Brassafrakin comacrassing briggifergi....

Remember those old cartoons with Donald Duck, Sylvester and, I believe, Daffy Duck where they get angry and instead of cursing they make the sounds spelled out in my topic? Well, this morning I certainly wish I was someone who censored themselves appropriately.

Since it's going to be beautiful today and I apparently found a way to make my little greenhouse shelf stay put in the wonderful prairie wind, I thought, this morning, that I would set my plant starts out to harden off. I proceeded downstairs to my growing closet under the steps, pop open the door and see dirt absolutely everywhere. One of the shelves inexplicably decided to let go/topple over and dropped about 85% of my plant starts, most of which were pepper and tomato plants. Again, brassafrakin comacrassing briggifergi son of a weasle pop tart! RARRR.

It's the Saskatchewan Prairies, and we all know that means about a 110 day window to get your harvest in the ground, growing, producing and harvested before the weather turns back to sub-arctic temperatures fit for polar bears and penguins (normally I don't complain, but I'm bitter today). Does anyone know or have experience with planting short season variety Peppers and Tomatoes from seed in the prairies successfully? Most of my tomatoes are between 55 and 82 days (which is, from my understanding, 'from transplant'), however I've never grown anything other than root vegetables, kale and lettuce from seed. I spent 120 bucks on heirloom seeds to have this happen, and I don't care to waste the remainder of those seeds if the probability is small that they'll survive/live/grow/produce.

I absolutely hate failure, and I'm so angry I could blow smoke out my ears if that was possible.

If it's not too late to suggest this too you, did you check to see if the plants that fell can be salvaged? I've had disasters like this, and peppers can be pretty wussy, but tomatoes are pretty tough, and you might be able to repot the plants yet. Otherwise, this late in the season you'd probably be better off to cut your losses and buy more plants from a nursery or local gardener (lots of us get a little overzealous and plant way too many tomatoes)

Country Thyme Farm wrote:If it's not too late to suggest this too you, did you check to see if the plants that fell can be salvaged? I've had disasters like this, and peppers can be pretty wussy, but tomatoes are pretty tough, and you might be able to repot the plants yet. Otherwise, this late in the season you'd probably be better off to cut your losses and buy more plants from a nursery or local gardener (lots of us get a little overzealous and plant way too many tomatoes)

Thanks for your honesty. I checked the plants this morning when I found the mess and it must have happened shortly after I went to bed. They were all withered out, many with broken stems and I didn't find any tomato stalks with roots left. Bugger it all.

That really does suck.

On the plus side, tomato and pepper seed has a good three year life span before the germination rate starts to drop, so you can save those expensive heirloom seeds to plant again next year.

That is strange, I have dropped many a tray of plant and rarely destroyed much. Just because they are withered, does not mean they will not survive either. I have scorched many plants , watered them and they were fine. If I were closer to you I would offer you a half tray of Early Girls. I am the one who gets a little over-zealous with tomatoes!! My tomatoes are a foot and a half high, in gallon pots and already hardened off. If you know someone going to Saskatoon some time, I could bring some to the city next weekend.

Bowker Acres wrote:That is strange, I have dropped many a tray of plant and rarely destroyed much. Just because they are withered, does not mean they will not survive either. I have scorched many plants , watered them and they were fine. If I were closer to you I would offer you a half tray of Early Girls. I am the one who gets a little over-zealous with tomatoes!! My tomatoes are a foot and a half high, in gallon pots and already hardened off. If you know someone going to Saskatoon some time, I could bring some to the city next weekend.

Unfortunately not. My tomatoes were maybe 4 inches high at best. I just suck at this gardening thing and need to give it up, it'd save me plenty of heartache, and money, for that matter. I'm only about an hour and a half south of Saskatoon, but I don't think we'll be heading up there this weekend. We haven't had a weekend just at home for a while what with sales and everything. Thanks so very much for the offer though, I'm sure it would have been lovely.

I don't know, they've never done it before and I don't think they know how to get in, but I suppose my cats could have gotten in there and trampled everything. They've been acting like tards recently, and are about to return to their original roots as farm cats and find themselves banished to the outdoors for most of the day. But that's another topic for another section.

Wouldn't hurt to start a few more. Plants can surprise you and make up a lot of time once the warm weather comes.

If any of the bits of tomatoe plant have a leaf still attached to the stem, put the ends in water and see if they root. They can be pretty amazing. Also, long days in the summer sometimes mean late started things catch up some. Best of luck which ever you decide.

jocelyn wrote:If any of the bits of tomatoe plant have a leaf still attached to the stem, put the ends in water and see if they root. They can be pretty amazing. Also, long days in the summer sometimes mean late started things catch up some. Best of luck which ever you decide.

