Seeking tips for planting a fall garden

[Purrfluff]

I had a disastrous result last year. They all bolted. No round and stout body, but a stem sticking out. How disappointing. They are most delicious. I don't think I have any seeds left this year. I must say I placed them in a wrong area, not enough morning light, too much heat!

Do post your pics. Nice to have a graphic update!

I ran into the same thing. My napa cabbage bolted. I blame this on not planting them early enough last fall. I suspect they will bolt immediately if I sowed them in spring. And the leaves on the underside of the "heads" rotted. The leaves of the napa cabbage seemed quite thin and tender. More like lettuce than cabbage. That might account for the rotting.

 

[Purrfluff]

Update on 3/19/2018:

Still waiting for my seeds. I don't know what the hold up is.

I have yanked almost everything and did some tilling. The soil still needs to dry out before we can use the walk behind rototiller.

I did some research the other day and discovered that I screwed up last fall and winter. I was supposed to put in soil amendments like lime and gypsum then. I didn't. I thought it was supposed to be done in spring.

It's probably too late to fully correct it for this spring but I figured I would try. To that end I bought 150 pounds of agricultural lime and fifty pounds of gypsum. I went to a place nearby called Concentrates Inc. A fifty pound bag of lime there cost about six dollars. A six pound bag of lime cost the same amount at Home Depot. I know where to go for my soil amendments in the future. They also had bone meal, kelp meal, blood meal, you name it. I bought a couple of pounds of cottonseed meal for the compost heap.

I then spread one hundred pounds of the ag lime and tilled it in as best I could with my mini tiller. I am hoping ensuing rains will activate it and let it dissolve into the soil. I hope this will correct soil acidity from winter rains and make more calcium available to my plants. And maybe prevent last year's tomato blossom end rot.

I also read that Oregon's clay soils can loosen up considerably, over time, with the application of large amounts of ag lime. Something about counteracting excessive magnesium.

I'm not worried about overdoing the lime because I'm pretty sure we haven't limed our native soil in several years. I also dumped some of the lime into the raised beds. Since the soil in the beds is different it is possible I overdid it. I doubt it though. I don't think they've gotten enough lime in recent years either.

I tried to till the lime into the soil rather than just dumping it on the surface. I figured that if I just dumped it on the surface the rain would simply wash it away rather than wash it into the soil.

I have also started deploying my compost. It doesn't seem to be very good compost but it's what I've got. I don't know whether to spread the compost out on top of the soil or to work it in with the tiller.

I do have several questions I was hoping to get perspectives on.

Most of my brussels sprouts plants overwintered. However, I can't tell if they are going to produce sprouts or not. The top of all the plants have the beginnings of flowers on them. So I pinched those off. However, on the parts of the plant stalk where sprouts would grow I noticed they are generating flower parts.

Is that normal? Do brussels sprouts produce flowers at the center of a sprout? Or is the plant simply bolting from every single orifice?

If they aren't going to create sprouts or are going to produce terrible sprouts I might as well yank the plants and compost them.

Secondly... I found (to my horror) a cut worm when I was yanking cabbage yesterday. Now I've known we have cutworms because a few years ago they killed every single seedling. However, I didn't run into any problems with them last fall and I think they have been a minimal problem in the raised beds.

So what do I about them? I know that BT is effective against them. But they live underground, in the soil. How do I hit them with BT when they are protected by soil? Also, BT is an ingestion poison. Simply spraying them with BT won't do any good. They've got to eat something with BT on it.

I aware of Sluggo Plus but I thought that was something you put on top of the soil, rather than it. Would the cutworms even go for it?

Even so, I did spray some BT on the soil the other day. My hope being that it will live in the soil for a while and maybe get some cutworms. I also sprayed my brassicas. I figured they didn't need it since the cabbage worms aren't out yet.

I was wrong on that count because I found a very alive cabbage worm when yanking a different row of plants. So the BT spray was a good idea. I can't believe the cabbage worms are out and about already. I thought I had semi-eradicated them last year.

Finally, when I deploy my compost should I just put it on the surface and plant in it? Or should I till it into the native soil to mix it?

As always, thank you in advance.

 

[alp]

I ran into the same thing. My napa cabbage bolted. I blame this on not planting them early enough last fall. I suspect they will bolt immediately if I sowed them in spring. And the leaves on the underside of the "heads" rotted. The leaves of the napa cabbage seemed quite thin and tender. More like lettuce than cabbage. That might account for the rotting.

I also planted them a bit late. Where they were, they only got the sun late in the afternoon and nothing thrived, not even sweet corn. Only parsleys are very happy there.

 

[Purrfluff]

I also planted them a bit late. Where they were, they only got the sun late in the afternoon and nothing thrived, not even sweet corn. Only parsleys are very happy there.

