For example, to warm the soil faster in the spring, you can cover it with black plastic, which may allow you to plant warm-season crops a bit earlier than what the calendar indicates, provided the air temperature is warm enough. While the requirements of cool-season and warm-season vegetables determine the basic planting times, gardeners have several few tweaks at their disposal to work around them. For example, cucumbers turn bitter when the nights are too cold. Daytime temperatures may still be warm enough but drop so much at nighttime that the weather is not suitable for warm-season crops any longer. Unlike cool-season vegetables, warm-season vegetables have only one growing cycle, ranging from late spring, after the last frost date, to late summer. For example, watermelons take about three months from seed to harvest, and the only way to beat the calendar is to start them indoors. The growing season in our area is too short to allow for some of the warm-season crops to be directly sown in the garden soil. In Pennsylvania, warm-season crops are usually started from seed indoors and transplanted into the garden as soon as the soil and air are warm enough. Warm-season crops require higher soil and air temperatures they are always planted after the last frost date. Many cool-season crops can be sown in the early spring and again in the fall, but keep in mind that they must be planted early enough to reach maturity before the onset of cold weather that will kill most of them, with the exception of winter-hardy vegetables.Ĭool-season vegetables are generally grown directly from seed in the garden, either as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring or until the soil and air have reached certain minimum temperatures that are usually indicated on the seed package. For example, radishes turn fibrous and unpleasantly sharp and pungent in hot summer weather. While some cool-season vegetables can withstand hot weather and will still grow, their quality becomes inferior. It is important to plant cool-season crops early enough in the spring so they can complete their full cycle up to harvest before the temperatures get too warm. Some winter-hardy vegetables, which are the toughest of the cool-season vegetables, such as kale or Brussels sprouts, even benefit from a light frost, as it converts the starches into sugar and improves the taste. These early vegetables cannot only withstand cold temperatures, but they also need them to germinate, grow, set fruit, and mature. This can be anytime from several weeks to a couple of months before the last frost date. The other crucial bit of information is to know the approximate last frost date in the spring and the first frost date in the late summer/early fall in your area.Ĭool-season crops are the first ones to plant in the garden year.
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