23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Agree with the above posters... in short, large plants with no heads showing is a good sign. IME the larger the plant the larger the main head & side shoots.
Our typical winter low temps are in the 25 to 30 deg F range, and usually at these lows for less than one day. Under these conditions I've never noticed any stress on the brassicas. It usually takes lows in the 20 to 24 deg F range to start noticing stressed plants.... So hopefully you have a bit of time remaining before your zone 6A lows will begin to take it's toll.
This post was edited by grandad on Wed, Nov 13, 13 at 13:57
I successfully grow the very similar navy bean in Gainesville, Florida. It works out best as a fall crop planted in late August so that the beans will mature and dry during the cooler, drier weather of late November. Both navy beans and great northerns require about 90 days to mature.
You should use days to maturity and remember that number over the years. Most of my main crop watermelons will be ripe 42 days after the melon sets on. Some varieties ripen sooner (Tiger Baby 31 days after setting on and Sweet Favorite 35 days after setting on-in my garden). Sweet corn will be ripe 18 to 21 days after pollination, for example. Ripe watermelons will have a yellowish, orange bottom, if the bottom is not green. The shell will be harder, etc. But the days to maturity is probably the best indicator if you remember to mark them when they start to enlarge and harvest them 42 days later or whatever you find is the number of days to maturity for that variety in your area.
I harvested a volunteer watermelon on Nov. 7th. That easily is a record here for lateness by nearly a month. I kept it to 1 fruit due to circumstances. I just finished eating it and though small, it was a nice little treat. It was gold and looked like a Gold Strike ...which variety I did not raise this year.
I was faithful to ltilton;s warning to let the bottom get yellow and this worked out just right.
This post was edited by wayne_5 on Tue, Nov 12, 13 at 16:01
Sunnibel: All brassicas will store in the freezer after a blanch and shock but I don't do this to the leafy ones anymore... kale, collards, cabbages. They just end up being a big mushy piece of ice. So, I use those fresh. Best way to get around that is to start a few of each early on, and then start a few more about a month later. Broccoli and cauli, on the other hand, freezes rather well.
Btw, cauli is great in escabeche with carrots and hot peppers.
Kevin
Well, if you still have some after playing broccoli fairy, you might want to make some broccoli soup and freeze flat in a freezer bag (I use a foodsaver). This is a freezer space saver I do with all my soups, stews, chili. Then I just pull out a slab-o-soup.Each slab-o is less than an inch, so they stack nicely in the freezer. Nancy
"nc, I do not understand what you mean by topping out. Do you mean that once the plants get to their ultimate height they stop producing?"
When okra "tops out" it's the point where production slows severely...there's less vertical growth, less flower set, etc...it goes slow as if it's reached a maximum height. It technically is still growing and the plant is healthy, but it's production and continued vertical growth greatly slows down.
A lot of this is because of the properties of the variety type. Under ideal conditions a lot of heirloom types will get to 6-10ft before they top out...some newer varieties tend to top out around 5-6ft...some dwarf types will top out around 3-4ft. These are generalized heights, btw...while variety plays a huge part in when they top out, a plant that tops out at 6ft one season can easily be a plant that tops out at 8ft the following season. It gets kinda weird that respect.
I mostly plant Clemson Spineless...and while these plants can get to 7-8ft high for some people, I find that in my area they tend to "top out" around 5-6ft.
"And, do you think I waited too long to cut my plants back? They were probably five feet tall when I cut them back by half. Should I have cut them earlier so as to remove less plant material?"
It really doesn't matter when you cut them back...what really matters is that there is enough favorable weather left to grow and produce pods in the weeks it takes for the plant to recover and start producing again after cutting.
As far as how much to cut...they're surprisingly durable plants. On commercial farms in the late summer (preparing for fall harvest) they'll go over fields with brush mowers cutting them down to 8-12" stubs off the ground to rejuvenate the plants. Even a lot of plants that don't have leaves left on them after mowing will generally spout new branches and start growing.
This post was edited by nc-crn on Sun, Nov 10, 13 at 23:21
"Could sun be the big limiting factor?"
Not directly. Temperature is the most limiting factor for okra. I've seen okra at 80 degrees barely growing but sprouting half a dozen pods a week at 90 degrees. This is not to say sun exposure is unimportant, just that temperature is more likely to be the limiting factor. So long as okra has 6 or 7 hours of full sun each day, production will be reasonably good.
Last year I was late getting my carrot seed in the ground. It was in October when I sowed. My carrots grew, but oh so slowly. It was December before I started harvesting them. This year, I sowed carrots the first week of September. It has made a huge difference. I am very close to harvest size now. Perhaps timing was your problem? (I was late getting the beets sown this year due to space availability. Guess what? They are growing very very slowly. I may just get beet greens this winter, which is actually okay. but, as you can see, timing can be everything this time of year.)
Brassicas (broccoli, etc.) are heavy feeders. Perhaps they could use a nitrogen boost? Also, take a look at the sunlight levels they are getting. The sun moves in the sky in the winter and plants that are in full sun in summer are sometimes getting more shade in the fall and winter. Broccoli likes full sun.
This may be a little off topic, but I have used peat moss as bedding for my horses. There have been studies done that demonstrate that peat moss is 90% more absorbent when it is wet or damp than when it is dry. It is very effective as bedding because it can absorb so much urine and is also odorless (there is no urine smell), so the wet peat moss doesn't have to be removed when cleaning the stalls.
I guess the point I am trying to make is that when properly wetted, peat moss can absorb rainfall and serve as a sort of reservoir during the dry spells. That is how and why I use it in my raised beds.
peat moss can absorb rainfall and serve as a sort of reservoir during the dry spells. That is how and why I use it in my raised beds.
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that is yet another drawback of peat moss, that keeps the soil soggy. You need good drainage. To cure that the commercial grower add a lot of perlite , compost and pine barks.
Nancy
The map was just a snapshot in the early morning hour. The date an time is on the map.
My point was is that winter is inevitable, by a wide spread of BLUE from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Exceptions are : parts of CA, FL, Southwest.
4' x 8' x 1 ft deep: Is that a container ? It sounds like a large raised bed to me.
This post was edited by seysonn on Sun, Nov 10, 13 at 4:07
It is a box raised up off of the ground to save my aching back.
Whatever the neighbors put in it (they said really good soil) started my spring plants, then either burned them up or something was missing cause they all yellowed up and stopped producing! I kept them watered and gave them slow release fert like the container people said, but they insisted I had the wrong type of soil.
I couldn't afford all new soil for all 3 beds, so I mostly emptied one and filled it with the 1/2 truckload I had and all is well in that container now.
Anyway, yes, winter is on it's way. Supposed to get our first rain Tuesday. Nancy
It shouldn't need any protection in your zone, except maybe from hungry deer (I've heard they're all over the D.C. suburbs). One easy thing to do is clip branches from one of the Christmas trees that get put out for recycling, and lay them over the spinach for a bit of protection as we go deeper into winter.
Coleman does recommend a shallower box -- (I think it's 8 inches in the front, 12
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elisa .... mine is about 15" front and 30" the back.Probably I will burry it 2 to 3 inches.
I will have two shelves inside. The back shelf will be about 20"H and one in the middle about 10"H(sort of like wooden steps). Under the shelves will be used to store things like empty pots/trays and also put trays to germinate seeds. I like deeper box better. It has more air volume and the temperatures don't fluctuate as fast. Plus it can accommodate some taller seedlings as well.
Mine too. Don't plant too deep because it can lead to rotting problems.
You'd never plant onions 5-6" deep! Plant onions 1" deep max.
Dave