Garlic, and a Question.

[jal_ut]

Just finished planting my garlic.
My wife says I smell like garlic.
Imagine that?
I think I planted too much, but we will see.........
If I had any Egyptioxn Onion bulbils, I would plant those, but the mother clump has none.

Curious, what seeds do you plant in the fall if any?
I haven't been planting any seed in the fall, but am thinking about trying a few. Our winters are often pretty harsh.

[Gary350]

Yesterday in AZ I planted Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, head cabbage, Swiss chard, Spanish, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes. It is 65 to 70 all winter during the day and wont frost until Jan and MIGHT freeze in Feb.

Now is a great time to plant fruit trees. I have 50 pecans plants in flower pots they should come up when the weather gets warm. Trees are fast growers when plants are small.

When I lived in Illinois and TN I planted KALE in the winter it did fine is 12 inches of snow and ice all winter.

I use to plant Swiss Chard in TN it did fine in cold weather.

3 years ago I planted potatoes in Oct in TN then covered them with 4" of compost, 4" of soil, and 4" of straw. It got down to 17 degrees for several weeks and snowed 3 times that year. The 25 foot potato row never made any plants. May 1st still no plant so I dug them up and to my surprise I had about 50 golf ball size potatoes.

In TN I use to plant carrots about January they would come up about March when the weather got right.

In TN I use to plant Peas in January. Sprinkle peas in the snow 1 foot wide in a 20 foot long they come up with weather is right too.

[rainbowgardener]

This year I've been struggling to keep up. When I have planted seeds, I haven't managed to keep them watered enough to survive.

But in previous years I have planted spinach and broccoli seed in October ( a week or two earlier than now). It would sprout and get just a few inches tall and then get shut down by cold.

The broccoli did great the first year I tried it, when we had a pretty mild winter for us. Took off in late winter when things started warming up a little and produced a great early spring crop with less trouble with slugs and other pests than the spring planted stuff. The second year I did it, we had a much harsher winter. The broccoli hung in there through a bunch of snows and freezes, but finally gave up.

The spinach on the other hand did great in both of those years. I really think that is the best way to do spinach. The fall planted spinach gets bigger in the spring and lasts for months. The fall planted spinach and the spring planted spinach bolted about the same time when the weather warmed up - but that meant I had months more crop from the fall planted spinach. The spring planted spinach comes and goes really fast in my climate where spring warm up comes fast.

[jal_ut]

I may give spinach a whirl. Here we are expecting a storm Sunday and it will likely be snow followed by cold. I don't expect any seed to germinate and grow this fall, but wondered if it would survive winter to grow in the early spring if planted now? Spinach may be worth a try?

The climate here is severe from November through February. There will be nothing growing. It takes a hardy plant of any kind to survive our winters. It is borderline for peach trees. Some individuals make it but many die. I have seen the temperature go below zero and stay there for a week at a time. Not even getting above zero in the daytime in full sun. Twenty below at night.

Fall planted potatoes usually die. If the ground freezes, it will kill potatoes.

Our water lines are all at least 3 feet deep to protect from freezing.

You folks in Arizona and Tennessee, don't know what winter is..........

Thanks for the ideas. I won't hurt me to plant a few seeds of all the cool weather crops and see what if any make It.

[applestar]

I like this guide which provides approx. temp each crop can handle:
https://www.southernexposure.com/growing-guides/fall-winter-quick-guide.pdf

...I thought I had a link for a similar guide from ...ummm maybe Territorial seeds? No... Some other place? Maybe it's lost in the bunch of bookmarked links. Will add to this post if I find it.

-- it WAS Territorial -- the one Eric/DoubleDog posted a while ago:

[Gary350]

1977 I had an old lady tell me to plant certain seeds in the snow they will come up when the weather gets right. I tried it and it works. Prepare your garden then mark the rows so you can find them after it snows. Sprinkle the seeds in the snow they are very easy to see. Then you ride out the winter as usually and one day you notice, the plants are up. You can plant, peas, greens, carrots, anything that likes it cold. Kale is very winter hardy it does excellent in cold weather, it looks strange to see green kale plants sticking up out of 16" of snow.

I lived in Chicago 1 year and Michigan 1 winter. I remember getting 3 ft of snow and warming up to 0 during the day many times. One winter I trimmed the trees and bushes in the yard it warmed up to -14 during the day for 3 weeks, but I think it gets colder where you live. I moved south to get away from that cold and snow but now I don't like the heat so I am almost ready to move to Idaho but first I want to check out Moab UT. Neb or Iowa might be a nice place. Lots of good farm land in Iowa.

That old woman that I was talking to in 1977 was probably younger than I am now. LOL.

[jal_ut]

OK, thanks for all the ideas. On a whim I planted some seeds of spinach, carrots, onions, chard, beets, cabbage, kohlrabi, radish, kale ......... we will see what happens. I don't expect it to do much if anything until spring, but if it will germinate way early before my ground gets dry enough to get on, that would give me a head start. I planted quite a bit of spinach as many have said how hardy it is. Planted just a little of the others for a test.

Funny, as long as I have gardened, I have not tried planting seed in the fall. Still learning.............