The Time for Planting 153 



planting seedlings raised in cold frames or hotbeds, pro- 

 vided they are grown in berry boxes or dirt bands so 

 that they can be set in the ground without injury to the 

 root system (page 190). 



Warm-season crops of long growing periods. These 

 are slow-growing vegetables, and in many of our northern 

 states, if seeds are sown in the ground, the plants do not 

 mature crops before the autumn frosts. The vegetables 

 of this group, which should be grown from forced plants, 

 are peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, and sweet potatoes. 

 To grow good plants, suitable for transplanting, requires 

 from 8 to 10 weeks, except the sweet potato, which re- 

 quires only about 5 weeks. Transplanting to the field 

 is done after all danger of frost is past. 



Spring and summer crops in the South. The planting 

 of warm-season vegetables in the South is regulated 

 according to temperature quite as in the North, except 

 that the planting is done at an earlier calendar date and 

 the growing season is longer. Some of the warm-season 

 vegetables like bush beans do not thrive during the 

 Southern summer, and should begin to mature early. 

 The pole beans, however, do well during the summer. 

 Kentucky Wonder and Southern Prolific are good summer 

 varieties. 



When seeds of the long-period warm-season vegetables 

 (okra, peppers, and especially tomatoes) are sown in 

 cool soil, even in the South, they usually fail to germi- 

 nate ; and if one waits until the ground is warm enough 

 to plant out of doors before sowing such seed, the crop 

 matures late. The early crops of these vegetables are 

 secured by growing the plants under protection in hot- 



