If they can develop a level of cold tolerance, enough to mitigate the stunting that often comes with cold sowing, then yes. If I gain even a week over the traditional planting time, that’s a week more that they have to grow and produce. I think a month isn’t out of reach, but two weeks would be amazing.
That’s two more weeks to take advantage of the spring rains and cooler weather, and a higher chance of fruiting before the heat kills everything.
The other side of the argument is that eventually I want to be able to plant in the fall and have my crops come up on their own schedule.
Fall planted corn, that doesn’t rot in the ground? Fall planted beans, melons, and volunteer tomatoes? The plants are smarter than hoomuns, with our schedules and planting calendars.
Since I am primarily dry gardening, taking advantage of the spring rains is vital. But how to best do that?
Is it possible to make plants strong enough that they’ll come back from the root after being frozen? I hope so. That would be another technique.
I essentially have March to July. By July it can be getting into the triple digits. March can often be too cold. That leaves essentially a 90 day spring/summer window for most crops.
How to best extend that, on either end? Heat tolerance and cold tolerance, drought tolerance, fall planting, encouraging volunteers. Mass plantings, succession planting, cover cropping?
Sounds like a lot of work. My neighbors, pretty smart people, have this innovative new way of getting their produce, they call it “grocery shopping”. Don’t have a full picture on how it works, but my first impression is that it is easier than the things we do here with landrace gardening, I’ll try to get some more detail to understand it better, perhaps worth a try.
I love the idea of having crops that can handle being frozen down to the ground from an unexpected late frost, and then bounce back by regrowing their stalks afterwards. That kind of resilience sounds particularly valuable in climates that keep heading towards wilder and less predictable weather.
I think the key there is the seed leaves. If the plant dies below those seed leaves it is not going to recover. Most people I know plant tomatoes with those seed leaves well below the soil level, so it should be possible. Other plants it may be possible if that junction is protected somehow.
Oh, interesting. So maybe if you direct seed, planting them in a swale and then hilling them up, like you would potatoes, would accomplish something similar?
Of course, planting them in a swale might actually afford a bit of geothermal heat protection from a surprise late frost anyway, now that I think about it.
I’m with you. Fall planting is extremely appealing to me, especially right now coming out of hibernation and not yet being in as good of shape as i was in the fall. Plus, if something fails, you still have time for spring planting.
Planted melons and cucumbers, under deep mulch in the main garden.
I can’t find my green bean seeds, except for two commercial varieties. I thought I had a full container. In fact I know I did. Green beans last year were an utter failure in the dry garden, so this year I’ll plant them in the main garden and see what happens.
I have 8 almond seedlings up, and 5 goji. I dug around in the plum pots and couldn’t even find the seeds, so I replanted. Walnut, apple and pecan seeds are in pots, and persimmons are in the refrigerator cold stratifying along with goumi.
The baby apricot I thought I had killed came up through 10 inches of woodchips and looks happy.
I need to get more big pots. I have one for persimmons and goumi. I may be able to use two that were hijacked for another purpose.
So what you’re hoping is that they won’t be chicken food, rather than that they will.
