Extend Your Growing Season with Protected Cultivation Methods; Gardening Guidebook for Douglas County, Kansas www.scribd.com/doc/239851313 ~ growingformarket.com, For more information, Please see Organic Edible Schoolyards & Gardening with Children www.scribd.com/doc/239851214 - Double Food Production from your School Garden with Organic Tech www.scribd.com/doc/239851079 - Free School Gardening Art Posters www.scribd.com/doc/239851159 - Increase Food Production with Companion Planting in your School Garden www.scribd.com/doc/239851159 - Healthy Foods Dramatically Improves Student Academic Success www.scribd.com/doc/239851348 - City Chickens for your Organic School Garden www.scribd.com/doc/239850440 - Huerto Ecológico, Tecnologías Sostenibles, Agricultura Organica www.scribd.com/doc/239850233 - Simple Square Foot Gardening for Schools, Teacher Guide www.scribd.com/doc/23985111 ~

1. Extend Your Growing Season with Protected Cultivation Methods
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Extend Your Growing Season with Protected Cultivation Methods
July is a good time to start planning for season extension, whether that means buying a new hoophouse or replacing worn-out row
cover and frost fabric. Here are some ideas that can help you make fall and winter as profitable and productive as summer.
If you can provide shade and moisture, you can get many cool-weather crops
started in the heat of summer. Beets, carrots, chard, lettuce, onions, radishes,
and turnips will actually germinate at soil temperatures of 85-95F (30º-35ºC),
though they prefer it about 10º cooler. Escarole, endive, kale and kohlrabi
won't germinate above 80ºF (27ºC), and spinach won't germinate above 75ºF
(24ºC). To lower soil temperature, consider erecting hoops covered with
shade cloth. Johnny's sells a knitted shade cloth that provides good
ventilation when held above crops on Quick Hoops™. Sizes are available to
perfectly fit Quick Hoops™ low tunnels or high tunnels. Soil should be
watered thoroughly after putting on the shade cloth and before planting to give
the soil a few days to cool off. Fall crops need ample moisture to get them
started in summer; use drip irrigation and turn it on every day to keep the top
few inches of soil moist.
Be prepared for unexpected frosts as the weather cools. Johnny's row
covers are available in a number of weights and sizes to provide exactly the
protection you need on fall crops. A wide piece of heavy row cover can be pulled over multiple beds quickly when a heavy frost
threatens. Row covers also can be used on hoops to create a protected microclimate all fall. The Quick Hoops™ bender makes
perfect hoops from locally available electrical conduit, and Snap Clamps make it easy to attach row cover or poly for tight, stable
low tunnels. Hoop Loops are pre-formed wire hoops with loops that allow you to secure twine down the length of the bed. When
covered with row cover, the hoops and twine create a mini-greenhouse that prevents the covering from abrading plants.
In September, plant in the hoophouse. You have plenty of time to get one or more crops of beets, broccoli, cabbage, Chinese
cabbage, endive and escarole, greens, kale and collards, kohlrabi, lettuce, radishes, spinach, and turnips. Plant growth will slow as
the days get shorter, but the cooler weather of fall will keep crops healthy. Plant enough that you can harvest for many weeks.

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Carrots can be planted for harvest all winter, in a hoophouse or low tunnel. Carrots will grow to maturity in fall but can be left in the
ground to harvest as needed and they will get sweeter and more flavorful from in-ground storage. Spinach will continue to grow
most of the winter, so young leaves can be picked repeatedly.
Plant a crop of overwintering spinach in low tunnels covered with row cover in fall and poly in winter. Seed spinach before the first
frost and the plants will reach 3-4 inches in diameter before winter cold stops their growth. They will resume growth in late winter and
be a month earlier than spring-sown spinach.
Visit Johnny's Selected Seeds for more free information about growing produce, herbs, cover crops and
flowers.
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Reprinted from JSS Advantage July 2011
Copyright Fairplain Publications Inc. All rights reserved. No portion of this article may be copied in any manner for use other than by
the subscriber without permission from the publisher.
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