Wild West District Blog Article
By Ron Honig
July 24, 2024
Planning a Fall Garden
Even though your kitchen counter may be starting to get cluttered with produce from this summer’s garden, it’s time to begin planning and planting a fall garden if you want to extend and expand your harvest into the fall or grow another round of cool-season vegetables.
With attention to watering and pest control, summer gardens with crops like tomatoes, okra and peppers can produce well into the fall. Crops that are best adapted to a fall garden culture are mainly the cool-season crops, although cucumbers, summer squash, and beans can be grown as fall crops as well. Ward Upham, retired horticultural specialist at K-State says fall gardens will often produce higher quality, more-tasty cool-season crops if the vegetables mature during cooler, less stressful temperatures.
For fall gardens, a guideline of when to plant common crops includes:
- Mid-July: Plant potatoes if you can find them, or if you saved seed potatoes. Do not use freshly dug potatoes because they have a built-in dormancy that will prevent growth. Also, Upham says grocery store potatoes are often treated so that they don’t sprout.
Cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower can be started from seed at this time. These crops are generally transplanted in mid-August. - Late July. Plant seed beets, carrots and beans.
- Late July to early August. Plant seed spinach and long-season maturing lettuce.
- Second week of August. Transplant cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower to their final location.
- Mid- to late August. Plant seed radishes and leaf lettuce.
Upham said gardeners should plant seeds slightly deeper than they would have in the spring because the seed stays cooler and the soil around the seed remains moist longer. In addition, seeds should be planted at a higher population and then thinned out later.
Naturally with high temperatures, gardeners should plan to water more frequently; seeds should not be allowed to dry. Overhead watering often causes soil to crust, making it more difficult for young plants to emerge. Prevent this by applying a light sprinkling of peat moss, vermiculite or compost directly over the row after seeding and also by using a soaker hose or drip irrigation right next to the row to allow water to slowly seep into the ground.
Upham said there is no need to fertilize the ground before planting crops. He suggests applying a side dressing two weeks after transplanting crops, or four weeks after sowing seed by applying two tablespoons of 16-0-0 fertilizer, or one tablespoon of 27-3-3 or similar fertilizer formulation per plant. You can also use a liquid fertilizer, such as Schultz, Peters, Miracle-Gro or Rapid Grow, according to label directions but it’s a good idea to wash off the leaves with clean water to prevent any burn from the fertilizer.
One plant that is not well adapted to fall gardens is peas. Upham says peas require cool temperatures to germinate and do not seem to perform well in the warmer temperatures of the summer planting period. If you want to try peas – particularly snow peas – Upham recommends planting them in mid- to late-August but success may be limited.