October 2022 harvests of many vegetables, replant more than resow, my trial of no rotation
Growth slows rapidly through October, while the volume of harvests can increase, depending what you replanted in summer. It’s a potentially difficult month yet also rewarding.
No dig makes everything easier as I describe in this recent podcast. There are few weeds and you can resow/replant easily, with more time for work on your vegetables. We are celebrating this beautiful method with a big No Dig Day on 3rd November: make a bed, tell your friend, host a no dig meal!
On 5th October we have a few places available on my compost making course. The day before on 4th I am lecturing at Sissinghurst Garden, then in Newport on the Isle of Wight on 13th.
Growth and ageing of celery, celeriac
There are several challenges in growing these two vegetables. Celery is the most demanding of water and that took some time this summer! Then in the damp days of autumn, a disease called Septoria can damage even destroy the leaves and stems, remarkably quickly. Removing infected leaves slows the process only a little.
It’s sometimes the same with celeriac, and if it happens I find it best to harvest before about November, by which time the disease risks travelling into the celeriac itself.
I have some good ones here but mainly where we started to water from mid July as in the right-hand photo.
Detailed info on growing celery and celeriac can be found in this online From Seed to Harvest lesson.
Heading, hearting, when to harvest
I find the hearts or heads of cabbage so beautiful that I’m reluctant to cut them. However there is a stage beyond which they start to decay, when you need to either eat them or make some sauerkraut!
The buttons of Brussels sprouts do not always grow firmly and I’m noticing this on open pollinated varieties here, the ones which are called heirloom or heritage! As opposed to the newer F1 hybrids.
I spoke to someone in the trade about this, and he reckons that for the old varieties such as Bedfordshire Champion, no serious selective maintenance has been done for decades.
You may be lucky and buy seed which has been better selected. I find it most reliable to grow hybrids because for all the time and space they need to grow, it’s just not worth messing around with something so unpredictable as the older varieties have become. The Seven Hills is described as “An old Dutch variety Roodnerf, that has been re- introduced in the last few years for heavy crops of tight headed sprouts that have a good flavour, cropping from Christmas onwards”. It looks unpromising!
It’s a similar story for chicories to grow into heads of radicchio. Most of the open pollinated ones I’ve grown over 30 years until recently, from companies such as Kings seeds and even Seeds of Italy, do not make reliably firm heads. Some newer ones bred in Italy are good however, 506TT for round radicchio and 206RR for Treviso type heads. There are many others too, including Lusia types as on my recent tour video..
Sow now
After eight months of regular sowing, of so many different vegetables, we’re coming to a time when there is much less to sow.
Just plenty still to plant, in particular under cover for winter cropping of leaves in particular. Under cover means greenhouse, polytunnel, cold frame, and to a lesser extent a garden bed with a cover of mesh. I recommend that more than fleece for winter use because mesh admits more light, and is stronger in winter winds.
The main sowing for October is garlic, which can be of your own cloves from bulbs you grew this year, even if they had rust. In my experience this does not increase the rust next spring, which is dependent on weather conditions. You can also sow mustard in the first week of October for green manure , and broad beans in the second half of October for green manure. For picking pods next June, I find it most effective to sow broad beans in early to mid November. Even late November if autumn is mild.
Transplanting and covering small plants, for winter too
If you have raised the plants, there is still just time to transplant spring cabbage, spring cauliflower and spring onions, for harvest next spring.
Also salad rocket, winter purslane, Chauvel, land cress, corn salad, mizuna and mustards for autumn salad leaves and perhaps through winter. The latter is in milder areas.
Harvest, clear, mulch, replant
Many plants are finishing now or soon will. On a course day yesterday I had an interesting discussion about this, because many participants were saying they had been advised and taught to remove all roots of the vegetables which were finished, and that’s what it meant to clear a bed before replanting. I am horrified by such advice! With No-Dig we leave all the roots in the soil as food for microbes.
