Garden Basics with Farmer Fred

049 Growing Cool Season Greens. Fabulous Fruit Friday!

September 24, 2020 Fred Hoffman Season 1 Episode 49
Garden Basics with Farmer Fred
049 Growing Cool Season Greens. Fabulous Fruit Friday!
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Looking for easy care, tasty, cool season vegetables to plant now? Look no further than all the nutritious, green leafy crops that love the fall weather. Today, we’re talking the basics for growing lettuce, spinach, chard, cabbage, Chinese greens, and kale, with great growing advice from Master Gardener Gail Pothour, who's also a vegetable expert. And we are introducing a new segment to the show: Fabulous Fruit Friday, presented by Tomorrow's Harvest! We’ll be showcasing each Friday a tasty variety of fruit that you can grow in your own yard, with a taste that beats anything found in a grocery store. Today: the Scarlet Halo Peach. Plus, tips for growing your backyard orchard. We’ll be talking with fruit tree expert, Ed Laivo of Tomorrow's Harvest.  Welcome to Fall, Welcome to Garden Basics with Farmer Fred…and we will do it all in under 30 minutes. Let’s get started!

Links:
Jericho Lettuce (pictured)
Row Covers and Frost Cloth
Cold Frames
All America Selections Winners

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Farmer Fred :

Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by Smart Pots, the original lightweight, long lasting fabric plant container. it's made in the USA. Visit SmartPots.com slash Fred for more information and a special discount, that's SmartPots.com/Fred.

Farmer Fred :

Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information well you've come to the right spot.

Farmer Fred :

Looking for easy care tasty, cool season vegetables to plant now? Well, look no further than all the nutritious green leafy crops that love the fall weather. Today we're talking the basics for growing lettuce, spinach, chard, cabbage, Chinese greens and kale, with great growing advice from a master gardener and a vegetable expert. And we're introducing a new segment to the show. Fabulous fruit Friday, we'll be showcasing each Friday a tasty variety of fruit that you'll be able to grow in your own yard. And that fruit is going to have a taste that beats anything found in a grocery store. Plus, tips for growing your backyard orchard. We'll be talking with fruit tree expert Ed Laivo, from tomorrow's harvest.com and we're gonna do it all in under 30 minutes. Welcome to fall. Welcome to Garden Basics with Farmer Fred. Let's get started.

Farmer Fred :

Do you want your family to eat healthy year round? Well, you know that the healthiest, freshest foods are the fruits and vegetables that you grow yourself. And in many areas of the west and the south, basically USDA zones seven, eight and nine, the 365 day vegetable garden is easy to achieve. And now is the time for getting those transplants and maybe even some seeds for your vegetables that your family will enjoy all fall and winter. And maybe even into the next spring. If the weather cooperates. We're talking with Sacramento County master gardener and vegetable expert, Gail Pothour and Gail there's a lot of easy vegetables one can grow this time of year and what's nice when you grow them this time of year, you don't have to worry too much about irrigation if you get regular rain. And you don't have to worry too much about it overtaking your garden because most of them are well mannered.

Gail Pothour :

Absolutely. And that's something I always look forward to after I am tired of a lot of heat during the summer. And my summer crops are looking pretty ragged, I'm taking them out. I know to replenish the soil a bit, put in little compost and some fertilizer and then start my cool season crops which we can do late summer, early fall, and they like to grow when the soil is still warm. And in the late summer, early fall, the soil is still warm, and then they mature when it's in the cooler part of the year. So either you know November, December, if it's the shorter harvest time for that particular crop or some of them overwinter. And we can harvest them here in the Sacramento area, late winter, early spring.

Farmer Fred :

And what's nice is a lot of the cool season vegetables we're going to be talking about mature rather quickly, 40-50-60 days. So in two months time you can actually be growing a fairly substantial garden and even if you live in a colder climate, if you have a cold frame, that's a great way to go, if it's a raised bed with wood sides that have a translucent top that's hinged, it can be made out of glass or angled, angled right facing south, glass, polyethylene, fiberglass, it's an instant cold frame for your winter vegetables from protection from low temperatures. Or maybe in our case protection from heavy wind or rain if it gets to be a downpour.

Gail Pothour :

And what I do with my cold frame. I will usually plant my lettuce in a cold frame because we can get some pretty cold temperatures in the wintertime and then I can give them that added protection by closing the lid. But then I also when I have it open during the day, I stretch a piece of screen across to keep insects out because some of the cool season crops are magnets for loopers and other caterpillars that will eat the foliage and aphids and things like that. So I use mine two ways: as a frost protection or cold protection; And, then also with the lid up that screen across for insect protection.

