Thread: 2020 cover crop
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Old October 1, 2020   #12
JRinPA
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: SE PA
Posts: 961
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They wouldn't all have been in the ground that early, just the rows I had that were finished and open plots at the comm garden. The earliest seeded and watered are up now about 3" I guess.

I first found daikon in fields here maybe 6 years back on some state land. There were a bunch of big fields of them. I dug some up to see what they were. Ended up cooking them too. In mid-November they were still green and 18" tall, and 3" diameter and 8-10" long. Somewhere around there, years back now. But I don't know when they were planted. And unfortunately I haven't seen them since.

Usually the first hard frost is mid October. Then it will get warm again at the end of October. I expect they will be growing until mid November at least. Generally it doesn't freeze until December, but some years there will be a light freeze as early as mid October, enough for skim ice, but not often.

NWS climate prediction center shows the next few months as warmer and dryer than avg. I think I read la nina pattern this winter. So maybe they'll be growing into mid December...I could even cover them for frost protection since they are in rows and I have lots of ag19. Extra work though. Between the delay, the weather timing, and my schedule I feel like I lost 2-1/2 weeks of cover crop growth for the initial plots.

I just seeded some today under my okra, which has a new rounds of flowers with this warm weather. That will be about it, I guess. I still have corn with ears forming for another two weeks. Have fall peas, and beans and squash. My raised beds out back have peppers and eggplants and sweet potatoes still in. All those will be too late for daikon and will need to be mulched/leaf mulched/manured.

Last edited by JRinPA; October 1, 2020 at 12:41 AM.
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