When can I sow seeds for Buttercrunch lettuce and Caraflex cabbage in my zone? I had good luck this spring.
Sowing seeds for fall garden
If you are direct seeding wait until the soil temperature is under 85 degrees. Hotter than that and you'll have trouble germinating the seed. You can check with an instant read thermometer or place a regular outdoor thermometer on the spot where you intend to sow. I wish my luck had been good this Spring. We went from cold to hot quickly, as usual.
I don't have a clue, myself, especially in such a cool summer as we're having, but here is where I look for "WA" advice about vegetable sowing dates.
http://westsidegardener.com/quick/timetable.html#august
Travis Saling lives in Sumner, Washington, roughly east of Tacoma, around 15 miles inland from Puget Sound. His average first frost date has been around Oct. 2 lately.
I think he is saying "now or sooner" for winter lettuce. Lettuce & spinach started in Septemeber will be smaller going into winter.
He mentions starting cabbage in June.
Corey
Jo-since your temps are cool most of the time I would think you could do it now. Some lettuce won't germinate if the temps are too high but I don't think you'll have that problem. From what Ive read most cabbage germinates best in temps above 75* so you may need to start that inside. Does your air temperature even get to 85*?
We have had some high 90's, but not many. Days are about 85, nights 60's. I will be sowing in flats and transplanting later.
I think you should do it now. I don't live there but if your starting them in flats I think now is the time. The link Rick posted should give you good info.
OK- that will be my weekend project!
>> We have had some high 90's, but not many. Days are about 85, nights 60's.
Oh, wow! You're what, 200-250 miles inland? And I think you're 70-90 miles south of me, but closer to Travis Saling.
My days have been 65-70 or 75 at hottest. I usually use a comforter at night.
I need to look into "degree days" or "heat index", because I keep looking at Zone 8 people in Texas and thinking "we should have similar climate ... NOT! Their first crop of tomatoes are burning up from the heat before it's safe to bring them home from a nursery here!
I think it was late June this year before nights stayed above 50 (north of Seattle, 1-2 miles ffrom Puget Sound).
Corey
Oh Corey I sooo don't need to read that. The USDA zones only indicate how cold an area gets not for how long and not how HOT it gets. The Sunset Zones are more accurate.
where can i find sunset zones?
I've never heard of "sunset zones" so I Googled it!
Here's one link I found, but there are lots of others:
http://www.sunset.com/garden/climate-zones/climate-zones-intro-us-map-00400000036421/
I agree that the Zones in the PNW Sunset books are much more usefull than USDA hardiness zones.
I didn't reqalize there were sunset books for other regions! How parochial of me.
Funny - because I saw those first on paper, it seems odd to think of them online. I got a second copy from Goodwill when too many pages had bookmarks and too much was underlined.
As climate change acellerates, we're going to HAVE to keep such things online!
Corey
Corey-What does parochial mean?
i didn't realize that 'sunset' zones meant the sunset magazine... LOL!
I think it derives form "parish", meaning someone who never left their own neighborhood, and assumes that the climate and customs he or she knows are universal. Lack of broad experience. Provincial.
I thought that "small-minded" was a mis-interpretation, but looking it up, I see that Mirriam-Webster includes " selfish pettiness or narrowness" among the meanings.
Wow also "a religious school". Poor word choice.
I should have said something like "unthinkingly regional" .
Like when I assumed that EVERYONE had to add lime to soil every few years, because the 3-4 places I've lived all had acid soil and acid rain.
George Bernard Shaw
"Caesar and Cleopatra "
"Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian,
and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island
are the laws of nature."
Corey
There's also a magazine? I only knew the book!
Corey The Barbarian
Ya'll are too funny!!!
Ok. I'm not talking zones here, just what I know about cabbages.
They like to grow when it's cool to cold, and can tolerate moderate, short dips (a couple to 3-4 days at most) of temps down to the mid-30s, with protection. They like organic growing mediums, and they are WATER HOGS!
If you've got temps 85-75 sow those seeds NOW! Cabbages take awhile to establish themselves, so sowing earlier will give you a head start on putting out a good sized seedling by the time the temps get down to the 65-70° mark. They'll take off! The key to a good cole crop is having sizeable seedlings at plantout, to handle the transplant adjustment and the changing temps.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE growing cole crops.
My seedlings are under fluorescent lights since they were sowed on August 6th. They declared on August 8th (2 days!!!). Unfortunately, I wasn't home and they got a bit leggy before I could get them under lights, but they're holding on as of last night. Still a bit leggy, but putting on a set of true leaves. My targeted plant out is as soon as our daytime temps are holding around 85-80°, which might be in another month -- or at least by October 1st.
Here's the very first cabbage I grew, as a total UBERnewbie. I grew this cabbage for NINE months, because I planted it at the wrong time (right before our hotter than you-know-where Texas summer!). It was planted as a seedling on May 30, 2008 and harvested on March 20, 2009!
Best cabbage I've ever eaten....
Linda
This message was edited Aug 18, 2011 9:36 AM
Here're a couple more cabbages I grew last season.
I am dreaming of 85 degrees !!
This is the weather is horrible. Still 100 during the day and mid 80s at night
Gymgirl, I have a cabbage in the garden that is about that old! I tried to push the limit on how late I could plant, then the weather became hot way earlier than normal. Some did well, many were small and some didn't grow larger than a softball.
I grew Charmant cabbage last winter and with frost blanket it came thru a week of 27F temps (also not normal for us down here) without damage.
Lady Lily!
So glad to know someone else pushes the veggie envelopes!!
I'm just glad my cabbage was sooooo worth those nine months of babying!
Mine was doing pretty good until the one and only rain came and made it split!
That's exactly what happened to my baby!
Just the day before I cut it, I had read a DG article or thread advising why they split, and that they must be cut immediately if they do.
It rained while I was at work. When I saw the split, it was "off with her head!"