- What's up everyone, Kevin from "Epic Gardening" here.
Today, we're talking fall.
It doesn't feel like fall,
it's only starting to feel like fall
here in San Diego, Zone 10b.
So what I figured I would do
is collaborate with one of my favorite gardeners
from the UK, Tony over at "UK Here We Grow."
So today's video, we're doing a three and a three.
I'm giving you my three favorite fall crops to grow,
we're gonna flip across the pond and Tony's gonna give you
his three favorite fall crops to grow.
So, stay tuned.
(upbeat music)
So the first crop we're highlighting
is actually not one singular crop,
it is a family of crops, so to speak,
and that would be Asian greens.
Asian greens, like this Chinese cabbage here,
are a perfect fall crop
because they will thrive a little bit more in cooler temps.
So the beauty of Asian greens
is that there's simply so much variety.
As we open my seed pantry, I will show you
just some of the ones that I'm thinking about this fall.
So, the first one is Mizuna Beni Houshi.
This is a fantastic variety that I highly recommend
you all try out.
It's very beautiful, easy grower,
and works just so well in fall.
Next one is going to be a classic, we all know Bok Choy,
but this is Purple Lady Bok Choy.
So you can see a theme here, I like to go with the ones
with a little more anthocyanin content,
a little more deep nutrition in there.
If you'd like a more dwarf variety,
Pak Choy Dwarf, four inches, is a really good one.
This is Joy Choy, another fantastic Asian green
that I really like growing.
And then you've got a Pak Choy variety
called Purple Magic that I really, really like.
Now some tips for growing Asian greens,
many do actually tolerate heat
but most of them do really well and get nice and sweet
as they come to harvest closer towards that frost date.
So what I like to do, is if I'm planning them right now,
I like to throw some sort of cover over it
to protect from those late summer, early fall pests
like the cabbage loopers, the worms, et cetera.
That's my one pro tip, and now we're tossing it over to Tony
for a crop that takes just a little more patience
than these Asian greens.
- My first crop to grow in the fall is winter onions.
Autumn planted onion sets are very easy to grow.
They are fantastic and look after themselves over winter.
But they have a long growing season,
typically not being harvested till just before the summer.
So, it's really important
to consider where you are planting them
because you'll wanna be able to put crops out in spring.
But onions are really hungry plants,
but they don't need loads of nitrogen.
So plant them into beds or ground
that was manured the previous spring.
Just turn it over and then plant into that bed.
If you plant them into a bed that's just been manured,
then you're gonna find your onions will bolt.
Plant your onions two inches deep
and four to six inches apart.
Larger spaces are gonna allow you to use one of these.
Now, this is an oscillating stirrup hoe,
and they're fantastic for weeding between onions.
They can get rid of all those weed seeds as they germinate
which will make your life much easier keeping them clean.
Onions don't compete well with weeds.
Plant in time, water them in well,
and consider covering them over with some fleece
or some netting to stop the birds
because they'll see the little tops of these onions
and you'll come back the next day
and find your onions sets all over the surface
where the birds have pulled them out
thinking they're worms.
It's important that onions don't dry out
when spring arrives, because if they do,
then the plant will get stressed and they will bolt.
Now, if this happens, it's not the end of the world.
Simply cut off the flower tip
and harvest the onions at that point.
You can still use them in the kitchen,
they just won't be any good for keeping for long periods.
And at harvest time,
don't be tempted to leave the onions in the ground
longer than about two weeks
once the tops have died back or flopped over,
because if you do, organisms are gonna get in
and it could start rotting process
or even the regrowing process.
Anyway, that's it for my onions, back to you Kevin.
- Awesome tips Tony, you love it,
and I cannot wait to see your onion harvest.
My second crop, that is potentially
one of my favorite fall crops of all time is,
ready for the reveal, cabbage.
So cabbage is a quintessential spring and fall crop.
You can see I've got it in a new raised bed
that I've just put in,
and we're planting it somewhat densely.
These are gonna be a smaller cabbage,
this is a Mini Kisaku 50.
So for a small cabbage, you wanna go about 14 inches apart,
for larger, massive cabbages
like ones I've grown in the past
and ones Tony's grown in the past,
you wanna go at least 24 inches or two feet apart.
Cabbage are a heavy feeder, especially nitrogen.
So they're going to do really well if you amend your beds
with a high nitrogen for fertilizer,
some really nice compost, of course we'll do the trick.
You could use something like feather meal
or there's some other products
like well composted chicken manure,
chicken droppings will do really well for cabbage.
Another thing you'll notice is again,
I'm using these blankets, these protective frost covers,
that it's not for frost,
it's for the fact that cabbage gets decimated
by a lot of common pests.
You have cabbage loopers,
you can see I already have damage here
on some of these tender leaves
and I'm doing my best to prevent that
by creating a full physical barrier,
a full floating row cover that I pin down with close pins
to make sure that I have no pest damage.
Well, that's enough out of me and cabbage.
It's time to toss back over to you Tony
for one of my favorite crops of all time.
- Wow, brilliant Kevin.
Like Kevin, I love growing cabbage too,
and this one took me 11 months to grow from seed to plate.
My next vegetable that I'm gonna grow is garlic,
and garlic goes so well with onions.
It can be used in so many dishes and its pungent flavors
can really make a meal something special,
licking mid autumn in well drained, fertile soils.
When planting your garlic,
ensure that the basal plate goes downwards.
