Gage County
1115 West Scott St.
Beatrice NE 68310
Phone: (402) 223-1384
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News Column

Paul C Hay, Extension Educator

Keep the Vegetables Coming

Planting vegetables for fall production is an excellent practice. Late planting of cool and warm-season vegetables can extend the harvest long after spring-planted crops have died.

Most cool-season vegetables grow as well or better than those planted in the spring, as they mature during shorter, cooler days. Flavors of vegetables maturing in the cool, crisp days of autumn often are sweeter and milder than those grown during hot summer weather. This especially is true for broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and kale. Plants such as lettuce and spinach can stay productive due to the shorter day lengths. For those who enjoy to garden, extending the harvest as long as possible helps ward off the dreariness of cloudy autumn days.

Available space, grower preference and the intended use all influence the crop choices. Heat-loving crops, such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, sweet potatoes, and okra will continue to produce until frost. Other heat-loving vegetables, including snapbeans, cucumbers and summer squash, often slow or quit producing in late summer. Mid-summer plantings of these vegetables will provide vigorous plants from which to harvest up to or with protection beyond the first frost. In Nebraska, the first frost often is followed by a few weeks of good growing weather, providing an even longer harvest.

Some gardeners like the idea of serving fresh garden tomatoes for Thanksgiving dinner. Mid-summer planting of short-season tomato cultivars can provide vigorous, robust plants from which to harvest high quality fruit. Tomatoes harvested just before frost from healthy plants tend to keep better in long-term storage than fruits salvaged from older, diseased plants.

While semi-hardy vegetable plants can tolerate light frosts, hardy vegetables will continue to grow until temperatures drop to about 20 degrees. Although the tops of semi-hardy root and tuber crops may be killed by hard freezes, the edible portion will store well in the ground if mulched with a heavy layer of straw. Cool-temperature-adapted crops are excellent for fall gardening because they continue to grow well into autumn and can be harvested after many tender plants have been killed by frost.

Semi-hardy vegetables include beets, Chinese cabbage, collards, potatoes, mustard, radishes, spinach, Swiss chard, Bibb lettuce, leaf lettuce and green onions. Hardy vegetables include cabbage, carrots, broccoli, turnips, cauliflower, rutabagas, Brussels sprouts and kale.

For a fall garden, select the shortest-season cultivars available to ensure harvest before killing frosts arrive. Look for cultivars labeled "early season" or compare the number of days to harvest and select those with the fewest days to maturity. This information usually is printed on the seed packet or in the cultivar description in seed catalogs. Seeds can be purchased either locally or from mail-order companies. However, quality seeds disappear from garden stores in mid- to late-summer when seed companies remove their displays. Dale Lindgren, UNL Horticulture Specialist who has developed plants like Liatris, Husker Red Penstemon, Dianthus, carnations, and prairie clovers during his career prepared this article.

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Extension is a Division of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln cooperating with the Counties and the United States Department of Agriculture.
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