Seeds to Plant in July for a Fall Harvest (Zone 6)

good morning everyone it has finally rained here in midwestern ohio after an uncharacteristically hot and dry june my warm season garden was suffering for the lack of rainfall but after a few good days of downpours and thunderstorms i fully expect the garden to explode into growth now like me many of you may just be getting into full swing of the warm season garden but right now is the time to start thinking about your fall garden now if you've not planned and planted for a fall harvest before you are missing out on one of the most rewarding seasons in the garden it is wonderful to be able to go out into the garden in october november sometimes into december and january and be able to harvest fresh veggies from the garden your individual planting dates are going to vary depending on your estimated first full frost date and while many of the crops that i am sowing in july are cold and frost tolerant i still want to give them a good head start on growth before those really cold temperatures set in now here in ohio in zone 6a my first estimated fall frost date is right around the middle of october yours may be earlier or later and you can adjust your planting dates accordingly and in some areas with very very mild late falls and winters you can plant much later into the season one key thing to keep in mind though is that as we're going into the fall the day lengths are getting shorter so the general rule of thumb is to tack two weeks onto that days to maturity number that you'll see on seed packets or in seed catalogs for any variety that you are growing going into the fall now for a comprehensive list of everything i am planting in my ohio garden in july be sure to check out the video linked above today i want to focus on a few major vegetable categories that i am focusing on planting this month for a fall harvest so first probably my most important crop that i am sowing in july indoors are my fall brassicas so that is going to include things like cabbages cauliflower broccoli sometimes i do kale and kohlrabi at the same time sometimes i wait a little bit later in the month to get those started but i typically at least get my cabbage broccoli and cauliflower started in the beginning of july no later than july 9th this year i'm actually doing a test i sewed some on july 1st i'll also be doing some on july 9th to see if it makes any difference in my garden but i aim for that first week week and a half in july to sew these indoors now for detailed instructions on how i start my brassicas indoors check out the video linked above but starting them at the beginning of july generally means that they will be ready for me to transplant out anywhere from the beginning of august to the middle of august now as you can imagine it can be pretty intensely hot here in august but i find that as long as my seedlings are properly hardened off and i am very careful to make sure they're getting enough water i have no trouble transplanting them out this time of year now the easiest way that i have found to ensure that my transplants get plenty of water is just to set up a soaker hose alongside my transplants as soon as i plant them so i give them a nice drink that day of transplant and then depending on the amount of rainfall that we're getting every couple of days or so i'll give them another watering until they get established the other thing that i do immediately is cover any exposed soil surface with a natural mulch i've mentioned before my favorites are grass clippings and leaf mulch but basically anything that's going to hold moisture in the soil and keep that soil a little bit cooler is going to help when transplanting these types of crops the other thing that i do immediately after planting is cover my transplants with insect netting unfortunately here cabbage moths are still active all the way up until the hard frost so i find that when i'm transplanting brassicas out this time of year i have to cover them with netting because those cabbage worms will be out there eating those tender young seedlings off almost instantaneously if i don't now there are of course other ways to deal with cabbage worms but i just find that a precautionary insect netting is one of the easiest and most foolproof methods you may be saying this is all great i would love to have some fall brassicas but i've stuffed my garden so full of warm season crops they have no room left over i used to do the same thing and i still have to be very very conscientious about leaving some open spaces so that i can succession plant some fall crops in but if you've done that this year if every square inch of space is full and you can't fit any fall crops in keep in mind that many of the plants that i'm going to talk about today can easily be grown in containers now things like broccoli and cabbage and cauliflower may not be the first thing that you think about planting in a container but it is totally doable if you want to plant in containers one of the first big things to consider is your variety so there are a lot of varieties out there that are bred to be more compact and are really well suited for smaller to medium sized containers in these containers i've got a variety of cabbage called tiara i've talked about this one before this is one of my favorite cabbages of all time but what's really nice is this is so well suited for containers and small spaces in the garden because these plants stay nice and compact and these mature very very quickly making little personal size like one to two pound size cabbage heads now i actually transplanted these in may which is later than i would normally do a spring planting for my cool season crops but what's nice about the containers in addition to giving you some more planting space is that they make it easier to control all of your variables so i was better able to control the amount of water these received the amount of sunlight the planting medium all of those things that gave me an advantage and allowed me to grow deeper into the season when normally my garden plants are struggling a little more so as you can imagine one of the keys of successful container growing is getting that planting medium right i find that with my brassicas which are heavy feeders that mixing in some really nutrient dense food so in this case i used aged cow manure i also used an all natural vegetable food in with my potting medium is key to having good results i also opted for a specific potting mix in this case that would hold moisture a little better than your average potting mix so i used a new potting mix called glee and glee relies on a product called hydrofiber in their mix and this is a product that professional growers use and the advantage to it is that it holds moisture better than your standard potting mix so as an example if i were using a standard potting mix from the big box stores during the heat and dry that we had in june this year i would be watering every other day at a minimum sometimes every day because these containers dry out so so quickly with this glee because of the hydro fiber because it was able to hold on to that moisture content i was watering once every four or five days which in my containers is unheard of so these are actually ready to be harvested now but you could easily do that same timing for full crops so you could start these in july transplant it into containers about a month later and be ready for harvest 60 days after that so i'm going to get this guy harvested as i mentioned these are a mini cabbage so this smaller head is pretty typical and i've got cleome petals all over this because of the big storm last night but there we have it one perfect little head of cabbage i'm going to take this in and make some mexican inspired slaw with it and if you're interested in more detail specifically on how to grow these in containers i will link that video above as well the next big crop for me is peas now i find peas to be more of a challenge