Anyone ready for second crop planting time?

[gaillardia]

After feeling bummed out about the tomato plants (3) only producing two tomatoes (which were very tasty) because it is just too hot here, and the cucumber plants (3) only producing one cucumber, I thought it would mean we couldn't try again until next year.

It's not too late! We can start this month with transplants of tomatoes and peppers, and other vegetables from direct seed later this month and on into September.

What are your experiences with late summer gardening starts?

I read that some late summer started vegetables will be sweeter than spring planted crops.

Also found out that instead of getting new tomato plants, I can strip the leaves off a stem, place it in the soil without cutting it from the plant, cover up part of it with soil, but have the end sticking out of the soil, keep it watered and it will root.

Anyone ever done this?

[MSNative]

Gardener hug to you. My cukes did nothing this year. Happily, I planted way too many tomato plants, so I'm doing alright there (until the melons and squash take over the whole garden) Yes, you can cut the bottom leaves off your tomato plant and it will root all along the buried stem. I've had lots of success with that.

 

As far as second plantings, I'm starting my seeds for the fall harvest. Never tried a second round of summer crops. Would love to know how it works out for you.

[Renee in NC]

I'll plant my second round in August/September. Then in the winter, I'll do the traditional "fall" plantings.

[cjzimmer1]

Depending on the crop this is a very common practice. For instance beans, carrots, lettuce, radishes, green onions etc are normally planted every 2-3 weeks. I plant my cucumber plants in late May and plant seeds along with them. My plants are producing cukes and my seeds are starting to vine. If I had more space, I would probably put a third planting of cucumbers in because they tend to dry up in the heat.

 

Kohlrabi, cauliflower and broccoli are planted early in the spring for early summer harvests and again later in the summer for fall harvests. Brussel sprouts need the full season.

 

Tomatoes have hairs growing on the stem so anywhere they touch soil they will root. We (my parents own a greenhouse) encourage people to plant their tomatoes as deep as they can (6-8 inches of stem) to encourage root growth. I've never heard of the technique you mentioned though. But I'm in the north and our tomatoes produce until frost unless we have blight so there would be no advantage to the method you describe. If you are in the south were things burn up, then I suppose it might work although I would be more inclined to buy a new plant because the plants do get tired and that may prevent them from producing well a second time.

 

Peppers also produce the full season for us. I actually have to pull my plants in when the freezes start so the peppers can keep growing. If your peppers are done for already, if you had fairly developed (i.e. well established root not necessarily tall legging plants) then I guess I would try another round but again that would depend on your location. We have 2 months left to potentially killing frosts start again so I wouldn't bother unless the plant was already well on it's way.

[Aubrey]

Huh. We've gotten about 4 tomatoes off of...I think there are 3 plants. No bell peppers, but I think that's because the squash has invaded them. Lots of flowers, though.

 

Lots of flowers on the zuc & canteloupe & watermelon, too, but nothing else. Does that mean we're doing well, or we've got duds?

 

Do you think I could dig up the bell pepper plants & move them to a less squashy part of the garden?

 

And we've got corn. It's taller than the fence & doing funny stuff. I've never seen live corn growing, so that one's a mystery. Actually, I've never grown live stuff, so it's all kind-of a mystery. :D

[Truscifi]

I have been looking at doing the same thing. I already planted 3 more tomato plants and they are doing great so far. I haven't been able to find any cuke plants already started, but I'm still looking. Keep us updated on how it goes.

[FaithManor]

I am just getting ready to start a second crop of potatoes, turnips, and beets (beets are for the pigs). These all do well in cool weather. Unfortunately, our broccoli plants aren't growing very fast and I think that's because we had tremendous heat for several days just after they sprouted. Though we watered regularly, they are too small but I have hope because broccoli does like cooler weather and as long as we can keep them alive through September, I may still get some broccoli for my freezer.

 

I may plant carrots too...I just read that they handle "second cropping" very well.

 

Faith

[jenL]

We're getting ready to plant a second crop of green beans. Japanese beetles ravaged them the first time around, so our yield was weak. Our cucumbers and tomatoes are doing well. Zucchini is growing steadily, we've picked 2 so far. The banana peppers took off, but we're still waiting for our other peppers to grow larger. We have 5 little watermelons growing happily... I can't wait for those! Dh is getting ready to plant pumpkins soon. I love our garden!

