Experts recommend fall veggie varieties
by Angie DeFeo, Master Gardener Volunteer, and Charles Brasher Extension, Agent III-FAMU
Many of us are thinking about the taste of beets, collards, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, mustard greens, radish, spinach, onions, strawberries and a few others. We can grow these now through the fall and winter, unless we get extremely cold weather. The Extension Center has a leaflet called The Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide that recommends the varieties for purchase at your local and discount stores. We will mail or give out this information upon request. Also listed are the transplantability rating and the pounds yield per 100 feet of planted row, and the days to harvest from seed or transplanting, and other helpful hints.
Some of the most popular cool season vegetables and their distinguishing characteristics are as follows:
Broccoli -- Green Duke and Early Green sprouting. Easily survives transplanting and yields about 50 pounds per 100' of row. From transplants, takes about 55 to 70 days to mature, add 20 if seeding.
Cabbage -- Buy clean, black rot disease resistant free plants such as Bravo 5 and Emblem. Keep an eye out for loopers and use Bt insecticide for control.
Carrots -- a root chop. Plant in nematode free soil on a raised bed for best results. Nantes, Waltham and Orlando Gold are the best known varieties. Sow seeds shallow and thin to proper stand.
Cauliflower -- Snowball strains and others. Transplants easily and takes 55 to 70 days to maturity. Tie the leaves around the flower head at the 2-3" diameter stage to prevent green discoloration. Check for loopers and spray as needed.
Collards -- One of the Jackson County favorites-Top Bunch, Georgia, Vates, and Blue Max. One of the highest yielders as 150 pounds can be produced from 100 feet of row. Takes 40-60 days to mature from transplants. Harvest lower leaves as they mature.
Onion -- Vidalia types. The bulbing ones are the short day varieties. From seed in the fall expect to transplant in late January or early February. Granex and varieties with that parentage are recommended.
English and/or Sugar Snap peas -- Edible podded type are "Oregon (flat) and Sugar Snap (round). All of these, Green Arrow and Laxton’s Progress take 50-70 days to harvest from seed. Established plants can take frost and light freezes, but young plants(less than 3 weeks old) will lose yield.
For more information about other possible cool season vegetables, please contact the Master Gardener Office or the County Extension Office nearest you. Some garden center operators or store personnel are of great help, and have a limited supply of Extension publications. We highly recommend taking a soil sample if not done in the past three years.
Contact your local Extension Office (Jackson County’s is 482-9620) or in person at 2741 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite #3, in Marianna. The website for the Jackson County Office is http://jackson.ifas.ufl.edu .
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