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| Overwintering onions |
Saturday, July 30, 2022
This time of year, many of us are rooting for fall to get here sooner rather than later! A great thing about fall and winter edible gardens is little to no pests! The insects die off in fall so your harvest is safe from pest destruction. Once you have spent the effort to get the plants established and cool weather is here, fall and winter gardening is very low maintenance.
Root crops are great fall and winter veggies. As it gets cooler, root crops get sweeter, too, as the sugars get concentrated.
For more on fall and winter edible gardening, see these posts.
Root veggies are about the easiest and most carefree veggies you can grow in an edible garden. They have little pest or disease problems even in spring. With the colder temps in fall and winter, pests and disease practically disappear. In addition with cold weather, you can keep the roots in the ground until you are ready to eat them.
Fall and winter roots you can grow are beets, burdock, carrots, celeriac, fennel, kohlrabi, leeks, onions, parsnips, radishes, root parsley, rutabaga, salsify, scallions, scorzonera and turnips. When planting for fall, the days are getting shorter. The DTH (days to harvest) shared on seed packets are based on spring planting. Since the day length is getting shorter this time of year, add 2 weeks to what the seed packet shares to get a better estimate to when your root crops will be at full size for harvesting.
Our summers are hot and dry. If yours are too, be sure to keep the soil moist after sowing seeds.
The trick for fall and winter harvesting is to make sure your crops are at full size before the day length gets so short and temperatures so cool that all growth basically stops. A good rule of thumb is to target for your veggies to be at full size by your first average frost date.
Below is a general planting schedule if starting from seed. There are faster and slower maturing varieties out there for these veggies, so check the seed packet for more precise planting times.
July
Carrots, celeriac, fennel, leeks, parsnips, root parsley, rutabaga, salsify, scorzonera and scallions.
August
Beets, carrots, kohlrabi, onions, rutabaga, scallions, radishes, scallions and turnips.
September
Plant more carrots, radishes, and scallions.
October
The month to plant garlic for next year’s harvest and over-wintering onions. Order your favorites early as many sell out quick. Time to plant garlic! With growing tips......
If you don’t want to start seeds, some big box stores and local nurseries have begun to have fall planting veggies. If none in your area do, there are many mail order seed companies that carry fall bedding plants. Late August, early September is the best time to get transplants into the garden for fall and winter harvests.
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