[Luckymama]

So far so good this gardening year: we are still eating lettuce despite the high temps (I plant heat-resistant curly leaf and romaine varieties), I pulled all the onions last week and have them curing for storage, cukes are going crazy (been making pickles and relish every third day), 4 tomato plants are covered in almost-ripe fruit, the green beans are 6' tall but the pods aren't big enough yet, we've been eating the hot peppers (6 types---we like 'em) as they ripen. No squash or pumpkins sighted yet. I plant zucc really late so I can keep an eye on it for squash borers. If I plant early I get too busy with the other plants.

 

Our berries have been very successful this year (straw, blue and black). We lost our peach trees :( They were four years old. The other trees, apple and asian pear, died last year-----fire blight. I've taken that as a sign that I need to move to MORE soft fruit and maybe some grapes!

 

For fall crops I will plant two runs of lettuce (beginning of August, mid Aug) and garlic (Sept). I have some old broc seeds so I might see what I can get to germinate. We do love broc but I have a hard time with pests when I grow cruciferous veggies.

[gaillardia]

I'll call it my summer crop because I'm planting in the summer, even though I guess most of it will be harvested in the fall.

Do you tend to buy organic seeds to grow yourself or trust where you're buying plants and hope you don't smell like a fish when you eat your strawberries?

As hot as it gets here, and for as long, I haven't tried growing anything in the cold months because it also gets TOO cold. With a coldframe or greenhouse that would be possible.

Anyone have coldframes or greenhouses?

I bought a "black" tomato plant in April. It was one of our two tomatoes and so good. I yearn for a good homegrown tomato, cucumber, onion, basil salad.:tongue_smilie:

Thanks for responding everyone.

Aubrey -- your green pepper might not do well being transplanted, but I wouldn't know as I'm a new gardener to these parts -- DFW. We're actually OUT of the metroplex counties, but nearby.

Not being entirely thrilled about living here, I'm getting used to the heat and was very happy when I read that it is almost time to start the second stuff.

Working in the soil/yard is a great tension reliever for me.

Hey -- get this: my dh easily tapped a 4"x2" piece of wood straight down into the sandy loam, four feet all the way down, didn't hit a thing! :blink:

[Mom22ns]

\

Hey -- get this: my dh easily tapped a 4"x2" piece of wood straight down into the sandy loam, four feet all the way down, didn't hit a thing! :blink:

 

:w00t: WOW! I till hoe and rake and if you try to put in a tomato cage or stake, you still hit rocks within a few inches!

 

I did pick 16 lbs of tomatoes Monday though and looked out today after canning and saw I really need to pick again!

[MomsintheGarden]

Do you tend to buy organic seeds to grow yourself or trust where you're buying plants and hope you don't smell like a fish when you eat your strawberries?

 

I sometimes buy organic seeds, and should more often. I'm not sure what you mean about fish (?).

 

As hot as it gets here, and for as long, I haven't tried growing anything in the cold months because it also gets TOO cold. With a coldframe or greenhouse that would be possible.

Anyone have coldframes or greenhouses?

 

I have a cold frame. I like that it has an automatic opener:

http://www.gardenersedge.com/item.cgi?item=jwbio&cat=Gardening&subcat=Season%20Extending

Sometimes they have sales + free shipping. You can grow a lot in one of these if you plan carefully. I'm going to do Asian greens in mine this winter.

 

I've never gardened in the DFW area, but I would imagine that you could plant a lot of things in the fall that would grow well, or at least hold well, in the winter. You could try short-day onions, kale, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, beets, radishes, different kinds of Asian greens, parsley, cilantro, or any kind of cool-weather crop.

 

Working in the soil/yard is a great tension reliever for me.

Hey -- get this: my dh easily tapped a 4"x2" piece of wood straight down into the sandy loam, four feet all the way down, didn't hit a thing!

Unbelievable. We could never do that where we live.

