Plants grow according to the weather, not according to the calendar. Plants grow according to the weather, not according to the calendar. Plants grow according to the weather, not according to the calendar.
Here are my excuses:
It was mid-March, a planting time that had always worked for tomatoes in the past. I had sown seeds of seven varieties of tomatoes back on January 21, and the plants’ roots were nearly filling out the space in the modules — they were small but almost up to size. It was predicted to rain, and I love transplanting right before a rain because then I am relieved of follow-up handwatering duties. Sure, it had only been in the 50s and 60s for the previous two weeks, which was chillier than normal, but it was mid-March. I mean, it was mid-March.
Here is what happened:
After planting on March 14, the rain came through as predicted the next day. Then, to my surprise, the National Weather Service issued a Frost Advisory. Really? Should I cover those tomatoes tonight?
It was breezy and didn’t feel cold in the yard that evening so I chose not to. The next morning there was no frost and all was well.
That evening, March 16, also didn’t feel cold in the yard, but the air was still and the sky was clean of clouds. The National Weather Service issued no Frost Advisory, but before going to bed I read the Forecast Discussion where I found that the meteorologist mentioned the possibility of “patchy frost in inland valleys.” Whatever, I’m tired. I’m going to sleep.
Frost all over my baby tomatoes. My weather station bottomed out at 31 degrees; the nearby weather station that the National Weather Service uses dropped to 28, which they said broke the record for the lowest temperature on that day, the previous record of 29 having been set in 1975.
Greg Alder’s Gardening Calendar
So there’s this guy who writes about growing food and sells a gardening calendar for Southern California. In his calendar, he says to plant tomatoes starting in March. In his website’s post about when to plant tomatoes, he’s more specific and says you’re safe from mid-March.
He even sounds a little cocky about his recommended planting dates, saying, “I am . . . 100% confident that you can rely on the information in this calendar.” And, “The sowing and planting dates that I list are the sure ones . . .”
But he does give this additional piece of advice: “It is nonetheless important to remember that plants don’t grow according to a calendar.” Oh yeah? Then what do they grow according to? “The weather,” he says, which “is different from year to year . . .”
I can lead myself to water, but I can’t make myself drink.
Plants grow according to the weather, not according to the calendar. Plants grow according to the weather, not according to the calendar. Plants grow according to the weather, not according to the calendar.
It’s been a couple days since that frosty morning, and it looks like nine out my twelve little tomato plants have been killed. Luckily, I hadn’t planted all of the tomatoes I’d grown. I kept a handful of extras in their module trays up near the house and they were unfazed by the record cold night. But I think I’m going to wait a couple weeks to put them in the ground, or more wisely, I’m going to wait until the weather forecast looks right.
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What a delightful story. It’s good to know we are of a kind. Thank you.
Gardening is a game and planting early can make you a hero or normal. Extra points for nursing one of those frost bitten plants back to health.
I don’t know what the record books will say of March, but this is the coldest March I can remember. I suppose my laziness paid off as I didn’t seed anything yet and am going the way of volunteer tomatoes this year (along with survivors from last year). Nothing died, but boy has it been cold. I live near SDSU.
Good to hear! I was feeling behind because I hadn’t planted my tomatoes. Thank you for sharing! Good to know even the most seasoned gardener can have challenges.
I once planted tomatoes on St Patrick’s day and they did not freeze but got too wet and cold and died an early death from wilt. I blamed my eagerness to plant but who knows? I wait until at least April now, but every year I am tempted by all the healthy plants at the nursery. Really enjoy your gardening expertise. Planted 3 avocado trees from reading your recommendations. Thank you.
I wonder if your frost-bit tomatoes’s roots will provide new shoots.
I’ll keep you posted about that. I’m curious too.
Now I feel lucky, planted mine the first week in March, but live on a hill in Whittier and the tomatoes plants are growing well, no frost here apparently. I remember you commenting that the hills might avoid frost issues as the cold air goes down and the warm air rises, I haven’t seen frost here since moving in 2017, but I do remember getting frost at my house in Downey. However I did screw up by not protecting my bell peppers and the local wildlife ate the leaves! Wife won’t let me “discourage” their activities, but I could’ve put chicken wire around them, but was too lazy, now I paid the price, live and learn and live and learn again sometimes, important part is to Live. Life is always about learning something new or remembering something old, good luck all. I’m looking forward to this years summer! Good luck in your adventures. On a Hillside in Whittier.
