User avatar
ElizabethB
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2105
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 12:53 am
Location: Lafayette, LA

My Late Fall Garden

My boxes were not planted until the second week of September instead of the first week of August.

I have 2 4'x4' table height boxes. Love them. 8 tomato plants. 5 from cuttings of my summer tomatoes. 3 George picked up at Lowe's. 1 Brandywine Red, 3 Black Krim, 1 Green Zebra, 1 Husky Red Cherry, 1 Creole and 1 Better Boy. All have fruit and the Cherry tomatoes are getting color.

8 squares of cauliflower, 4 squares of broccoli, 4 squares of spinach, 3 squares mustard greens, 3 1/2 squares Kale, 1/2 square cucumbers, 1 square green onions.

I have never planted cucumbers in the fall. Shame on me. They are producing like crazy. The spinach seeds had a very low germination rate. Planted 3 times. Kale was only slightly better, planted twice.

I have harvested mustard leaves twice and will harvest more for dinner this pm. I do not pull the plants - just harvest enough greens for a meal. Enough kale to harvest leaves for kale chips.

Spinach has sprouted and is growing. Waiting for mature leaves to harvest.

Horn worm - fortunately only on one tomato plant. Yesterday my cauliflower leaves were beautiful. This morning - riddled with holes. Cabbage worms on three plants. On one the nasty creatures were in the center of the plant where the crown is just beginning to form. -wall-

There is a possibility of frost this weekend. I will drape my boxes with visqueen after dark and remove at sunrise.

Lettuce in pots. Another case of very poor germination. 3 plantings.

Basil, dill and 1 thyme in seed pots ready to pot up. Herbs also had a very poor germination rate. The LAST time I buy Ferry Morris seeds.

Fall has finally arrived. Low 50's upper 40's at night. Low to mid 70's during the day. Blue Bird sky.
That does not mean we will not have temps in the 80's next week.

We have had garden cucumbers every day for the last 2 weeks. There are 3 on the counter and 2 on the vine ready to harvest. Yeah for fall cucumbers!

User avatar
KitchenGardener
Senior Member
Posts: 274
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2016 8:30 pm
Location: Northern California; Hardiness Zone 10a, Climate zone: 17

This is my very favorite kind of bed time story, so Yay!

How big is the square you refer to in terms of amount planted?

One more realization: the fact that your planters are so high off the ground means its that much easier to find evil interlopers so its great to hear that you were able to umm, shall we say "relocate" the cabbage and horn worms.

User avatar
ElizabethB
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2105
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 12:53 am
Location: Lafayette, LA

KitchenGardener

Each square is 1" x 1".

Tomatoe, cauliflower and broccoli - 1 per square. Tomatoes are indeterminate and are grown vertically, suckers pinched.

Cucumbers - typically 1 plant in a 6" x 1' space - grown vertically. Hubby came home with a container of cucumber plants. Several in the one container. I did not separate them. They are very happy in a 6" x 1' section.

Green onions - 12 per square

Mustard Greens I just scattered.

Kale and spinach - at least 12 to 15 per square. More than recommended. They were not all planted at the same time. New plants getting started as older plants are harvested.

Yes I relocated those evil creatures - from the plants directly to a bucket of soapy water.

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I had white flies earlier this year, but they seemed to have slowed down. I have only seen a fiery skipper and a monarch but
no caterpillars. I haven't planted the broccoli yet though. I always have thrips and mites, but roses, plumeria, orchid and jasmine attract them so they are hard to get rid of organically. The citrus trees attract white flies and scale an they are hard to control as well. The hibiscus is my sentry plant and right now they are clean.

I have some issues with plants in the front yard, but I don't fertilize them regularly, I may have to test the soil on that one.

At least some of you have winter to kill off the bugs. Here they are aroud year round.

User avatar
ElizabethB
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2105
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 12:53 am
Location: Lafayette, LA

First frost last night.
The boxes have frames for growing vertically. George had Visqueen in his shop so we draped the frames to keep the frost off of the plants. We took it off as soon as the sun began to hit the boxes. We will probably have to drape the boxes for another night or two.

User avatar
ElizabethB
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2105
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 12:53 am
Location: Lafayette, LA

Still fighting cabbage worms on my cauliflower and broccoli. :twisted: I hate to do it but I can not keep up with picking them off. As soon as the moisture on the leaves evaporates I will dust with Bt.

User avatar
jal_ut
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7447
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

Wow, planting second week of September, that is awesome. Here at this high desert location, we get frost about first week of September and we will have frost every morning from then until April. The only thing we grow here is ice.

User avatar
ElizabethB
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2105
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 12:53 am
Location: Lafayette, LA

Still have a few cucumbers on the vines. Lots of mustard greens and flat leaf kale. Cauliflower and broccoli are "heading up". The only tomatoes ripening are the cherries. I have LOTS of beautiful green tomatoes on all of my other plants. They may or may not ripen. Really does not matter. I love fried green tomatoes and Salsa Verde.

I have 5 heirlooms and 3 hybrid tomato plants. The heirlooms are not at all resistant to virus. G has promised to make two more boxes before spring planting. I will be able to rotate my heirloom tomatoes. I plan to plant 16 heirloom tomatoes in the spring. When my fall/winter garden is done I will cover my boxes with black plastic. The heat will help inoculate the soil. Before spring planting I will remove and replace 1/2 of the soil.

Had an omelet for lunch with roasted cherry tomatoes.



Return to “Vegetable Gardening Forum”