Succession Gardening

Right at the start of September is when to harvest beds and replant a succession crop. In the first and third weeks fertilize with fish emulsion or blood meal to keep rabbits away. This month may be the last time to fertilize. Check tomatoes for blossom end rot and use mag-cal as needed. Check for insect damage. Hornworms can be spotted with a UV light at night. Use pyrethrin on Japanese beetles.

Potatoes to Beets: If planted in the spring, they should be ready for harvest. Half the potato crop was lost to rodents. This year, beets were planted in the potato bed after the potatoes were harvested. The beet greens did very well, but the voles and mice had a field day on the roots. Plant and set rodent traps at the same time. Have a row cover handy and watch the weather for a frost.

Cukes to snow peas: Harvest the pickling cukes, leave the slicers. Replant with SNOW peas. I made the mistake of planting regular peas and never got a crop.

Cauliflower and Broccoli to more broccoli and cauliflower: Replant with broccoli and cauliflower seedlings. If you started seedlings in the spring and left them in seed trays or pots they should be small and a bit root-bound. Have a row cover handy. The moths may still be around so use an insect shield.

Carrots and Spinach: with a whole row of ravished beans by bunnies, I replanted the bed with a crop to over winter, carrots and spinach. I should have had a spinach crop planted as soon as the weather got cooler. Covered with floating cover and spread blood meal to repel bunnies and nourish plants. Should not have planted carrots next to spinach as the nutrient requirements differ.

Harvest and Yields

Tomatoes: Harvested two buckets (2 gal) with Thai and sweet basil.

Sweet Alysim: attracts beneficial insects in the field such as ladybugs and hoverfly. These insects are beneficial to plants as they feed on pests. I don’t know if it works but they grew in bunches between the tomato plants and the tomatoes did fantastic.

Okra: 3-4 pods, did poorly, planted as an afterthought in a space shaded by tomatoes. Should have planted earlier, not sure if direct seedling will give them enough time to flourish. Japanese beetles and aphids loved them. Perhaps could be used as a capture crop.

Broccoli: Second cutting perfect heads. After the second cutting replace with 6″ seedlings or larger. Remove shade cover if not too hot.

Cauliflower: Second planting, 18″ leaves, no visible heads. Replace this method with interval plantings every two weeks. Remove shade cover if not too hot.

Brussles: Back section – with amended soil – were 12-18″ taller. Remove shade cover as the days get cooler and shorter.

Beans: Good mother (for dried beans) plentiful pods, 10ft tall plants bending over. Next year need better support. bush beans were unprotected from rabbits and lost the row. Replanted with carrots and spinach (late Aug) to winter over.

Cukes: straight eight still producing, the picklers have been replaced with peas

Watermelon: kind of a waste as the craving for watermelon has waned. The bed could have been replanted with a root crop, or cool season crop.

Cantelope:  Minnesota Midgets 2 ripe and rotting on the ground, should have been harvested last week while a little green

Butternut squash: 6-7 ripening fruit, mildew apparent. The three hills were planted too densely. There need to be no more than three plants on each hill, with radishes (as a companion plant), planted in between the hills. Radishes help repel cucumber beetles. Use neem or an anti-fungal spray to reduce mildew.

Pumpkins: Harvested last 2 large, mildew all over, small pumpkins were disappointing, used saved seeds. Need more composted manure and organic material. Next year making “nest” inside the brush pile.

Beets: planted in harvested potato bed but neglected to set rodent traps

Onions: Harvested last week and over-seeded with buckwheat. Starters from the nursery did well with one plant per cell. Red Zeplin – can’t find for the home gardener. Foret name of white. Will find a storage type of yellow.

Apples: in need of water. Trees were planted last year, no fruit yet.

Cerlery, first attempt.

Hogs heart paste.