Florida’s BEST Growing Season! Complete Fall Vegetable Planting Guide.

Hi Gardeners! Now that we're getting into the late summer, it's time to start thinking about the fall growing season, which is actually the best growing season in Florida. Most people think of springtime as the best time to start a vegetable garden. But here in Florida, if you plant your garden in the spring, you're likely to be disappointed with your summer harvest because summers are just too brutal for most of the common garden vegetables. Summer in Florida is scorching hot, very humid, and we get lots of rain and heavy thunderstorms, windy conditions, and lots and lots of bugs. All kinds of bugs. We get all of those in the summertime, all over our plants. So these conditions are not good for most of the vegetables, and they barely survive if they survive at all. And the few fruits that they do produce are likely to be damaged or eaten by the pests and just not be good. But the good news is that once the fall equinox gets here in late September, the sun starts to get less intense, the humidity starts to gradually decrease, the rainy season starts winding down, and once we start to get a couple of cold snaps, usually in like October and November, then the pest pressure starts to decline and gets down to like a manageable level with the bugs. These conditions are obviously much better for growing a garden. So while most of the country is winding down their gardens for the year, here in Florida we're just getting started with our biggest and best planting season. We can plant another round of warm season vegetables in the late summer for a fall harvest, and we can also start planting cool season crops for fall, winter, and early spring harvests. Since we can grow both warm season and cool season crops in the fall, that means we get harvests of just about every type of vegetable during the same period of time, which is great because it means I actually get to have a nice homegrown salad. It's very hard to get a nice big homegrown salad with everything in it, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, all the things. It's really hard to get that in the springtime because the lettuce is on its way out in the spring, so the best time is during the fall, and I just so enjoy my homegrown salads. So in this video, I'm going to talk about all the different things you can plant in this nice long growing season, and I'm going to give you the ideal window of time when you should be planting these things for a good harvest. Now obviously, it's not all the same in every part of Florida, and it can vary from year to year. So if you're in North Florida, you're probably going to want to plant a little earlier, and if you're in South Florida, you're probably going to want to plant a little bit later. I'm in Central Florida, so the list I'm going to give is going to be Central Florida dates, but what I'll do is in the description below the video, I will put a list for North Florida, a list for Central Florida, and a list for South Florida, so you can see all the dates specific to whatever region you're in. Also, if we're having like an exceptionally hot year, and they're forecasting it to be like hotter than usual going into the early fall or the winter, then you might want to think about holding off a little bit longer to plant the cool season stuff. It just sort of depends on the weather, so use your best judgment, but these planting windows are a good suggestion of what the ideal window usually is. So first I'm going to talk about the warm season crops, because they're not cold tolerant, and they need to be planted the earliest so that we can get them established, and they can mature and give us a nice harvest before the winter froths and freezes arrive. So I'm going to list things pretty much from like the earliest planting windows to the ones that come later. The warm season crops are the ones that do best in the temperature range of the 70s and 80s. These are mostly your fruiting plants, like tomatoes and cucumbers and squashes, and also beans and corn. They can tolerate some cool weather, but once the temperature starts to drop into the 50s, their growth starts to slow down, and they can be damaged or stunted when the temperature drops They'll also be damaged by frost, which can happen in the upper 30s, and sometimes even at 40 degrees if the conditions are right, and of course a tree freeze will kill these cold sensitive plants. So it's good to know what dates your region is likely to start getting frosts and freezes, so you can count backwards from that date to make sure you start your seeds early enough to get a good harvest before the cold arrives. So for example, I know my first average frost date is December 21st, so right around the winter solstice, and since tomatoes and peppers and eggplants can take around three months from the time you plant a seed until you get your first harvest, I try to start my seeds for those crops at least three to four months prior to that date. And actually I start them even earlier because I want to get as many harvests as possible before a potential freeze comes. I'm not doing all that work just so I can get one harvest before the freeze, I want to get multiple harvests. But tomatoes and peppers and eggplant are the only crops that I try to start really early. Personally, I like to start mine in mid-July and into early August, but technically you should be okay if you start them any time between July and the end of August. Ideally, you just want to be transplanting your four to six week old seedlings in August and September. So the rest of the crops on the list don't need to be transplanted, you just