Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Fall Plantings

I just barely squeezed in my fall plantings this year, and I'm trying a bit of succession planting to spread out the harvest.  We have a sweet potato plant that has spread vines over a large section of the tallest raised bed, so I am using that as a cover to protect the seedlings from too much sun since it's been pretty hot.  As soon as the weather cools, the vines will get tossed over the side of the bed.

Here's the fall crop plan:

  • Aug 17:  14 weeks before the frost, I just threw a little of everything in there:  chard, kale, beets, mustard greens, spinach, radishes.  This would be the ideal time to plant garlic if you want big bulbs next year... but I just eat them for the green tops so these will wait until spring.
  • Aug 31:  12 weeks before frost:  beets, lettuce, radishes.  Can transplant chard and kale that was sprouted indoors if desired, but I didn't.
  • Sept 14:  10 weeks:  lettuce, spinach, asian greens, radishes.
  • Sept 28:  8 weeks:  spinach.  And what the heck, I'll try radishes again too just to see if they grow.
  • Oct 12:  6 weeks:  radishes.  Really pushing my luck with this one... but hey, it is all for experimentation so that next year I know what'll happen, and I have a bajillion radish seeds.
  • Nov 23rd:  Expected frost: cover spinach for protection, and anything else that is still growing well.

A little mustard sprout, shaded by sweet potato vines.

This is the first time I've tried to get fall crops, and I've never had luck with leafy greens, so this is all uncharted territory for me.

What sort of fall crops are you planting, and when?


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