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Old September 14, 2019   #13
b54red
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Alabama
Posts: 7,068
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Dawg I would wait on all those plants until you see a bit more of a cool down. It is only 90 here today so that is a very welcome thing but I would never set out anything but Rutabagas in this heat and they might not make it. I have set out all of the ones you mentioned when it was this warm before and had 6 to 8 inch tall broccoli set tiny heads and Brussels die on me. They really don't like the heat and if they are really small when set out they like it even less. Of course you might luck up and have a nice cool down and everything will go swimmingly but I no longer take that risk except with things like mustard, rutabagas, and turnips cause the seed are so cheap and easy to plant. What usually happens with them when set out too early is the whiteflies just suck the life out of them before they can get large enough to survive but I haven't seen a lot of whiteflies this year so I may start a small patch of mustard greens next week.

I have to admit it is a tricky business down here trying to have a fall garden with cool weather crops. I now stagger my plantings of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, spinach and greens in order to hit the timing right at least once. I used to go all in at the same time but ended up lossing too often so I started doing what I have done with tomatoes and bell peppers and stagger my plant out dates and it has worked out much better for the past few years.

I just couldn't wait any longer and dug up most of my okra plants so I have about 25 feet of bed that I can prepare and I pulled out all of the tomatoes in my small bed which gives me another 15 feet of bed to get ready for fall. Man I hate pulling out tomato plants with green tomatoes on them. At least it wasn't a lot of them and the plants were pretty poor looking. The okra on the other hand had about done its thing and was dying down fairly fast. I feared it must be RKN but when I dug them up I found no sign of nematodes. I guess it was just a very hot dry summer and I must have let them get too dry too often. I left only one producing plant but it will probably die back in the next week or so. We're making chicken and sausage gumbo tonight to celebrate the end of the okra.

Bill
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