FALL OR WINTER GARDENING

Press Release Eddy County Cooperative Extension Service 1304 West Stevens Carlsbad, NM 88220 For More Information, Contact: Woods Houghton, Eddy County Agriculture Agent Eddy County Cooperative Extension Service Phone: 575-887-6595 Fax: 575-887-3795 whoughto@nmsu.edu FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FALL OR WINTER GARDENING The same basic steeps for fall and winter gardening apply to winter gardening, but in some ways the first two steps are even more critical to be successful. Step one is know your climate, which is different from know your weather. In Eddy County it is difficult because we go from hot to cool to cold then back to cool in a short period of time. Predicting the first frost is always a crap shoot it seems. Using weather data from the Artesia Agriculture Experiment Station for a 32 F frost the earliest recorded is September 18 in 1968 the latest is November 16 in 1978, and 88. The most common is October 24. Likewise for a killing frost 28 F the earliest is October 8 1976 the latest is November 28 1970 and the most common is November 3. The Artesia Station posts it data daily on the Eddy County Agriculture and master gardener Facebook pages, including soil temp. Of course this changes a day or two further south or north. Around these data prepare to take action to protect your plants. Step two is plan before you plant. For a winter or fall garden you want to plan for the sun moving a little further south and take advantage of as much sunlight as possible. Also take advantage of heat adsorbing structures such as walls, these can radiate heat a night and extend your growing season up to a week. Step three is preparing the soil. Healthy soil makes health plants; healthy plants make healthy people. I try not to disturb the soil structure as much as possible by minimal tillage or no tillage. There are a number of techniques to do that. Step four is fertilizing for optimum crop production. A German agronomist a long time ago came up with the axiom that you can only produce to the minimum limiting nutrient. If you don’t test your soil you don’t know for sure what that is. It does not do any good to put on a lot of what is already there. Step five is to plant your garden semi hardy vegetable for late summer or early fall include Broccoli, most gardener’s in Eddy County plant this at the wrong time in the spring it does much better when planted in the fall. Turnips, I remember we always threw in some turnip seed with the fall planted alfalfa. Garlic, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, Kohlrabi, kale, spinach, lettuce, radish and European cabbage all do well in the fall. Someone asked me about winter squash. The winter part of the name has nothing to do with when you plant it but when it is consumed. Before current food preservation techniques were available squash varieties which could be stored and consumed in the winter was called winter squash. I have the diary of a pioneer relative in my family and every January there was a note, “All there is to eat is squash and jerky.” Step six is to water properly. As the day time temperature drop the water demands of the plant are reduced so water based on soil moisture not on the day of the week. It is still good to water deep and not as often as the roots grow deeper. Step seven is to control pest. That is one of the good things of fall and winter gardening often the number of insects competing for the food is less. You do need to be mindful of winter annual weeds which because you are watering will germinate early. Step eight is to harvest at the right time. New Mexico Extension Vegetable Specialist Dr. Walker has an excellent publication on how to know when to harvest. You can down load it from our web page or we can mail you a copy. As the cold weather approaches plant protection will need to be constructed, such as plastic grow tunnels or other measures will be necessary. New Mexico Extension also has plans for hoop house that can be constructed in the fall. Subscribe to Eddy County Ag news at: http://nmsueddyag.blogspot.com/ Eddy County Extension Service, New Mexico State University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and educator. All programs are available to everyone regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, handicap, or national origin. New Mexico State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Eddy County Government Cooperating.