Three Days Late

In the LSU AgCenter Vegetable Planting Guide that you can get HERE, you can find all sorts of helpful information on planting your garden, such as crops, depth to plant, inches between plants, days to harvest, and planting dates for spring and fall gardens here in Louisiana.  I've learned from experience that you can't push those dates too far.  One year I planted my Irish Potatoes a couple weeks later than the recommended dates.  The potato plants were beautiful - until they were killed by a freeze and the little potatoes never matured.  From now on, I follow the dates.

As I looked at part of the guide in the evening of September 4th, I realized that I was already three days late in planting my broccoli and cauliflower.  Not really a big deal as broccoli and cauliflower are hardy plants that can withstand cold weather.  Nevertheless, I determined that I didn't have anything better to do last night at 10:30 pm than to get my seeds in the ground.  Well, not really the ground, but in soil.  The area I'm planting my fall crop in is covered with sweet potato vines, and I will have to harvest them first.  But that doesn't prevent me from planting broccoli and cauliflower seeds in seed pots to transplant later once they are big enough and once I have room in the garden.

First I filled the seed pots about 3/4 full with organic garden soil and topped it off with a light seed starting mix.  A seed starting mix is important to plant in, I've found.  It is light and helps in germination as it doesn't pack down.  It contains sphagnum peat moss, perlite, coconut fiber, and vermiculite.  I find it holds moisture for the young seedlings.

This year I'm planting three varieties of cauliflower: Purple of Sicily, Green Macerata, and Erfurter (a normal white cauliflower).  I am putting 4 seeds in each pot.  If they all come up, I'll separate and transplant into individual pots once they get a little bigger.

I'm planting two varieties of broccoli this year: Waltham 29 and Romanesco Italia.  Romanesco Italia is a cool broccoli whose head has spirals and is a pretty light green color.  We find it has a "nutty" flavor.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.  Genesis 1:29

With hopes of a great harvest this winter, I carefully placed 4 seeds equally spaced in the containers, covered the seeds with a 1/8 inch layer of seed starting mix and watered them in.  In less than a week, these seeds should germinate.  We'll care for them until they are ready to be transplanted.  Next up I'll be planting green beans and cabbage.  I'm shooting for September 15th to have those planted.