Still trying to get some order to this thing, but wanted to drop an entry about the Fall garden and some of the experiments.
Kale – this has been a big success. Started seeds inside in late July/early August. In 2021, I mistakenly moved them outside after a couple of weeks and the tiny seedlings were irreparably ravaged by some pest. This year, I kept them inside until end of August, when I moved them to the porch to get acclimated to the sun for a week or two and then planted them.
I think that I have around 10 plants, which is more than my family currently needs (with the other Fall greens we have coming in.) It should also be noted that they were easy to divide after sprouting, so a plug tray of 6 is probably all I need to start. If I decide to can or otherwise preserve them one day, I’d want to plant more.
Pest Note – Not sure if it’s all kale or just my variety, but the pests still came for the plants when I moved them outside. I found some kind of work/caterpillar eating on the underside of the leaves. Once I hit them with some spray, I ended the threat, but it’s something to be watchful of.
Swiss Chard – This was a new planting for me this year. I only ended up with 4 good plants from my experiment with a 6-cell tray. I treated them like I did the kale, but it was probably not necessary. I never had any bug trying to eat on the chard. In addition, those four plants gave off a ton of produce (and are still going after the light freeze we had the past two nights. The variety that I used this year had green stalks – for fun, I want to try red stalks next year.
Broccoli – Although the plants look huge, I do not see any fruit. I started these in July, so I expected to finally have success with these things. They also suffered some pest issues, so starting them even earlier is likely to be problematic. This is likely to be my last try of these, for now.
Brussel Sprouts – as with the Broccoli, the plants look healthy, but there is no sign of fruit. I may try these again, but only to use up old seed. I do not seem to be able to get these to be successful.
Spinach – My spinach seeds continue to fail. They start, but they don’t seem to make it much further. It’s about 70 degrees in my sun room, where I start them, but I can’t seem to get them to hold (I’ve actually had success in past years, so not sure what happened in 2022.) I ended up purchasing 6 plants, of which 2 have really taken off, while the rest sort of just plod along. This is the one plant that I need to plant more of. Maybe a dozen plants for 2023.