Cucumber, Cucumis sativus, technically qualifies as a summer vegetable. Several types can be productive through the warmest of summer weather. However, locally arid warmth can cause fruit of many varieties to be bitter. Such varieties perform better through spring or autumn instead of summer. Their seed should start a month or so before their season.
Individual cucumber vines are productive for less than a month anyway. Those that grow through summer will need occasional replacement to stay productive. Even within a brief spring or autumn season, more than a single phase is possible. Summer aridity does not limit performance for all varieties, but winter frost does. Consistent irrigation is important.
Most of the many cucumber varieties classify as slicing, pickling or seedless cucumbers. The biggest can potentially grow two feet long or four inches wide. The most popular are best before they mature, though. They are ready for harvest when just a few inches long. Regular harvesting promotes continuous production. Vines can climb about six feet high.
Winter bedding plants are a reminder. They become in season at about the same time as winter vegetables. Therefore, as pansies replace petunias, turnips may begin to replace okra. As for bedding plants, it is a slow process that can continue until frost. Some winter vegetables start earlier than others. Some summer vegetables produce later than others.
For example, young okra plants that started late can continue to be productive until frost. There is no need to replace them until then. Instead, older okra plants that started earlier also finish and vacate their space earlier. Early phases of turnip seed can use this space as it becomes vacant. Then, later phases of turnip seed can replace later phases of okra.
Winter vegetables, or cool season vegetables, do grow slower than summer vegetables. In that regard, spring and summer warmth is an advantage. Consequently, recovery from delays is not as easy for them. More winter vegetables than summer vegetables are true vegetables. In other words, they are not fruit that contain seed. Many are distended roots.
This is why most winter vegetables should grow directly from seed. Root vegetables are susceptible to disfigurement from transplanting. Also, most usually grow in quantities that are impractical for transplanting. Most winter vegetables that are practical for transplants grow big above ground. This includes small groups of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.
Because broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are so big, only a few of each are necessary. One or two cell packs of seedlings may be sufficient. They may not cost much more than packets of seed. Also, they are immediately ready for transplant. Seed must start growing earlier, in cells, flats or in their gardens. However, more varieties are available from seed.
Beet, carrot, radish, turnip and parsnip are roots that must grow from seed. Baby lettuces grow from seed because they are so numerous. Hedding lettuces can grow from seed or seedlings. So can peas and cucumbers, but they are more likely to grow best from seed. Successive sowing or planting prolongs production time of almost all winter vegetables. Subsequent phases begin production as their preceding phases finish.
Resemblance to lettuce is merely coincidental. Cabbage, Brassica oleracea, is instead a close relative of very dissimilar vegetables. Brussels sprout, broccoli and cauliflower are different varieties of the same species. So are collard, kale and kohlrabi. All are winter cole crops. (Cabbage comprises the varieties of capitata, tuba, sabauda or acephala.)
Cabbage became seasonable last autumn. Its last phase is now maturing. It grows most easily from cell pack seedlings. Alternatively, it can grow from seed, which starts about a month and half earlier. Cabbage is biennial, so will go to seed if it stays in the garden too late. Warm weather initiates and accelerates the process, which ruins flavor and texture.
Green cabbage is the most popular type. Red cabbage is the second most popular type. Dutch white cabbage often classifies simply as a pale type of green cabbage. A mature cabbage weighs about a pound or two. Its loose outer foliage can be a foot to nearly two feet wide. Within more ideal climates, some varieties grow slower but significantly larger. With rain through winter, irrigation is probably unnecessary. Soil should be organically rich.
Warm season vegetables are replacing cool season vegetables about now. Technically, lettuce, Lactuca sativa, is a cool season vegetable. It grows through spring and autumn though. The last of it can continue almost until May. Within the mildest coastal climates, it can continue later. By the time it finishes there, it is almost time to plant more for autumn.
After thousands of years of cultivation and breeding, lettuce is now remarkably diverse. Most popular varieties are leaf, head or romaine types. Leaf lettuce is mostly green, but can be bronze, reddish or irregularly blotched. Most varieties develop loosely ruffly foliar texture. Romaine and head lettuce is denser but larger. Some grow a foot high and wide.
One commonality among lettuce varieties is that they tolerate neither frost nor arid heat. Some are a bit more tolerant of one or the other, which can prolong their season. Some of the larger romaine and head types need nearly four months to mature, though. Only a single phase matures within each season. Smaller types might mature in about a month.
Tomatoes were adequate, and perhaps quite good, but not as vigorous as they should have been.
