Last fall defied all that I know to be true of weather in New England. After waiting until mid-October for the still elusive frost to come, I realized that I was now two or three weeks behind my usual fall schedule of garden cleanup and compost building. I began pulling lush pepper and tomato plants, wheeling my loaded cart past equally lush rows of unfrosted basil. I bit my lip and pulled summer squash and pole beans that were still producing blossoms and immature fruit.
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On a cold and snowy day in January, Rob Johnston Jr., Chairman of Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Albion, Maine, urged growers to go home after Maine’s Agricultural Trades Show and do their “winter kitchen table work. Do it tonight in front of the wood stove. Spring comes quickly … and seed companies tend to run out of things further in the spring.”
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Pumpkin plants are especially sensitive to transplant shock, so they must be treated with care. Transplants should be seeded about three weeks before they’ll be set in the field. They should be transplanted at the two- to four-true-leaf stage. Larger plants tend to be shocked by transplanting more easily.
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