Time is running out to plant fall crops

Although we are halfway through August and the harvest season is well underway, there is still time to plant some fall vegetable crops as well as cover crops. The days are getting noticeably shorter and we have had a few chilly nights in the fifties, as is often the case later this month. Cool-season crops like lettuce, spinach, other salad greens, beets, carrots and radishes can all be started from seed now and will be in prime condition in late September.

I know that many people don’t like beets due to their musky flavor and the messy red liquid they produce, but there are two types of beets that do not have these characteristics. Chioggia is an heirloom beet variety that is not solid red and does not “bleed” when cut or cooked. It has concentric, red-colored rings within a mostly white root. Like all beets, it requires a good deal of cooking to soften the flesh, but the flavor is very mild and sweet. I think that kids may even take a liking to this pretty and very healthy vegetable. The other “non-bleeding” beet is the golden beet, which features sweet yellow flesh and a decidedly milder flavor than the red types.

The only downside to these two varieties is the fact that the seeds do not have high germination rates compared to the standard varieties. Beet “seeds,” as packaged, are actually capsules containing two or three individual viable seeds with a pod. This means that they usually require thinning,

regardless of how thinly they are sowed. Both the golden and striped beets have much lower germination rates, though, and should be planted thickly. As they grow, the thinned plants can be cooked. Beet greens are really very tasty steamed or stir fried with onions or shiitake mushrooms and seasoned with a bit of balsamic vinegar.

Beets can tolerate a pretty good amount of shade and can be sowed in the shadow of taller plants such as tomatoes. They are ready to harvest about 40 days after planting and taste even sweeter if they are subjected to a mild frost. Optimal harvest size is about the size of a golf ball. If allowed to grow into tennis ball size, they can be quite woody in texture. Beets also store well in the refrigerator for two weeks or so and even longer in a root cellar.

Carrots are also an excellent fall crop that may be planted right now. My experience is that homegrown carrots really do taste much better than supermarket types. They come in a rainbow of colors and shapes from half long to really long (12 inches or more). The seeds are slow to germinate and they also require thinning for best results. Unlike the “baby” carrots you see for sale in the markets, they need to grow long enough to develop their characteristic sweet taste, which also gets sweeter after mild frost.

“Baby” carrots are actually full-size carrots that are cut into bitesize pieces before packaging. Carrots take longer to mature than beets, but still should produce a decent yield in October, if planted now and they also store very well. Turnips are another underappreciated root crop that taste best when harvested at golf ball size and subjected to cold temperatures. Like beets, their greens are also pretty tasty although I much prefer beet greens. They can be ready to harvest in as little as 30 days.

Lettuce seeds do not germinate well in warm soil, but that can be avoided by covering the row of seeds with a wooden board, such as a 2 by 4, to shade the seed and keep the soil cooler. Remove the board every day to inspect and as soon as the seeds sprout the boards are removed. They may also be sown in the shade of taller plants.

If you have open areas in your garden where the zucchini or beans have died, lettuce has bolted or you already pulled them out because one can only eat so much of these prolific summer vegetables, it is a good idea to sow a fall cover crop. Winter rye can be seeded as late as mid-October and it will still grow waist high by next May while out competing almost any weeds. Winter rye contains natural herbicides that also suppress the growth of many weeds. It will require serious equipment to till in it next spring, however, since it forms a pretty dense sod. Oats will sprout and grow very quickly as a cover crop.

They will be killed by a hard frost and are very easy to till in next spring.