Fall Planting

The time has arrived to start planning for your fall planting!  It is hard to take time away from an increasingly busy summer garden to think about fall however now is the time to plan what vegetables you would like to have growing when the leaves start to fall and the sweaters come out of storage.  We live in zone 6a which means each winter, on average, our risk of frost is from October 19 through April 22.  If you live in a different zone, the Virginia Cooperative Extension provides the following handy formula to help you determine when to plant for fall harvest.

• Take the first frost date for your area (ours is October 19^th)
• Subtract the number of days from seeding or transplanting outdoors to harvest (this is the days to maturity)
• Subtract the number of days from seed to transplant if you start your own seed
• Subtract the average harvest period (this is the length of time you expect to be harvesting your crop for fall)
• Subtract the Fall Factor (about two weeks)
• This equals your fall planting date

So, for example, here in Ohio our first frost date is October 19th and we want to figure out when to plant De Cicco broccoli for fall harvest, we approach finding the date like this:

The High Mowing Organic Seeds catalog lists the days to maturity for De Cicco broccoli at 48 days from transplant.  We need to add another 4 weeks, or 28 days, for the time from seed to transplant.  De Cicco has a long harvest window, so we will estimate 21 days for the harvest period.

• 48 days to maturity
• 28 days seed to transplant
• 15-20 days harvest period
• 10-14 days Fall Factor

This formula tells us that about 100 days before October 19th is when we want to seed, making the fall broccoli planting date around July 13th.

Here is a basic guide for planting dates in zone 5-6

Vegetable Planting Calender | eHow.com