Is it too early to start planting my garden?

The average date of the last frost for Los Lunas, New Mexico is May 2^nd.

Cool season veggies like spinach, lettuce, and radishes can be planted from seed starting about the 3^rd or 4^th week of March. They germinate rapidly and usually in less than one week they are above soil. The photo below shows radish seedlings one week after planting. These radishes were planted from seed on March 30, 2012.

The cool season crops are tolerant of late spring frosts so give those who are anxious a chance to get back into the soil and the garden. The photo below shows spinach seedlings (look closely) just breaking the soil surface one week after they were planted, also on March 30, 2012.

The cool season crops generally will be ready for harvest as early as 3-4 weeks after planting. They will produce until the heat of summer arrives. A second crop of cool season crops can also be planted in the fall, after the heat of summer, generally the 2^nd or 3^rd week of September. This fall crop can sometimes be productive into November and December.

Frost sensitive plants like tomatoes, chili, bell peppers, squash, melons, and eggplant cannot be planted until the danger of frost has passed. If planted before the last frost date you risk losing them all, even in the event of a light frost. If you have young tomato or chili plants, etc. you can now begin to acclimate them to outdoor conditions. Place them outside during the day to get acclimated to the sun, wind, humidity, etc. and move them indoors or to a sheltered area at night. Watch the weather for your area and if there is no danger of frost you could even leave them outdoors overnight, but keep your eye on the weather as a late spring frost can kill them all one chilly night or morning.

For more information about what to plant and when to plant contact the nursery at www.treesthatplease@comcast.net or come by the store. We have starter plants available now for your garden.

Written By:

Stephen Sain

Staff Plant Physiologist

Comments

Weed Identification: Goatheads or Stickers

Goatheads ( Tribulus terrestris ) are native to Southern Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Goatheads are also called stickers, sticker weed, bullhead, devil’s weed, and puncturevine. Goatheads are easily recognized by their prostrate growth form, leaves with leaflets, yellow flowers, and stickers (Goatheads). If you miss’em visually then they will stab you painfully in the fingers as you work your garden, or stick to your clothing and shoes. Goatheads are the primary reason local bicyclists must get “thorn proof” tires for riding on area trails and streets. Goatheads have prostrate stems that radiate outward from one central point. Leaves are compound with smaller leaflets. Lemon yellow flowers form along the stems and fertilized flowers form fruits. Fruits consist of several attached structures called nutlets (Goatheads). Each nutlet is a single seed that becomes hard or woody when mature. Each seed has two sharp spines that easily pene...

All About the Shantung Maple!

The Shantung Maple ( Acer truncatum ) is also known as the Purple Blow Maple due to the color of its newly emerging leaves which are red-purple (see photo below). These young expanding red-purple leaves change to green as they mature. Leaves are small, about the size of Japanese Red Maple leaves, perhaps 3’-4’ wide at maturity. The Shantung Maple grows 1′-2′ annually reaching 25″ tall and wide. This is our tree for all planting situations. This Maple does well in heavy clay, sandy soils, full sun, or part shade. It can be planted in a lawn or next to a hot asphalt street (see photo below). It seemingly is a happy tree enjoying life wherever it is placed. One place we would not recommend planting this tree is in a rockscape which is just too hot and inhospitable to support this beautiful tree. A smaller tree, the Shantung Ma...

How does nitrogen work in the soil, and where does it come from when we don't have a bag of fertilizer to supplement it?

I've spoken many times on this subject at conferences and it was the main theme of my talk when I represented North America at the World's 1st Humus Experts Meeting in Vienna Austria back in 2013. Most of the Nitrogen used by the vast tropical rain forests, or the fastest growing biomass place on Earth, the Coastal Redwood Forests of California, comes from the production of protein by the Free-Living Nitrogen Fixing bacteria in soil and the massive biomass structure of the mycorrhizal fungi. The proteins as it breaks down in the soil into amino acids are the building blocks of life and the explanation of the Soil Food Web. However, in order for those amino acids to enter a plant and be part of the nitrogen budget of the plant they must have the assistance of the mycorrhizal fungi. It's much more efficient for a plant to uptake amino acids whose molecules include nitrogen needed to build tissues than to uptake just nitrogen minus the amino acid. ...

Trees That Please Nursery

Search This Blog