Possibly My Last Harvest Post Of 2008

It is hard to believe that it is inching closer to December already. It seems like just yesterday I had a lush veggie patch full of produce. Now all I have left is naked brussels sprout stalks, some flat broccoli and an empty cold frame. Kind of a bummer actually but with my second year of vegetable gardening ahead of me, things should be even better next year.

With the cold spell we had last week I headed out for what maybe my last harvest of 2008 and came up with some brussels sprouts and radishes.

I stripped most of the leaves off the brussels sprouts to make harvesting easier and was able to pick about half of the sprouts. The rest were to small to pick. I am still hopeful that I may get a second harvest out of them if the weather stays in their favor. I think the following reasons are the culprit for the sprouts not developing so well:

• The first being I plant to early, brussels sprouts are recommend to be planted late spring/early summer so the sprouts start to develop in September not August.
• The second problem was they kept falling over due to their size & weight. Next season I am going to stake at planting time to keep ahead of their growth.
  
• The third thing working against me was they received to much shade in the fall once the sun angle lowered. I will plant them in the lower beds next year as it receives much more sun.
• Finally I am going to plant an F1 variety next year that yields better and grows shorter. I am either going to grow Bubbles or Jade Cross E as they are supposed to be the best varieties.

Now for the broccoli, I thought they were done for. When I uncovered them today they seem to be pretty unharmed. The heads still look okay and what looked like leaf damaged during the cold snap now looks fine. They certainly are a little flat from the snow covering, asides from that they seem to be in good order. I will leave them in, still hopeful an act of god will happen and I will be harvesting 2lb heads of broccoli. Next year I will be following the Ministry of Agriculture's recommended planting date of July 15th for late broccoli, not my planting date of August 5th.

Lastly about the cold frame. During the day the temperature inside is going higher then the outside temperature even on cloudy days. At night though it is matching the outside temperature pretty closely. The soil is nice and loose inside with the outside soil being frozen about an inch down. This week is suppose to be above freezing so I am going to go ahead and plant some seed. If they grow great, if not I will try again in March when the season gets a little less nasty.