According to my personal calendar, I should be setting out broccoli transplants next week.
Last year at this time it was so hot, I skipped putting them out. When September came along, it cooled and I wished I had put out the broccoli.
This year it's just as hot, or even hotter than it was this time last year. I have the broccoli seedlings indoors under lights and some of them are big enough to start hardening off.
I can put the transplants under row covers.
My dilemma is this: It hasn't rained here for what seems like an eternity, and I don't want to have to keep watering the tranplants once they are in the ground.
Question: Do y'all think I could wait until August to put out transplants and have them be okay? Our first frost comes around mid-October, although I've known it to arrive the first week of October.
Our August temperatures are sometimes cooler than July temperatures.
In other words: Please make-up my mind for me! LOL
Too hot to set out broccoli in zone 7b NC?
I never set broccoli until September. In Charlotte you can probably move that up a week or so. But 100 degree temps are not good for broccoli.
This is way to early. I am in 7a and just seeded broccoli in my greenhouse this week. I've got fans and automated misting systems to hold temps down there. I don't plan on setting out until first week in September. Your first frost will not do in your broccoli. Just curious here but what do you base your calendar on? The first frost date used to be about Nov. 7 in my zone. That was in the mid-eighties. It is said that because of warming you should add eight hours per year to your plant dates. I've done the numbers, adjusted accordingly over the years and have not been disappointed. Your local extension office should have printed information sheets regarding when to plant in your area. Sometimes they are many years old. You can go by those or recalculate dates as I have done.
After re-reading this link:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-5.html
I see it says to set transplants the first week of August.
I think I'll sow some more seeds for a later planting.
Thanks for your input, I appreciate it.
I set out some of my broccoli and the cauliflower a few days ago. It has been in the 90s for about a week. They are doing fine. I lightly mulched them and water every day or so. The watering is critical until the roots get more established.
If the plants are transplant size, I would set them out and give special care to water them until they are larger and the weather cooler.
Our weather is hot and dry into September. It begins to cool off in October. I think that is not the case in your zone, Indy? What are your September temps like and what is your first frost date? My zone is a tad cooler than Honeybee's as I am in the mountains. I'd maybe start to plant mid August but we are still harvesting summer produce through September, most of October and some the first part of November.
I have just sown my Cole crop seeds. I set mine out the 1st week in September. I sow the seeds 5 to 6 weeks before my transplant date. The seeds can also be direct sown into the garden right now.
good luck
happy gardening
It starts to cool off in September here and frosts in October and freezes in mid November. September is 70s in daytime and 50s at night after the first part of the month.
Our first frost is usually after the first week in November. It's not unusual to have days in the eighties in September and high sixties to low seventies at night. I don't want any of my cool crops maturing before early to mid-November and it's fine through much of December too.