Farmer Fred :

That's a good idea too, but what's nice too is that a lot of insects take the winter off but still yes there are aphids. There's not usually as many white flies as usual. But yeah, I have been seeing that cabbage looper moth flitting around the yard, so I know the eggs are getting laid.

Gail Pothour :

Yeah, so there's the cabbage loopers that does get on quite a few of the cool season crops. The imported cabbage worm tends to stick to brassicas which are in the cabbage family. Kale and broccoli and cauliflower and those sorts of things, and the butterflies flitting around now laying eggs on anything that her young would want to eat, and they can strip leaves pretty quickly. So having some kind of protection for especially the brassicas, if you're going to grow mustard or kale or broccoli, even radishes, they're in the same family is having some sort of protection to keep her from laying eggs and other insects from coming on. And so you can use floating row cover, which is pretty lightweight, you could actually lay it right over the young plants, or what I like to do is use PVC pipe and make hoops over the my raised bed and then I can support the Agra bond floating row cover over that. So it gives it more of a tunnel effect rather than just laying right on it. And that's really helpful for a little bit of frost protection as well if I need to do that, but mostly it's for insects.

Farmer Fred :

Yeah, that's, that's a very good tip. In fact, I would suggest anybody who plants a new fall garden now get row cover and just place it over that area. It might even save it from snails.

Gail Pothour :

right. And then what I also use the floating row cover for if I have an old piece that maybe has seen a better day is when I'm planting something like carrots or beets that take a while to germinate and the soil needs to be kind of consistently moist. So that it will germinate I will lay a piece of that floating row cover down on top of the soil and wet that and then that tends to keep the soil a little moister, it doesn't dry out quite so quickly.

Farmer Fred :

Now the question for gardeners is, do you start from seed? Or do you go to the nursery and buy transplants? and I think if you're a beginning gardener, the easiest thing to do is go by transplants because sometimes some of these seeds can be a little tricky to Germinate.

Gail Pothour :

that's quite true. Some times you need to give them kind of a treatment, a soaking treatment or a little scarification where you'll nick it in order for it to hydrate better. But some of the cool season crops are a little bit tricky to germinate. a lettuces one I can grow a lot of things from seed, I have a greenhouse and all that I cannot get lettuce to germinate. I'm on my third bout right now trying to germinate a six pack of lettuce. So it can be a little tricky. Carrots take a long time to germinate. You would typically grow carrots from seed you won't grow that from transplants. But for a beginner gardener, I would say yes, go to a good nursery, get a six pack of whatever it is you want to grow, make sure that the plants are not too large for the container that it's in, it's not really a good idea to have plants that are rootbound. Because some of the cool season crops get stressed if their roots get messed with or if they're too old when they go in. So if it's been a little six inch pot, or a little six pack, which the the cells are pretty narrow, and it's a pretty tall plant, it's probably going to be ripped down. So look for smaller plants that look sturdy, look healthy, they're not yellow, and that wouldn't be root bound.

Farmer Fred :

Don Shor from Redwood barn nursery in Davis gave us a good tip along that line in that if you buy a six pack and you know you're not going to be planting it that day, get yourself some four inch containers and a bag of potting soil and just transplant each of those out of the six pack into its own four inch container with soil. And that way it'll become a stronger plant. And it'll be ready for you and will be more vigorous for you when you go to plant it in a week or two.

Gail Pothour :

Yeah, that is a good tip. And that's actually what I do when I do start things from seed of 30 minute fix back. So I have some cabbage and things right now that are in a six pack. And I will take those out, put them in a four inch pot, let them continue to grow out, get stronger and you know a little bit more mature, not over mature but get a little bit stronger before I actually put them in the into my garden.

Farmer Fred :

Alright, let's start naming some names here for some cool season vegetables that one can plant now throughout a wide area of the United States. And let's start off with lettuce. lettuce is easy to grow, it matures in 40 to 50 days. In fact, you can even snip it off when it's smaller or just harvest the outer leaves. And you can have a like a forever lettuce patch just about the only thing I would suggest. The only thing I would suggest though is that you buy loose leaf lettuce varieties and not the head lettuce varieties like iceberg.