Now that it is half way through September, it is impossible to ignore that tomatoes did not have a good season. Most of us who grow tomatoes were embarrassed by their performance until we realized that everyone else who grows them was also experiencing similar disappointing results. It was not because we did not water them properly. Nor was it because they lacked particular nutrients. They simply wanted warmer weather.
Plants that were put out early before the warm weather last spring did much better at first, but then decelerated as the weather became milder instead of warmer. Cool nights certainly did not help. Mildew, which typically slows a bit as weather becomes drier (less humid) though summer, instead continued to proliferate so that new foliage became infected almost as soon as it developed.
Earlier predictions that the weather would eventually get warm were not accurate enough for many of us who are only now getting enough tomatoes for fresh use, but not an abundance for canning, drying or freezing. There is still some time for most of the tomatoes that are on the vines now to ripen; but many will probably remain green by autumn. Some but not all of the last green tomatoes can ripen off the vine. Perhaps the only good news about all this is that there should be plenty of green tomatoes for pickling.
Sadly, tomatoes were not the only warm season vegetables to be dissatisfied with the weather. Green bean vines and bushes were generally healthy and made good beans, but did not produce very abundantly. Corn was likewise of adequate quality, but on smaller ears and less abundant. Even zucchini, which typically produces too much, was a bit subdued. Marginal vegetables that really prefer warmth, like eggplant and bell pepper, were downright disappointing.
Even if the weather gets warmer in the last days of summer, languishing tomato plants can not ketchup on production. They can be left to make a few more tomatoes, but will eventually need to get out of the way of cool season vegetables. Cabbage, kale, turnip greens, beets, radishes and all the slower growing vegetables that take their time through autumn, winter and early spring will want their space back soon. They will hopefully have a better season.
If possible, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and some of the larger cool season vegetable plants can be plugged in amongst the finishing warm season vegetable plants. Then, by the time the finishing warm season vegetable plants need to be removed, the next phase of cool season vegetable plants is already somewhat rooted and has a head start. This process works well in small spaces with good quality soil.
The main problem with this procedure is that it prevents potentially depleted soil from getting amended and well mixed between planting. It can also be a bit awkward to get the spacing of rows, furrows or mounds of the next phase of vegetable plants to match up with the previous phase. Smaller vegetable plants that get sown directly from seed into rows, like turnip greens, carrots, beets and radishes, really prefer customized bed preparation, after the warm season vegetables have been removed.
Many popular salad greens are somewhat discriminating about the seasons here. Some dislike even a minor chill during winter. Several more dislike arid warmth during summer. Frisee is a sub variety of curly endive, Cichorium endivia var. crispum, that dislikes both. It prefers weather from late summer through autumn, and from late winter through spring.
Frisee is related to chicory, which includes radicchio, puntarelle and Belgian endive. It is less closely related to dandelion. Because it is relatively unfamiliar locally, some know it as chicory or curly endive. It is typically a component of fresh green salads. Alternatively, it sautees nicely, or mixes with other cooked greens. Frisee is apparently quite versatile.
Frisee may be unavailable as seedlings in cell packs from nurseries. Because individual plants are small, it is most practical to grow them from seed anyway. Seed germinates in about a week. Seedlings mature in about a month and a half. Mature frisee is only a foot wide. It requires full sun exposure with frequent watering. Phasing prolongs productivity.
Warm season vegetables will be productive until autumn. Several will produce until frost. Those that grew slowly during mild weather through last spring are performing well now. Summer does not end until later in September. Summery weather may not end until a bit later. Several climates never get frost. Yet, cool season vegetables are now seasonable.
This does not require productive warm season vegetables to relinquish their space. Most should stay until they finish. It only means that it is likely too late to grow any more warm season vegetables. Also, it is time to start growing any cool season vegetables that grow from seed. Transitioning between seasons begins prior to the actual change of seasons.
It is most efficient to sow seed for most vegetables directly into the garden. However, It is more practical to plug seedlings of some big vegetables somewhat later. Because only a few cabbages are adequate, there is no need to sow many of their seed. Instead, two six packs of seedlings may be sufficient. They are not very much more expensive than seed.
This applies to broccoli, cauliflower and many other large cool season vegetables. Their plugs or seedlings are available from nurseries while seasonable. Alternatively, they are easy to grow in cell packs or flats, from seed, in a home garden. This technique is useful for quantities that are expensive in cell packs. Also, more varieties are available as seed.
Of course, it is not much more effort to sow their seed directly into a garden. The problem with doing so is that warm season vegetables are not yet done. Sowing seed below and between them is an option, but interferes with later cultivation. Any relinquished space is necessary for smaller cool season vegetables. These really should grow only from seed.