sow the seed directly wherever you're going to grow the plant, so they don't need a head start or anything. Pumpkins, the seed can be planted in July through the end of August. Winter squash can be planted in August. Okra can be planted all the way through August, but usually people are growing okra all spring and summer long because it's a really heat tolerant plant. It can grow in the really harsh summer. So most of us are growing okra all through the summer, and if you want to plant another late planting of it, you can, you just don't want to plant any more past August because then it gets too cold. So southern peas are the same way, they can take the heat, so most of us are growing them all spring and summer long, but if you want to do another late planting of them, you can do it all the way through September. Cucumbers, you can do a round of cucumbers starting in August through September. Sweet corn, also August through September. Summer squash, August through September. And beans, August through September. Although I have seen some guys say as late as October, it kind of depends on your region. I don't like to plant as late as October because they're pretty sensitive to the cold and I don't feel like I'll get enough harvest before it could potentially get cold where I am, but if you want to take a chance, you could try to plant as late as October. So as you can see, the window to plant warm season crops for the fall is pretty short, and we have to squeeze in our planting during the late summer. But most of the cool season crops have a much later and longer planting window. Cool season crops are mainly leafy greens and root crops, things like lettuce and carrots and broccoli and kale. They do best in temperatures between 50 and 75 degrees. Once the high temperature starts getting up to 80 degrees or higher, these plants start getting stressed, and that causes them to get tough and woody and bitter tasting. When we start getting a lot of hot days, most of the cool season plants will bolt and go to seed, and at that point they are not appetizing to eat. By late March, most of Florida is getting days in the 80s, and some days we can even get close to 90 degrees. The weather fluctuates a lot in March because it's a transitional time and you can still have some cold days, but then it can suddenly get very hot. And these fluctuations are a shock to the vegetables that can't tolerate heat, and that triggers them to bolt and go to seed. By the end of April, most of Florida feels like summer and has already experienced multiple days reaching or exceeding 90 degrees. So April is the last month to finish harvesting cool season crops, and a lot of Florida gardeners like to wrap up their cool season gardens even by the end of March. For most cool season vegetables, there isn't a big rush to plant them early, because most of them can grow quite happily all winter long. You can pretty much plant any time between the fall equinox and the winter solstice. You also don't have to do only one planting. There's a lot of crops that you can succession plant so you can get a harvest every few weeks instead of all at once. Broccoli and cauliflower and carrots and beets and lettuce are all crops I like to succession plant. For the most part, I have been trying to list these in order of which crops have the earliest planting windows to the ones that have the latest planting windows. But I kind of deviated from that with a few of these, which are the ones you see highlighted on this page, and I'll explain why. Most planting guides say that broccoli and collards can be started as early as August, and that cabbage and kale can be started as early as September, and that cauliflower can be started in October. So I have those months listed as the beginning of the planting windows for these crops. However, I know a lot of people like to start all of these particular types of vegetables early, even though it's still extremely hot in August. Some people start all of these indoors in August in order to have nice big seedlings ready to transplant in October. And it's pretty easy to start them in August if you have a good indoor space with a grow light, but it's a lot harder to start them outside in the heat. However, it is possible to start these vegetables outdoors if you have a way to keep them cool, either by using shade cloth or by putting them in a partially shaded location. You would want them to get morning sun until about 11 a.m. and then to have shade throughout the hottest part of the day until around 4 or 5 in the evening. And you also have to keep them very well watered and not let them dry out, which happens very quickly with small pots in the heat. Now, some gardeners want nothing to do with all the extra work and hassle of trying to grow cool season crops outside in the heat. But others may think it's worth it in order to have a much earlier harvest. So I wanted to tell you the options and you can decide for yourself whether you think you want to wait until the weather is more comfortable to start your seeds or come up with a plan to start them early. I used to always start most of my cool season seeds indoors right after the autumn equinox in late September and then transplant them in October. And that worked out very well. But in the past few years, I've been experimenting with starting some of these earlier. And so far, that's also been working out. So I'll probably keep trying to plant a little earlier just to get in as many harvests as I can. Onions are another vegetable that some people like to start early because they take a long time to mature and form a bulb. It's usually recommended to start onions from seed in September, but