starting in the summer going into the fall for a harvest than i do starting in the spring for an early summer harvest and that is because peas hate the heat in july and august but i find that i have to get them started usually by about mid mid-july in order to get a nice harvest come about october so the key with peas is babying them along until they get well established and are able to deal with the weather stress so cool moist soil is the name of the game here a contrary to what works well in the spring i have good luck with transplanting peas in the spring i don't find that that works as well when doing a summer planting when planting in july i stick to either simply soaking the pea seed overnight or going through the process of soaking and sprouting the peas prior to planting this helps to give them just a little bit of a jump start without dealing with the transplant shock that can come with putting young seedlings out i focus on keeping the soil consistently moist while the plants are getting established and i mulch as soon as possible one note on watering specifically when the peas are very young and just getting established i opt for relatively shallow more frequent watering and that is just to ensure that that top few inches of soil where the peas are when they're very very young is staying consistently moist as my pea plants grow and mature i switch to less frequent more deep waterings and that is because at this point the pea plants have root systems which can reach for that water deeper into the soil i find that this works better for me when starting seeds during the month of july when that top few inches of soil can just get so dry and hot during the day now providing plants with a little shade while they're getting established can be beneficial as well i either opt for shade cloth somewhere between 30 and 50 percent or plant them in a location where they are getting some protection from that intense late afternoon shade it is all about balance though too much shade on young seedlings can lead to plants that are stretching for light and end up very lanky and weak so if you're starting off with shade cloth and are noticing that your plants are looking a little leggy try backing off of the amount of shade that you're giving them to some degree and the final big planting focus for the fall garden in july for me are carrots and beets so with these two crops i am actually succession sowing these anywhere from the middle of july to the very beginning of september now for a true fall harvest those earlier planting dates work better so mid-july to about the middle of august the later planting dates i am focusing more on getting a winter harvest so with the crops planted in september i cover those with heavyweight frost cloth later in the season and i'm typically harvesting those in december and january now if you have not had a carrot pulled out of the earth in january you are not living because they are some of the sweetest crunchiest most delicious carrots you will ever have but i digress to get both carrots and beets planted in the heat of july and august takes a little bit of extra effort at least here in ohio now again i know i sound like a broken record but the key here is to keep that soil as moist and cool as possible the optimum soil temperature for germination on both of these crops is right around 70 degrees fahrenheit though carrots will germinate in temperatures from 40 to 85 and beats 50 to 85 once you get over that 75 80 degree fahrenheit mark your germination is really going to struggle it's going to become slow and erratic if anything pops up at all my average soil temperature in july hovers right around the mid 70s and i find that without a little extra tlc i don't get great germination on these root crops so a couple of tricks i plant my seeds a little deeper this time of year than i would in the spring for carrots about half an inch as compared to the typical quarter inch in the spring and for beets an inch compared to the half an inch in a spring just don't go too deep or the seedlings will struggle to emerge from the soil and this is again just in an effort to keep those seeds a little cooler and moister which is easier when they're deeper in the soil i have to make an extra effort to provide consistent moisture again the drip line is a blessing i also use mulch and i use shade cloth or provide afternoon shade and one trick passed down to me by my grandparents is to thoroughly moisten the soil after planting and then cover the area with a board now for a long time i thought that just seems like a terrible idea and i would never try it but i started doing it and it actually does help the idea here is that you keep the board over your soil just until germination occurs it's just enough to keep that soil cooler and damper than it would be otherwise and really helps to speed along germination for these crops once the seeds germinate you remove the board and again make sure that you're keeping them frequently watered but it really does help when you're trying to plant root crops this time of year you can also do the same thing with shade cloth or row cover placed directly on the ground the other thing is make sure you're starting with good seed it is hard for seeds to germinate when they're in stressful conditions so one of the best things that you can do is make sure that you have vigorous viable seed if your carrot seed is older than about two to three years old you probably want to do a home germination test just to check to see how viable that seed still is now beets will typically hold their vigor a little longer usually three to five years but same thing if you're unsure just do a quick test to see how much of your seed is germinating when it is started out soaking and pre-sprouting seed is an option for carrots and beets as well and this is a natural extension of that home germination test you're basically going through the same process anyway and this will help you get a jump start on germination in warm soil side note it works well for cool soil plantings as well so just like with peas or any other seed the idea here is that you soak the seed at least for a couple hours sometimes i'll do overnight but i do find that with smaller seed less time is necessary so whereas i'll typically soak peas overnight with carrots i might soak for three or four hours you strain off the water then i like to take a plate thoroughly moisten a paper towel lay it on the plate sprinkle my seeds in a single layer on top of that damp towel and then fold the other half of the damp towel over top i slide this whole thing in a ziploc bag leaving the zip lock open and let this set on my kitchen counter no sunlight is necessary at this point i check the towels and peek at the seeds every couple of days spritzing the towels with water if they start to dry out as soon as i start to see the seeds sprout it is time to plant now like i said this is also how you check germination on old seed if you're unsure if it's still viable if the majority of your seeds sprout using this method they're totally fine to plant out in the garden now carrot seed in particular because it's so tiny can be kind of a pain to deal with this whole soaking and sprouting method but if you've had trouble with your carrots not germinating in the past this may be worth a try now as i mentioned at the beginning of this video be sure to check out my what to plant in july for my comprehensive list of everything that i'm putting out in my ohio garden this month also be sure to drop a line in the comments below letting me know what you are planting during the month of july in your garden and if you found today's video helpful please consider subscribing to my channel growfully with jenna thanks for watching and i'll see you next time

Channel: Growfully with Jenna

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Id: Oho3t8u4qHk

Length: 17min 0sec (1020 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 08 2022