Gail Pothour :

Correct. Iceberg tends to not do that. Well, at least in our climate. It's a longer growing season. And sometimes with our weather the head doesn't really firm up like you would want it to like the kind that you buy at the grocery store. So stick with romaine or butter lettuces, some of the loose leaf type. Those are the ones that you can harvest the outer leaves and have a continual harvest or some of them if you harvest the whole head Don't cut it clear to the soil level but maybe leave an inch or two. And it's many varieties will kind of re sprout so you can get another crop. But yeah, it's something that you can harvest for quite a long period of time. Some varieties don't like the heat. And so you do want to get varieties that will be maturing in the cool season, not in the like something good over winter and it would be harvesting in late winter early spring because it's starting to get warm and the lettuce will have a tendency to bolt. So shoot for shorter season varieties, ones that are harvestable and you know, in 40-50 days.

Farmer Fred :

Some of my favorite loose leaf lettuce varieties include Ruby, Bibb, which is kind of a crunchy lettuce, salad bowl, green ice, and there's a fairly new one on the market that is very tasty called Salanova.

Gail Pothour :

I grow that almost every year. There's a Salanova red butter, there's a Salanova green butter, and then there's some couple of Salanovas that are more... not oakleaf. But they're a little more nuts really, I can't quite come up with the word but the one I grow every year is Salanova red butter. And it is not only really attractive, but it's deep burgundy color. butter lettuce has just kind of rounded leaves. But down in the heart. It's kind of a lime green color. And it's one of those that you can either harvest the whole head or just outside leaves but it's very tasty. I grow that every year. I also like one called pomegranate crunch. It's a red romaine that has done really well for me and Lola Rossa, it's kind of a loose leaf, really red in color. And then I have one that not only do I like to grow it, but I like to say it, it's furellenshouz. It means speckled trout back, I think it's Swiss or something like that. It's an heirloom romaine that lime green color with kind of Burgundy lashes on it does really well.

Farmer Fred :

Another easy to grow green, and it comes in some very dramatic colors is swiss chard, and it grows quite well in many climates. And there are varieties like bright lights that have these multicolored stems of red and yellow. They're just gorgeous.

Gail Pothour :

We grow bright lights not only in my garden, but at the fair oaks horticulture center that's maintained by the the Master Gardeners. It is one we grow every year and it is gorgeous. You'll have stems that are bright yellow, or some that are orange or some that are red, very easy to grow. It's also an all America selection. So that means that it has been tested all throughout the country and it grows well throughout the country so everybody can grow it. It's also attractive, you can put it in your landscape or have it in a container. It's just a real beautiful plant and in our climate, it will often overwinter and grow to the next summer.

Farmer Fred :

Another leafy green that besides tasting good is also very pretty and that's kale. But there is a rather big difference between the ornamental kale that come in a wide variety of colors and just plain green kale, which I think is more edible, right?

Gail Pothour :

The ornamental kale is ornamental, it's a little fibrous and tough, just like ornamental cabbage. I like to grow those in containers or in my landscape in the fall and winter. I won't eat them because they just aren't bred for eating. They're bred for being attractive. So some of the kales that I liked are the Lacinato, which is the dinosaur kale. And then Tuscan baby leaf is like a miniature Lacinato. And I have had luck growing that actually through the summer by growing it in the shade in a container and I can move it around. And then red boar and red Russian, those are ones that are a little more frilly, and very attractive as well. So kale is something that can be also grown in the landscape or in a container. If you don't have a regular garden, you can include it in your landscape.

Farmer Fred :

One thing we should mention about all these greens that we're talking about is they'll grow in part shade.

Gail Pothour :

Oh, yes, very well. And most of them can grow in containers because they're more shallow rooted, typically, than our summer crops. You know, tomatoes and peppers have a deeper root system. But most of the cool season vegetables can be grown in a container. Can't be too shallow, you know, but doesn't need to be a great big half wine barrel or anything. It can grow into smaller containers.

Farmer Fred :

We could talk about cabbage, and I'm thinking Well, how about Chinese cabbage? It's so tasty and it too is very pretty. And I know of the Chinese cabbages, you got bok choy and pac choi and joy choi. It's a lot of varieties,

Gail Pothour :

Yeah, there's a lot of joy in that garden beds, right. And actually we grew one at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center last year. I think we're going at it again this year, that happens to be an all American selection is called Asian delight Pac choi. And it was a quick grower, and there were many heads. So some of the pac chois and bok chois can get pretty tall. This was like six inches tall, and we harvested the whole head. And it grew quickly. And it didn't have a lot of pest problems like some of the other brassicas. And that might have been because it was such a quick grower. It wasn't in the garden over a long season. So maybe that's why it didn't have a lot of pest issues. But we were really impressed with it.

Farmer Fred :

One thing we should point out about all these greens that we're talking about is if you want to let the plant keep growing, one of the easiest ways to harvest it is to just take the outer leaves and let the interior keep sending up new sprouts.

