Fall weather is a perfect lettuce growing time!

As most people know, lettuce likes cool weather. And, while most gardeners plant their lettuce crops in early spring, it’s actually even better if they think to include these in the fall months as well!

If you think about it, the fall provides plenty of warm weather early on to get seedlings up and growing, while providing cool and damp conditions later on. The lack of insects later in the season also helps the plants to reach their fullest potential. Most forms of lettuce, especially the romaine’s are not affected even when the temperatures dip below the freezing point. That makes them perfect for growing in cold frames where a harvest can be extended even into the winter months here in southwest Missouri! I also like to plant a few radish seeds as they mature fast enough to harvest before the real cold sets in!

This picture pretty much sums up my life!

The rose is probably the last one of the 2011 season and it got stuck in a generic olive jar cause I couldn’t fine where I had stashed my small vase! The green tomatoes are there because I can’t decide if I want to make fried green tomatoes or not. And the picture is rather blurry! So you see, I’m a cheap late bloomer that never got vine ripened, and I have poor eyesight. Hmm. That's me alright!

Lettuce starts go into Cold Frame for the winter!

Since I had a few romaine lettuce plants that were doing pretty well in the general garden, I thought it might be fun to transplants them into one of my two small cold frames for the winter. I call them CF1 and CF2 so I can keep them straight in my garden diary.

CF1 already had a couple of small kale plants growing in it while CF2 had two small basils. The basil will be a real challenge to keep alive this winter I can tell you that. Anything much below 40F and they’ll be goners for sure!

I also thought to place a wireless temperature sensor in CF1 to keep an eye on just how cold they will be getting. Generally speaking, temperatures are not a problem until sometime in December when things can get a little dicey. But, right now, the daily highs normal in the mid fifties, the growing conditions will be just right for them to get some growth on prior to winter.

Better late than never!

Like most men, I have a tendency to put things off until the very last minute. That goes double for my garden which has basically sat neglected for much of the fall. Now, just two days before a major cold wave that is sure to kill all my basil plants, I’m under the gun to get as much dried or frozen as possible.

For this job, I got out my trusty dehydrator, cleaned it up and then cut up a bunch of basil to go into the multiple tray thing-a-ma-jigs. I set the unit for 125F and will let ‘er run until late in the evening. On Monday, I hope to get another batch processed although I may end up chopping and freezing them in my deep freeze. Either way, I will be just a step ahead of a killing cold that is expected to drop into the low thirties by Wednesday. One advantage to drying basil inside is the wonderful aroma that fills a kitchen when the dehydrator is running.

Added to my list of chores will be moving all my plants that currently reside on the front porch inside. If I can get those two things done, I’ll count myself lucky and then go out and sit on the porch while it’s still warm!

Fall radishes from seed of spring plants!

These radishes have answered one question I had. I found that you can plant a spring crop of radishes, let a few go to seed, collect the seeds and then re-sow them in the fall. That's pretty good to know!

A cherry tomato plant in chicken wire!

This picture hurts my eyes every time I look at it, but the chicken wire is what saved this last remaining plant as all the others have been eaten up by critters. Amazingly, it’s also still producing fruit!

Everything else is pretty much kaput for this year. Even my late planting of romaine lettuce hasn’t panned out. Maybe the seed was too old, I’m not sure. In any case, I’ve decided to turn all the beds over in preparation for the coming winter. A winter that is forecast to be long, cold and snowy by the way. It would get a chance, do read the forecast carefully. I’m in agreement that things may get a little wacky with climate extremes due to some of the things going on with the sun (solar minimum) and with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Remember how this summer was? That’s also part of the same pattern, so you have been forewarned!

Time to plant some fall lettuce!

As I have some romaine seed left over from the spring plantings, I thought it might be a good idea to great a few fall heads before the serious cold sets in. Since I have two small cold frames, I know from experience that I can raise the lettuce to the point where they will go into a form of hibernation over most of the winter months. If I time everything just right, I’ll be eating lettuce right through the month of December.

To start my seeds, I will be using a couple of six pack growing cells which will get two seeds each and I also plant to direct seed in a small area out in front of my home. The starting mix for the indoor trays will be Miracle Gro’s potting mix, or in plainer language, some mix I had left over from the spring. I let these sit in warm water for a few hours then planted the seed very close to the surface. I’ve found that lettuce seeds, in particular, respond to a process called ‘photo-activation’. Doing it that way, I get really fast germination, typically two to three days!

Once the seeds get to be about two inches high, they will go into the cold frames which are open at this time of year. I’ll do a short blog on that process in a couple or three weeks when my seedlings get to proper size.

Update: This is a fine how do you do! Nothing came up! Hmm, maybe the seed was too old. It could also be the gardener....