Gardening: Timing is everything with vegetable and flower starts

Whew, it’s been a mad dash in my garden the past few weeks. That included starting and caring for vegetable starts, cleaning up winter debris, fixing up the sprinkler system and planting a new garden bed with plant sale finds.

Now it’s time to set out the vegetables I started in the basement outdoors. Again, I miscalculated how big the tomatoes would get by my planned planting date. They are a foot tall and a bit spindly. The peppers and the eggplant are in dire need of better light and some fertilizer.

I’ve been growing my own vegetable and flower starts for several years and have yet to find the right schedule that gets the plants to the right size at my preferred planting time.

At first, I followed the package directions that called for planting the seeds eight to 10 weeks before my usual mid-May planting out date. That didn’t work, so this year I waited until seven weeks out to plant and still ended up with leggy tomatoes. The peppers and the eggplant, however, did much better on this schedule. Next year, I’ll plant the tomatoes at the beginning of April and see what happens.

So now what am I going to do with leggy tomatoes? Plant them anyway and hope for the best. Tomatoes will grow roots along their stems if the stem in planted in the soil. I will dig a hole deep enough so that the top third of the stem is above the ground and the rest is underground. If the plant is really leggy, I will lay the stem horizontally in a 2-inch deep trench leaving the top third above ground. If I have several leggy plants, I will lay them out so that the top of one plant is close to the root ball of another. By clustering the stems together, it’s easier to remember where you planted the long stems.

We are having a dry spring this year. As a result, it may be necessary to start spot watering earlier than usual. I am setting out sprinklers on timers in the dry beds and then refreshing the mulch to conserve the water. I am checking my sprinkler system and doing repairs where needed.

By mid-May, we should be able to plant up our outdoor containers. Don’t be tempted to fill the bottom half of a large pot with pine cones, packing peanuts or anything else but a good potting mix. Your attempt to save money on potting soil makes it difficult for water to properly move through the pot.

Fertilizer and water are important for container planting. If possible, install a drip system on a timer for your pots. The timer will come on regularly, so you don’t have to check on them as often. You can take a short vacation and not worry about the plants. Fertilize every two weeks with a balanced fertilizer. If you use a time-release fertilizer like Osmocote, it won’t activate until the pot soil reaches 70 degrees.