You can use either a knife or sharp trowel to cut around base roots so that enough of the plant comes out for it not to regrow. This leaves most of the small roots in the soil. You can replant straight away, as we did after clearing courgettes plants this week, then re-planting with mizuna and garlic. Details are in the photo captions.
Replant where? My trial of no rotation
It’s now the eighth year of growing four different vegetables in the same beds, same soil and with the usual annual dressing of compost.. One of the beds has broad beans followed by cabbage in every calendar year. Another bed has potatoes followed by leeks, in every calendar year. The photo shows how they look now in autumn, with superb harvests of hearted cabbage and strongly growing leeks, for harvest soon.
“No rotation” gives wonderful freedom when you decide what to plant where, first in spring and then with summer’s succession plantings. See my new No Dig book for more about no rotation, and we offer it with a half price Calendar too.
Sow when for succession?
Each vegetable has one or more specific times of year when you can sow for best results. It’s not about whether they’re a leaf, fruit or root vegetable, but is partly about upcoming warmth levels, and partly according to their natural rhythm of growth. These details are basis for sowing dates in my wall Calendar.
For example the pak choi and turnips which you see in these photographs have a flowering time of May to early July. Therefore if you sow them in April, harvest will be small before flowering initiates and stops growth of new leaves and roots to eat.
For these vegetables the two best sowing dates are either very early under cover, for some cropping up to the end of May. Or you can sow them in early August for food through the autumn. The sowings of late summer avoid pests such as flea beetles, which cause most damage to spring sowings.
Mildews and squash harvests plus curing
It’s time now and soon to harvest squash for winter. If they have had enough time and warmth to dry on the plants, with hard skin and shrivelling stalk, they will store through winter and into spring. Your first step to achieve this is put them somewhere warm and dry after carefully cutting the stalk, so as not to break it off the fruit. If it does break, eat that one sooner rather than later.
If your squash plants run out of time before the first frost, you need to harvest them anyway. They will be less sweet and will not store well when the skin is not hard and dry.
Pumpkins are different. They are larger, more watery, have soft the skins and store only until Christmas usually. It may confuse you that many people describe squash as ‘pumpkin’ because these two words should be used specifically for each type of fruit and not as a general term for all such cucurbits.
Bean harvests for storing dry
I grew some dwarf French beans for harvest of dry seeds and we have harvested them already. We are in the middle of gathering all the pods of borlotti beans, which dry pretty much all at the same time on the teepees, which makes it easy to pick them quickly. Then we spread them in trays and bring them into the conservatory to dry fully, before spreading them on a sheet on concrete outside and walking on them to break open the pods. I demonstrate this in an Instagram video we posted.
Runner beans mature and dry at regular intervals and are more difficult to succeed where the weather in September is not hot, as here! I have a nasty feeling that we’re not going to harvest more than 2/3 of the beans for dry storage, and before main frosts we shall gather them as green pods with swollen beans, for immediate eating or to freeze in the damp state.
Hi Charles, thanks for the updates. I have been thoroughy impressed with the results of no dig in my garden and flower beds in southern Estonia. This year when lifting hard neck garlic I noticed lots of tree roots in the garden beds, most likely from the nearby elm tree. To remove them I had to dig the beds. What would you suggest can be done with tree roots in garden beds? leave them or cut them wih a spade yearly along the perimeter of the bed? Or something else?
Hi Indrek
Yes, I would cut the tree roots in whatever way you can. It’s a problem which won’t go away sadly, but elm trees are beautiful! We don’t have any here after the disease of 1976
Your updates are much appreciated. Multi sown leeks in same bed as last year are excellent. Crown Prince Squash, again in the same bed were brilliant. One grew to a massive 1 stone in weight! The biggest I have ever had.
Great to hear this Caroline.
I love how you use the old units of measurement, have not heard reference to a stone for years!
hi Charles , when I lived in Devon (Tavistock) we used to buy potatoes (tiddies!!) by fractions of stones i.e. quarter ,half stone , etc.
Ah wow!SO DIFFERENT.
