By gisette
Outdoor Greens, Fall 2010
Submitted on Tue, 2010/08/03 - 10:33pm
Last updated on Tue, 2010/11/23 - 12:58pm
Posted in
First of the attempted fall greens went out - 2 kaboko chinese cabbage, in a growbox with the tomande tomato. Probably too early, but they've survived a week so far.
Just started some roman emperor romaines for the next wave.
20100821: started next wave of greens: 3 each of Kaboku chinese cabbage, new Orient Express chinese cabbage, spinach Space, Korean red and green curl (Seoul Ruby and Green Giant). Three are in mini (Orient Express + one each curl lettuces), the rest in a Park Starts block. Unsure that'll work for spinach... may need to be direct-sown.
Sun, 2010/08/15 - 2:40pm
#2
Definitely the first-stab cabbages went out too early. That's OK. The lettuce to date, and toy choi, seem well.
I still have an enormous swiss chard in the garden. But only using that for guinea pig chow. They love it.
Sun, 2010/08/22 - 4:59pm
#3
Early-out chinese cabbages continue to unimpress. Transplanted out 2 x buttercrunch and the heatwave (another romaine) started in the AG mini, and started a batch of 15 more seeds yesterday. Another buttercrunch (a thinned seedling) might get somewhere - added to the peas container outside, maybe 5 days ago.
The baby buttercrunches started in the mini look surprisingly good for 2 week lettuces!
Wed, 2010/09/01 - 5:58pm
#4
Sun, 2010/09/05 - 7:05pm
#5
Still not really getting anywhere, but hoping the beautiful new Indian summer phase sees them doing better.
Sun, 2010/09/12 - 6:15pm
#6
Well, they're doing better... Wiped out my huge herb bed and transplanted / seeded chinese cabbage, radishes, and Korean curl lettuces. That section (and the whole flower garden) will get more pansies when I can find some. Apparently the huge CT greenhouse growers didn't grow pansies this year. Probably for the same reason I don't grow them from seed in summer - they need cool, and cool is expensive when it's really, really hot.
The transplant chinese cabbages and lettuces are especially sad looking because they had a bad case of leaf miners. All those leaves had to go...
Sun, 2010/09/19 - 7:54pm
#7
Well, the leaf miners have been supplanted by late-September caterpillars (cabbage worms?) Not an improvement. I should give up on autumn crops.
Mon, 2010/09/27 - 8:16pm
#8
Leafminers, cabbage worms, and aphids, too.... And another round of summer temps up to 80 degrees. Doused them all with detergent water... This just isn't worth it.
Tue, 2010/09/28 - 12:59pm
#9
It's not good seeing all your hard work being devoured leaf by leaf, I hope you manage to contain the critters - number one enemy to me were the aphids for which I hold a distinct dislike!
Tue, 2010/09/28 - 1:11pm
#10
Thanks, Peat. Yeah, aphids are a real trial. 
Sun, 2010/10/03 - 8:41pm
#11
Everything took off and grew much faster after dousing the aphids with detergent. Of course, that just made the cabbage caterpillars come back... I hate to do it to leafy greens, but finally got so irked that I sprayed some the cabbages yesterday with my 3-in-1 Fungicide (insecticide, miticide, fungicide, neem-oil based, supposedly organic and safe to eat within a day or so). Harvested the buttercrunch lettuces, since they developed stalks during a pocket heat wave this week.
Sun, 2010/10/10 - 2:26pm
#12
Doing much better with greens-appropriate temperatures. Though - the right temperatures may be short-lived. 
Cabbages should continue to grow after a frost. Frost probably destroys lettuce.
Mon, 2010/10/18 - 8:40pm
#13
Aphids on the rise again, but at least the greens are getting bigger. Started harvesting the bigger lettuces. Lots of rain and cool and wind this week, nights in the 40's now. Not sure what will persuade the cabbages to head.
Mon, 2010/10/25 - 10:29pm
#14
Some of the lettuces are ready to harvest when I get around to it.
When should I harvest the cabbages? I've never grown cabbages successfully before. To whatever extent these are successful. I thought they'd get taller.
Tue, 2010/10/26 - 12:00pm
#15
I lifted this from some website as I don't know myself: Cut the heads at soil level when they are compact and firm and before seed stalks form, usually 50 to 80 days after sowing.
I'm a little unsure if you have the heads properly formed yet?
Tue, 2010/10/26 - 1:59pm
#16
Yeah, I'm unclear on that, too (whether heads have formed). No seed stalks yet... They don't look much like the picture of kaboko cabbage or orient express. We're around the 60 day point, which is the earliest the kaboko was supposed to be done, and 2 weeks past for the orient express. But they didn't get the greatest growing conditions, what with temperatures and caterpillars and whatnot.
Tue, 2010/11/02 - 9:46pm
#17
Harvested the biggest lettuces and half of the smaller ones before first forecast freeze. The little lettuces were still alright today... we'll see. First lettuce harvest was a major drag - washed each leaf by hand, and still couldn't get rid of the aphids. Second harvest, I just dumped them directly into a bowl of detergent water and let them soak in it an hour, and then washed. Much better. 
There's 3 more chinese cabbages, but didn't bother with more pictures. Actually, the others look better, though.
Sun, 2010/11/07 - 1:19pm
#18
Greens are doing much better with rain and cold. Promised frosts never reached the top of my ridge, though low-lying grass was totally frosted one morning. Now it's not so cold.
Mon, 2010/11/15 - 9:29pm
#19
Greens still dawdling along... Gave most of them some Miracle Gro again after pictures.
Sun, 2010/11/21 - 8:28pm
#20
Greens aren't dead yet. Forecasts of hard freezes come and go... So, unfortunately the aphids aren't dead yet, either. I dunno why the aphids are so bad at this place.
Sun, 2010/11/28 - 5:13pm
#21
Some real freezes now - only a couple annual flowers still survive. Picked the last of the lettuces this afternoon. Still have 3 cabbages out, one chard, and one spinach. Still picking caterpillars off the cabbages, so apparently it hasn't been cold enough yet...
Needed a couple of my romaines to fill out a 7-podder romaine garden, so only one went outside. Then decided on 2 butterheads and a some-variety-from-heatwave-mix as replacements, currently sprouting in a mini seeded yesterday. And planted some toy choi.
Still thinking it's too early/hot for those cabbage. Oh, well.