Late is early

I always plant at certain times because that's when, for what ever reason I think I should plant. The last couple of years I have been very happy with my garden ( of course there's always something that doesn't work, but for the most part I'm happy).

This year I took into consideration what temperature plants like.  For example tomatoes don't like temps lower than 50 and peppers 60.
This year our spring was strange. I would get ready to plant the tomatoes I started in the house, and were living in the unheated greenhouse. The forecast would be a low of 50 for 4, or 5 nights then dip to low 40s. I knew it wouldn't kill the tomatoes, because normally they would have already been planted. This up and down temp pattern lasted a lot longer than usual. Finally in mind to late May the 10 day forecast stayed above 50.  I planted the tomatoes, then a little later peppers. I figured production would be pretty late this year.  That has not been the case. It's been the opposite. We have already eaten lots of cherry tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, egg plant, zucchini, and squash. We should have gotten 2 regular tomatoes, but the birds beat us to them.  This is a lot more veggies a lot sooner than I ever remember.  Some of it may be the weather, I have heard lots of people saying there garden is doing very well this year. But I really believe planting according to the nighttime temperature is the key. I believe there's a lot less transplant shock, and they hit the ground running.  I won't know for sure for a couple of years, but we are sure enjoying the results this year.

You can never tell what is going to happen, but often plants do seem to catch up or grow quicker when the temperature is right for them. Last year I planted my potatoes late and they came up quite quickly. This year I was earlier getting them in, and they took longer to show above ground, presumably because the temperatures were cooler. Whether it will affect the yield is yet to be seen - they may still get a longer growing time before the blight hits them.

I find that I tend to start way too many plants indoors and end up moving a lot of them outside in batches. I try to eyeball good enough nighttime temperatures and have been okay so far.

I find that the transplant shock/stunted growth sits for a little bit but once the temperature improves the plants take off like no-ones business.

I have had a bunch of volunteer tomato plants come up in my last years tomato beds from fruit that rotted in place and it is interesting comparing them to my transplants. My transplants are starting to set fruit but those volunteers are just coming up to the same size. I'm going to be drowning in tomatoes if I'm lucky this year!

Jen Fulkerson wrote:

This year I took into consideration what temperature plants like.  For example tomatoes don't like temps lower than 50 and peppers 60.

Jen I think you are right. I also think day length plays into it. I planted lots of beans and squash this year very early, since we were having a warm spring. They did not frost off, but they barely sprouted and grew very slowly, and lots of bug issues.

I suspect a combination of temps, long, cold nights even if no frost, and short daylight. Later planted same varieties are doing much better, and the few survivors are showing some growth finally. Wasted a lot of seeds this year, but it was a worthwhile experiment.