Planting Third season crop

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Barry Natchitoches

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I am down here in Zone 7, so we are blessed with enough time to grow a third crop before winter sets in.

So yesterday afternoon I planted romaine lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli.

I can hardly believe it — I still have about half of my tomato garden producing.

That has never happened before. As an organic gardener, there is no way I would ever use a fungicide on my garden. Which — here in the mid-south humidity - means that I have to pull my tomato plants early. At the first sign of blight (fungal infection).

but this year, Pard Seed listed two varieties of newly developed tomatoes as being blight resistant.

I didn’t really think they would be - seed companies have promised that before, but their plants couldn’t measure up to the mid-south humidity.

But the plants I grew from one of their tomato varieties really did live up to their promise, and I am still harvesting tomato from those plants!

I am impressed!

Wish I could say the same about the lima beans. They grew lots and lots and lots of pretty, healthy green vines, but not one single bean pod!

Well, anyway, I still have some bell peppers and tomatoes growing, but it is now time to plant my third garden of the year.
 
AlaskaSue

AlaskaSue

North to the Future
Wow, pretty cool. My gorgeous garden here at Latitude 63 is finishing up, though I’ll wait for frost to pull my rutabagas and turnips. Three tomatoes. Three. A very successful year for me, though as I started them from seed in Feb (indoors) and they spent the summer outside. (I managed to get three okras as well, lol).

I can’t do two season, so three would be beyond my wildest dreams! Sounds fantastic!!
 
Meemur

Meemur

Voice on the Prairie / FJB!
AlaskaSue said:
I can’t do two season, so three would be beyond my wildest dreams! Sounds fantastic!!
Click to expand...

Hoop houses and high tunnels are your friends

High Tunnels Extend Growing Season in Alaska

Most commercially grown vegetables and fruits are shipped to Alaska from at least 1,400 miles away. High tunnels extend growing seasons by covering crops for weeks on either end and create tiny microclimates that allow warm-weather crops to grow.
www.manufacturing.net www.manufacturing.net
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
Barry Natchitoches said:
I am down here in Zone 7, so we are blessed with enough time to grow a third crop before winter sets in.

So yesterday afternoon I planted romaine lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli.

I can hardly believe it — I still have about half of my tomato garden producing.

That has never happened before. As an organic gardener, there is no way I would ever use a fungicide on my garden. Which — here in the mid-south humidity - means that I have to pull my tomato plants early. At the first sign of blight (fungal infection).

but this year, Pard Seed listed two varieties of newly developed tomatoes as being blight resistant.

I didn’t really think they would be - seed companies have promised that before, but their plants couldn’t measure up to the mid-south humidity.

But the plants I grew from one of their tomato varieties really did live up to their promise, and I am still harvesting tomato from those plants!

I am impressed!

Wish I could say the same about the lima beans. They grew lots and lots and lots of pretty, healthy green vines, but not one single bean pod!

Well, anyway, I still have some bell peppers and tomatoes growing, but it is now time to plant my third garden of the year.
Click to expand...
Barry.. do you have the variety names? We have terrible blight issues here...

But you CAN treat your plants safely and organically... just use a copper spray weekly from the beginning. Trying to arrest blight after it is visible is a lost cause unless the weather turns dry. But copper will greatly slow the spread of it, and allow you to get a decent harvest. Our last year on the farm we averaged just over 3/4 bushel per plants all heirlooms.

Also, I grew a paste type called Royal Chico one summer. We got into a sticky hot period, and despite spraying as soon as we saw signs (that was when we just started doing it routinely), it burned every plant completely brown. But we were busy, and they were dead, so they were still in their cages when the weather turned a couple weeks later. A week after, I saw fresh green shoots from the Royal Chicos, and they went on to bear a nice crop in October!

I just saw that in Red Pontiac potatoes today when we dug them. A variety called Natasha was strikingly blight resistant... the only variety still actively growing. But I noticed several Red Pontiac plants with fresh, healthy growth on the top of badly blighted plants.

Limas are tricky. They need lots of heat and humidity- one of the few beans that will set over 95 degrees. And they take a *long* season. Baby limas are easier to grow... I did manage to get a crop once. But although I love frozen baby limas, they proved too finicky for what we could get from it. I'm surprised you didn't do well... you are certainly in the right climate, I'd think! The only thing I can find (besides needing warmth and full sun) is soil pH... they don't tolerate a lot of acidity.

Summerthyme
 
AlaskaSue

AlaskaSue

North to the Future
Meemur said:
Hoop houses and high tunnels are your friends

High Tunnels Extend Growing Season in Alaska

Most commercially grown vegetables and fruits are shipped to Alaska from at least 1,400 miles away. High tunnels extend growing seasons by covering crops for weeks on either end and create tiny microclimates that allow warm-weather crops to grow.
www.manufacturing.net www.manufacturing.net
Click to expand...
Those are very popular on Kodiak Island, though our dear, amazing Seraphima grows many gorgeous things every year there without one. Most of what’s around this area is good ground (zone 3), but I have to fight to create every inch of soil from the cement/boulder matrix left by the glacier :). Someday though…..

Three seasons……a dream for sure <3
 
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