Applestar and me the only ones doing a fall garden or what?

[applestar]

Well, we had the two frosts last week but we're back to 60's/40's at least through Sunday. I'm dithering about my sweet potatoes. I've had them under floating covers for a while now. The leaves sticking out got frost damaged, but there were a lot of immature SP's in the the one 2'x2' block I dug up (me, a proponent of "no-till" gardening, and I'm up to my elbows digging up that bed all the way down to hard pan clay ) In addition, I found out when we went pumpkin picking at a farm not far from here that THEY are not starting their sweet potato "picking" until November 1. In the mean time, I came across a reference that said SP's should be dug up when soil temp falls below 50 as they'll rot in the cold ground....

I also have Edamame still filling out under the floating covers occupying a good portion of my garden (the plants got MUCH bigger than I anticipated (definitely bigger than last year's bulk dry soybeans -- Edamame is NOT Bush Beans. They basically overwhelmed the lettuce and cole crops I planted for fall.) My whole carefully planned and imagined fall schedule is unraveling. I'll have to plan better next year to get a better organized fall planting in. Carrots are about the only intentionally planted fall crop I'm harvesting. Another crop that is still hanging in is Swiss Chard. The Rainbow Chards are looking brightly colorful in this cooler weather. I'm picking the last of the Sweet Peppers (floating covered for the past two weeks) out of the garden, and the peppers on the one Jalepeno plant, brought inside with the houseplants, are coloring up bright red one by one.

I fell behind on planting the garlic and potato/multiplier onions as well as Egyptian walking onions, but hopefully, they'll manage.

In terms of late fall harvest, the Enterprise apples are coming along nicely. I just finished baking an Alton Brown Apple Pie.

[gixxerific]

Wow you dug up the dead.

But glad to see you still have stuff going.

My sweet pots were harvested a couple of weeks ago, still eating them and they are great. Swiss chard still hanging in as well as spinach and some other varieties of lettuce. My mustard is unstoppable, too bad I realized I don't like it that much. I will know for next year. Arugula is unstoppable as well but I love that. Maybe next year I will be prepared with cold frames.

Beans were killed by a frost a while back but were harvested and actually had them for dinner last night along with with a fresh salad. Peas are growing like mad but the fruit on them are pretty sad.

I have had carrots in for a few weeks and garlic was planted last weekend.
As some of you may know I am experimenting with indoor gardening this winter, just went and got some more pots and soil, it is evolving as I said it would.

[tedln]

applestar,

Sounds like your garden is still doing well even after two frosts. I think and hope my first frost in Texas is still about a month away. I hope it is because I have a ton of tomatoes starting to ripen on the vine that I don't want to harvest green.

I am curious about the Edamame. I've noticed a number of gardeners starting to grow it. It has been my understanding that it is a variety of soybean that is grown specifically to boil and eat in the pod. I was curious about the availability of the seed for next years garden. I checked on wikipedia and learned it is the normal soybean, but harvested when the pods and beans are young and tender. According to Wikipedia, the name Edamame actually applies to the Japanese dish by that name which is only the young bean pod boiled in salted water and served in a sauce. Is the Wikipedia definition correct?

I am also curious about your floating covers. What do you use for a floating cover? Do you put weights on the edges? Normally when we get weather changes as a cool or cold front approaches from the North, we get some pretty high winds associated with the approaching front. I think any floating cover I try to use will blow away without weighting the edges.

Ted

[gixxerific]

I am also curious about your floating covers. What do you use for a floating cover? Do you put weights on the edges? Normally when we get weather changes as a cool or cold front approaches from the North, we get some pretty high winds associated with the approaching front. I think any floating cover I try to use will blow away without weighting the edges.

Ted

Yeah me too, I'm still a little confused as to how people do them. Do you build a frame? Do you just stick something in the middle to make like a tent, or do you just lay it over the plant using the plant as the "tent stake"?

Any pics?

Thanks

[rainbowgardener]

They sell floating row cover at any garden store. When I use it, I usually put it over a wire frame or hoop (the frames for political yard signs work well for this purpose) and then weight or stake down the edges. Earth staples are great for that, but you have to buy them, not inexpensive.

[applestar]

There are spun bonded sheets/covers of different thicknesses. The thinner ones are called "floating covers". Some garden centers will sell at least two -- lightweight/summerweight and frost protection weight. Walmart had just the super lightweight. Lighter weight ones are more easily ripped. On-line sources like Johnny's Selected Seeds and Territorial Seeds sell something like 4 different kinds (with % light transmission indicated).

Floating covers can be used without support structure because they're thin enough not to weigh down the plants (you do want a support over leafy crops). For light frost protection over sturdy plants like now, I drape them directly over the plants and use clothes pins and plastic clamps to clip them onto garden fences (my garden beds are all surrounded by 24"~28" chickenwire or rabbitwire fences), bamboo stakes, or even some heavier branches on woody plants like peppers and tomatoes. My only purpose is to prevent the frost from settling on the plants and to keep them a little bit warmer. As I mentioned, we're in 60's/40's right now. The lighter weight covers also transmit more light and don't hold too much heat in when it's sunny and temp in the sunlight is in the 70's -- so I can just leave everything covered.

When it's windy, I just use more clothes pins and clamps -- it usually works better to wrap the corner/edge of the cover around what I'm going to clip it to. I also poke bamboo pole stakes supporting the plants through any hole (by this time there are usually several) and then clip the edge of the hole to the pole, etc. I have to admit that sometimes, even that's not enough -- the wind is enough to billow the lightweight covers around and rip them to shreds.

In spring when the plants were smaller and the temps were down in the 40's/20's and 50's/30's, I surrounded the sides of the garden fences with a sheet of plastic and covered the tops with a double layer of (at the time new and hole-less) floating covers supported by hay strings tied across the garden fences. I wrapped the edges of the covers with tomato stakes, resting on the ground, to create a tight cover. I'm not sure what I'll do when the temps get down lower now. I had hoped to build a temporary hoop tunnel, but I might be out of time. I do have a hoop structure over the Sweet Potato bed, but I planted popcorn along one end of it and they're still not dried on the stalks.... I'm also concerned that if I put plastic over the SP's with some frost damage already on the leaves, they might immediately start to develop mold problems....

Anyway, hope that explained things a bit. Oh. A couple of my sweet peppers are covered with an old nylon shower curtain liner since I ran out of floating covers. It seems to be doing the the job. I think I mentioned elsewhere that I tear up strips of these lightweight covers (the ones that the winds have completely destroyed already) for tying up tomatoes and espalier branches. In the process of cleaning up the tomato vines, I've been finding spiders nesting in almost every knot.

[tedln]

applestar,

A few gardeners have told me they have had good luck filling a few gallon milk jugs with hot water just before they go to bed at night. They place the jugs of hot tap water under the floating row covers and it seems to prevent a moderate frost from harming their plants for a few hours. Have you tried that?

Ted

[applestar]

Oh! I *have* heard of doing that, and I've used the method earlier in the spring (I used 2L soda bottles filled with water next to the basil transplants). I had not thought about that particular technique lately though. Thanks for reminding me.

[gixxerific]

Thanks for the explanations, I think I asked this before i remembered after I asked it again. Sorry but great explanations just the same.

To add to this, I read somewhere that if you are expecting a freeze to water thoroughly beforehand. Because the saturated soil will take longer to actually freeze than dry soil, If I remember right.