Tavistock is/was pleasingly medieval!
Hi Charles
I do look forward to your inspirational monthly updates, which offer such sound advice thank you. May I ask if you recommend a particular brand of mesh or suitable grade. I live on a windy Welsh hillside which would require a Hardy mesh. Also just purchased your latest book, which I am looking forward to start reading soon, it is so inviting.
Thanks Andrew, and I recommend the finest grade, veggie mesh from Gardening Naturally. Glad you like the book! Do leave a review somewhere online 🙂
Hi Charles
I’d be very grateful for your thoughts on the demise of my leeks. I planted them out in late June and they seemed to be getting established. During August a few of them wilted and died and I thought maybe this was due to heat/drought. I watered them but by the end of August the whole of one bed had succumbed but the other appeared reasonably healthy. I was then away on holiday until mid-September and on my return the second bed had totally collapsed. There was no obvious sign of rot but the roots were poor. (They have been grown under cover, either in the greenhouse or under fine netting since they were sown.)
What do you think was the cause of this? I fear onion white rot.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am not looking forward to a winter without leeks!
I forgot to say … I had grown a crop of healthy early garlic in the second bed the previous winter ie these had not long been removed prior to planting the leeks. The first bed to succumb had not had alliums for 5 years. I had also planted a bed of garlic at the other end of the plot last winter and I found that about a third of these the bulb had rotted when harvested. This bed had also not had alliums for 5 years.
Thanks
Louise
Hi Louise
I suspect that the Allium Leaf Miner has arrived in your area. It’s very prevalent in the east Midlands and spreading outwards. Little maggots eat into the base of plants mostly and can completely destroy them or leave them very damaged. There is no easy remedy because the larvae live in soil. They eat onions and garlic too.
Thanks Charles
That is disappointing 🙂 I live in Chepstow – so not that far from you – I hope it doesn’t reach you too soon! I have grown leeks under cover from seed to harvest since my first attempt at growing them were affected by leek moth, so I thought that they were pretty safe.
Sounds like leek moth? The plants seem tobe growing well then suddenly collapse. Only prevention is best organic solution with envirofleece from time if transplant to late September. You can recover infected leeks with insecticide but it’s not licensed for control of leek moth and not organic!
Hi Charles, I have done your both online courses and have enjoyed them very much. I have set up beds this year in April in a friends garden. I have bought compost and put 10cm on card board. The spring harvest was good even though I was rather late. The summer crops didn’t do well at all. I was on the late dates for the plants. The compost totally dried out over the summertime even though it got some water every day applied by the friend (meaning how it was done was out of my control). When I have watered it myself I could see that it didn’t sink deep into the soil. I suppose the young plants couldn’t establish their roots deep enough into the ground to reach for moisture. They didn’t grow much since even though we had some rain over the last few weeks. My assumption is that the bought compost is not as good as home made, in a sense that it dries out so badly that it is just get’s hard and takes long to soften up again. Another hope is that in the second year it will be better after soil microbes have done their work. Next year I will sow and plant my summer crops much earlier. I have noticed though that the crops under mesh have coped better then the ones which were under netting as the mesh helped to retain moisture. Any tips and ideas are highly appreciated.
Hi Nicole
Thanks for writing and your interpretation is excellent! It sounds like the first plantings sucked all the moisture out of that compost and because, as you suggest, it was not lively or even perhaps well decomposed, it is difficult to really wet.
Probably if you or your friend had managed to give it a really good soak in July, things would have gone much better. In a dry year, it can be a problem the first plantings have taken a lot of moisture so we need to water more for the second plantings to help them get established at least. Once the roots up into the soil below, you need to water less.
Hi Charles,
thank you very much for taking the time to reply and your advice.
