October Planting Zone-by-Zone – Harvest to Table

Fall vegetable garden
October is a hectic month within the vegetable, herb, and fruit backyard. Some summer time plants are nonetheless ripening within the backyard. Maximum are at harvest degree if they’ve no longer already been harvested. Test your planting calendar to be sure you harvest warm-season plants at their adulthood date or quickly after; don’t allow them to linger within the backyard, taste will likely be sacrificed in case you do.

Now could be the time to start pondering and making ready for the approaching frost and chilly climate. How are you going to prolong the season in case your summer time and fall plants don’t seem to be but in a position for harvest? How are you going to give protection to cool-weather plants thru fall and iciness? Now could be the time to build plastic tunnels or a chilly body for iciness rising. Those will let you develop greens and herbs the entire strategy to spring.

Mark your planting calendar to understand when iciness cool-season plants must be harvested. Upload two to 4 weeks to adulthood dates to account for shorter days and funky and chilly nights. You are going to be rising leafy and root plants in the course of the iciness; those are simple plants to plant in succession for a continual iciness harvest.

Underneath are zone-by-zone ideas for October. In case you don’t have a duplicate of the Vegetable Lawn Almanac & Planner, get one at Amazon.com. It’ll make the iciness backyard simple to know and develop.

See the USDA Hardiness Zone Map to find your rising zone.

Table of Contents

Greens & Herbs

Zone 8-11: Stay alongside of the harvest. Harvest and retailer carrots, beets, cabbage, turnips, and celery for iciness use. Dig and retailer overdue potatoes. After clearing summer time plants, depart the soil open or every week or so then observe an natural slow-release fertilizer earlier than replanting. Plant cool-weather plants within the backyard or chilly body. Plant beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cress, endive, kale, leek, lettuce, mustard, onion units, parsnips, peas, potatoes, radish, spinach, and turnips. Plant any of those plants in a plastic tunnel or chilly body for iciness use. Some folks to find frame-grown greens awesome in taste to garden-grown ones. They want simplest occasional coverage with row covers on very chilly nights to live to tell the tale iciness temperatures. (A chilly body may also be any duration you need; width must let you paintings the plants with out stepping in, partitions must be 10 to twelve inches (25-30cm) tall, the ridge must be a minimum of 30 inches (76cm) top to house tall plants equivalent to broccoli and Brussels sprouts. When planting bear in mind there may be much less sunshine in fall and iciness, structure rows accordingly. Proceed to weed, water, and fertilize as wanted. Pull spent vegetation that don’t seem to be diseased and put them on compost pile; flip that a part of the backyard from which plants had been got rid of. Mulch root plants to be lest within the backyard. Plant quilt crop of inexperienced manure or unfold elderly compost in empty portions of the backyard. Flip the compost pile. Take cuttings of perennial herbs to start out new vegetation. Wait for pests and indicators of illness.

Autumn leafy crops
Autumn leafy plants in a position for harvest earlier than the primary fall frost.

Zone 7: Harvest ultimate summer time plants; harvest fall plants. Transplant younger salad vegetables and herbs to chilly body or plastic tunnel for later harvest. Plant beets, broccoli, carrots, Swiss chard, Chinese language cabbage, collards, kale, head and leaf lettuce, mustard, onion units, parsley, radish, spinach, and turnips. Offer protection to vegetation within the backyard when frost is anticipated. Pull spent vegetation and compost. Flip the compost pile. Thickly mulch root plants to be left within the backyard–parsnips, salsify, and Jerusalem artichoke. Take away stakes and trellises; blank and retailer for subsequent yr. Plant quilt crop or unfold compost in empty portions of the backyard. See ideas zones 8-11 and 1-6 for extra pointers.

curing squash
Butternut, Kabocha and Hubbard squash curing earlier than garage

Zones 1-6: Harvest fall plants as they develop into in a position. Harvest iciness squash earlier than the primary heavy frost. Harvest root plants excluding for parsnips, salsify, and Jerusalem artichoke which can be advanced through freezing; retailer root plants in a barrel of sand in a groovy cellar or shed. Pull up tomato vegetation earlier than a frost and dangle them through their roots to cellar or shed rafters; they must ripen through Thanksgiving. Offer protection to vegetation when frost is anticipated. Thickly mulch root plants to be left within the backyard. Takedown stakes and trellises; blank and retailer for subsequent yr. Blank up crop residue with out illness and upload to the compost pile. The compost will likely be in a position for spading into the vegetable backyard subsequent spring or fall. Plant quilt crop or unfold compost or different natural subject material in empty portions of the backyard. In case you plan to make bigger your backyard subsequent spring, flip the soil now and unfold elderly manure and lime if wanted (every week aside). Elevate parsley for rising indoors in iciness. Mulch perennial herbs when floor freezes. The significance of fall digging or sheet composting can’t be overstated. Upload manure or compost, spade deeply, and make allowance the tough clods of earth to face uncovered. Frost snow, solar, and rain all through the iciness have a really useful motion at the soil. Replace crop efficiency data.

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Lawn Pointers for October

October Lawn within the Southern Hemisphere

Cordoned apple timber alongside an previous wall

Fruit

Zone 7-11: Harvest ripe fruit. Plant berry trees and fruit timber. Plant strawberry runners. Take away fruiting canes of blackberries and different brambles. Tie in new canes of blackberries and brambles. Boysenberries, youngberries, and dewberries may also be layered (cane pointers buried 3 to 4 inches/7-10cm). Take hardwood cuttings of gooseberries and currants. Water younger timber and new vegetation deeply. Blank up dropped fruit and leaves; compost if wholesome. Take away netting when the fruit is completed to permit birds to transparent pests. Position mouse guards round trunks of younger timber. Put greasy bands round apple and cherry timber to catch cankerworms and inchworms. Wait for pests and indicators of illness.

Zones 1-6: Harvest ripe fruit. Water younger timber deeply. Fertilize berries and brambles or top-dress with compost. Blank up dropped fruit and leaves; compost if wholesome. Wrap younger timber to stop sunscald. Position mouse guards round trunks of younger timber. Quilt strawberries if the temperature is going beneath 20°F. After a difficult frost, skinny and reduce brambles. Takedown grapevines, lay gently at the floor, and mulch after heavy frost however earlier than floor freezes. When soil freezes, mulch timber in a hoop 8 to twelve inches (20-30cm) from the trunk.

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