Now is the Time to Plant Cool Season Crops

 

Why September is ideal: September is an excellent time to plant greens and root crops. Warm days support steady growth, while cooler nights help bring out the rich flavor of fall crops.

There is a wide variety of vegetables you can grow now, including beets, kale, chard, radishes, spinach, and broccoli. Fall crops are typically available as transplants, or you can plant from seed. 

The warm soils of late summer will encourage seeds to germinate quickly. Planting vegetable starts will result in faster harvest times for crops such as Lettuce, Cabbage, Kale, Collards and Broccoli. For a succession of crops well into late fall, plant some starts and seeds next to each other. Cool season vegetable starts can be found in our Annuals House.  

If you choose to plant from seed, look at the days to maturity information or days to harvest on the package label.

This is roughly the amount of time from planting seeds to picking your crops. The shorter the days to maturity, the faster you’re harvesting. Radishes, for example, mature in about 25 days, so if you plant them now, you’ll be picking radishes in less than four weeks.   

For best success with your second season planting, begin by cleaning up any lingering weeds or vegetation at the planting site, then dig two inches of compost into the site. Earth Essentials Sheep, Peat and Compost is a good choice. It’s produced locally and it works to improve and replenish your soil. 

Summer vegetable crops will have depleted most of the nutrition in your soil, so adding a low concentration granular organic fertilizer at this time will keep your cool weather crops going strong. Work the fertilizer into the soil after you've finished amending the planting site.  

Once you've amended the soil and added fertilizer, it's time to transplant your vegetable starts. The best time to transplant leafy greens is in the early morning or on a cloudy day. This will help reduce transplant shock.

Water the area thoroughly, remove the starts from the cell packs and plant them in the ground at the same depth they were in the starter container.

If you're planting from seed, follow package directions for seed planting depth and spacing and make sure you take time to mark each row as you plant.

Don't have room in the garden? Are your potted petunias and other flowering annuals starting to look tired? Replace them with some Asian greens such as Mizuna or Bok Choy.

For a longer fall harvest, plant seeds or plant starts every two weeks and keep a frost cloth handy for those fall nights when cooler temperatures might threaten your crop. This will help extend your "greens" garden well into late fall.

There's nothing like a dinner salad picked from your own garden.  It's fresh and you know exactly what's in it.  

Time to move houseplants back inside

 

Many of us take our houseplants outside for the summer. Your plants benefit from being outside in the fresh air and natural light.

Now it's September. The nighttime temperatures are dropping into the fifties; a sign it’s time to bring our houseplants back indoors.  There are two steps to help make the move back inside more successful. 

Step One: Check for insects and disease. Being outside puts your plants at a higher risk for insect and disease problems, so the first thing to do is to look your plants over carefully. Many problems will be obvious right away; others won’t.  Sticky leaves and stems could mean mealy bug or scale. White powder on leaves could be powdery mildew. Discolored leaves could be from too much direct sunlight or watering issues. Spidery webbing could be spider mites. It’s easier to deal with these problems now before you bring your plants inside. 

If you’re not sure what the problem is, bring us a sample leaf. We'll determine the problem and recommend a solution.  

Start by simply washing your plants off with a gentle spray of water from the hose. This will get rid of a lot the insects and will help clean up the plant leaves. Let the plant dry and then spray with Neem. Neem is organic and helps control insects as well as fungus.  

Monterey Insect spray is a good choice also.

Once your plants are clean, you’re ready for Step Two; the process of preparing your plants to transition back indoors. It’s important to take your time moving the plants inside. Try to avoid bringing your plants in at the last minute, just before a frost warning.  

After a summer spent outdoors basking in the sun, houseplants can struggle to adjust to life indoors. The sudden change in light can cause leaves to yellow and drop, and plants that have spent months outside may be carrying pests that you don’t want anywhere near your indoor plant collection.

Step Two: Acclimate plants gradually. Start the transition before nighttime temperatures get too cold. Give your houseplants time to adjust from outdoor conditions to the lower light, steadier temperatures, and reduced airflow indoors. A gradual move helps reduce stress, limit leaf drop, and make the shift as easy as possible. 

Ease them into indoor conditions. Start by bringing them indoors at night and move them back outside during the day so they can gradually adjust to changing light and temperature. 

Continue the transition over the next four or five days:

• Each day, keep the plants indoors for a little longer before moving them back outside.

• After several days of gradually increasing indoor time, most plants should be ready to stay inside full time.

What to expect during the transition. As your plants adjust to lower light, reduced airflow, and steadier indoor temperatures, they may temporarily slow down their growth or drop a few leaves. This is normal and usually resolves once the plants settle into their indoor environment.

Wait to feed your plants until they’ve been inside for a couple of weeks. Then, use a houseplant fertilizer such as Shultz 10-15-10.

Another trick is to supplement your regular fertilizer program with Super Thrive every two weeks. Super Thrive will help your plant by providing additional vitamins to your plant. Doing these things now will prepare your houseplants to make the move from outside to inside with less stress and ready for the season ahead.