Most of my direct seed is doing good. the cool weather we had the last ten days is over and it is really dry. having to water a lot to get germinated.

We had really cool weather which I was happy to stay until winter but it got hot again. Germination seems good. Radishes grew super fast and really nice. Oddly they didn't sell out at market.

Ok, in the picture sharing mood. Here are some of my fall plantings

Early outside carrots. These will go into low tunnels for the winter.

Movable High tunnel carrots

First big planting of roots

Second planting of roots, about 10-14 days later than the first planting

Experiment, direct seeding early greens (arugula, Tatsoi, Vitamin Green, Tokyo Bekana, and Mizuna

First high tunnel tilled, ready for raised beds and start transplanting in

I have spent the last 2 days pulling out old crops, tilling and planting more fall crops in 95+ degree temps. I have another day to put in more crops and hope we get the forecasted rain Monday night and Tuesday. Next weeks temps forecast in 70's but will need rain or will be running hoses for irrigation.

jrslick- When do you plan to harvest your low tunnel carrots? Are you able to harvest your high tunnel carrots throughout the winter for your winter markets or is there a time when you must harvest them and then store them?

First frost here in Idaho. Had all the new fall plants protected, but some of the summer squash took a hit. Expected that to happen. Season is changing for sure.

Tom: The crazy thing about the low tunnel carrots is that they actually did much better than the high tunnel carrots. The low tunnels are essentially sealed, thus there isn't much air infiltration, they kept much better too. I am planning on leaving them as long as possible. If the weather turns bitterly cold, I do have the option of digging them and putting them in the cooler. We usually dig carrots the weekend before each winter market so we will just harvest as needed. I do plan on digging all the remaining carrots and put in the cooler if the weather warms up earlier than expected.

another day of getting in more fall crops. Only 86 degrees today with 90% chance of rain tonight. some of the ground I tilled today was as hard as concrete. 33" of rain from may 3 - July 15 and about an inch since then. Not even thinking about low tunnels yet but I am sure it won't be that far off.

We have been baking all week. Highs 95+, Sunday it was 102 degrees. Very thankful for a nice breeze. We got a shower earlier tonight, hopefully more overnight.

Got everything weeded again today. I hope this will be the last big weeding event.

jrslick: Thanks for your help! My son and I just built a 20x80 high tunnel and have planted carrots to sell at winter markets like you. We have sold carrots at the winter market but the high tunnel is new to us. Last year I harvested all my carrots near the end of November and stored them in damp sand. It was a lot of work at one time. How nice it would be to enter the tunnel and pick for each market! I have a lot of carrots outside the tunnel too. Would you recommend that I put low tunnels over them and do you recommend putting some agribond over the carrots in the high a low tunnels?

Thanks again,

Tom

Thanks for all the great information! Great pictures. Last winter I put up some low tunnels and the voles used the agribond to make nests and ate everything I had under the tunnels. I was wondering- when do you start your winter spinach? I bought some of that Carmel spinach you mentioned a while back. I started the seeds in flats as my tunnel was still occupied.

My brassica type stuff is doing amazing, pea shoots too, but spinach and lettuce are just not getting going. Kind of a bummer. I have way too many baby brassica greens and radishes. I must do better on lettuce all season next year.

Good question on the spinach Tom. I have tried 2 times already to
start spinach, direct seeding, but I haven't got a good stand and what
has come up got ate off by grasshoppers. I am going to try one more
time before waiting until about the end of September to Early October to
plant it in one of my high tunnels. Last year I planted on October
7th. I am thinking I will do two planting dates. Maybe sometime Sept
20-25th and then again around Sept. 27-Oct 3rd. The way that the Carmel
spinach grew last year, I don't think I could sell it all if I planted
it all at once. If I staggered the two plantings, I could pick every
other one each market and have a really steady supply all winter long.

I'm noticing my spinach germination wasn't any better later than too early. I think it may be the seed. Darn Fedco again with poor germination rates.

Spinach is one thing that seems to germinate well in my soil. I made a couple plantings recently and because it seems to come in so thick with the earthway seeder I mixed a little radish seed in. The seeds are about the same size and last week I harvested the radishes from the rows which I started on August 3. The second planting of spinach was seeded on September 2 and I noticed today that it is beginning to come up.

Jrslick- How often do you have markets in the winter? I will have 3 per month this year. Last year I had 5 in November, 4 in December, then 2 a month until May. Last year I had slim pickings by march. This year I think I planted way too much to even harvest. Did you ever try to plow up carrots like potatoes? I wonder if you went deep enough you wouldn't damage the carrots. My soil is very difficult to work. I've broken 5 pitchforks the past year digging carrots and garlic. I may try it on a sample section just to see if it'll work.

We have a market every 2 weeks from the first weekend in November until April. The best markets are usually the 2 in November, 2 in December and 3 in January.

I am going to try spinach one more time this weekend and hope I can get it to germinate. I am going to cover it with row cover to ensure the grasshoppers don't get to it.

I have never tried to plow up carrots. I am guessing if you used a lister plow/middle buster it would work, but I would be worried about breaking them. Also mine are all covered in the winter so I don't have a choice but to dig them by hand.

a broadfork works well to dig carrots

Winter root vegetables are looking really good despite intense heat and prolonged drought. Been watering constantly.