Plant close, four to six inches apart,
and in rows, 18 inches to 24 inches apart.
Make sure that when you're planting your bulbs,
they are about two inches in depth
or at least the depth of the bulb down.
Now, planting garlic in these conditions is ideal.
They typically love to get
around six hours worth of sunlight a day,
and when you do that,
they can take about nine months to mature.
Water garlic sparingly because they hate wet soil.
And as the weather warms up into summer,
then you wanna reduce watering a bit
because they need this dry environment
in which to produce large bulbs.
Garlic doesn't do well with weeds either,
so consider mulching your garlic in the winter.
Use straw or chopped up leaves to protect your garlic,
and this will also help you
get much larger bulbs at harvest time.
The added bonus here is that the straw or mulch that you use
will also protect the ground
from littering away its nutrients through the winter
with the onslaught of all the bad weather.
Back over to you Kevin.
- Epic tips Tony, thank you so much,
and I can't tell you how excited I am
to start my own garlic 'coz I just got my sea garlic in.
So stay tuned for that coming down the line.
But my third crop, again, it's kind of a family of crops
is broccoli and cauliflower.
Now you might be wondering, why am I in the shed?
Why am I not out in the front yard showing you my broccoli?
That's because my broccoli
is actually still being started from seed.
And that's because here in my warm climate,
broccoli and cauliflower, these heading brassicas,
they need cold temperatures in order to form a head.
Because I'm in such a warm zone,
I have to stagger my planting a little bit later into fall
to make sure that when they're coming to maturity,
they actually are getting those 60-ish degree temperatures
so that they do form a nice, tight, compact head.
So, that's my first tip with broccoli and cauliflower,
is to make sure that you're timing your fall planting
for a moment where
you're actually going to get the temperatures it requires
to grow well.
So broccoli is a crop that likes even temperatures,
we know that, and it likes even moisture,
which means if you're not using mulch in your raised beds
or wherever you're planting your broccoli,
now is the time to start.
I know Tony over on his channel
does a lot on making leaf mold
which can be a fantastic top mulch.
You can also use grass clippings, straw, wood chips,
whatever you want,
as long as you're providing a nice barrier
for that soil to remain evenly moist.
And you know, with broccoli,
you can do a little overhead watering.
It's okay, but I would refrain from overhead watering
as soon as those crowns start to form
'coz then you can really start to introduce rot.
But early on in its life, especially if like me,
you're in a warmer climate with hotter temperatures
during that fall transition,
overhead watering can actually be a really good way
to cool down the leaves
as well as penetrate water into that root zone
and keep it nice and cool.
Paired with the mulch, you're gonna have a really healthy
and evenly moist soil.
Broccoli, light cabbage, and many other brassicas
is a heavy feeder.
So you're gonna wanna give it a top dress or a side dress
throughout the season,
as well as prepare your bed really nicely.
So, if you've just harvested your bed out for summer
which I just did, I wanna give it a nice top dress
of a couple inches of compost,
as well as maybe throughout that season
in that middle phase of growing the broccoli,
I may give it another side dress of compost
just to make sure I've given it enough to thrive.
Okay, that's it for broccoli.
We're throwing it back to you Tony
for the final plant in our fall series here.
Give it to us, I am very excited,
another one of my absolute favorites.
- I certainly have saved the best for last Kevin.
And my last vegetable to grow in fall is kale.
Now Cavolo Nero and Nero di Toscana
are the only varieties that are grown in Italy.
And that's for good reason.
It's because they taste the best.
And their large leaves
would be fantastic in joining Kevin's Asian greens
in a stir fry, they are brilliant plants.
This plant will grow in most soil conditions
and evening partial shade, but it does prefer full sun.
And it's an ideal plant to use as a follow on crop
after potatoes or something else
because you can plant this into ground
that was previously manured last spring.
Kale will benefit from a sprinkling of poultry manure
around the roots, and chicken manure pellets
are an ideal nitrogen source.
It's perfect for leafy greens like kale.
Another good feed would be liquid seaweed
because this can really stimulate growth on leafy plant.
Now kale suffers with all the usual brassica pests,
things like cabbage white butterfly, cabbage root fly,
and also white fly, and I'm a big believer
in using nematodes in the garden.
It's totally organic which is how I prefer to grow,
and nematodes are fantastic.
Now there's good and bad nematodes,
but it's important to note
that all the nematodes you can buy in the store
are all good varieties, and they will really help you
in knocking back these pests.
Kevin, before I hand back over to you,
I'd really like to thank your viewers
for allowing me to introduce myself and for listening to me.
I really enjoyed the opportunity
to be able to put forward my knowledge
and my passion for gardening.
And I really hope that you guys out there
have got something from this.
Anyway mate, back over to you.
- Well everyone, I hope you enjoyed this collaboration.
Six new crops from the UK and the US
to learn and to practice and to grow this fall.
Don't give up in your garden, it's fall,
it is time to try to squeeze out as much harvest as you can,
and I highly recommend you check out Tony's channel.
I've learned so much from his channel,
making leaf mold, creative ways to grow.
You know, just the simple difference in climate
means different methods, different techniques,
and different knowledge to learn and apply
to your own garden.
So, there's so much to learn over there
and he's got a beautiful, amazing, amazing garden.
So, please go check Tony's channel out,
and if you'd like me to do more collaborations
or you have any suggestions,
always leave it down in the comments down below.
Until next time, good luck in the garden
and keep on growing.
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