There is little chill in the evening air and the summer gardens have likely given all they have to offer. Here is a quick update about what to expect in your gardens this month. October usually means fall planting season for us in San Diego, but don’t get too excited and go planting everything at once this early in the season.
By now you have cleared the summer plants (for the most part), added compost and fertilizer to the garden and have everything ready to go for the next round of plants, but Mother Nature has some tricks up her sleeve for Fall. Southern CA is notorious for Fall and Winter heat waves, especially in October and November. Because of this we run the high chance of losing everything in the garden to a heatwave burning the tender cool weather crops so I take a slow approach to Fall planting.
I start planting sparingly with heat tolerant crops like chard, kale, romaine and oak leaf lettuces, onions, garlic and peas. The remaining winter crops like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, cilantro, etc do not like anything over about 72 degrees F and prefer overnight temps around 50 degrees F or lower, so it is best to hold off on those for a few more weeks. In the first couple of weeks I will plant only a few items in the garden and let them go for a week or two as a test run. I like to see how the plants are reacting with my own eyes before committing to planting out the whole garden. Also, this minimizes our potential plant loss (and money loss!) to a heat wave. Once I am confident that the cool weather is going to hold for the long term, I will go ahead and plant my heart out! Keep in mind that there is no guarantee that we will not have an unexpected heat wave in the dead of the winter season, but that is just a part of gardening in Southern CA. To me, this is a small price to pay for a year round growing season.
BUGS!! They will be a real issue for the baby winter crops until it gets cold enough to kill them off for the season. Aphids, caterpillars, sow bugs, snails, slugs and grasshoppers will still be around and will be all too happy to snack on your newly planted crops. They can do a lot of damage in a short amount of time so vigilance is key. Resist the urge to use broad spectrum insecticides like Neem oil and other similar products. They are meant to kill everything, good and bad. Oftentimes just spending a few min in the garden looking for pests and removing them is all you need to do. If the plants are a little better established you can give them a regular rinse with water to knock the bugs off. If you do need to use something to control a bug problem be sure to identify the offending critter and take a targeted approach. If you have caterpillars, use BT. It is organic and only affects caterpillars, leaving everything else safe and sound. If you have snail/slug issues, pick them off and spread Sluggo Plus on the soil around your plants, applying once a week. If you have aphids, use insecticidal soap. The point is that we only want to remove the specific issue with little to no collateral damage.
Please reach out to us anytime with your cool weather garden questions. Feel free to send us a message or connect with ud on Instagram or Facebook. We would love to see your gardens so please share pictures of what you have growing!!
Happy gardening!