Planning your fall garden starts now!
Having a bountiful fall harvest isn’t hard, but it does require planning that begins right now. In this edition of Be a Better Grower, Richard Robinson of Hopestill Farm shares tips for getting your winter garden started.
The fall garden needn’t be an ever-dwindling harvest of summer crops. There are dozens of vegetables that can be grown in abundance throughout the fall, as long as you plan ahead. Indeed, one of the earliest lessons I learned as I became a commercial market gardener was that I couldn’t wait until late summer—or even mid-summer—to get some fall crops going. That meant I needed to start my planning in late spring.
The list of potential fall crops is surprisingly long, and includes arugula, beets, beet greens, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cabbage, chard, collards, Asian greens, leeks, lettuce, radishes, rutabagas, scallions, spinach, turnips, and more. (Some people would add peas to that list, but though the plants are relatively hardy, the pea pods are not, and will succumb to even light frosts. If you like to gamble though, they might be worth the effort.)
As the days shorten and cool, many of these will benefit from row cover. Some, like Brussels sprouts, turnips, and some leeks, will continue producing even through multiple hard freezes, while others, like broccoli and lettuce, may recover from one or two very cold nights, but will suffer from repeated injury.
A key fact for planning is that the days to maturity on the seed packet can’t be relied on outside of the warmest seasons.
While scallions planted in early June may be ready in 65 days, those started in late July may need 80 or more days, since they will spend much more of their life growing in shorter and cooler days. I start my fall broccoli (BC 1611, allegedly 33 days to maturity—ha!) from mid-June to late July and harvest from early September to mid-November.
Another key fact is that there are some crops, especially spinach, while they love to grow in the cold, they hate to germinate in warm soil. This makes it very hard to direct-seed spinach in August!! Three strategies can help:
If you do direct-seed, never let the soil dry out after sowing, 7 to 12 days later. Frequent watering will help keep the soil cooler. Better, start spinach indoors in trays or soil blocks, where you can keep them cooler. And third, whichever method you choose, try priming the seed before sowing. This is how we prime spinach seed: soak it overnight, then air dry it on a paper towel for two days, then store it in the refrigerator for five days. Primed seed germinates faster and more reliably than unprimed seed. But only prime the amount you need; priming reduces the longevity of ungerminated seed.
A third key fact for the fall gardener is that it is nigh on impossible to find seedlings for sale in mid-summer. But summer is a perfect time to grow your own—
the warmth makes it easy to start almost anything, and for many crops, there is no need to grow under lights when we have 14 or more hours of daylight. If you have the seed packets and the potting soil, you can start your own. Humidity domes are essential, as pots or soil blocks dry out very quickly in the heat, inhibiting germination.
Finally, if you are a commercial grower, your fall sales can be a significant source of income as your customers’ gardens stop producing.
Our experience is that having the widest variety of crops—most of that long list above—really increases sales, as many people will order more than they planned on once they see the full list of what you offer, and taste how great they all are.
