Pam,

Many of us do plant a fall garden, although not as much in a hot, droughty summer when no rain is falling, as in a more typical year when there's decent rainfall.

I sometimes plant fall potatoes using the smallest potatoes from the spring harvest. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't because the potatoes have to be out of the ground for a couple of months before they've aged enough to sprout from a summer planting for a fall harvest.

I suspect the Georgia farmer you're referring to is Farmerdill and I agree with him. (IMHO he is never, ever wrong. I wish he'd write a book on gardening in the southern US.) For fall planting, early and mid-season potato varieties have the best chance of producing a crop in the fall before an autumn freeze is able to freeze them back to the ground.

When I plant them here, I try to get them into the ground sometime in the first couple of weeks of August.

I'm getting ready to start seeds for fall tomatoes, but likely will wait another 7-10 days. The summer seedlings grow so much more quickly in their flats outdoors than they grow indoors under lights in winter that I try not to start them too early.

I've found that raising seedlings for fall plantings requires careful attention and consistent watering of those flats of seedlings at a time when I tend to be very preoccupied with the harvest and canning, so I take care not to start them too early.

I've linked the OSU Fall Garden Guide for you below in case you want to see our recommended planting dates for some fall garden crops here. I don't find it quite as helpful as the spring garden planting guide because it leaves off some fall crops that I plant.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Fall Garden Guide

When does heat cause problems for potatoes? I'd like to try them again this fall, but it's so hot here in August that I don't want to take the time (and space) if they're not going to do very well.

Leslie

Leslie,

This is harder to answer for fall-planted potatoes than for those in spring because the weather is backwards compared to spring plantings--they're started when it is hot and they can tolerate that, but they're maturing as days grow shorter, and sunlight and heat are less intense.

The standard rule of thumb is to use short or mid-season varieties and to plant them roughly 110 days before the date of your average first fall frost. When you follow that rule of thumb in most of OK, your soil temps will fall back below 85 degrees most of the time well before the plants are ready to set and size tubers, so I don't think the soil temps hurt the plants in fall as much as they do in spring. Remember that with heavy mulching, you can keep your soil up to 20 degrees cooler, and that would be especially beneficial for potatoes in the hottest parts of the state.

I don't know if hot soil temps inhibit them from sprouting, but they start setting and sizing their tubers in springtime once soil temps are regularly exceeding 85 degrees. So, in fall they sprout and grow until soil temps drop down below 85 degrees, and after that they will start setting and sizing tubers at whatever time they're ready.

Fall is often iffy in terms of getting a potato crop. Some years the first frost comes way too early and damages and sets back the plants. However, it is a gamble worth taking. You rarely have as many pest issues in the fall and while the crop may be smaller than the spring crop, it still is worth having.

Do you know at what point in time your county's soil temps would drop below 85 degrees at, let's say, 4" below the surface of the ground?

Dawn

I went back a few years on Mesonet and most years it's mid-September. A few of the years it wasn't until the end of September. With a first freeze date of November 1 (which is a little conservative), I'd need to plant them around July 15. The bed is in the shade in the afternoon, so especially after adding lots of mulch, there's probably a better chance of success there than anywhere else in my yard. I'll probably try it anyway. If they grow, awesome; if not, it won't be the first time something didn't grow very well here. If I let that stop me, I wouldn't grow anything but okra and southern peas!

Leslie

Ooops! I was out picking tomatoes in the garden before it started raining and I was thinking to myself "you said that backwards".

What I was trying to say about 85 degrees is that in the fall, the plants will START (not stop) setting and sizing tubers after the soil temps drop below 85 degrees It is exactly opposite of the spring in which they start setting and sizing tubers earlier in the season and only stop after the soil temps hit 85. I knew I was going to type it wrong. So, hope that's as clear as mud, or maybe even clearer.

I'd try it too. With adequate mulch, you probably could keep the soil temps cool enough.

Remember too that if an early frost/freeze threatens, the potatoes are more cold hardy than a warm-season plant like tomatoes. Usually I don't see damage on potato foliage unless the temps hit the 20s. At 30-32 or with frost at higher temps in the 30s, the foliage damage is minimal, but in the 20s when there's a hard freeze, all the foliage likely will freeze. You can dig your potatoes any time after that happens because they won't get any bigger.

If you cover up your potatoes with a floating row cover that gives them 4 to 8 degrees of protection, you likely could keep the potato plants going and growing until they mature and die back on their own.

I understand what you're saying about not letting the prospect of a crop failure stop you. I know it has to be possible to grow more than okra and southern peas (and sweet potatoes!) in your difficult climate in SW OK, but I expect it takes a whole lot of extra effort on your part--extra shading, extra mulching, extra watering, etc. to get a crop through the hot weather. It is a good thing you feel up for the challenge!

The best thing about fall potatoes is that you don't have to deal with Colorado Potato Beetles, which I consider a huge plus.

Dawn

Dawn -thanks for the resource guide and yes, my "source" is farmerdilla. Isn't he a treat?! My main problem re: planting a second crop is lack of energy and will. July and August are awfully hot and humid - so I decide to wait a bit and it will be time to plant to winter greens.

When I'm thinking about growing a new crop or want advice about good varieties for SE Va, I go to GWeb and put "farmerdilla XXX "topic] into the search box. (He was born and raised about 25 miles from here.)

He's been generous in dispensing advice for a long time - and his photos are so good. I think farmerdilla is a doer, not a writer, but if someone could gather his posts, tie them together by crop or other subject, edit and revise, and keep his voice, he could have a good source of income to help fund his retirement ... although I doubt he's the retiring kind either.

I understand the lack of energy and will. It happens to me too once it gets hot.

Farmerdilla's knowledge of all the different varieties is just staggering and he shares that knowledge so freely. I hope he isn't the retiring kind. All the older guys here who are still farming often live into their 90s. I think there's a lesson in that!