lettuce and spinach ready to plant outside

I’ve been waiting to put the lettuces outside from my indoor planting lights for weeks because the temperature has been too high outside during most of March when I usually plant them outside. This has been unseasonably hot for March. We set many records for high temperatures. I did want to plant them in the green house, but the temperature got to be 90 degrees inside the green house and that is way too hot. Lettuce will bolt (make flowers and become bitter) from 75-80 degrees.

So I planted them in my cool season raised bed down in the main garden. Then I watered them with seaweed and fish emulsion combo to help with transplant shock and covered the bed with row cover and then over the hoops I put 30% shade cloth to help with the heat and provide some shade.

The temperature has gone back to normal at the end of March and first of April for this time of year, cooling off considerably and today it is raining! Rain is really needed since the last rain was in January on our property.

baby pepper plants still inside under lights

Meanwhile yesterday, I transplanted the little pepper plants from my germination tray into 1.25″ pots where they will stay and grow inside under lights. It is too soon to plant them outside as they need to get much bigger and peppers are very cold sensitive, so I will plant them outside probably the first week of June. (I say probably because sometime the end of May gets hot so I will watch the weather closely.) If I plant too early while the nights are still cool, they will stall out and stop growing and I would have to get more from a nursery since it is too late to start seeds. So better to wait and be safe.