Gail Pothour :

Right. And some of the brassicas the ones that are in the cabbage family, they will typically overwinter because they're pretty frost Hardy. And then what I find is the next year, when you get into late winter, early spring, as the plant is now getting mature, and it's starting to bolt, it's starting to send the flower, it attracts beneficial insects like crazy. So I generally will leave my bolted kale or whatever in the garden and let those yellow flowers come and attract the bees. And another thing I've noticed when I grow Lacinato kale, the dinosaur kale, as it matures and starts to bolt, it gets really tall, maybe three feet tall. And then in the nodes where the leaves are, where that's where the little flowers start to come out. But before that flower opens, I cut those off and use them like broccolini. It tastes just like broccolini

Farmer Fred :

well, now you're gonna have to explain what broccolini is.

Gail Pothour :

broccolini happens to be a hybrid between broccoli and Chinese kale. And you can find it at the grocery store. And typically, it looks like skinny broccoli, you know it's a small broccoli type head with a long skinny stem. So it has a broccoli flavor, you know, broccoli kale flavor, and you would cook it just like you would broccoli or saute it but I get that off of kale. So these are just actually kale flowers that I'm cutting off but it's before it actually flowers so it looks like a little broccoli head.

Farmer Fred :

Before we leave the world of cool season greens. Let's talk a little bit about spinach. There's a lot of great spinach varieties, the melody hybrid, America, bloomsdale long standing, and they grow quite easily. I think the big issue with spinach is if you get the real curled varieties they are rather tough to clean.

Gail Pothour :

Right. And another good variety is Tyee. it is kind of less crinkly and a little bit easier to clean because it doesn't have all the ruffles in it but it is a good one as well. So it's a good crop, it's fast growing and effect you don't want it to grow a long time it does tend to get kind of fibrous and bitter. So grow it, harvest it grow another crop, you know do succession growing of spinach.

Farmer Fred :

And that variety again is tyee, which is spelled t y e e. Well, Gail, we've ran through the greens we haven't even gotten to root crops yet or flowering cool season vegetables. So we're gonna have to bring you back and talk about those. Okay,

Gail Pothour :

Okay, sounds good. Absolutely.

Farmer Fred :

That's Gail Pothour, Sacramento County Master Gardener it's a world of cool season vegetables out there that are easy to grow, so go for it.

Farmer Fred :

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Farmer Fred :

We're introducing a new segment here on the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. It'll be every Friday; we're calling it Fabulous Fruit Fridays. we're going to be highlighting a piece of fruit that's going to be so tasty. You'll want to grow one of those trees in your backyard for the coming season. And to bring us all the good news about all these great varieties is a guy I've known for about 25 years or so. he knows more about fruit trees than anybody I know. He has worked in the industry for years and years and years. Currently, he's with Burchell nursery. They're the parent company of Tomorrow's Harvest. And we're going to be talking about some really great pieces of fruit as well as sharing some of his long held fruit tree growing advice that is going to make it ridiculously easy for you to grow fruit trees, no matter the size of your yard. It's Ed Laivo, and Ed, this first introductory peach that we're going to be talking about sounds like a winner because it's it's good for a number of USDA zones, what, six through nine,

Ed Laivo :

six through nine, Fred. It is a winner and it's a winner. You know, of course because of being one of the unique donut style peaches and I mean, we should name it. Well, let's call it Scarlet Halo. How does that sound? Right

Farmer Fred :

The Scarlet Halo peach?

Ed Laivo :

Yeah, Scarlet Halo peach. Exciting. I mean, it's a big, big peach. I mean a big donut style peach. And and definitely the uniqueness of the of this fruit is is it's beautiful red skin. It's deep, deep, dark, dark modeled red flesh. that sits on a white background. It's a it's an amazing look. So eye candy, if you will, just wonderful eye candy.

Farmer Fred :

Now if people don't know what a donut style peach maybe they think it's covered in glaze or candy sprinkles... it's not, but explain what a donut peach is.

Ed Laivo :

well it's actually a flat peach. You know the end to be exactly the donut peaches being sold. Now it's a very popular addition to the to the grocery store, many grocery stores now you can get the flat donut style peaches. Typically they're white but there's yellow varieties as well. And the Tomorrow's Harvest, of course, we'll be featuring not only the wonderful peaches at our donut style or flat donut style peaches and but they'll also be introducing many of incredibly flavored nectarines, I mean, outstanding flavored donut style nectarines as well, there's a whole them I probably about two, maybe 10 varieties that nobody's ever known that I've went out and just kind of brought to the forefront and we are going to have a ball introducing this.

