What's Growing in the Garden - October 2022
by Zac Hoppenstedt | Fruit & Vegetable Production Agent
Content for this gardening recap comes firsthand from observation and experience of K-State Extension agents and volunteers who oversee the WIC Community Garden, the ¼ acre urban farm space focused on fruit and vegetable production located at the Johnson County Extension office. The WIC Garden is one part trial and teaching grounds for urban agriculture and one part community resource for food access and fresh produce donation to those in need. Read more about the garden and volunteer opportunities at: https://www.johnson.k-state.edu/lawn-garden/wic-community-garden/index.html
Now that we have officially entered the fall season, our day-to-day gardening activity has slowed down a bit at the WIC garden, although the volunteers and staff that support the garden are busy year round - check out remaining volunteers dates online. After hosting our final Farmers Market of the year a few weeks back, we’ve turned our attention to preparing the beds for the winter fallow by pulling warm-season plants, covering beds with straw mulch and seeding cover crops, while also preparing for final harvests of crops like sweetpotato and nurturing some of our fall crops to the finish line with the help of simple low tunnels and row cover for added protection. Read on to learn more about these and other topics!
Harvesting a Seasonal Favorite – Sweet Potatoes
This year we planted two varieties of sweet potato – Beauregard and Murasaki. Beauregard is an early season, high yield variety and one of the most popular and well-known in the United States. It has a large oblong shape, semi-smooth skin and deep orange flesh. Murasaki sweetpotatoes (otherwise known as a “Japanese sweetpotato”) have a deep purple skin, creamy white flesh and starchier texture. Both can be used in many culinary applications both savory and sweet.
As far as planting goes, we planted four rows of sweet potatoes in early July; two beds with single rows at 12-inch spacing per plant and one wider raised bed with a staggered 2-row planting(18 inches between each plant and rows about 2-feet apart).Based on the approximately 100 days-to-maturity (DTM) for both varieties, we’re hoping to harvest in early to mid-October. You’ll hear somegrowers say you need to wait until the above ground foliage dies back before harvesting sweetpotato, but in reality you’re really just waiting until roots have reached your preferred size. The best way to gauge the size at any given time is to dig up a test plant around the DTM and decide whether or not they meet your preferred size. When foliage does die back, be swift with executing harvest, at this pointroots are very susceptible to rotting when temperatures get close to freezing.
Reaping the Benefits of Cover Crops
While we’ll still try to get a few quick-maturing fall vegetables transplanted, like spinach, that can be covered with greenhouse plastic, much of the garden is being prepped for the winter fallow period. But we don’t like to leave soil completely bare. As we’ve highlighted in previous newsletters, cover crops can help smother weeds, protect the beds from erosion and nutrient loss, and build organic matter. This year we have an abundance of straw mulch to cover beds, add organic matter, and enhance overall soil quality for next season. Likewise, we started seeding some cover crops, such as tillage radishes and buckwheat, which are planted in late summer as they are less frost and freeze tolerant.
Late season cover crop mixes that can be seeded in mid-September or early October include crops such as winter rye or oats. For winter rye, you’ll get germination and some low growth in fall and a flush of growth in the spring, which means if you can wait to plant the area to vegetables until later spring or early summer, you’ll get especially good biomass production that can be mowed down and worked into the bed. Oats also can be planted early fall. Although they usually die off in the winter, the ground cover will still help prevent erosion in the growing areas. They also won’t regrow in the spring making them easier to manage if you’re trying to plant into the space next season. Both grasses can be mixed with a legume like hairy vetch or crimson clover to provide more nitrogen rich material to the bed. Come spring we generally terminate our cover crop plantings by mowing them short when they start to flower and incorporating the residues back into the soil with our tiller, broadfork and/or silage tarps to speed up decomposition. It’s like growing your own mulch and compost for the garden.
Season Extension with Low Tunnels
Come early October there isn’t much that can be direct seeded as the occasional nighttime freezes and lower light levels make it difficult for plants to reach maturity, regardless of whether or not you intend to provide extra layers of protection or cover. However, you may have cabbage, broccoli, spinach or even leaf lettuce that was recently transplanted or seeded in the last month or two that need a few more weeks or months to reach their full potential. In this case, you’ll want to consider some basic infrastructure to protect these plants so they can survive and provide you plenty of delicious harvests into the cooler months. You may consider building a simple low tunnel from PEX tubing, 10-guage steel wires or electrical conduit. Electrical conduit, along with greenhouse plastic, is better suited to extend crops and support true winter conditions including significant snow loads. Whereas steel wires and tubing are better used along with fabric row covers to extend fall crops a few weeks past first frost, but are not really intended to withstand extended winter conditions. For more information, check out this great article from West Virginia Extension, “Low Tunnels for Beginners”.
Root crops, such as carrots, parsnips or leeks, may only require a healthy dose of mulch to help them survive deep into the winter. These crops are generally planted late July early August but once established they continue to grow, albeit slowly, and can survive colder temperatures well below freezing. As plant starches are converted to sugars in cold weather, you can wait to pull this root crops late into winter and enjoy an even sweeter harvest!
Until Next Year! Celebrating a Great Market Season
On September 8th we hosted our final Pop-up Farmers Market of the season, featuring a bumper crop of our best bicolor sweet corn in several years and multiple apple varieties from our orchard, among other seasonal treats. Our commitment to our fruit tree spray schedule resulted in a beautiful, nearly blemish free apple, pear and peach harvest, which is no easy feat. Looking back on this first full-season of our Pop-up Farmers Markets, we welcomed hundreds of visitors and raised funds to continue enhancing the WIC garden program. Welearned lot and are already thinking about how to make it even better next year, with more education and training around local horticulture and nutrition, new offerings and even greater community outreach. We are so appreciative of the volunteers, donors, partners and community members who have come out to support and enjoy some fresh produce and seasonal treats this season and can’t wait for next year! In case you missed it, be sure to check out our feature in the recent “JoCo On the Go” podcast episode: “Growing Good Food for a Good Cause”.
