Planning the new year gardening

Vegetables.

In Houston where extreme cold weather is not an issue and where some people say all year round is really summer(in winter very few days are below freezing point). In this year experience to me the trick for sowing vegetables from seed in the outside was to look at the middle of february, if the weather forecast lows for the 3rd week of february are going to stay above the 40's, then is a good idea to start sowing beets, carrots, lettuce, chard, radish and peas in the outside.

According to Aggie Horticulture the cold tolerance in vegetables goes as follows:

Cold Tolerance in Vegetables

Question. You have often mentioned cold tolerant vegetable crops and those which are very susceptible to frosty injury. Could you list these and temperature lows which they can tolerate?

Answer. This is very difficult to do and be accurate since cold tolerance depends on preconditioning. For instance, if broccoli has been growing in warm conditions and temperatures drop below 22 degrees F., it will probably be killed. If these same broccoli plants had experienced cool weather, they would probably survive the sudden cold.

In general, a frost (31-33 degrees F.) will kill beans, cantaloupe, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, peas, pepper, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes, and watermelon.

Colder temperatures (26-31 degrees F.) may burn foliage but will not kill broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, lettuce, mustard, onion, radish, and turnip.

The real cold weather champs are beets, Brussels sprouts, carrots, collards, kale, parsley, and spinach.

For tomatos and basil start sowing seeds indoors by the 3rd week of January, harden off for 2 weeks indoors after germination and then move them to the outside as long as temperatures do not go below 50 degrees and higher than 80, let them in plain sun. Here are some questions about tomatos.

Yellow pear tomato at around 6 weeks with 6 "real leaves" already.

Super sweet 100 cherry tomato at 6 weeks.

Big boy tomato 6 weeks old only 2 real leaves, apparently they take longer time to develop the leaves than cherry tomato .

For any kind of peppers,  if the 3rd week of February the day temperatures will stay around high 60's or more then is time to sow in vermiculite individual cups and put them in the outside right at the sun, if not wait until you see the next days forecast to see when starts to heat up and then start. Pepper like temperatures above 60 to germinate.

I sowed green beans directly in the soil the 1st of march knowing than the next days will not drop below 40 degrees.


Muskmelons are best to sow in the ground the first week of april because they need lots of heats and anyway here in houston the summer doldrums are just what they need, besides there's almost nothing to grow in the high 90's at this time, so it's the perfect time for muskmelons.

If a drop below 40 degrees occurs cover the plants with plastic or other insulation material.

Annual flowers for hot weather.

Zinnias, celosias, marigolds and sunflowers are my favorite annual flowers to grow in the extreme hot weather of Houston; they bloom all the time, some varieties lush great colors. Sowing them by mid february indoors in pots sounds great and then transfering outside(plain sun) in the pots when temperatures do not go below 35 degrees, you'll have lots of seedlings by the end of march. Then wait to april to transfer them right into the garden soil.

Alyssum, snapdragons, impatiens and other annual flowers that can live on partial sun or full sun can stand temperatures of 35 degrees in fall and winter, but lower that that and their life cycle comes to and end. Basically that's why you grow them very early so they live until the first winter frost kills them, by then you'll have already developed annual cold weather winter flowers that you grew from seeds in june and july

Annual flowers for cold weather.

Verbena, aster, blanket flower(gaillardia) survives at 15 degrees.
Hydrangea survives at 10 degrees.
Ornamental cabagge and Kale, primrose survives at 20 gedrees.
Pansies survive at 5 degrees.

I will sow my cold weather seeds in my square ft garden by late june and months later I'll transfer them to a garden bed.

Flowers for shade(annuals and perennials).

Flowers for sun(annuals and perennials).

"By january make a soil test to the square foot garden boxes to see the levels of N-P-K and if necessary apply bonemeal".


"Everytime you sow seeds remember immediately to fertilize with seaweed-kelp soluble in water to improve germination, promote strong roots and at the same time making the plant more disease resistant."


"After the plant is established if growing leafy vegetables(lettuce, swiss chard) apply 3 weeks latter liquid fish fertilizer for fast nitrogen absortion, so plants are lush green."