Archive Tip of the Week
TIP OF THE WEEK
July 22, 2009
Fall – The Forgotten Season
Too often vegetable gardeners focus on spring and summer planting, but totally ignore what is often the best season of all – fall. And what’s so great about fall veggies? Well in my opinion, they taste better. And that’s reason enough to seriously consider fall planting. But there are plenty of other advantages to growing veggies in the fall. For example, rain tends to be more abundant, pests and diseases tend to be less of a problem, and cooler temperatures are less stressful on plants…and gardeners.
The trick to having a successful fall garden is timing, because you have to plant early enough to allow the veggies to develop fully before the first hard freeze. So first determine the average date of the first hard freeze in your area (you can get that from a local meteorologist). With that date in mind, determine the days to harvest for whatever crop you want to grow (that information is on the seed packet). Then all you have to do is count backwards. For example, if the first hard freeze in your area comes October 15, and the lettuce you want to grow needs 60 days from date of sowing to harvest, then you need to plant your seeds August 15.
Of course, average dates are just that. It could be that the first hard freeze hits October 1, or it may not hit until November 1. That’s the chance you take. But you can protect crops with blankets if necessary, just as you sometimes have to do in early spring. And the truth is, most crops grown for a fall harvest can take temperatures down to 27 degrees or so. In fact, many of them actually taste better after a cold snap because they develop more sugars in response to the cold.
And just what can you plant for fall? Well pretty much everything you grow in spring. In other words, cool-season crops such as arugula, broccoli and broccoli raab, Brussel sprout, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, mesclun, mustard greens, potatoes, radishes, spinach, Swiss chard, and whatever else you like.
The real challenge to growing cool-season crops in the heat of summer is getting them to germinate. One way to do that is to put the seed packets in the refrigerator for a few days to a few weeks before planting to trick the seeds into believing it’s cooler than it actually is outside. (Technically, it’s called stratification.) Just before planting, water the soil lightly to cool it off. And once you’ve sown the seeds, water them twice a day to keep the soil cool and moist.
Do all that, and you’ll enjoy some of the best tasting vegetables ever.
