Growing season need not end; fall good time for crops
After a summer spent in the vegetable garden sweating in the hot, humid conditions — planting, weeding, watering, chasing insects and other critters, and then finally harvesting — vegetable gardeners in central Ohio are sometimes glad to see the growing season come to an end after Labor Day.
But vegetable gardening doesn’t have to end in September. With a little planning, gardeners can plant cool-season crops and continue to harvest fresh vegetables until Thanksgiving or later. We harvested the last carrots in our fall Victory Garden on the Ohio State University campus on Dec. 9th last year!
Benefits of fall gardens
There are several good reasons to garden in the fall months, including the fact that it tends to require less work and less sweat. I’d much prefer to put on a sweatshirt to garden on cool days in October and November than to have the sweat rolling down my forehead and into my eyes in July and August.
Additionally, growing conditions tend to be more favorable in the fall with seasonable daytime temperatures and plentiful soil moisture. Even during a fall when precipitation is infrequent, cooler air and soil temperatures mean that less moisture will evaporate from the soil, meaning that you will spend less time watering in the fall. There will also be fewer insects and disease organisms in the environment to do battle with during the fall months.
Fall is for-cool season crops
While warm season favorites such as squashes, tomatoes, and corn can’t be grown outdoors in the fall in central Ohio, lots of other crops actually prefer cooler weather. That’s why your lettuce tastes bitter and bolts and goes to seed in July, because it is what we call a coolseason crop that prefers cool weather.
Examples of cool-season crops that can be grown in the fall in central Ohio include lettuces, arugula, spinach, kale, chard, collards, beets, radishes, carrots, parsnips, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips and kohlrabi. Most of these crops can be direct seeded in the ground in mid- to late summer, but some, including
broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussel sprouts, need to be started from seed indoors in the summer and transplanted outside in August for fall harvest.
Know when to expect frost
The average date of the first light frost in Columbus is Oct. 13, but hardkilling
frosts my not occur until much later in the fall. Most cool-season crops will not be harmed by light frosts when temperatures are between 29 degrees and 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
Some cool-season crops such as broccoli, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, radishes, spinach, turnips and kale can tolerate even a hard frost when temperatures reach 24 degrees. In our fall Victory Garden on campus last year, we harvested fall seeded kale through February.
Fall crops taste better
Certain cool-season crops actually taste different after they have been exposed to several light frosts while growing. This is because the plants turn starches into sugars as a defense mechanism against the colder temperatures, resulting in tastier carrots in the saucepan! Crops such as carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, kale, and chard all taste sweeter after being exposed to frost conditions.
Gardeners can also extend the growing season into winter for coolseason crops by using row covers with one or more layers of fabric to insulate the plants and create a microclimate for continued growth when cooler temperatures persist in the fall.