September in Western Mountains and Plains

**Turan** 9/5/2015, 4:58 pm

Harvest time!
I see John is up to his nose in tomatoes Very Happy

It is raining today and threatening frost tonight or tomorrow night. Darn it the tomatillos are now covered with lanterns. I'll cover them but they hate frost.

I picked a basket of tomatoes, enough to fill 6 trays on the dehydrator.

I pulled a few of the carrots and rutabagas for this weeks eating. THe biggest carrot was 7oz. I think I am pulling the Danvers, the long season ones are still growing. The rutabagas are enormous. Biggest one is 2lbs. I picked a few ears of corn too. After this I will let them fully ripen and dry for later seed collecting and hominy making.

September in Western Mountains and Plains 2015-011

September in Western Mountains and Plains 2015-011

**donnainzone5** 9/5/2015, 5:43 pm

Temps here the last three mornings have been 34, 29, and 33F, and I've been covering the most sensitive (and still producing) plants. It's supposed to be 34 again tonight, and my micro-climate generally is a couple of degrees colder.

I'm thinking about experimenting with starting broccoli indoors, then growing it in the greenhouse. Possibly the same for peas. I expect to plant radishes, greens, and carrots this weekend. They can easily be covered, when necessary.

**Turan** 9/6/2015, 1:28 pm

Frosted here last night as well.

I love the idea of growing broccoli and peas in the greenhouse in the winter! How warm can you keep your greenhouse in winter? Mine eventually cools down to hard frozen. I keep meaning to try some greens, they see a more sure effort.

**donnainzone5** 9/6/2015, 1:54 pm

I really don't know how warm I can keep the greenhouse warm in wintertime.

It's on a heat-sink of a deck, next to an insulated garage, and faces South. There are no electrical outlets nearby.

I suppose I could always cover the brocs and peas during the coldest spells.

Marc Iverson 9/6/2015, 2:38 pm

Yeah, peas all winter would be amazing. The veggies get pretty blah in winter in the small city in which I live.

**Turan** 9/26/2015, 2:21 pm

I just dug my potatoes. 63 pounds from a 3x4 space. I think it was 2 pounds of seed planted, what ever Johhny's smallest order of French Red Fingerling potato is. They are gorgeous tubers this year. I found tubers up the first foot of mulch (I ended up with 1.5 feet of mulch of three kinds). They really loved that pine needle mulch.

Now I shall go pick fava beans and corn that are drying on their plants.

**donnainzone5** 9/26/2015, 2:56 pm

Turan,

What's your secret?

I planted my potatoes around the first part of May. So far, I've harvested approximately 12.5 lbs. from 14 square feet.

Admittedly, my seed potatoes were pretty shrunken by the time I got around to planting them.

**Turan** 9/26/2015, 9:28 pm

No secrets that I know of Laughing

I planted 4/30. The 3X4 bed had been prepped with a bucket of compost and a cup of bonemeal. A soaker hose was laid down. 1 seed potato/sqf was planted of French Fingerling. I have had good success with this variety before as well. It is very tall growing, is indeterminate in tuber setting behavior and tasty.
I put the walls of an old cold frame around the bed. The walls are 1.5' tall. After the plants sprouted I started mulching. Mulching should only cover a third of the stalk. The first mulching was with old half rotted pine needles and another cup of bonemeal. Then came some old leaves and then half used old bags of peat and potting soil and finally in start of August 6" of sweepings from where hay was stored.

**donnainzone5** 9/26/2015, 11:41 pm

Perhaps I should plant only 1-2 seed potatoes per square foot? I generally do four.

**Turan** 9/27/2015, 12:01 am

I think this might have to do with variety. French Fingerling is the best yield for deep mulch I have experienced. A pretty normal return as an average for potatoes is 10 lbs harvested / 1lb planted.

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