Archive for July 14th, 2009

Variety Recommendations

Sharon July 14th, 2009

Ok, we’ve already talked about the fact that a variety that overwinters beautifully in, say, Oregon or North Carolina won’t do well in Saskatchewan or Maine, so let us begin with the assumption that varieties are regional and specific, and use this thread to share widely our wisdom about what grows well in cool seasons in our particular region and place like it – that is, I’d be really grateful if you’d tell us what has overwintered well for you, or done well in fall, and also where you are and what your climate and soils are like “ie, high desert climate, cold winters, hot, dry summers, alkaline soil zone 5″ or whatever.  There’s not enough of this information out there.

Here are some of my own observations about growing here, in zone 4/5 (5 official, 4 for elevation), on my wet, thin soil in my wet, cold climate ;-) .  I had a good chance to experiment with varieties during the years we ran our CSA.

Best cold tolerant salad greens: Forellenschuss, Winter Density,  and Marvel of Four Seasons Lettuces, Mizuna (too bad I find the taste boring), all arugulas, vit and big seeded maches, beet greens (start a new crop since the little ones are best), sorrel, any mustard, pinky lettucy gene pool mustards.

Best spinach: Vert and Bloomsdale Winter

Best cold tolerance in broccoli: Umpqua (OP) and Blue (Hybrid)

Best cold tolerant root varieties: Flat of Egypt and Lutz Longkeeper beet, all parsnips, Diamante Celeriac, Golden Ball and Purple Top White Globe Turnip, Oxheart and Meridia carrots (the latter are designed for overwintering – they didn’t quite for me, but did very well), any salsify and scorzonera, Gigante Kohlrabi.  Also Yellow Mangels lasted quite a long time in the ground for me – and I thought they were tasty, if a little mild.  Goats liked ‘em too.

Best fall producing pea varieties: Alderman (tall vine shelling) and Sugar Ann (snap)

Best cold tolerant leek: Blue de Solaize

Best cold tolerant favas: Lorraine

Best cold tolerant cabbages and kales – All kales  (red and white russian  are pretty hardy – red has even overwintered for me, but they do winterkill before the Tuscan and Siberians for me), Coeur de Blue, Glory of Enkhuizen, Stein’s Late Flat Dutch Cabbage, Even’star Collards, Vates Collards

Best Mustard: Osaka Purple and Green Wave

Best tomatoes for overwintering in pots: Red Robin, Balconi Yellow

Best hot peppers for overwintering in pots: Fish (this is the only one that doesn’t end the winter looking sad), Korean Dark Green, Thai Hot

Best basil for overwintering: African Blue

Best eggplant for overwintering – Pingtung Long, Fairy Tale

Ok, how about the rest of you?  Share your wisdom!

 Sharon

Starting Seeds and Transplanting Fall Crops in Summer

Sharon July 14th, 2009

The hardest part of fall gardening for most people is getting seeds to germinate and plants to tolerate transplanting during summer conditions, so they will be ready when things stop growing in the fall.  This is genuinely a tough project for a lot of us – and tougher for most people than me (given that we have yet to break 80 since May, and most of our nights feel like early September, I’m not sure that I’m going to have to do much, but this is unusual) – hot, dry weather makes it nearly impossible to get a lot of crops into the ground.

 One of the first tricks to use is the same one we cold climate folks use to get our plants ready in winter – start the seeds indoors.  This obviously is only true if some part of your house is cooler than the outside, but since that is the case for many of us, find the cool spot and plant your seedlings there.  Up to a certain point, larger seedlings with more extensive root systems will handle transplant better, with a good, moist start.  This isn’t bad advice for those of us up north, either, when dealing with particularly light sensitive plants that are prone to bolting – some of these, like many asian greens don’t transplant well, but us northerners who are often our fall crops at the height of the long days don’t want to see them bolt immediately – so growing them inside, where they get less, but sufficient light may actually give them a boost.

 Another thought are shady beds, particularly under deciduous trees.  One of my best garden beds is under a large white paper birch that shades our kitchen window.  It is a lovely tree, with the added virtue of leafing out late and losing its leaves early – so it allows in the sun while we want it, and cools the house when we don’t.  I plant greens in these shaded beds, and they do well all summer, and then as things get cooler, enjoy the burst of additional light that puts on new growth in the fall.

You can make structures out of shade cloth, or if you don’t have shade cloth, make something out of an old, threadbare sheet and some bits of wood lying around.  You have to move it on and off, but the difference in temperature and light absorption can be critical. 

Mulch is powerful here – not only does it help soils retain water, but it also keeps them cooler than they would be without it.  Straw mulches are particuarly valuable because they reflect light back, rather than absorbing it. 

Even a piece of board can make a big difference if you are germinating seed in hot weather – water deeply and cover the row of seeds with a board and check daily for germination, removing the board as soon as the seed are up.

Moisture is critical – transplants or seeds will do poorly if allowed to dry out before their root systems can reach down into deeper subsoils.  Consider making trenched garden beds – instead of raising your gardens up, if your climate is warm and dry, make them in low ground, where moisture can pool.  Water regularly, ideally directly at root level, particularly when seedlings are young. 

Look for varieties that can take some heat as well as cold – those in warmer climates than ours may not struggle as much to overwinter greens  – thus, instead of planting winter density lettuce, you might do better with thai green or marvel of four seasons, both of which have some bolt resistance built in.  Several people mentioned that “ice bred” plants didn’t do well for them in their warm climate – I’d tend to expect that – if the plants get stressed early, and are bred mostly for tolerating cold, they probably won’t do well over the winter where the falls are long and warm. 

This means a certain measure of experimentation – don’t assume, if you live in Oklahoma or Georgia, that what you want are the cold hardiest varieties – you may instead what something that generally does well in your area.  If you have the space, do variety trials and compare – this information will be enormously valuable to your neighbors and friends nearby, and may be useful to your local cooperative extension and any local seed companies.

If you can, wait to transplant seedlings until you can expect some moisture and cooler weather.  If that isn’t possible, harden your plants off, just as you would if you were planting them out in springtime in a cold climate – gradually accustom them to getting a little bit dryer, and put them out initially in a shady spot, only gradually moving up to the amount of light they’ll get. 

Season extension for hot climates – that is, finding ways to extend the season through the warm, dry periods, seems to me less fully developed in gardening literature than cold season gardening.  I realize that some of this information is available locally, but it seems less well dispersed – and yet, making sure that food keeps coming through the hot dry seasons when little grows is just as esssential as storing for winter.  Balancing the two – timing the fall crops around the heat of summer, is a delicate balancing act.

 Sharon