts, my bruised foot hurts and so do my hands (Uncle Arthur).
I have slogged through snow, back and forth to the greenhouses, waded through massive mud puddles, and got wet from being rained on! The ground was so frozen and was unable to handle the prodigious amounts of rain that we got, so it just sat on top of the ground. Even my dog took offense at being asked to walk through the slush. She started making tracks through the garden which is a no-no in order to avoid the slush and mud.
As I mentioned in the post before, we are going to have more tomatoes in gallon size, partly because I am getting older but mostly due to the fact that by the end of the season the 3 ½ ” pots look pretty ragged.
After a short rest, I need to get started on the cole crops, kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and bok choi.
Notes From The Tomato Lady 