Good point. Those hairs on the stems can all turn into roots.

Fowler wrote:

jocelyn wrote:If any of the bits of tomatoe plant have a leaf still attached to the stem, put the ends in water and see if they root. They can be pretty amazing. Also, long days in the summer sometimes mean late started things catch up some. Best of luck which ever you decide.

Good point. Those hairs on the stems can all turn into roots.

Thanks you two. I'm not sure how they'll fair after a day of laying on the floor while I'm at work. I guess we'll see whats there when I get home.

Sweetened, I am so sorry about your plants. I know exactly how you feel because I was in a similar situation last spring. This year I started extra of everything and my tomatoes and peppers are around 10-12 inches tall I would guess? Anyway...I go to Regina every second weekend and sometimes to Craik. I would love to offer at least a few tomato plants as well as some pepper plants to ya . I have heirloom tomatoes and tiny tim's, as well as four different types of pepper (yellow hot wax, jalapeño, heirloom red, and chili's). I know it's nowhere near what you lost but if you'd like some anyway, just let me know

Fowler wrote:

jocelyn wrote:If any of the bits of tomatoe plant have a leaf still attached to the stem, put the ends in water and see if they root. They can be pretty amazing. Also, long days in the summer sometimes mean late started things catch up some. Best of luck which ever you decide.

Good point. Those hairs on the stems can all turn into roots.

Can't help myself...you are both right that they could root from the stem, but technically it's not the hairs that turn into roots, it's stem tissue that's capable of reverting to root tissue...

Found one little tomato in the dirt with leaves still attached and not dry. I put it back in dirt and watered it, so we'll see how that goes.

However, there goes the squash.

I moved all my plants out to my greenhouse on the porch so they could start getting natural light and deal with the weather. About 3-4 months ago it was someone's stupid idea (mine) to get a puppy. That puppy, who's avoided my greenhouse all this time, tore through it this morning and strewn my squash starts about the deck and yard.

....

OI! I give up this year. Nursery, non-heirloom plants it is then, I guess. I'll throw a couple seeds down and see what happens, in amongst the store-bought ones I guess!

Thanks to everyone, for any post and suggestion and offer that was/is made. Such a great community here.

Sweetened wrote:Found one little tomato in the dirt with leaves still attached and not dry. I put it back in dirt and watered it, so we'll see how that goes.

However, there goes the squash.

I moved all my plants out to my greenhouse on the porch so they could start getting natural light and deal with the weather. About 3-4 months ago it was someone's stupid idea (mine) to get a puppy. That puppy, who's avoided my greenhouse all this time, tore through it this morning and strewn my squash starts about the deck and yard.

....

OI! I give up this year. Nursery, non-heirloom plants it is then, I guess. I'll throw a couple seeds down and see what happens, in amongst the store-bought ones I guess!

Thanks to everyone, for any post and suggestion and offer that was/is made. Such a great community here.

Squash is a different story than tomatoes and peppers. Don't know your climate specifically. But here in central Alberta, I have started squashes directly in the ground in early June, especially summer squashes and still gotten decent harvests some years. Even better if you can get some sort of crop protection like black mulch or a cold frame over top. They're also ready to transplant in 3-4 weeks, so you could even reseed them now with success.

Country Thyme Farm wrote:Squash is a different story than tomatoes and peppers. Don't know your climate specifically. But here in central Alberta, I have started squashes directly in the ground in early June, especially summer squashes and still gotten decent harvests some years. Even better if you can get some sort of crop protection like black mulch or a cold frame over top. They're also ready to transplant in 3-4 weeks, so you could even reseed them now with success.

Oh! That's fantastic news, really. I have some straw left from a straw bale, would that help or would that prevent everything from coming up? Do you hill them or just plant them down?

Straw actually insulates soil and would slow warming in the soil. I meant one of the black plastic mulches you can get that collects heat. a hill is a good idea instead though, the raised ground will also heats up a little faster and speed up your germination.

I have the perfect little "mini greenhouse" contraption for you. Plant you squash directly in the ground and put this over it. I so wish I were closer. I can't replace your heritage plants, but I have some cool things here that I don't need that would be perfect for you.

DONT DOO ITT!! (The squashes, I mean) Just kidding. Last spring (which was cool and very, very wet) I planted my Zuchini and Spaghetti squash the 20th of May,(directly in the ground) and by the end of summer I lost count at around 40 Spaghetti squash and 35+ Zuchini. Squash is well adapted for our northern climate, planting it directly in the ground this weekend should be no problem!

And if its any consolation, I had a Tomato Armagedon too, only myne was in the form of aphids

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