Day 50 (more or less)

This was my first attempt at entire second crop, as opposed to succession planting of individual crops. Partially due to circumstances (broken ankle) and partially due to I just didn’t think of it, got a late start and put most of this in with a scant 50 days (which according to my paper journal is today, and according to Folia is Sunday. Probably planted on a Friday and entered it here on the following Sunday without correcting the date.)

Some lessons learned:

I absolutely have time for a full second crop, but will have to be either ruthless about pulling plants before they are really done producing, or very strategic about follow crops. I need a full 70 days, because I really do lose sunlight in my yard starting in late August. Where in July I have 12 full sunlight hours, by October I’ve really only got 3. So this affected growth rate a lot.

Late summer plantings are way more pest-prone. I lost the first bean crop to mosaic, which apparently is common in this region for late summer plantings. Aphids were an ongoing threat. I had a smaller percentage of seeds even germinating, and the August/September rains need to be accounted for. Admittedly they were more severe than usual this year, but 4" rains in late summer are not uncommon. The garage plot, which doesn’t drain as well as the wagon wheel, was especially affected by this. I think the solution there is actually a cold frame. It’s a perfect location for it— a good size, the area is sheltered, and it’s accessible even in the snow, being next to a walkway.

I need to really understand what crops can take late summer weather vagaries, and what can tolerate cold ground temps and frost on their leaves, as well as how and when to mulch. I’ve had problems with earwigs in mulched areas, so I need to find out what mulch will protect my plants without attracting pests.

Tomatoes transplant beautifully, looks like I’ll get three “Late Girls.” I’m going to pot up the other three volunteers and see if I can coax some indoor fruit out of them. I think I will end up with beets certainly, and possibly turnips if increasingly cold ground doesn’t bother them. There’s an outside chance of one meal’s worth of broccoli, and of carrots at Thanksgiving, which would be awesome. I’ll keep this going as long as I can. Looks like frost is possible late next week; certainly we’re going to be dropping into the 30s overnight by then. The lake is protecting us for now.

I loved having this experiment going, and plan to keep the Wagon Wheel as an experimental plot, with test crops next year of corn (which I’ve never done) as well as planting my own seeds, harvested from the greenhouse-purchased plants. I figure I’ll weed out the hybrid mules and have viable seeds to work with after a few years. We also cleared the other side of the garage to try planting corn as well. I should still be able to get a good sized harvest by turning the Knot Garden into a square foot planting.

Photos of individual crops under each plant.