Gardening toward fall

By Rennie Phillips

As the first of July approaches, some of us gardeners are starting to make plans for a fall garden. Some who live in more northern climates simply can't grow two gardens like we can here in Southeast Missouri. Some crops will make and some will be problematic.

One crop that may not make it is tomatoes. Most tomatoes once they are planted will take 60 to 80 days to make fruit. This will make it the end of August or middle of September. Tomatoes seem to need those long, hot days to mature and ripen, and by that time of the year we are running out of those. Some of the tomatoes will ripen while others will stay green. But then fried green tomatoes are quite tasty, so either way you will be OK.

If you buy plants at your local garden center, check out the days to fruit. I'm planting some Tidy Rose tomatoes that are just over 60 days, which will make them mid-August. They will be OK. Marge got these for me at the university's greenhouse.

Chinese cabbage is a great fall crop. You can direct sow it or start transplants. I really prefer to start transplants. I like Rubicon and normally get the seeds from Johnny's. I grow some in the spring and then some in the fall as well. For a fall garden, start the seeds late June to mid-July. After about three to five weeks you can transplant them out into the garden. Rubicon is about 52 days from transplanting to maturity.

Cabbage also will make it, taking about 70 days after you transplant the little plants. Start them as soon as you can. I went over to Whitakers in Chaffee last week and they still had some cabbage plants. They also had some kohlrabi plants. Most places don't carry kohlrabi.

Turnips need to be in the ground mid-August for sure. I'd probably plant a few around the first of August for greens, if you like greens. Make sure when you buy the seed it is purple top turnip seed. There is one kind of turnip that won't make turnips but will just produce greens. I did that one year and there wasn't a turnip in the entire patch. Beautiful greens was all I had. A little seed goes a long way when it comes to turnip seed. It takes approximately 5 to 6 pounds to sow an entire acre. One ounce of turnip seed will plant a row about 320 feet long. Turnips will take about 50 to 60 days to make nice-size eating turnips. Whitakers and Sunny Hill both have bulk turnip seed. Plants Plus probably does as well. I bought 5 pounds from Morgan County several years ago.

One crop that does really well in the fall is green beans. My favorite bush bean is jade, which takes about 52 days to mature and make beans. You can grow green beans all summer right up to frost. You will have to plant your last green beans around Aug. 1 to have green beans before the first frost, which is normally the middle of October. It seems like there is less pressure from bugs in the fall.

If you aren't tired of zucchini or squash, you can plant some up till about the end of July. It takes about 45 to 50 days for zucchini, so you have plenty of time. Actually, you can plant most any of the winter squash for a fall harvest. If you are wanting something like spaghetti squash, you will need to get the seed planted. These take about 90 days from planting to squash ready to pick. I'd get them planted by the first of July, if I could.

If you like greens, I'd plant some Swiss chard. I've had chard make it through the entire winter and look amazing in the spring. I had some this last spring from chard I planted last fall. Tasted like fresh chard that I'd planted this spring. It was good.

One other crop I really enjoy is fall cucumbers. I like to pick cucumbers in the fall. They are so crispy. These fall cucumbers make some awesome refrigerator pickles. The small cucumbers like Boston pickling or General Lee would make some fine eating in the fall. It is always a joy to go out on a cool fall morning and find a cucumber and chow down. You can hear the crunch as you bite into it. We grow H19 little leaf cucumbers to make dill pickles with. If you plant H19, then plan on lots of little 2- to 4-inch cucumbers. Awesome cucumbers to turn into pickles. And since it's an open-pollinated variety, you can save your own seed.

Years ago I grew a small tomato called stupice, but got sidetracked by bigger tomatoes. This was a mistake. I started probably 200 stupice plants this spring. I planted probably 100 of them and gave some away. They are awesome little tomatoes with an awesome taste. Hen-egg size is about as big as they get. I planted them early, and picked my first one from outside plants May 10. The neat thing is I should still be picking some this fall when it frosts. Write them down for next year's garden.

I know there are lots of other crops one can raise in the fall. What is your favorite? If you would, drop me a line and tell me yours.

Happy gardening.