Looks as if we'll all have a late garden this spring. I lost 3 of my tomatoes. I had planned to put out another dozen today until I saw this morning's 7 day forecast. The forecast is for a low of 33 degrees next Thursday night. I've seen seed potatoes rot in the ground on wet cold springs.

Bill, I hope my potatoes don't, but all the signs are there as you describe. My onions actually took a beating as well. I haven't even thought about tomatoes yet, a week or 2 for me.

I covered my few tomatoes with clear plastic totes over the cold weather. They not only survived, but grew a little and two of them put on blossoms. My little "greenhouses" worked out pretty good.

I saw a little crack on the top of my potato row yesterday and scraped some soil away. There was the white sprout of the top of a potato. Looks as if I'll have at least one. My onions are doing fine.

Palehourse you're a little farther south. I may stop by a pick a couple of tomatoes on my first fishing trip.

I may go dig in a potato row and see whats going on as well. Broccoli looks to be a bust, the 13* and 0* wind chill was just to much, may try a fall planting.

Your growing season is a bit longer than mine.

You bet. I'll even throw in a cold beer to go with it!

Put in a drip system and transplanted some broccoli and spinach.

Looks great phat

Nice looks great

Thanks guys. I kinda want to put a few mater plants out but I don't know if we are safe to do so yet.

I am going to wait at least another 2-3 weeks. I got burned last year bad, and if it wouldnt have been for my stupidity of planting to many seeds I would of been SOL.

I have a few I can test out 3-4 or so. They are getting to big to live under the lights together. If the first few don't make it, I'll have plenty in reserve.

I think I'd wait a little longer on those mater plants you could cover them nightly but the ground is still wet & cold

better hurry up..you can cover em..

We have another front coming through toward the end of the week. I plan to plant after that.

X's 2

well between the past freeze and one rabbit. i lost half of my garden. it was still in the early stages. i plan on replanting after this weekend. put up a fance last weekend to keep the rabbit out.

I made a mini green house set up with some 4 mil plastic sheathing ($9.99 @ HD). I planted 4 plants on Monday, I couldnt resist. The set up should keep the plants plenty warm.

This may have been discussed somewhere in the previous pages but what varieties of tomatoes are you guys planting?

I'd like to can some this year. I'll get flamed hard for this but I don't even eat them fresh but my wife does. I'll eat them cooked in anything but not fresh.

I don't have a lot of room but I'm thinking one cherry and a couple other bigger tomatoes of some kind.

I made a small 4x8 elevated bed that works well with easy access and plant 2 rows of 4 plants each row. We usually put in a couple of Celebrity, a couple of Early Girl, a couple Heatwave and a couple of Cherry (not sure of the variety but buy at local nursery). We used to use tubs that cattle mineral feed came in about 2 foot diameter & 2 foot tall with small holes drilled each quarter at the bottom for drainage, using uncrushed aluminum cans in the bottom with garden soil on top (reduced the weight for easier moving).

For whatever reason, I get three times more tomatoes from Celebrity plants than any other and they taste awesome, I have tried Roma, Early girl, Better boy, Big boy & Beefsteak but never get more than a few tomatoes from each. The past three years I have planted some Celebrities and have had more tomatoes than I know what to do with. This year, I bought 16 celebrity plants & that's it. (I'll probably get a couple of cherry tomato plants)

CC, same here on most you mentioned, did poor last year, so I will try some Celebrity. We grow the Roma's since the wife makes homemade Spaghetti sauce and they are great for that. Cherry tomatoes did OK last year, but where heaviest late summer. Got squat from the beefsteaks and betterboy!

I have done decent with Romas also, & Cherries almost always make some but I cant get much at all out of the others.

I've tried most of those. I'm planting Supersweet 100 cherry, Celebrity and Early Girl. I usually try something different every year. So this year I'm going to try some grape tomatoes and Amelia tomatoes.

Tore up the fall garden yesterday and have a lot of brussel sprouts I need to harvest. I'm going to disc (proper spelling Bill) the garden on Friday. Release the ladybugs, preying mantis and nematodes early next week. I'm hoping to plant mid week, just depends on the weather.

tomatoes that I planted this year

4 - Rio Grande
4 - Goliath
2 - Sun Sugar (cherry)
2 - Golden Nugget (cherry)
4 - Ace 55
2 - Roma
2 - Super Sweet 100 (large cherry)
2 - Celebrity
2 - Beefsteak