Fall Cole Crops
 

8/11/17
Who is growing Cole Crops ? Where ? when ? What ?

Yesterday and today I sowed the following :

-- Broccoli ( in cells )
-- Brussels Sprouts ( in cells )
-- Swiss Chard ( in cells )
-- Spinach (both Direct sown and in cells, from my ow saved seeds of slow bolting)
-- Arugula (Direct sown and in cells )
-- Fenugreek.(Direct sown)
-- Mustard (Direct sown, from my own saved seeds)
-- Lettuce ( red and green, from my own saved seeds of slow bolting varieties )

I am going to water the direct sown but nothing can beat good soaking rain.
Are in it ?
8-)

I planted Brussels Sprouts yesterday, I wanted to get those started because of their long growth cycle.

I am also planning broccoli, spinach, chard, collards, peas, lettuce, mustard, bok choy, radish, beets and maybe carrots.

I have tray after tray of healthy plants ready to be set out, but with the heat and very high humidity, I am waiting. A real feel of 110 yesterday and more coming this week. Constant showers on the afternoons.

A couple days ago my wife did much of the work in setting put some no till rows. I used a large PVC pipe to mark each row and then sprinkled lime; this left well defined spaces when the pipe was removed. Then a Warren hoe was used to dig the shallow holes for the seed.

I still have seed for later planting.

We carefully searched the web for winter hardy varieties of brassicas, lettuce, oriental greens, cabbages and more....those that would last through the winter.

With all of the pests above and below ground, diseases, and nutritional needs of the seed plantings, any suggestions for how to side dress or broadcast soil treatments to make a pre-emptive strike against later pests and address nutrient issues without killing the seedlings.

I have forgotten so much after my stroke and just can't till, dig, or bend much. At least this small effort gets me outside and provides some interest. Right now, the seed is in the ground in one spot and the plants will go into my other garden of pure compost. Suppose, later side dressing with top soil or other treatments would help the back garden of solid clay? Used to be the brassicas and cabbages would get eaten alive top and bottom by disease and pests.

I let kale overwinter and it went to seed, cut it down and thru seed pods in a pile... I have thousands of kale plants sprouted after I moved the pile. Such good germination, I need to plant a few rows of it.

8/16/17
Thanks and hello to all Fall Gardeners !
It gives me a feeling of cool fall weather.

Almost all my seeds have germinated, both direct sown or in cells.
I let those in cells to get bigger and then one of these days when it is cool and nice in the PM hours I will plant them in the garden.

I forgot to mention that I have also planted few hills of potatoes.

I'm in Central Texas and I started broccoli, brocolini, broccoli Rajan, b sprouts, cabbage, snow peas, shell peas, beets, Romanesco, and cauliflower. I started them inside under lights a few weeks ago. Going to hold them inside until probably late September because we're still predicted 100+ for the foreseeable future.

I'm hoping a little shade and a soaker hose should be able to get them through any heat streaks.


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I thought about just starting a few potatoes in my compost pile off the side of my house. Just to see what happens. I already discarded a couple tomato plants there and they seem like they may take off with a little luck and some rain.

I'm nervous to set out the broccoli I started about a month ago because we're well over the 100 degree mark and probably will be for a while. I do have some shade over them and can set up my drip to hit them 2x per day for a bit to cool off if necessary.


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Yeah, I wouldn't set them out when highs are 92F +++.
They are Cole crops and won't appreciate hot weather.
I might take them out of cells and pot them in small pots. I have lots of them from Dollar Tree store.

I have started Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and rutabagas in cells in the greenhouse. I got spotty to good sprouting because even with a small air conditioner and shade cloth over the top it is still hot inside from 10 to 4. No chance of me starting anything outside for a while. I will start some lettuce, spinach and repeats of the above crops in a week or so. Last year fall never got here until nearly the end of November which was really unusual; but maybe the drought had something to do with it staying so hot and so dry for so long. This year drought is no problem at all so maybe it will cool down some in late September or early October which is more normal. I will wait for cooler nights before planting carrots, mustard and setting out my seedlings. I would rather be a bit late and use hoops than have plants demolished by pests or going to seed very early.

