CUISINE & CULTURE
It is mid-August, with plenty of time to plant seed of fall vegetables. Plant fall vegetables when it is over 100 degrees? Yes!
In late summer soils are warm and high temperatures favor rapid germination of seed but it is important to plant seeds that have the best chance to produce a crop before the first freeze in October. Here are some vegetables that produce good crops in the next two months.
Summersquash. Make sure you are planting summer and not winter squashes. Winter squashes like butternut and hubbard types have a vining growth habit and need 90 to 120 days to harvest. Pumpkins, likewise, are way past the planting date.
The summer squashes that will produce a crop are zucchini, yellow straightnecks and crooknecks. With our hot temperatures seed will pop up and put on new leaves daily. The first squash could come in September if the seed gets in the ground now.
Radish. This is the season for gardeners that like going to the garden and plucking a fresh radish. The reliable cherry radish mature in less than a month, and for gardeners who are fans of watermelon radish, this is the season to plant them. Watermelon radish seed planted in the spring in our area bolt before they can be harvested but a crop can be harvested when days are cooling in the fall. Other kinds of radish that cannot be spring planted but do produce a fall crop are Daikon and Black Spanish.
Beets. Seed will germinate quickly if it is soaked overnight before sowing into the garden. plant thickly and harvest the greens for salads. Thinning the baby greens leaves space for the root to develop. Beets can linger in the garden past the first frost.
Carrots. Like beets, carrots can be planted now. Tops are edible and add zip to a salad. Sow them every few inches and thin to one every 3 or 4 inches. Carrots can withstand slight freezes.
Salad greens. Arugula, mesclun mixes, mizuna, lettuces grow quickly and produce baby crops within a few weeks. Growing greens this time of year might avoid flea beetles, caterpillars, and other insects.
Hardy greens. Chard and kale produce a crop after the first frost. Protecting them with frost cloths will keep gardeners in fresh greens well into November.
Ellen Peffley Harp, a retired professor of horticulture at Texas Tech University, writes about gardening for several Texas newspapers.
