Is it time to plant? Should we wait? Is winter over? The first day of Spring was last week, so we’re good to go right? To all of those questions I would give you a big “maybe.” I say “maybe” because it depends on the type of garden vegetables you are talking about. Cool season crops…yes, we’re good to go on those. Warm season vegetables, I would hold up until the average final freeze date of April 15^th. Here’s why in one word…ok two words… and one of them is a contraction…it’s Oklahoma.

Oklahoma weather is weird. We are right in the middle of the country, so we get a little bit of everything pushing through our area. Traditionally we would call what we are experiencing as First Spring. First Spring is typically followed by Second Winter. This isn’t official, but if you’ve lived here for a while, you know it’s true. Some reports seem to suggest that winter is over, and I hope that it is, but we all know that an 80-degree day can be followed by a few days in the 30s so it’s just better to be safe and wait on those summer crops than risk it…at least in my view. Plus, soil temperatures are still in the upper 50s. At these temperatures, your summer crops won’t do much. They will just sit in the soil waiting for temperatures to warm up. Cool season crops are a different story.

By cool season crops I mean crops like broccoli, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, Swiss chard, spinach, radishes, and kale. These can all be planted in cooler soil and do well. We completed planting the cool season crops at our Seed to Supper farm two weeks ago. Some of our crops are planted in black plastic mulch while the root crops are planted in bare soil. The importance of soil temperature becomes glaringly obvious since the seeds planted in the mulch started sprouting before the seeds in the bare ground. Why? Because the soil under that black plastic mulch heats up the soil, encouraging those seeds to germinate sooner that the ones in bare soil.

This year at the farm we are making a concerted effort to increase production per row foot. When we started our farm 4 years ago, we spaced our rows on 8-foot centers. This was so that we could get the tractor in between the rows with the tiller for weed control. Since then, we’ve purchased a BCS two-wheeled tractor with a tiller attachment enabling us to use 6-foot centers on our rows. This allows us to get more rows in the same space…more rows equal more production capability. In addition, for crops like beets, turnips, and carrots, we are planting them 4 across in each row on about 6-inch centers. That spacing allows us to get about 800 plants per 100-foot row. We have two rows each of the beets, turnips, and carrots, so that translates to about 1600 plants of each. If we stagger harvests, this will enable us to provide these vegetables to area food pantries over a period of several weeks rather than just a couple of harvests. Our goal has always been to work smarter, not harder and this enables us to increase production in the same amount of space which reinforces the goal.

Broccoli and cabbage should be planted as transplants for better success. We’ve tried direct seeding but with poor results. If you haven’t started your broccoli and cabbage seeds indoors yet, you are bumping up against the time where you will have to wait till fall. Cabbage and broccoli both require 60 to 90 days to harvest. So, if you started seeds indoors today for these, after about 3 to 4 weeks they will be able to be planted outdoors. Then with a potential 90 days before harvest, that’s going to put harvest somewhere in June. That’s pretty warm for these crops. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try; it just means the window is closing for planting those two.

As far as warm season crops go, we have a bunch of seeds started. We started several tomatoes including Cherokee Carbon, Early Girl, Mortgage Lifter, Tomatillo, and Chocolate Cherry. These little ones are probably about 4 to 5 inches high right now and will be itching to get in the ground come mid-April. Tomatillo is a new one for this year, but we are looking forward to seeing how it does at our farm.

We also have seeds started for peppers including bell, banana, and jalapeño. We’ve found the banana peppers to be relentless producers as they historically continue to put out peppers as other plants are getting tired. We’ll get production off of all these peppers throughout the growing season.

We also have plants started for eggplant and are growing two varieties this year - Mitoyo and Millionaire. Mitoyo is more like the standard eggplant you are familiar with while Millionaire is a more slender eggplant, similar in shape to a squash.

This year we are also going to try some Brussels Sprouts. While we like to stick to the standards, we also like to test the waters to see how other crops turn out. I’ll keep you posted on this. As I type this article, I am looking up at all of these tiny plants, starting to grow.

So, that’s where we are right now. Hopefully, you have some of your crops in the ground and are gearing up as well. See you in the garden!

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Photo: Tom Ingram