Your Maine Garden

A friend who owns a greenhouse business north of Bangor called me the other night to talk about the season. Sales have been brisk, we both agreed, but it seems that the season breaks a little too early every year. He told me that customers were stopping by his greenhouses in late April asking to buy pepper plants, cucumber seedlings and all sorts of strictly summer loving annuals.

“What can we do,” the friend asked, “to get the public back on track?”

In an effort to turn things around, I offer the following argument:

There used to be a dairy farmer on my street — many Bangor natives will remember Bill Jinks, now moved to Iowa and farming soil that runs a good deal deeper than on Essex Street — who waited as late as the Fourth of July to plant his silage corn. Since he wasn’t interested in the ears as much as the tender stalks and leaves, he found it paid to wait until the soil was nice and warm before hooking the seeder to his tractor.

Conversely, there is a gardener on the same street — yours truly — who thought he would get a jump on the potato beetles by putting his seed pieces in the first week of May. The incredibly cold, rainy weather of mid to late May made him wish he had waited. At least a third of the tuber pieces turned to malodorous mush before they had a chance to sprout. And what did come up was struggling.

At least I didn’t put my peppers and cukes in the ground until the second week of June, when things had settled down a bit, meteorologically speaking.

The message is clear. We have a short growing season here in Maine, but early planting is no way to deal with the problem. Early maturing varieties (planted when the soil temperature suits them) produce the quickest and most reliable results.

The problem of early buying and planting does seem to be getting worse. The problem stems from a chronically short supply of some types of seedlings and geraniums in mid-May, which leads the smart consumer to make a mental note to shop earlier next year. Unfortunately, most consumers are smart, so they all begin shopping earlier, and the same shortages occur, just a little earlier.

Nationally, the trend is quite different, with garden centers finding that their sales of spring plants continue later and later each year.

Local greenhouse production is steadily increasing, which means that the supply of garden plants is much better than just a few years ago. The gardener who waits until the end of May or early June to buy bedding plants and vegetable seedlings stands a much better chance of finding the varieties he or she wants.

So, make a new mental note. Buy your pansies and broccoli plants as early as you want, as they can stand the frosts of May. But if you buy peppers and impatiens early, keep them in a cold frame or on a sunny porch until the soil is well and truly warm.

I’ll try to do my part, by printing an ideal timetable for planting the different types of annuals and vegetables next year, just before the season starts. Stay tuned…

Michael Zuck of Bangor is a horticulturist and the NEWS’ garden columnist. Send inquiries to him at 2106 Essex St., Bangor, Maine, 04401.