I am going to try growing some Cilantro this fall and winter. I would love to grow it during the summer when I could really use it but it goes to seed before it gets started; but we hope to can a bit of salsa and just add the Cilantro when we open it. It tastes much better that way.

Bill

I'm not doing too well on my tomatoes I started. I need my light setup in here but I have no place to put it. That's why I wanted to try just using nature and planting everything from seed later.

Some on the list aren't Cole crops.:)
Worth

More fall under the blanket of "Fall Garden"

Gardeneer - that's what I was planning on doing, does anyone know the maximum temp recommended to set out Cole crops?

This is what i grow in Fall-Winter-Spring with a few comments:

Lettuce - Lettuce is grown in round containers made from tops of plastic barrels (not 55 gallon, but the next size down). This way can bring inside when it gets cold and have Lettuce all winter. Favorite is Green Ice

Arugula (think it is Dragon Tongue Arugula) Grown in the same round container

Chinese Bok Choi - grown in ground, excellent in salads

Bloomsdale Spinach - new to me this year

Siberian Kale - Plant more of this than anything else, use to plant more Georgia Collard but everyone said they liked Siberian Kale better. Will survive the whole winter and produce again in the spring. Last year was mild so it grew almost all winter. Tastes great raw in salads and such

Georgia Collard - I love collards and they are very cold hardy and will survive winter and produce in the spring. If it doesn't get real cold will grow all winter. I have picked collards when the leaves were frozen solid.

Arcadia Broccoli - New Broccoli to me. Use to buy Packman but they stopped making it. Did a lot of research and Arcadia seemed like a suitable replacement

Purple Top Turnips - Will survive all winter if they reach a good size before it gets cold. The turnip itself can actually freeze solid a 2 or 3 times and recover and be fine. I was skeptical but when I read it but have experienced it so i know it is true. It helps to mulch but when it gets really cold they will freeze.

Many different cover crops that include Chickweed, Henbit, Hairy Vetch, Clover, and a few I haven't identified yet. All these grow right along with the main crops and do not hurt them at all.

I think that is all :)

Seagle I planted bloomsdale spinach late last August and didn't harvest much but I covered it with straw when it got really cold and uncovered it in the early spring. They leaves looked kind of crummy but they soon perked up and I had the earliest spinach salads ever.

Thank you brownrexx, good to know that it will survive the winter. I have never actually ever seen Bloomsdale but I remember Camochef said it was his favorite and I think he grows a lot of spinach. I also like the fact that its all ruffled looking, looks crunchy:)

Broccoli Rabe started and I think they are above bunny stage and ready to plant out. The Bunnies usually like the small tender greens, so I hope so!

My broccoli, cauliflowers are still in cot leave stage.
We don't have many bunnies around here. Chicken hawks hunt them.

Of all the things, spinach have not sprouted yet. I know spinach is very tricky in sprouting.
Arugula and fenugreek are growing like weeds.

I am getting really impatient for the cooler nights and days to start soon. It is still too warm to set out my fall crops and the whiteflies are terrible. I really hate to set out cole crops too early as they will set heads way too soon and I will end up with a bunch of one inch broccoli and tiny cauliflowers. I would rather wait and risk it being too cold. I can at least cover them and have a winter crop then.

Bill

I wore myself out with too many tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant this summer so I just planted Kale.

Kale overwinters great in Virginia and I love working outside in the cold and grabbing a few leaves to munch on!

My Broccoli rabe is just at harvesting stage and full of cabbage worms! So disappointed. Is this likely less of a problem in the spring?

Sue:

All my vegetables are virtually insect free in the early spring.

I can't remember ever having to spray cole crops until my cabbage heads were fairly mature in early summer. I munch many of cole crops right out in the garden and have never encountered any extra protein! :twisted:

Much different in summer and fall until some cool nights. Cabbage worms can really strip the plants quick.

