A6 The SpokeSman • TueSday, may 3, 2022
Gardening corner: Soil temperature key to planting
BY LIZ DOUVILLE
For The Spokesman
Children chant: “Are we there yet?”
Gardeners chant: “Can I plant yet?”
Impatience has no age boundaries.
Gardeners not familiar with the
weather/garden cycles in Central
Oregon, must think we are trying to
keep a deep dark secret when sea-
soned gardeners don’t offer a defini-
tive answer. Longtime residents who
haven’t gardened in the area also find
it confusing.
The best advice I can give is to buy
a soil thermometer available at local
nurseries and garden centers. Ideally,
the soil temperature should be taken
at approximately the same time —
usually between 9-11 a.m. every day
for l week. The thermometer should
be inserted into the soil to a depth of
3-4 inches for seeds, deeper if you are
transplanting materials that have es-
tablished root systems. This charting
will give you a good idea of the stabil-
ity of the warmth of the soil.
Not everyone has the daily flexi-
bility to establish that type of routine.
Please don’t let that deter you from
Courtesy photo
Some seeds need direct sunlight to ger-
minate.
planting vegetables for your family.
Use your good sense. Early in the
spring, usually in March, we get that
false sense of security that spring is
here. Temperatures soar and it feel so
good, then the temperatures plum-
met and we are back to reality.
A classic example of trying to get
ahead of the game is carrots. At a
soil temperature of 41 degrees and
a seed depth of ½ inch, carrot seeds
will take 51 days to germinate. At a
soil temperature of 50 degrees the
germination time will be approxi-
mately 17 days. Lettuce will germi-
nate in 15 days at a soil temperature
of 41 degrees. If you wait until the
soil reaches 50 degrees, it will take
approximately 7 days.
Knowing the soil temperature is
more critical to planting than follow-
ing a traditional date on the calendar.
I often think of the area where I grew
up, mid-Wisconsin, and the tradi-
tional date for planting sweet peas
was Good Friday. No matter what the
weather was or the month, Good Fri-
day was the day. The neighbor lady
would chide my mom for not getting
that planting done on the proper day.
Her ending comment was always to
the effect it was no wonder mom’s
sweet peas weren’t as lush as hers.
The criticism didn’t faze my mom,
she never changed her schedule to
conform. And we always had beauti-
ful bouquets of sweet peas.
Choosing seeds for Central Ore-
gon requires a little math. Select va-
rieties with a maturity date of 65-75
days. Then add 14 days to compen-
sate for the swing of warm days and
cool nights. That will give you a more
realistic maturity date. The goal is to
keep the maturity date to 90 days or
under.
The day before planting your
seeds, it is important that you irrigate
the planting area. Seeds need to go
into moist soil. After planting on the
following day, irrigate lightly to settle
the seeds.
Think ahead and plan for the un-
expected frost we hear about on the
5 p.m. local weather report. It is a
little late in the day to think about
how you will protect the seedlings
from frost. The worst frost protec-
tion would be a covering of plastic
unless it is over a framework and will
not come in direct contact with the
seedlings. Season extenders will do
double duty in protecting seedlings at
the beginning of the season and help
to extend the production and harvest
in the fall.
Several ideas include low hoop
tunnels made with PVC pipe,
cloches, cold frames, Wall O’ Wa-
ter and row cover. For construction
ideas, check out the community gar-
dens at Discovery Park in Northwest
Crossing and the Hollinshead Com-
munity Garden, part of the Hollins-
head Park in northeast Bend.
Everything you need to know
about the seeds you are going to
start is on the seed packet. Too often
the info most ignored is the plant-
ing depth. A valuable hint is that
the eraser on a new pencil is a quar-
ter-inch, a planting depth of many
seeds. A quick planting method
would be to use a tape or ruler to
mark the distance between seeds and
use the pencil eraser to measure the
depth.
Some seeds require light to ger-
minate. After two years of trying to
grow strawflowers, I read the seed
packet and took the information seri-
ously. Light is required for germina-
tion. When I followed directions and
did not cover with soil I had wonder-
ful germination.
