It is too hot for many fall crops. There was a week of rainy weather about 3 weeks ago in the Detroit area. Plants that were in before, and established, took off. I have some collards and lacinato looking very good. Everything planted after is dormant. The peas look pitiful. I do have some arugula doing decent in a bed that by now is full shade.

At this point, I am going to replant only broccoli rabe, mache, and miner lettuce. Plus overwintering lettuce for next spring. Arugula would qualify but that squeezed through.

I planted rapini, broccoli, laciano kale, peas, spinach, chard, beets, turnips, and lettuce.

the kale is all up - only 3 I planted, a few broc, peas, about 1/3 of the beets, half the chard, and half the turnips.

Only 1 turnip showing it's first true leaves.

It stayed really hot last night. Trying to keep them all well watered, a little sprinkling 3-4 times per day....luckily I'm off work, lol or they'd all be done in!!

Lettuce came up. Not so for spinach. Radishes bitter. Peas mostly didn't come up and the few that did aren't worth it. I was really looking forward to fall peas.

When it's too hot for fall planting, I have considerable luck with rigging up shade using metal hoops and an old sheet and keeping the area watered.

Have you tried sowing the lettuce in modules and keeping them near the house until they have made plants big enough to plant out? I know my conditions are entirely different but I find it much easier to start lettuce like this so I can keep an eye on them and water when necessary (shade doesn't come into it in my climate!) You can fit a whole bed's worth of baby lettuce into a single seed tray. You can also wait for space in the ground to be freed up. I do the same for the winter brassicas but they have been planted out for several weeks now.

My fall garden is really taking off, despite all the heat. 97 degrees yesterday and 30 mph wind.

I have carrots, beets, radishes, haikuri turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kale, lettuce, spinach, green onions, kohlarabi, bok choy, napa cabbage and green beans.

Tonight I am going to plant 8-10 flats of 72 lettuce plugs to plant out in 3-4 weeks when I tear out tomatoes in my hoop building. I will also add some Arugula, Tatsoi, Mizuna and some more Bok Choy and Napa Cabbage.

Everything will be going inside low tunnels, high tunnels and movable high tunnels. We will be harvesting well into the winter.

Jay

Lucky Jay! I don't have room for tunnels. My conditions are kind of tough -- not a ton of sun, five hours at best until the leaves drop, hence the cold frame. I guess I'll try to put spinach and rapini back in after this heat snap. Flora, I did think about doing lettuce in flats but I frankly find it easier to water in the ground than keep up with flats. I don't have a good light set up for inside, either.
I've got tulle over the lettuce. I'll just try watering even more.
Never thought about green beans, though! Wonder if it's too late for those and the rapini?
Anyone done fall celery?

When is your first frost date? I have three planting of green beans for this fall. One I planted in late July, one on August 1 and the last one on August 15th. I put the August 1st planting in a Movable high tunnel. I know it should make it the 8/15 planting is pushing it! I had 7 plantings of green beans this year. I planted just about every 3 weeks give or take a few days depending on the weather. My first frost date is around the 15-20th of October. Usually around Halloween 4 of the last 5 years. Last year the first frost/freeze was on October 9th.

Jay

Not a good year for it. Too hot, too dry, too many woodchucks and deer. The chuck got into the few fall greens I had going and ate a salad two days ago. They're just stubs, might grow back.

I am relieved to know that I am not the only one having issues with fall plants! The direct sowed seedlings, carrots and beets, are doing well but my transplants are all wilting badly. We haven't had any rain for almost 10 days now here and it's been in the 90s. Plus I lost almost all of my brassicas to cabbage worms. *sigh*

just noticed red spider mite damage to my chard sprouts - they don't even have any true leaves yet - just the sprout leaves....

any suggestion for this?

Our first frost is about Oct. 15 too. I guess I'll try more rapini this weekend. I was looking forward to that.

"I did think about doing lettuce in flats but I frankly find it easier to water in the ground than keep up with flats. I don't have a good light set up for inside, either."

Maybe, but you said that it is not working and that your lettuce have failed so I thought I'd offer an alternative. Perhaps I wasn't clear. I do not sow them indoors or under lights. I don't own lights and have never needed them. I sow a small pinch of seed into each cell of a 9 cell tray. I have just been out to check them and there are about 12 plantlets in each cell ie 108 lettuce plants in a single small tray. I sow the seed and put the tray outside my back door on the patio table. It is no trouble at all to water them or move them around into/out of the sun and keep an eye out for pests. I don't prick them out but just tease the clumps apart to plant. They can be planted at intervals and held back if necessary. They always recover.
Just a thought on how to get your Autumn garden on the go.

Does anyone think it's feasible to plant under the tomatoes at all?

Wondering how much I can actually plant and wondering is something like spinach or lettuce would be okay with very little sun for a bit?

I regularly plant radicchio under the tomatoes, and except in the darkest parts of the bed, it makes it. But radicchio has a big taproot, and easily survives the August drought when I let my tomatoes ripen without water. Lettuce would not make it. I do plant some winter lettuce after first frost, in a cleared tomato bed, and then I cover with a hoophouse. That lettuce can then be eaten in early April.

Nice tip Glib, Thanks!

An alternative to flora_uk's idea that accomplishes the same thing, but I find easier to handle, is to prep a few square feet of "seedling nursery" somewhere in the shade, that way you are planting in the ground but can pack everything in a bit more. Then transplant to more sunny ground when the weather cools down and beds are freed up.

I have been presprouting fall seeds on a damp paper towel in a baggie on my kitchen counter. They sprout in about a day or two. Then I can move them to my garden which is a raised bed, square foot garden. cover the seedlings with a fine covering of compost. It helps to get the plants started since I was away for the last part of Aug. and wanted to get some fall raab, lettuce, escarole and beet greens.
Keski