Farmer Fred :

If you can grow a peach tree where you live, you can grow the Scarlet Halo peach. And if nurseries don't have it, I would imagine that they can get it online.

Ed Laivo :

Oh yeah, tomorrow's harvest is going to be the launching pad for many of these wonderful varieties of peaches that are coming out of the Burchell nursery.

Farmer Fred :

If you want to find out more about the Scarlet Halo peach, visit their website, tomorrowsharvest.com. You can also order it from there as well. Now I mentioned earlier, the fact that besides being an innovator when it comes to fruit varieties, you are an innovator when it comes to helping people grow fruit trees, in spaces, people would think are impossible to grow. And I think one of the things we should talk about right off the bat and we're going to be talking about some aspect of fruit tree growing or berry growing throughout this series on Fabulous Fruit Friday is the fact that even though these trees can get to a rather large size, eventually like the Scarlet Halo peach, if you just let it grow, it will get 25 feet high with a 20 foot spread, that takes up a lot of room. But they don't need to be that tall, do they?

Ed Laivo :

No, not at all. Not at all. And like you said I i've always kept my fruit trees short. And when I first came into the industry, I think it was less accepted. It definitely wasn't accepted at all. I mean, there was a farming practice and almost a commercial approach to growing fruit trees. And I was adamant at my young age that this really didn't apply to what the home gardener experienced and what the home gardeners challenges were in terms of limited space. And if you've got plenty of space, grow your fruit tree any to any height you want to but you don't need to grow any fruit tree any taller than you stand with your hands extended above your head that you know and tall people have tall trees and short people have short trees and my trees are all as tall as I stand with my hands extended above my head and that gives you plenty of fruit more fruit than you probably can utilize anyways, you've got to experience keeping it short to begin with starting with your you know when you're initially planting the plant and and then of course using techniques to keep it small as you grow the tree as the tree matures.

Farmer Fred :

We are going to be talking about that in the weeks ahead about some great fruit tree growing tips where even if you have a small yard, you can keep a tree at six or seven feet tall and still have enough fruit for your family like that. The Scarlet Halo peach for example, Ed Laivo, we're gonna learn a lot on fabulous fruit Fridays. I'm looking forward to this.

Ed Laivo :

I am, too, Fred. This is a this is unique.

Farmer Fred :

It's fabulous fruit Fridays brought to you by tomorrow's harvest.com check them out.

Farmer Fred :

Fall is for planting. The air is cooler than summer, the soil is warmer than spring, it’s the ideal conditions for getting your home orchard started with the outstanding fruit and nut trees, as well as berry plants from Tomorrows Harvest. And that includes the flavorful and productive Scarlet Halo peach, a tomorrows harvest exclusive. Tomorrows harvest fine line of fruit trees is the result of 75 years of developing, testing and growing. For well over 75 years three generations of the Burchell family have been at the forefront of research and development of plants of the highest quality. All of these beautiful, edible plants have been carefully cultivated for your home garden. Look for Tomorrow’s Harvest fruit trees at better retail nurseries. And If your favorite nursery doesn’t carry the scarlet halo peach or any of Tomorrows Harvest other fruit, nut and berry varieties, you can order them directly from Tomorrows harvest dot. com. Let the Burchell family’s three generations of experience take root in your home orchard, landscape and garden. Tomorrows Harvest: It’s goodness you can grow. To find out more about the scarlet halo peach and many other nutritious and delicious fruit and nut varieties, visit tomorrowsharvest.com.

Farmer Fred :

The Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast has a lot of information posted at each episode: transcripts links to any products or books mentioned during the show, and other helpful links for even more information. Plus, you can listen to just the portions of the show that interest you. It's been divided into easily accessible chapters and you'll find more information about how to get in touch with us. We have links to all our social media outlets, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Also a link to the farmerfred.com website. That's where you can find out more information about the radio shows. You remember radio, right? Now, if the place where you access the podcast doesn't have all that information, you can find it all at our home podcaster, Buzzsprout. Buzzsprout.com. Just look for the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. You'll find a link to it in the show notes.

Farmer Fred :

Garden Basics comes out every Tuesday and Friday and it's available just about anywhere podcasts are handed out. And that includes Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, I Heart Radio, overcast, Spotify, stitcher, tune in, and hey, Alexa, play the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, would you please? Thank you for listening, subscribing and leaving comments. We appreciate it.

Growing Cool Season Greens
Smart Pots!
Fabulous Fruit Fridays! The Scarlet Halo Peach.