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What vegetables can I still plant from seed as of mid-August?

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Posted by nick_b79 4/5 Southeast MN (My Page) on
Fri, Aug 15, 14 at 21:13

I just cleaned out the last broccoli, turnip, and cabbage plants from my garden, and it looks like the aphid population has really boomed in the zucchini patch, so a lot of that will be coming out this weekend as well. That leaves a lot of open ground, and it seems a waste to leave it bare.

I'm looking for suggestions as to what I can still plant this late in the year. The median frost date for our location (Farmington, MN) is Oct. 14, per the U of MN. If I use some row covers, I MIGHT be able to extend that a little longer. That gives me 60 days from this weekend from seed to plate.

So far, I'm looking at turnips, kale, lettuce, spinach and maybe beets. I'm also thinking of planting oats as a green manure, since I can get 50-lb bags of it for dirt cheap at the grain store in town.

Thanks!

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RE: What vegetables can I still plant from seed as of mid-August?

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For regular turnips it may be a little late, but Hakurei turnips would work very well. All those crops you listed are frost-tolerant, so you have way more than 60 days. The spinach and kale are particularly tolerant and will be fine right until the first permanent snowfall.

OTOH, you have to add a 25-50% extension to the DTM to account for fall's shorter and ever-shortening days.

I would also suggest radishes, tatsoi, bok choy, gai lan and claytonia.

IME, freeze damage thresholds are about like this (this is without row covers):
Least tolerant: lettuce and bok choy - mid to high 20s F
Tolerant: beets, turnips, radishes - mid 20s F. Mound up soil around the growing root to prevent the root from freezing.
Very tolerant: kale, spinach, tatsoi, claytonia - mid teens F

This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Fri, Aug 15, 14 at 21:48

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RE: What vegetables can I still plant from seed as of mid-August?

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  • Posted by glib 5.5 (My Page) on
    Fri, Aug 15, 14 at 23:27

concur and add arugula to the list.

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RE: What vegetables can I still plant from seed as of mid-August?

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I just planted some lettuce seeds yesterday. I plan to plant spinach and bok choy in a few days. Our first frost date is Oct 21. I ordered some lacinato kale seeds and hope they come in soon.

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