Baby lettuces and small greens must be too numerous for plugging. Therefore, they must grow from seed. Peas are both too numerous and too sensitive to transplant for plugging. Transplanting damages cool season vegetables that are roots. Therefore, it is necessary to sow seed for beet, carrot, radish, turnip, and parsnip directly. Some can wait a bit later. Most cool season vegetables comply with phasing.
Radishes grow nicely while the weather is still cool, but will eventually bolt and bloom as weather eventually warms through spring.
Suburban landscapes must seem like an incredible waste of space to those of us who enjoy growing vegetables. The climate and soil of the Santa Clara Valley are just as excellent for vegetables now as they as they were for the vast fruit and nut orchards that were here earlier. Not only are summers just warm enough for warm season vegetables without being too unpleasantly hot, but winters are so mild that cool season vegetables can be productive from autumn until spring.
While cool season vegetables are still productive, a few types that grow quickly can still be sown. Radishes, carrots and even small beets still have time to grow before the weather gets too warm. Peas sown now will get an early start for spring. If leafy lettuces are being exhausted, more can be sown to replace them. Only large vegetable plants, like broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, need to wait until autumn so that they have a whole cool season to grow through.
It is still a bit early to sow seeds for warm season vegetables directly into the garden. However, seed for some vegetables can be sown in greenhouses or cold frames, to produce seedlings for the garden later. Although beans, corn, most squash and other fast growing vegetables should be sown directly into the garden during warm spring weather, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants prefer to get an early start as seedlings.
(Outdated information regarding gardening classes has been omitted from this recycled article.)
Just as warm season annual flowers that bloomed through spring and summer get removed to relinquish their space to cool season annuals, summer vegetable plants need to vacate the garden for cool season vegetables. Fortunately, removing vegetable plants is not as unpleasant as removing the pretty flowers might have been, because most have finished producing whatever it is that they were grown to produce.
Besides, cool season vegetables are even cooler than warm season vegetables, since some have distinctive foliage that is appealing beyond the vegetable garden, in borders, pots and mixed plantings, out in the landscape. Swiss chard is a striking foliar plant, whether it gets eaten or not. The outer leaves can get eaten without compromising the appeal of the inner leaves that continue to grow and fluff outward to replace them. Arugula, kale, mache, loose lettuce (non heading) and collard, mustard and turnip greens do the same.
This ability to function in more places in the landscape is a definite advantage since cool season vegetables are not quite as productive as warm season vegetables are. They would certainly like to be as productive, but grow slower through cool weather.
Most cool season vegetables should be sown into the garden as seed. Root vegetables, like beet, carrot and radish, might be available as seedlings in cell packs, but do not recover very well from transplanting. Besides, seedlings of such plants in cell packs are either too abundant and crowded, or to sparse to produce much. Leek, loose leaf lettuce and most of the greens likewise grow best if sown as seed in rows instead of planted in tight clumps as they are grown in cell packs.
Only greens that are grown as individual big plants, like chard, kale and collard green, can be as productive from cell pack seedlings as from seed. However, each cell pack produces only six plants, maybe with some extras. A package of seed costs about the same, but contains more seed than most gardens can accommodate.
Actually, the only cool season vegetables that might be more practical to grow from cell pack seedlings than from seed are broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprout. These vegetables grow as even larger plants, so minimal quantities, like one or two or perhaps three cell packs, are sufficient.
Like so many of the warm season vegetables, many cool season vegetables should be planted in phases every two to four weeks to prolong harvest. By the time the first phase finishes, the next phase will be ready. The frequency of phases depends on the growth rate and duration of production of the particular plants. For example, chard has a long duration of production, so does not need many phases.
Everyone seems to be familiar with radish, Raphanus raphanistrum subspecies sativus. It has been so popular with so many cultures for so long that its origin is now impossible to identify. It likely originated in Southeastern Asia at least two thousand years ago. After so many centuries, it has become remarkably variable in regard to flavor, form and color.
Radish are generally cool season root vegetables, although their foliage and flowers are also edible. They can be red, pink, purple, yellow, green, black or white, with white flesh. Their form might be almost spherical, cylindrical or tapered like a carrot. Small types are only about an inch to three inches long. Some daikon radish can get as long as two feet!
Because radish are typically smaller than most other root vegetables, they mature faster. Therefore, their seed can get started in their garden slightly later. If they mature too soon, warmth may cause them to bolt, which ruins their flavor and texture. Subsequent phases extend production, by resuming production as previous phases exhaust their production.