For more information: Growing
Vegetables in Central Oregon, an
Oregon State University publication
available at the Deschutes County
OSU Extension Office in Redmond
or on-line Growing Vegetables in
Central Oregon(EM 9128) www.cat-
alog.extension.oregonstate.edu/9128
FLASHBACK
Traughber oil backs off from Redmond operation in 1997
100 YEARS AGO
76 YEARS AGO
May 4, 1922 — Social eve-
ning for knights and families
Last Tuesday evening,
Redmond Lodge No. 110,
Knights of Pythias, held an
open session for the mem-
bers and their families, about
15 being present.
A short program was ren-
dered, after which a light
lunch was served, followed
by music, games and just
a wee bit of dancing. One
unique feature of the lunch
was that the men handled the
entire affair without being
bothered by a whole kitchen
full of women. They feel
rather chesty about it, seeing
that it is their first attempt in
that line. Can they serve? You
tell ‘em!
May 8, 1947 — Shop spe-
cialty to be doughnuts
Latest enterprise in Red-
mond is a retail and wholesale
doughnut shop to be open for
business next Monday morning
on the corner of Seventh and E
streets.
Maurice Atkisson and P.W.
Cochran are partners and own-
ers of the concern, and Mrs.
Cochran will assist in the shop.
The doughnuts will be of both
raised and glazed varieties and
the partners point out that the
dough is to be mixed by hand
not by machine.
The doughnut partners ar-
rived in Redmond in Febru-
ary from their former home
in Iowa. Adkisson served four
years in the Navy during the
war and saw action in both the
European and Pacific theaters.
50 YEARS AGO
May 3, 1972 — School bud-
get defeated
Amid successful school dis-
trict budget elections Monday
throughout Central Oregon,
Redmond became the island of
defeat, as voters both within the
city and in outlying areas turn
down the proposed levy 538 yes
to 728 no.
Defeat of the budget for the
Redmond district, which has no
tax base, will require a second
election. No date has been set as
of yesterday for a budget board
meeting to begin reconsider-
ation of a budget proposal to
take to the voters later.
In the three-way race for the
single vacancy of the Redmond
School Board, former teacher
and current National Alliance of
Businessmen’s project adminis-
trator John Halsted was victori-
ous. He drew 560 votes, trailed
by Dr. Rogers Stack with 432
and Fred Hart with 254.
Voters in neighboring dis-
tricts passed operating budgets
for Crooked County, Bend, Jef-
ferson 509J, Culver, Ashwood,
Camp Sherman and Sisters.
In Sisters, the budget election
tally was 125 yes to 82 no. For
the Sisters board, incumbent W.
Edward Furman earned a four-
year term by defeating Virginia
Bradley 128 to 66; Daymond
“Moon” Mullins overcame El-
mer Pond 121 to 71 for a two-
year term, and Gerald Garrison
tallied 166 votes in his uncon-
tested bid for the three-year slot.
25 YEARS AGO
May 7, 1997 — Traughber
Oil backs off from Redmond
operation
American Transport Inc.
has backed out of a proposal
to build a new corporate head-
quarters, warehouse, product
packaging and distribution
terminal and service facility in
Redmond.
However, the Bend-based
company, a major Central Or-
egon fuel distributor for BP
and Chevron station, still may
locate the new complex in Red-
mond someday, general man-
ager Don Reese said.
American Transport, which
purchased Traughber Oil Co.
earlier this year, announced in
January plans to build a facility
of 35,000 to 40,000 square feet
on a 3.25-acre parcel owned by
the city near the Redmond air-
port. Construction was set to
begin in the spring.
The company offered the
city $325,000 for the property
and the city council accepted it.
The deal was in escrow when
American Transport canceled
the transaction this week.
“We’re going to sit back and
do some further analysis,” Re-
ese said Tuesday. “Our concern
was it was unfair to the city to
not allow them to market that
property.”
“That’s not to say we won’t
re-approach the city at some
point,” Reese added. “Redmond
is still an important part of our
company’s area of operations.”
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needs a facility that works as well and as hard as they do.
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victims the privacy they need. Now is the time to show Redmond Law Enforcement our
support by funding a new Public Safety Facility that meets our city’s growth.
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