Best,
Nicole
Hi Charles, after attending one of your courses last September I was inspired. You flipped the ideas I had previously learned on their heads & truly transformed my thinking, making it easier & accessible. Undoing the learnt conditioning that had held me back. I have a 7.5 pole allotment & I have been self sufficient in veg since June, with the help of my polytunnel I’m going into autumn with lots in the ground. My hard work but guided by you, so thank you! My question is about dried beans, what are they?…runner beans are butterbeans? French beans are haricot beans? It’s that point where the grower (me) has to give instructions to the chef (my husband) so he knows what they are & how to use them
Hello Katy, this is lovely to hear and congratulations on all your harvest. Yes exactly runner beans are not strictly speaking butter beans but they cook in a very similar way, after they are dry. And dry French beans are indeed like haricot. Happy cooking to him.
Hi Charles,
I am really enjoying your WWH every week, but had to realize that this year with small children and limited time autumn sowing was not in the cards 😉 Now I am actually wondering how to best prepare my beds… I will add compost, but should I leave the dead plants (where no mildew is evident) until spring to allow for both in ground and above ground life to have better conditions? I am thinking especially beans are better off in the ground due to the nitrogen fixation?
Hope you have some tips, even though you probably rarely have empty beds ☺️
Best Regards
Lonnie
Hi Lonnie, sorry your time is limited.
Many of my beds crop until November and then we clear the remaining plants (leave roots in), spread compost and some beds stay empty over winter.
You could do that, or you could leave some plants on the ground, as long as they are not providing too much habitat for slugs.
Nitrogen fixation happens when plants are growing, and very Little once they finish cropping.
By October, most of the nodule nitrogen has been used already. Anyway we cut the roots of leggings at ground level and put all the tops on compost heaps while leaving the roots in the soil, where they are food for microbes.
I planted cauliflower 2 weeks ago, should it be covered? In Upper Normandy, no frosts expected for some time, usually appear in November but only light ones until after the new year. Thank you Charles for your guidance.
Cheers Lindsay, and your cauliflower plants are frost hardy. More the worry is excessive wind and that is where I find mesh is so useful over winter brassicas that are still small, plus it keeps pigeons and rabbits off if they are around. I recommend using hoops of some kind to support the mesh in winter, when it can get heavy with rain and even snow
Please can you clarify about harvest beans for dry beans. I have Czar and white emergo. I’m having to harvest some before they are fully dry as they’re starting to rot on the plants. Is it better to leave them in the pod to dry or to pod them wet? Instinct tells me to get them out of the wet pod but then they just shrivel once podded. Thanks as always for your guidance and inspiration!
Runner beans need more warmth to dry then borlotti beans and you are absolutely right that if you harvest too soon, they do not have the full body of dry beans. You’re also right that you don’t want them to rot in the pod so in this case I would harvest them before you see any rotting and eat the shelled beans fresh, cooked for say 10 minutes if that, and they are very tasty
Up in the north of England, I also find a risk of Gigantes/Csar beans mouldering on the plants when the weather turns cooler and wetter, I tend to pick them once they turn yellow and flabby/leathery, they’ve obviously finished growing at this point. Then lay out in trays to dry. Even works when using them for seed.
That’s good Geoff and I’m impressed it works for seed
Hi Charles,
Do you have any recommendations on curing squash in quite a cold house? I am concerned room temperatures will not be warm enough. If so, is it best to just eat the squash soon?
Thankyou
Brrr! The warmest place you have.
Much depends on how dry the squash neck is already and how hard the skin. In other words whether curing is maybe 3/4 done before harvest. If not, they may start to rot from the neck down, sometime in late October to November. Rather than try to eat them all now, I would wait and see. Just keeping them dry will slow down decomposition, maybe you will be surprised!
Thanks Charles, always appreciate and enjoy the monthly updates and the nudges they give me!
I left a lot of spring onions from spring in the ground for the first time this year. As you said, they bulk up and I’ve enjoyed them. However, perhaps with the rain, those left are sprouting. If I don’t want seed, should I now lift them all? Thanks.
Hi Sheridan, nice to hear and yes lift them. They are not an onion for storing and I would use them as quickly as possible. Or harvest greens until next spring when they will flower.