Florida Gardeners - It's Time to Get Planting. Again!

Yes, You Heard Me Right, It's Time to Dig Out Those Seeds and Plant Again!

Well Floridians, our 2^nd "spring time" planting is almost upon us so dig out those seeds, charts, graphs, and whatever else you use to track your veggies and get to planning. I realize that some of you who live up north will have no understand of this, but here in Florida, our summer is almost as difficult to grow things in as your winter! The high heat combined with high humidity is not a very good combination for plants, specially for their pollen as it gets sticky and clumpy and cannot pollinate anything.

While you are probably trying to figure out what to grow, consider your specific frost date and go backwards from there. Unsure what your frost date is? You can contact your local extension office or NOAA has a good table. Just click on your appropriate state. According to research, the period for frost in my little corner of the world is between, brace yourselves Northerners, January 4^th through February 7^th.

Do some research on the seeds you want to plant, how many days until harvest? Count backwards from your frost date. For example, if I want to plant some Cream Sausage Tomatoes which will be ready for harvest in approximately 73 days, starting from January 4^th, I count backwards 73 days which brings me to October 24^th as the last possible day to transplant them in the ground. Give 6-8 weeks for germination and growth and that gives me a seed planting date around August 29^th. Remember, that is using the latest possible date! You want to make sure that you give yourself some extra time just in case your area gets hit with a frost early.

With that said, if I plant my Cream Sausage Tomatoes seeds now, they should be ready to transplant come September 10^th. With the harvest coming in around November 22^nd.

There are some things that I just would not chance, such as vegetables that require 100 day or more until harvest, but, if it's something you really want, and think you can do it, then go for it!