Derek

Pulling tomato plants out of the raised beds this weekend and mixing garden soil. Any suggestions on early fall planting in this climate?

Glad you joined Derek! I think you will like it here :)

I got some lettuce and broccoli starts from the nursery, you may want to go check out what they have. They were even selling snow pea starts, I may give that a try just to see if it works. I have some leftover seeds, so I am going to put those in as well. But I think it might be a little late for that, so that's why I am doing starts too. I understand fava beans are also a good winter crop.
ShannonTomey
Oct 08, 2010

Very happy to have you here, Derek!

According to my notes, culled from several sources but mostly from "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades", here's what to plant in October:

Spinach

Cloche:
Lettuce
Greens

Cover crops:
Fava beans

Hmmm, he recommended planting garlic before 9/15. I thought it was October.

Why did you pull your tomato plants already? Isn't it okay to wait until the nights get to about 40 degrees? (I'm not totally sure about that, but I think I pulled mine too early last year). I did keep them in the garage afterwards, though, and ate them through December!
Jade
Oct 09, 2010

Thanks Shannon!

Making a trip to Portland Nursery this morning and will definitely be looking for some broccoli, and snow pea starts... that sounds fantastic!

Ok, so we've already started some lettuce, corn salad [winter lettuce], spinach, and now I'm leaning toward starting some Kale in 2 large beds [this was one plant that was simply ravaged by slugs this past summer on the flat] so I'm thinking maybe they'll like their new environment much better. Now, Is it out of the question to plant Kale [Lacinato] from seed at this point? Or would I be better off sowing indoors and transplanting? Or maybe there's a specific seed/strain you'd recommend? Thanks again!
Derek
Oct 10, 2010

Hi, Jade. Thanks for the great tips!

Ok, so I kind of went back and forth on pulling the tomato plants at this point. The deciding factor was the change of weather. Advised that cold, cloudy, wet days produce mealy and tasteless tomatoes.

Again, I'm new. In your opinion fact or myth?

Anyway, so looking at the weather forecast I see a lot of clouds, a lot of rain. Similar to what we witnessed this afternoon. So I made a decision to remove some and leave some. I removed the small tomato plants, and left the large one. I harvested what was left, then pulled the small yellow tomato plants, as well as the small red [Principe Borhese] plants from their former homes. These plants produced extremely well already, and were by far the most ripened. I just felt they'd gotten a bit heavy the last day or two. It was time to let them go, I guess.

They were great plants!

I did move a lot of large bundled/clustered un ripened tomato branches in the garage. I'm anxious to see how that goes.

I did decide to keep the larger plants [like the Yugoslavian, and Hungarian Heart tomatoes] as these actually had not started to produce until the last week or two and are filled with incredibly large green tomatoes. I'll see how far I can take them.

How long are you planning to keep them out? Do you ever, or plan on covering them at night?

If I could eat fresh tomatoes though December I'd be very happy : )

Thanks again!
Derek
Oct 10, 2010

I need to write a big blog post about tomatoes and the end of the season. I'm new to this too, but I've learned a lot this last year about keeping tomatoes (and from all of you!)

Here is a calendar from OSU on things to do in the garden this month:
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/calendar/#october

I plan to keep my tomatoes out until the nighttime temperatures drop below about 40 degrees. If you have floating row covers or other ways to protect them, I'd start using them now.

I always pick tomatoes before a couple of days of rain, if they have any color to them at all.

Let us know how the tomatoes in the garage go.
Jade
Oct 11, 2010

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