A variety of vegetables can be grown in a fall vegetable garden, even in a small space. Visit the Photo Place

Plant now for autumn bounty

Plant your fall vegetable garden--now

Date published: 7/25/2008

THERE'S STILL time to plant a fall veg- etable garden. Growing your own food can provide a rewarding sense of accomplishment and a source of nutrition right in your own backyard. How convenient to be able to walk out the back door and select items for dinner without driving to and then standing in line at the grocery store.

Food is a lot fresher if you can prepare it immediately after it's harvested. With a little planning, your fall vegetable garden can provide fresh vegetables up to and even past the first frosts.

Many varieties of vegetables can be planted in mid- to late summer for fall harvests. Succession plantings of warm season crops, such as corn and beans, can be harvested up until the first killing frost. For most of our area, the first killing frost occurs between Oct. 19 and 29.

Cool season crops--such as kale, turnips, mustard, broccoli and cabbage--grow well during the cool fall days and can withstand light frosts.

Timely planting is the key. To determine when to plant a particular vegetable for the latest harvest in your area, you need to know the average date of the first killing frost and the number of days to maturity for the variety you are growing. Choose earliest maturing varieties for late plantings. The formula below for determining the number of days to count back from the first frost will help determine when to start your fall garden.

Take the number of days from seeding (if you started your own seed) or transplanting outdoors to harvest, plus the average harvest period, plus "fall factor" (about two weeks), plus the "frost tender factor (another two weeks, if applicable) (two weeks). That equals the number of days to count back from first frost date.

The frost tender factor is added only for those crops that are especially sensitive to frost--corn, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and squash--as these must mature two weeks before frost to produce a reasonable harvest.

The fall factor takes into account the slow growth that results from cool weather and short days in the fall, and it amounts to about two weeks. This time can be reduced from two to five days by pre-sprouting seeds. Almost any crop that isn't grown from transplants can benefit from pre-sprouting.

Regina Prunty is an agent in Virginia Cooperative Extension's King George County office, specializing in commercial horticulture. Phone 540/775-3062; e-mail rprunty@vt.edu.

Follow us on

Date published: 7/25/2008