I should add that I used shredded leaves as mulch. That might have contributed to the underside leaf rotting. Had they formed full heads I doubt it would have been an issue. I could have just stripped the outermost leaves.

 

[Purrfluff]

Update on 3/23/2018:

I'm in a rotten mood. The weather this week has been awful. Tons of rain and strong wind. With a strong dash of hail and some rain/snow mix. Suffice to say no seeds can be sown outdoors. The soil is too wet and cold.

This awful weather also sets the entire soil warming process back. The driving rain will also compact the soil. Which, being heavy clay, will become like cast iron.

My order from Territorial Seed arrived. Mostly. A couple of items are on backorder. But they did screw up a little. I ordered pelleted seeds for carrots and lettuce and got unpelleted. Also, they ran out of the legume inoculant. How they run out of something so basic is confusing but if they don't have any then they don't have any.

I contacted their customer service to see if I can get the pelleted seed and another item with the same value as the inoculant. They are working with me so we'll see how that goes.

I'll have to snag some of Burpee's inoculant. I think that is still plentiful on the shelves.

In lieu of being able to sow outdoors I'm trying to start some stuff in Jiffy peat pellets. Yes, I know peat pellets are kind of terrible. But it's what I got.

I don't much like transplants, to be honest. I prefer direct seeding. But this isn't direct seeding weather and the Willamette Valley is somewhat notorious for cold, wet springs and early summers. This is a little more hardcore than I'm used to but it's not unheard of.

Hopefully I can start putting seeds in the ground next week. I was thinking of starting with peas, lettuce, kale, carrots, brussels sprouts, and maybe cauliflower.

I'm also hoping to sow some of the oat cover crop seed.

Once I actually get some seeds in the ground and get some germination I will start a new thread. It may work well as a method for putting people to sleep.

 

[alp]

You're NOT the only one with rotten mood. We here in the UK are still waiting for the 3rd and 4th Beast from the East. What can you do with freaky weather??!!!

You could do some salad leaves as they are not that tender, especially Mizuna and even my bolted Pak Chois are still alive with flowers. Heavens know why I am still keeping them! Probably because they remind me of home!

If you want direct sowing, make sure the days before you sow are warm so that the soil heats up and water it will and after sowing fleece it it is cold.

 

[headfullofbees]

Sow under cloches.

 

[Purrfluff]

I probably should have added that my fellow gardeners in the Northeastern US are in much worse shape than I am. So I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.

I know this is a stupid question but... you can sow under cloches? I don't have any proper glass cloches but I do have milk jugs that I used for cloches this winter. Would I just plop the cloches onto the rows I sowed?

My pak choi finally gave up the ghost over the winter. I could have kept a few plants alive if I really tried but they were bolting left and right.

In the brief dry window I had today I tore out the mustard greens. I am trying a weird experiment. I read that it's possible for decomposing mustard greens to have insect repellent properties. So after I shook the soil from the roots I ran the stalks and leaves over with the lawnmower. Then I sprinkled the detritus onto some soil and tilled it in.

There's no way to really know whether this will work. It's probably pointless. But I doubt it will do any harm.

 

[alp]

You lose a bit of control if you direct sow under cloches. For seeds to germinate, there are optimum and minimum temperatures and also there is the danger of slugs or snails feasting on your tender plants. Beans can be direct sown under cloches, but ground frost is also a danger! Pak Choi seeds are cheap. I always buy them when they are reduced to 10p. Gave one packet away and still have a packet left. Sowed quite a few yesterday!

 

[headfullofbees]

Slugs and snails are not a danger, if it's as cold as Purrfluff says.

 

[Purrfluff]

Slugs and snails are not a danger, if it's as cold as Purrfluff says.

Unfortunately, slugs and snails are most definitely a danger. I picked several off of the fall sown plants a couple of days ago.

The winter of 2016 was unusually cold for this area with temps getting into the 20s (fahrenheit) many times. With plenty of snow and ice. And it still didn't deter the slugs come spring. I keep putting out Sluggo and it probably helps but.... the supply of slugs seems never ending. It doesn't help that the rain tends to wash away the sluggo. And that same rain also brings out the slugs.

And the rain tends to shut down the diatomaceous earth, which is my other control.

 

[Purrfluff]

I feel a little stupid asking this but.... what are forming brussels sprouts supposed to look like? The brussels sprouts plants that overwintered are starting to produce sprouts now... maybe. The spaces on the main stalk where brussels sprouts are forming are showing flower heads in the center.

I've never actually seen brussels sprouts in development so perhaps this is normal. But I kind of doubt it. If this means the plants are bolting I'll just tear them out and plant new ones.

 

[Purrfluff]

Nevermind. I yanked them. The stalks were too thin to support sprouts anyway. The only thing now left in the garden from the fall is some rutabagas (which are badly in need of harvesting) and some kale my mother is making me keep going until new kale is born.