We are coming out of what is known here in the south as “Blackberry winter”. It is a pretty serious cold snap that happens a couple weeks after the frost date but before the brutal heat of summer sets in to stay. Old timers say it helps set the berries on the vines. I have no idea if that is true but I have noticed it happens every year.
It doesn’t generally get below freezing, but we did have a couple nights this last week that got down to 37°-39°. With day temperatures only reaching the low to mid 50s, things were chilly for wee plants.
I noticed some whitening on my cucumber seedlings about a week before the cool snap. It’s been cool all spring, with the except of perhaps two or three non-consecutive days in the 80s. I didn’t expect the plants to grow much as a result, at least not until temps were in the 80s daily. That’s different than past years in the garden for me, but I know I plant summer crops so it is to be expected.
I wasn’t sure if the white was from cold temperatures or the sun. Cucumbers love direct, hot sun…but seedlings can be sensitive. I hardened mine off for about two weeks before putting them in the bed, but the direct sun could have damaged them since they were still fairly leggy going in.
I am still not sure which caused this damage but am prepared to re-plant these little plants this weekend. Not sure if I will use my existing remaining seedlings, since they are still leggy – once they get that way they won’t correct it until they are in the ground. I may end up buying starts. Today is our last coolish day, according to the forecast. By weekend we will be solidly in the 80s daily so I feel good about re-planting.
I’ve had a mystery guest in my garden bed the last two nights. The beds are fenced so it couldn’t be a dog. Potentially a cat? It is almost time to cover the squash mounds so I hope that whoever is doing this will leave it alone soon.
Tiny wee sliver of germination. 
The zucchini is coming up nicely! I will thin back to one per mound in another week or so. I still don’t see any yellow squash above ground, but there was a wee sliver of potential germination in one mound. After two zukes came up but nothing else did, I planted more zucchini and squash seeds about a week ago. Something finally took for the zukes…I really hope I end up with some squash too!
ladies garden and social club 