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josafeen

total newb question- compensating cool crops with partial shade?

josafeen
15 years ago

So i am about to start all my seedlings, and i bought some cool weather stuff, brocolli and snap peas. I was wondering if i could direct sow, early spring,(because i'm late for a spring harvest) in a bed that i have that is partial shade (probably only gets full sun 4-5 hours), and is generally cooler than my full sun plot, because it it backs up to woods (on the north side), and on the south side it is faced with terrace walls which seem to have a cool sheltering effect.

so in short, my question is, can i compensate for a late start on cool weather vegetables with a partially shaded/ tree sheltered area? thank you!

Comments (3)

  • heather38
    14 years ago

    I can't help too much as a newbe myself but I planted cabbage as a transplant today which I found I had left way to late to start, so I have surrounded them with bush snap peas, nothing ventured, nothing gained, this is how us new people learn, we will make mistakes but we may find something good which works, I am from a gardening family and we have loads of folklore but different places produce different results, try it, just a small patch if it works brilliant if it doesn't what have you really lost? you have gained knowledge and lost something what you wouldn't have had anyway if you hadn't given it a go, good luck

  • trianglejohn
    14 years ago

    While some people claim that you can - in my experience you can't. Most veggie/fruit plants need full sun to bloom and fruit. One thing you can do is sow the seeds indoors on the window sill or under lights (most homes are around 70 degrees), grow the seedlings up indoors and when things start to get crowded then move them outdoors and prepare to harvest them very early. Another trick is to grow them in large pots and move the pots into a crawlspace or someplace very cool at night (the cooler the better). Giving cool season plants a half a day in coolness will help them deal with the high heat. Its the trick I use to successfully grow Rhubarb and Wasabi in the south. Most of my friends find the constant moving out each morning and back under each evening a bit too much work for a plant but it doesn't bother me.

  • heather38
    14 years ago

    I am so trying that trianglejohn, I am like you I don't find it a problem to move my plant, except when heavy! I have them on trays, while I am hardening, and I am doing a low low tec version of I think "Anniesgrannies" idea of puting the plants in her pickup and then driving it in the garage, I am using my kid's toy ride on tractor and looking for second hand radioflyers, my garage is odd as it bites into the basement and is very cool in places, if that fails this year I wonder if I could put a door into the basement proper, which is bliss at the moment in the unseasonable warm weather we have had for the last 5 days! I love rhubarb it reminds me of childhood when my dad would sneek a bowl of sugar outside and me, him and my brother would hide and dip rhubarb into the sugar and eat it raw, Yum, yum! poor old dad, the sneeking sugar was not just out the house! it was buying it and keeping it hidden.... we where a strickly NO sugar household as far as mum was concerned, to the point it took several years for my dads diabetes to be diagnosed, as he would always be ill when away on business, so diagnosed as stress when he got home, truth was when the cats away or in this case the mouse he would eat every high sugar thing he could find when away from home! fall asleep at odd times lose weight, come home to mums cooking, tell her she would instruct he went to the Dr, typical man! took a few days, problem solved! until the next time, bit of a digression there but I enjoyed remembering that

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