A little early for your last frost dates and temps for fast-maturing veggies. I'm seeding my short-maturing for transplants any day. Here's a Extension Agent's blog entry this year for our area on this topic. HTH.

Dan

i'm direct seeding a bunch of fall brassicas next week under shade cloth...

I do not have shade cloth and even in the Great lakes I think it is not a good idea to seed brassica now in sun. If you want the breakdown, turnips will come up, kale will be extremely erratic, lacinato is OK, and bok choi will have 10% germination. I start everything in shade or inside the house. Then transplant in the evening during a cold spell, and water a ton for a few days.

Another point in favor of starting them inside is that there is much higher insect pressure out there now. I noticed a bunch of volunteer Chinese Cabbage and Misome seedlings out there and the misomes are pretty well chewed. (Not much seems to want to tackle the prickly leaves of the CC.) Row covers were suggested to me last year, so you may want to consider getting some too! Anyway, my overall list for seeding for fall looks like the bulk of stuff will be started between July 25th and August 25th, based on first frost, germination time, and dtm, plus an extra month for anything normally set out as a transplant (broccoli etc.). I only had partial success last year, so my advice is only what I plan on doing this year to try to have more complete success. Can't tell you that it's going to work for sure! Fingers crossed!

Thanks all!

I do have shade cloth that someone gave me, also I have row cover. So I could start them under shade cloth if you think they don't need much sun to get growing.

The man in the article from up north starts his stuff in June because of his much earlier fall frosts. I think it is just much cooler there in the summer.

Several weeks ago I seeded brussels sprouts in a small area that gets morning shade. They are ready for transplant now (3-5 inches high) and the first set was transplanted to a sunnier spot just before a series of days in the low 90s. They came through all right.

I transplanted my broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage today. I have a second batch of broccoli sprouted for later setting out. I know the seeding dates for here from past experience.

I would not reccomend direct seeding in the garden unless they were extremely closely watched because flea beetles or something tend to decimate the seedlings until they reach a certain size.

Spring planted brassicas do not have much insect pressure here, but the fall ones do.

Last summer, per farmerdilla, I planted collards seed in four inch pots in mid July. I put them under my deck benches where they got morning sun and very dappled afternoon shade. I watered daily and the plants did fine outside. He said you can also sow broccoli, cabbage, and caulifower seed at this time.

The last week of August, I planted turnips and mustard directly into the garden. This year I will try rutabagas and parsnips too.

In mid September, I direct sowed Kale and set out the collards. At the same time, I planted leaf lettuce.

And in late September, I planted, onions, garlic, carrots, red mustard, and spinach. The spinach came up better when I laid floating row cover directly over the seed bed and watered through it. I guess the fabric held the moisture in the ground better.
I put hoops over the beds and covered them with floating row covers and everything did well through the entire winter, but I am further south than you are. Our lowest temperature last winter was 17, but the year before, it was 11. I can't tell you what a pleasure it was to pick and cook fresh food throughout the entire winter!

I was so happy with how everything did, that I put the dates into my garden journal. I'll be sowing collards and broccoli this week-end.

Oh, and one more note. I mulched the beds heavily with mulch before I planted, and then pulled it back to make little planting pockets at the recommended spacings for the plants. Then I sowed a pinch of seed in each pocket, eventually thinning to just one plant. As the plants put on size, I pulled the mulch back up around the stems. (but not touching) When I harvested the plants, I just cut off leaves (they re-generated) and did not pull any of the plants out by the roots. The row covers and mulch prevented soil from splashing up on the leaves and so the greens were dead easy to clean. A huge time saver! I will never plant greens again any other way!

Hmmm, thanks, I will try to digest what you've shared and implement what I can.

I actually grow collards all summer, but my spring brassicas have alot of insect problems unless I use row cover. The article I first referred to also recommended Dipel, which I can't find locally but did see on Amazon.

Oh, and I was mistaken about the author's location --it was actually Montana and not the Great Lakes. So he must have a rather short season.

Be careful using row covers here during hot weather. They can trap heat and fry your little seedlings.
For many of the reasons mentioned above, I like to start my fall cole crops in cell packs, then transplant to the garden, though you have to be careful in acclimating them to full, intense August sun, so shade cloth is a good idea.
Dipel is a proprietary name for Bacillus thuringiensis, but there are other brands...my favorite name being "Worm Whipper".