The good news . . . cabbage worms are really easy to control with Bt which is really safe to use. (I use the mosquito version of Bt too with great results.)

pests
 

Sue,
Mine are just like yours...except for the kale, which is flawless. All of the rest were reduced to skeletons quickly. I put in seeds recently since we are not supposed to see frost until the end of November. For the remaining plants, I need to decide on a treatment for the tops and bottoms of the leaves soon. This has been the strangest gardening year ever. At least four days of rain coming after a lengthy period of dryness!

Never seen so many insect pests.

Our gardening season is coming to an end and they are starting to put away gardening supplies already. I went and bought a new sprinkler at Home Depot maybe 2 weeks ago and they told me they would be removing all the gardening supplies soon, so what is available is probably limited. I only have BT in the form of dunks right now. It also kind of turns me off to consider putting it all over the leaves I am going to eat.

The dunks are likely Bti - a form of bacillus that controls mosquitos and gnats. You would need the Btk form that is effective against caterpillars - so no need for crumbling the dunks!

Others are free to correct me, but I've always considered Bt to be about as safe as insecticidal soap. There's always hand removal!

I may look when I go out today and see if there is anything left.

This fall, I'm going to remove the garden fences and supports. Push soil away with a tractor, and forget it was ever there.

Really, Robert? No more gardening at all any more?

So far I am having a fairly good fall or early winter season. My mustard and turnip plants have done well and we have really enjoyed eating them; but now the aphids are starting to really get bad on them. My rutabagas were planted in a rather shady area and have grown more slowly because of that but they are healthy and forming some nice roots. The big problem has been squirrels eating the center growth tips out of many of my Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. I have finally got some decent lettuce ready to set out this week.

So far it hasn't been cold enough to kill any of my major fall crops even though we have had a couple of freezes. I have my hoops out and set up over my broccoli bed and will try to get them ready for my other beds this week.

Bill

I was finally able to take my hoop plastic off after 8 nights and seven days of my beds being covered. It has been a long long time since we had that many nights below freezing and many well below. The plants look like they have survived better than I had hoped after that long under the plastic. Time will tell how many of my broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower heads froze. I know for a fact that one large head of broccoli was ruined by freezing and will know in a few days or weeks if any others got that cold. My lettuce was very young and seemed to do very well despite the long long nights well below freezing. Any leaves on the plants that were touching the plastic are definitely goners and on the north side of the hoops the cold really seemed to penetrate more than on the other side. I guess from the constant cold north winds.

I am hoping that this good cold spell which was more hours below freezing in just one week than we had the last two whole years here; will get rid of some of the whiteflies that brought up the TYLCV that destroyed my fall tomatoes. I have some more broccoli plants ready to set out for spring and it looks like I will definitely need the hoops with this kind of cold so early in the winter.

My rutabagas and other greens did not fare so well. My larger mustard and turnip plants will have to be turned under but I think my rutabagas will recover. Luckily I picked a huge batch of rutabagas just before the freeze hit and I have been eating the other greens for month.

Despite my loses I am happy to see a real winter down here for a change and hope it will bring a real spring this year so that the fruit on the less heat tolerant tomatoes have a chance to develop some good size before ripening. Most importantly I hope it will lower the volume of pests we have to deal with each year. At least for a month or two.

Bill

We had over a week of much lower than normal temps with some as low as 4 degrees. I just took a look at my greenhouse,the citrus look very sad and I may have lost at least some despite running a space heater. The smaller space heater that I usually run couldn’t keep up and it must have gotten below freezing. I lost my Datil and carolina reaper peppers. All the basil plants just melted to nothing.
The garden fared better but I’m pretty sure that most of my winter cole crops are gone. The book choy is brown on the outside but I’m hoping the insides are good. I had already lost the cauliflower and broccoli to goats.
I don’t know about the tiny chard,cilantro or artichokes yet. The collards and kale that weren’t eaten by goats are probably ok.
I’m actually worried we may have lost some local plants it was so cold. I’m worried about my fruit trees as they didn’t lose their leaves this fall for some reason and I planted them just this spring. ( 3 and 5 way apples,pears,Asian pears,peaches and plots).
Like Bill,I really did enjoy the 7” of snow plus cold weather. Reminded me of my childhood in CO.
I hope Bill is right about the pests because the stink bugs and leaf footed bugs were awful the past two summers.