It’s been a learning month for me in growing in the ShenandoahValley of West Virginia. I’ve had some big success, but also some losses, where I had to tell myself to cut my loss, pull, and replant something else better suited. Learning a new grow zone is worth it, but it’s also a huge and sometimes painful/pricey set of lessons.
We are in grow zone 7a, for reference. The last “frost date” is around May 1st, but that doesn’t mean you are safe necessarily. Optimism is a powerful force for sure.
I had a few broken tomato branches and drowned lettuce. I lost one of the two Stevia plants. It was just too delicate.
The onions never recovered. They absolutely wilted and collapsed. Full cellular collapse. Was it the rain? The shift from 80+ temps to 55? I also lost a couple of small pots of garlic. Thankfully, not my big pots. Also, a cellular collapse.
Then I realized something: every plant I lost after that massive set of thunderstorms and rain? They were in large hard plastic pots. Everything in the felt pots? They were fine.
Which leads me to thoughts. That the rain was just too much at once. It couldn’t drain fast enough. It has very much shown that felt pots are far better here. In Western Washington, I didn’t have these issues. Rain would be gentle, drizzle, all day long. Here, it dumps for an hour, and you can have a quarter inch fall in that time.
A lesson learned there. When I see heavy rain predicted, the seedlings trays go into the pop-up greenhouse for protection. It is under the deck, so it is protected from the heavy rains to a point. The table we bring under the deck as well, while the larger potted plants do get rain, it’s not non-stop damaging. This week, we had another set of storms. It dropped 1.5″ in a 24-hour period. I’m paying attention now.
It’s all lessons, and every year, I will adapt to growing here better. I’ve harvested strawberries, lettuce, and greens so far. That leaves me happy.
~Sarah