April 2020 Growers Report – Central Ohio

Greetings!  I hope you are all staying healthy.  So a couple quick notes before we get into the April 2020 Grower’s Report.   You and your family are supported by me in your growing.  I assist backyard growers, community gardeners, urban farmers in all phases of production.  Send me an email with questions to mcdermott.15@osu.edu  or call to 614-292-7916 and while I cannot come visit,  a picture is a welcome way to show me what the problem is or describe a situation.  Feel free to contact me at any time, I check email seven days a week.

Looking for a positive activity that benefits your health and wellness while you are maintaing social distancing?  Gardening is an outstanding family friendly activity with major health and wellness benefits including a source of fresh, local produce.

I HIGHLY recommend subscribing!  I will be adding digital content as we are keeping social distancing and gardening is a great outdoor activity for health and wellness  BUTTON ON THE RIGHT — >

Also, I have gone through the pages that are linked in the horizontal bar at the top of the website under my lettuce pic and they are all active LINKS AND INFORMATION FOR GROWERS.  Lots of great information there on fact sheets for fruits and veg, season extension, garden planning, etc.  Make sure to take a look up there for lots of information,  all is free and available to the public.

First update is the weather:

While we are still seeing predictions for warm and wet going forward in the three month,  this week has some temperatures in the 30’s overnight.  Depending on your microclimate you may want to cover any seedlings or transplants in the ground.

Row cover is a spun bonded fabric used to provide frost protection but still let air, sunlight and water move through the fabric. It comes in multiple weights with heavier weight fabric providing the most frost protection but letting in the least amount of sunlight.

If you do not have row cover you can cover your seedlings and transplants with a sheet or a tarp.  Just make sure that you prop the cover up off the plants so it does not touch the leaves and then remove it the next morning to allow sun to get to the plants.

CLICK HERE for NWS/NOAA Weather prediction center.   Cool nights until this weekend upcoming.

Second update is the container garden:

My plants are probably OK due to the microclimate in the container garden in terms of extra frost protection.

They are in black pots, next to the house on my driveway.  All of those contribute heat to the area.  I will still likely cover them just to be sure.

The lettuce enjoyed the rain we had over the weekend followed by some great sun.

I need to make sure that with the heavy rain we get that I address the fertility needs of my plantings.  I am working on a container garden post to have ready soon.

Third update is the seed start station:

I have decent germination from my peppers and eggplant and have moved all the lettuce plus the broccoli raab outside into containers after a few days of hardening off the plants to acclimate to the weather.  While checking on my seedlings I noticed this predator on my swiss chard.

A brown marmorated stink bug found its way to my seedlings. No doubt happy to stay inside and still have a meal. It was removed.

Never to early to start your Integrated Pest Management and scouting for parasites and predators.

Next up will be to start more lettuce transplants.  I will use the Seed Start station to put another dozen seeds into soilless mix for transplanting in 3 weeks or so.

Tomatoes will get stared in the next couple days under the lights.

Have you started planting yet?  Feel free to reach out with questions and I can help you get started.