Extend Your Harvest

Often it seems like all of the vegetables in the garden are ready to harvest all at once.   If, like many gardeners, you plant most of your crops once, this is true.  Many crops harvest over a relatively small window – often a matter of several weeks – and that crop is done.  Succession planting is a technique that will extend your harvest over a longer season, ensuring a steady harvest and helping you to avoid being overwhelmed by any one crop. 

Succession planting involves planting more than one crop in the garden and can take several forms.  You can build a succession around different crops over a season, multiple plantings of the same crop, or growing different crops simultaneously. 

Our long growing seasons are ideal for growing different crops in succession.  For instance, garden peas planted in early February will be ready for harvest by mid-April.  After harvesting for several weeks, the vines will be played out.  At this point, they can be pulled from the garden and you can replace them with a planting of a summer crop such as tomato, eggplant or pepper.  Early planted potatoes can be harvested in June and followed by a late crop of field peas or bush beans.  Summer crops can be replaced in the fall with a fall planting of garlic, onions or greens (such as turnips or Swiss chard). 

You can also create different successions of the same crop by either staggering your planting or by choosing early, mid and late season varieties of the same crop.  For instance, the same variety of garden peas can be planted at two to three week intervals during the spring.  This will result in the first planting coming in to harvest first, followed in succession by later plantings.  This technique is particularly suitable for quick growing crops such as radishes, leaf lettuce, and spinach.  Another is option is to chose several varieties with differing days to maturity.  When planting on the same day, these varieties will come in to harvest at different times.  For instance, a planting of three varieties – Sugar Bon (56 days to maturity), Super Sugar Snap (64 days) and Sugar Heart (75-80 days) – would extend your sugar snap pea harvest over a longer window than a single variety would. 

Variety selection plays an important role in other ways as well.  Different varieties have different growth habits.  Most gardeners are familiar with determinant and indeterminant tomatoes.  Determinant varieties set most of their fruit in a short period of time.  These varieties are a good choice for succession plantings.  Indeterminant varieties set fruit over a much longer window, so you may choose to plant them just once. 

Interplanting more than one crop is another succession planting strategy.  In this instance, crops with different growing requirements or maturity rates are planted in the same bed.  For instance, lettuce can be grown under trellised tomatoes – maximizing the yield per unit area in the bed.  Other intercropping options include leaf lettuce with kale and the traditional “Three Sisters” combination of corn, beans and squash.   Another intercrop technique involves planting closely and thinning the crop for use as it matures.  Some vegetables including carrots, beets and lettuces make good “baby vegetables”.  Start thinning before the seedlings’ leaf canopies over lap and use the small, tender vegetables in the kitchen as a tasty change from their more mature counterparts. 

A planting chart is a great way to estimate your planting and harvest dates.  Use the days to maturity from the chart or your vegetable seed packet to estimate the harvest date.  Choose a planting chart that is targeted to the NC Coastal Plain such as this one: http://pender.ces.ncsu.edu/files/library/71/VegPlantingGuide.pdf. 

Last Average Frost

Is it Spring Yet??

The beginning and end of our temperate zone growing seasons are defined by frosts – the last frost of spring and the first frost of fall.  Many gardening references refer to the average frost free date or average last frost of spring when discussing the beginning of the garden season.  In Onslow County, the last average frost falls around April 7.  But this is only the average, half of the time, the last frost will fall before this date and half the time the last frost will fall after this date.  In 1 or 2 out of ten years, the last frost can be as late as May 2-7.  The average first frost in the fall is October 29 but in 1 or 2 years out of 10 it can be as early as October 8-13. 

For vegetable gardens, wait until at least April 21 to plant warm season crops such as tomatoes and peppers.  These crops require not only frost-free air but also warm soil for vigorous growth.  Frost dates vary significantly across the county with coastal areas often seeing their last frost several weeks earlier than inland areas such as Richlands. 

Climate Predictions for 2015

Dr. Diana Rashash

Before we get into the current expectations for 2015’s weather, let’s review 2014.  Overall, it was a somewhat cool, slightly wet year for the NC coastal plain.  With rainfall, much depended on location.  For example, the northern third of Pender was slightly dry, the middle third was “normal”, and the coastal third was slightly wet (see figure below).  Throughout the coastal plain, there were fewer days than normal at or above 90°F, which contributed to it being a cooler than normal year.  A more in-depth review of 2014 is available at the NC State Climate Office blog:

http://nc-climate.ncsu.edu/climateblog?id=114

Source: NC State Climate Office

What’s expected for 2015?  At this time, the National Weather Service is predicting equal chances of “above”, “normal”, and “below” for both precipitation and temperature during March, April, and May.  This means it may be hot and wet, cold and dry, or any combination in between.  They just don’t know.  The only exception is that the far northeastern band of counties has a slightly greater chance of experiencing above normal temperatures.  The forecast graphs are available at:

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?lead=2