It’s a tough time to be a tomato plant in Bangor.
In Jennifer Theriault’s home garden, tomatoes she started from seed three months ago are half the size they usually reach by July. Her cucumbers aren’t bearing fruit yet, like they should be; some seeds never germinated and some seedlings died.
She’s been growing flowers and vegetables seriously for 18 years and has rarely struggled this much when growing from seed — not that it’s easy to begin with in the state’s short growing season.
“We live in Maine, so there’s that,” Theriault said. “[It’s] very hard to grow things even if the weather is perfect.”
But conditions this spring left some gardeners with seeds that never grew and seedlings that aren’t thriving, leaving some without the crops they planned for. It’s part of a larger pattern of changing weather conditions that make growing food here even less predictable, with more weather extremes as a result of climate change. That’s made it easier to grow less hardy varieties here, but also led to changes in what plants need, according to experts.
In an ideal world for crops, temperatures would gradually increase from the 40s to the 70s between April and June, according to Manjot Sidhu, a horticulture specialist and assistant professor at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. They’d get three to four inches of rainfall and see a last frost date sometime in May, depending on the part of the state.
Instead, May was very wet and June fairly dry. May temperatures were close to historical averages, but the month was much wetter than normal across the state, according to a report from Maine’s state climatologist Sean Birkel. June was warmer and drier than normal, and a plant-stressing, two-day heat wave on the 24th and 25th set records. Heat indexes reached 100 degrees or more in some places.
While temperatures were closer to normal overall, there were sometimes big swings between daytime and nighttime.
Days reaching 80 degrees and nights dropping into the 40s and 50s through June made it challenging for Theriault to grow, more than rain-heavy springs have, she said.
While temperatures were closer to normal overall, there were sometimes big swings between daytime and nighttime. Days reaching 80 degrees and nights dropping into the 40s and 50s through June made it challenging for Theriault to grow, more than rain-heavy springs have, she said.
Conventional wisdom says to wait until Memorial Day to move less hardy plants outside. For her, heating a small greenhouse into May grew too expensive. Later in the season, seedling roots were freezing in the morning, but it was too hot to leave them in the greenhouse.
Around the state, a number of factors could have contributed to growing challenges, according to Sidhu.
Heavy rains in late spring can cause drainage problems, leading to waterlogged soil, nutrient loss and a reduced amount of oxygen available to roots. That causes them to rot.
June saw some “flash droughts,” or dry spells that happen quickly and cause lots of evaporation that takes moisture out of the soil.
Some gardeners reported their seeds failed to germinate or young seedlings died in early spring. Common causes for that include cold temperatures, late frosts, not enough water or poor soil drainage, according to Sidhu. Wet conditions can cause “damping off,” a fungus or mold which kills seedlings.
As for slower growth, it depends on conditions, according to Sidhu. Temperature extremes are one cause. So are too much or too little moisture, the amount of nutrients in soil or weeds nearby competing for resources.
To help manage too much or too little water, gardeners should focus on building up healthy soil with lots of organic matter, Sidhu said. That will help it hold on to moisture in dry periods and encourage drainage when it rains. In dry periods, plants need extra water and careful management.
Gardeners still have lots of options to plant now if they lost earlier seeds: beets, carrots, lettuces, spinach, peas and radishes. Later in July, it’ll be time to plant crops for a cooler fall harvest, such as cabbage, kale, broccoli and cauliflower.
July, August and September — the rest of the standard growing season — have a higher chance of warmer-than-normal temperatures, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and precipitation levels have equal chances of being above or below normal.
