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Happy spring! (But wait on planting tomatoes)

Cold, rainy conditions in forecast for Sacramento

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED MAR 20, 2023

The soil is this garden is 58 degrees -- not quite optimal for planting. That tomato seedling in the container should be transplanted into a 1-gallon pot so it can grow while waiting for the weather to improve. Kathy Morrison

Spring arrived on Monday with a bit of a surprise – sun! Sunday’s storm moved through faster than expected, but another is on its way.

The National Weather Service warns that thunderstorms are possible from noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday for much of the Central Valley and the Sierra with the possibility of gusty wind, heavy rain and hail.

Sacramento is on the fringe of this storm zone; the weather service expects “definite rain showers” to return here Tuesday and Wednesday. Sacramento’s chance of rain Tuesday morning: 90%. “The cool and unsettled weather pattern will continue into next weekend,” the NWS Sacramento office adds.

Sacramento received about a third of an inch (0.35 plus a trace) from this past weekend’s storm. That brought our March total to 3.33 inches. Normal for that 19-day period: 1.8 inches.

These passing storms will be accompanied by gusty winds (25 mph-plus) on Tuesday night. Otherwise, it will be breezy and chilly – definitely sweater weather. Most days will top out below 60 degrees – more than 10 degrees below normal. Tuesday’s forecast high is only 54.

So, even though Monday’s sunny weather felt like “go,” slow down on spring planting. Chilly conditions will put on the brakes to early growth.

Further delaying development of seeds and new transplants: Cold soil. It’s not going to warm up much this week. Overnight lows are lingering in the low 40s. Saturday’s expected low is 37!

You can’t put a sweater on your seedlings, but make sure they stay relatively warm. Use hot caps, row covers, milk jugs or other protection from these still-winter-like conditions. Mulch around plants will add some warmth to their roots, too.

And please, don’t plant tomatoes this first week of spring. They will sit there and sulk, if not curl up and die. If already in the ground, make sure those babies are mulched and protected.

If you have tomato seedlings ready to go (or bought some), transplant them into 1-gallon black plastic pots lined with newsprint. The black plastic absorbs heat and the newspaper insulates the rootball. In late April after soil temperature warms up, move the tomato plant – rootball and all – into the garden. After this head start, the plant should produce tomatoes faster and more of them – especially in warm weather.

What will April bring? According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, Northern California – and most of the U.S. – can expect warmer than normal temperatures in April and May. After all our rain this season, we should see a lot of spring flowers.

Says the almanac, “Warmer-than-normal spring temperatures for most of the country is good news for gardeners.”

For Sacramento weather updates: https://www.weather.gov/sto/

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GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

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spring cold weather rain rainfall storms soil temperature tomatoes Sacramento gardening planting seedlings soil saturated soil

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

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