I too also started too early. Mid February, smh…Pretty seed catalog pics with promises of tasty toms – and already seeing starts at the big box stores, got the best of my senses. My seeds sprouted, but were not growing well. It’s just been too cold and not enough sun. I’ve pulled them out and will restart. On a side note, a volunteer tom has sprouted and is doing quite well – and it’s under the canopy of a carrot tree in rocky, dry soil. Go figure…
Hi Lyn,
Why are volunteers always tougher? I also have a volunteer seedling tomato that grew all summer last year and then overwintered and was unaffected by the frosty night. It is at the edge of the canopy of a big oak tree.
I’m going to take one of those volunteers and put it in “good” conditions. It will be a fun comparison experiment. 😉
Wow! 28 degrees! It must be from global warming and CO2 green house gasses. I’m just being sarcastic. Plants love CO2! The more the better! And the better plants grow the more Oxygen they produce for us. I remember in the 70’s living in Santee hitting 28 degrees. 23 years in 92120 and the coldest has been 37 degrees, so I can plant tomatoes any time of the year, but last year a rabbit eat 3/4 of my baby tomato plants! Now I put a circular mesh around the plants until they get about 2 ft high. It is a dangerous world out there for baby plants!
Here in La Mesa we had a couple of nights in the high 30s. Ambitious me planted a bunch of tomatoes in January (lol) in 5-gallon buckets. They were about 2 feet tall and flowering by mid-March. Had to move them all into a south-facing garage when the storm hit, open the gate to let them see some sun, and close the gate by 8pm when it drops below 50, space heater for the night…they were surviving but were not happy; flowers aborted, the plants stunted a bit. Now it has warmed up and the tomatoes grew almost half a foot in the past week. It is almost as if the storm hardened them and they are more vigorous now.
On a side note I saw strawberries in your second picture — how did they do with the frost? Do you mulch them?
Smart, Katie. I wish I had been smarter and less impatient and had just potted up my little guys and protected them like you did for yours.
Yes, those are strawberries. I put the tomatoes into a strawberry patch, planning to trellis the tomatoes vertically and trim lower branching and leave the strawberries under them. Check out this post: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/interplanting-a-strawberry-patch/
The strawberries didn’t seem to notice the light frost. Right now they have a compost mulch under them.
Thanks, Greg. The interplanting idea in your post is really cool. I am going to try that to give my strawberries some shade under the scorching sun of the fall.
Your strawberry plants look incredible. They are so vigorous and perky. My Albion strawberries seem a bit weird these days; their leaves are dark green, firm and have no sign of disease/pest damage, but instead of slightly folding up like a taco shell, they are folding down from the midrib. Chandler and Seascape growing under the same condition seem intact. Albion is supposedly resistant to fungal diseases so I reckon it may be because of the soap I added to my neem spray? Could it still be some form of slow onset root rot?
Sorry for your loss. I always feel sad when one of the younglings doesn’t make it. Odd that we’ve had a warmer March up here in the SF-Bay area, it seems, as I’ve had mine out for a few weeks and all has been fine. California’s micro-climates make it really hard to predict!
I built a greenhouse shed and its been saving my plants from the cold. Its so much warmer in there and my seedlings are happy but they need water everyday . I don’t dare plant in ground till these winds go away.This weekend and next week will be much warmer so hopefully real spring is here and time to plant everything soon. I’m sorry you lost some tomatoes.
My first year here a volunteer San Marzano vine sprung up in my yard in the native soil and grew huge and I’ve been planting cuttings of it ever since. I remember reading somewhere that it’s better to grow tomatoes in containers or raised bed because generally the ground in your yard doesn’t provide enough nutrients. Well this vine flourishes wherever I plant it in my yard. Something weird happened this year, the ones I grew were indeterminate so I continually could harvest off the vine (the original vine lived for 2 years) but this year the ones I planted acted like determinates… put out a crazy amount of tomatoes that all ripened at the same time. I gave away a few bags, I can’t eat anymore tomatoes at the moment. I want my indeterminate vine back! The vines after producing are dying… I got more planted and started, we’ll see how they turn out.