 

Here in the most northern part of VA I will plant another go-round of bush beans, squash, and cucumbers. Tomatoes would take too long to produce if we planted them now; around here you get what you can from one planting. We have some late summer and fall greens just sprouting in the kitchen that I'll put out in about 6 weeks. And soon we'll direct-sow fall beets and carrots.

 

Despite the dry weather, it's been an excellent year so far. Even the squash is doing well. I have only seen a few squash bugs and no vine borer damage. The only bust this summer has been cabbage. I'm about to pull up my bug-eaten plants. The flea beetles have been terrible this year.

 

Happy gardening!

GardenMom

Edited July 15, 2010 by MomsintheGarden

[Guest JoyfulMama2Two]

We love to plant a second and sometimes third garden - it is fun to see if we can beat the frost! We often succession plant beans until August and mid-August is the time for planting more lettuce and even peas in a shady spot. Last fall I planted onions and carrots, but the carrots didn't come. The onions went crazy and what we didn't use, came up again this spring. I don't have much energy right now, but as soon as I do, I'll be trying to get in another crop. We had so much rain and so little sun this spring that the garden is pretty sad, but we'll just enjoy what we do get!

[OrganicAnn]

We are still planting a few things.

 

Tomatoes - We are just starting to get tomatoes. We've had about 5 and have about 50 to 100 still on the plant. Unless your plants are dead and dying, I would trim them back, water and they may bloom more when it is cooler. Better than starting from new plants.

 

Cucumber we plant a row every 3 weeks. Trying to defeat the cucumber beetle. We are getting some and have new plants coming on. We may try one more planting.

 

Peppers - peppers are slow growing so I would not recommend them for a second crop. We have healthy plants and starting some to put on some peppers, but we don't expect them till August.

 

Beans - we plant in succession. So we have some coming on and some dying back.

 

Potatoes - plants have died back, we'll be harvesting them soon (we've been stealing some too).

 

Summer squash - we hare harvesting a good amount.

 

Beets - we plant them all the time. Golden beets are beautiful and tasty.

 

Carrots - we have a big crop to harvest. We will put in a fall crop.

 

Onions - our onions are starting to brown. So we will know over the tops and wait a week to harvest.

 

Garlic - already all harvested (very early this year). We will plant next years crop in the fall.

 

Shallots - harvested.

 

Mellon - we have one started, but we usually don't have much luck, so we are not expecting much.

 

Cabbage - we have a few to harvest. We will plant a fall crop.

 

Kale - we have some that we can harvest as needed.

 

Broccoli - we will plant a fall crop, we don't do a spring broccoli crop.

 

 

We also supplement with produce from the farmers market. I love summer eating.

[gaillardia]

I typed a search "crossing strawberries with fish"; an article in the new york times about genetic modification and genetic engineering. A cold tolerance gene was taken from flounder and introduced into strawberries. I'm no scientist but that just sounds wrong.

There was a news program about it quite a few years ago that made me cringe to think that is how far we're going to produce food.

"It's not a flounder gene," the guy said.

Oh. But we got it from a flounder? hmphf

Anyway, I hope I finally get some bumper crops of something besides grasshoppers!

I've read all the posts, thanks for responding.

I wish we could keep on posting, updating about our gardens/flowers/veggies/fruit trees and vines.

:tongue_smilie:Anyone interested?

[Luckymama]

I love to talk gardening! My older kids and dh just roll their eyes... :lol:

[elise1mds]

I plan to have a second round, too. I'll start it here in a few weeks because of the extreme heat we're having now. The cukes are done, and I won't plant any more of those. Tomatoes are still going strong as are the okra and herbs. Green beans are slowing. The first round of butternut squash is almost finished, too, and is being eaten alive by %#$#&% squash beetles.

 

I've already ripped out the peas, lettuce, and spinach and will replant those as well as another round of butternut in mid-August. I have more radish seeds that I'll plant for a quick harvest sometime in September and may throw in some carrots or broccoli or cabbage as well... we'll have to see what I can find. This is only my second year of gardening and I didn't aim for a second round last year. By the time the first round ended, I was DONE. This year I have more energy. I'm not sure where it's coming from, but it's nice!