Subject: Re: "As soon as the soil can be worked"

From: [email-masked] (Christine Owens)
Date: 28 Feb 1995 10:49:06 GMT

A truly hard frost will kill them dead.  Almost-freezing will
just slow them down.  I generally plant my peas on the last
frost date for my area; hardy annuals about two weeks later.

Chris Owens

>
>What are the constraints on that phrase, "as soon as the soil can be 
>worked"?  Cool weather veggies like lettuce and peas and radishes, as
>well as my seed packets of hardy annual flowers, all need to be planted
>then.  The reason why I'm asking is that around me we've had a 
>relatively warm winter and a relatively dry February, and certainly 
>some of the soil in my back yard is workable.  But it's still quite a 
>way until spring, and if I were to plant peas now, they sprouted, 
>and then there was a week or two of sub-freezing temperatures, what 
>would happen to my peas and hardy annuals and all?  Would they die?  
>Would they simply stop growing, hunker down, and wait until the weather 
>warmed up?  
>
>I've also set up a plastic-covered tunnel in the warmest, most sheltered, 
>south-west-facing part of my yard, and I've got broccoli, lettuce, 
>and other greens as seedlings inside, and when they're big enough I'll
>put them out in the tunnel.  I figure they'll be fine, but I didn't 
>want to put my peas in it (where will they climb?) or my flowers 
>(they're supposed to go in front of the house).  I'm in northern NJ,
>by the way.
>
>Thanks!
>

---

From: [email-masked] (Nick Maclaren)
Date: 28 Feb 1995 12:06:12 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Christine Owens) writes:
|> >What are the constraints on that phrase, "as soon as the soil can be 
|> >worked"?  Cool weather veggies like lettuce and peas and radishes, as
|> >well as my seed packets of hardy annual flowers, all need to be planted
|> >then.  The reason why I'm asking is that around me we've had a 
|> >relatively warm winter and a relatively dry February, and certainly 
|> >some of the soil in my back yard is workable.  But it's still quite a 
|> >way until spring, and if I were to plant peas now, they sprouted, 
|> >and then there was a week or two of sub-freezing temperatures, what 
|> >would happen to my peas and hardy annuals and all?  Would they die?  
|> >Would they simply stop growing, hunker down, and wait until the weather 
|> >warmed up?  
|>
|> A truly hard frost will kill them dead.  Almost-freezing will
|> just slow them down.  I generally plant my peas on the last
|> frost date for my area; hardy annuals about two weeks later.

But remember that wind-chill affects plants as badly as humans!
Slight frosts may be ignored but, combined with a strong wind,
they too can be lethal.  Watch out in windy areas.

Actually, here, "as soon as the soil can be worked" tends to mean
"it no longer goes 'squelch' when you tread on it" :-)

Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
Email:  [email-masked]
Tel.:  +44 1223 334761    Fax:  +44 1223 334679