it's another one that you could start a little earlier indoors or in a cooler shaded area outdoors. I usually try to start mine as early in September as I can. And it's pretty much the same situation with celery. You can start it indoors or in a cooler shady location outside in August, or you can start it in September. But even in September, it's very hot. So celery would still need shade and lots of water if planted outdoors. Celery especially needs a lot of water and it likes to grow in damp soil. So you really have to keep it watered. Now as for the end of the planting windows, I don't always agree with the planting guides. Like for broccoli, most guides say that you can continue planting broccoli all the way through January. But I think that's kind of late. It takes a few months for broccoli to mature and produce a head of broccoli. So if you planted a seed at the end of January, it's not likely to produce a head of broccoli before the hot dry weather comes. And it may be too hot for it to produce anything that's worth harvesting. When I've tried to plant broccoli that late, it hasn't worked out very well for me. So I try to get my last broccoli plantings done by the end of December. I think if you plant an early maturing variety that is known to be heat tolerant, then you might have better luck planting late. But I would still really try to get my last planting done by mid-January. And I'm not saying it can't be done, but it's more likely that you could have a disappointing harvest if you plant seeds at the end of January. And as we go through this list of vegetables, you'll see that my preference of not planting as late into the winter or early spring is going to be a reoccurring theme. And I know I'm not alone in this. I've heard a lot of other Florida gardeners say that the planting windows in most of the guides tend to go a little later than what seems to work best for most of us. It may be that if you were in a survival situation where you didn't have a way to store your harvest, then you might want to continue planting as late as possible, even if your crops are going to not be as tasty as they otherwise would have been. But for most of us, that's not usually the case. And we usually want to plant when we can be most assured of having good success and really good tasting vegetables. It's the same for collards. The planting guides say that you can plant them all the way through March, but I wouldn't personally do it past February. And even that seems awfully late to me because collards usually taste better harvested in the cold, and they can get bitter in the heat. And that's why I wrote the little note, earlier better, later bitter. That's kind of my motto. But some varieties are a little less bitter, so if you wanted to keep growing collard greens through the hot weather, then you should look for a variety that's known to not have as much bitterness. Some Florida gardeners even grow collard greens all the way through summer, but I personally don't. Collards and kale are both cut and come again vegetables that you can just pick off leaves that you want to use, and more will grow back. So I always just do one planting of several collard green plants and kale plants in the late summer or early fall, and I keep harvesting from those same plants all fall and winter and into the early spring. And then I usually pull them out around the end of April to start making room for my summer plants. Now with cabbage, the planting guides say you can plant seeds all the way through January. And once again, I think that's getting pretty late because most cabbage takes around three months to mature. And if you plant at the end of January, then your cabbage is going to get tough and bitter as it's maturing in late April. So either try to do your last planting by the end of December, or if you're going to plant in January, then plant a fast maturing variety so that it's not maturing in the hot weather. For bulbing onions, you can start seeds as late as December and get your final harvest around the end of April. I usually try to get my seeds planted by the end of October at the latest, but I think there were some years when I had to do it later and I still was able to get a decent harvest. Now with onions, be sure that you're planting a short day variety since you'll be growing them during the short days of fall and winter. With celery, the planting guides say you can start seeds as late as February. But again, I would try not to push it that late because it can get bitter and stringy and tough when it's maturing in hot temperatures, and it takes a long time to mature. So I would really aim to have my last plantings done by December, personally. Now I have heard some people say that they planted celery seeds in February and got a great harvest. So apparently it's doable as long as you keep them well watered. So the rest of the crops on the list are pretty straightforward. So I'm going to try to breeze through these a little faster. Rutabaga is a root vegetable, but you can also eat the greens. And I think it tastes pretty good. A lot of people really like it, but for some reason it's not on any of the planting guides. So I had to dig around to try to come up with a good seed planting window. And what I came up with is September through November as being the ideal planting window. And that seems about right to me. When I planted it, it was in September and October. But it's a good one that you could stagger your plantings, succession plant it so that you get multiple harvests. So you can certainly plant some in September, plant some in October, and plant some in November to get some continuous harvests going. Swiss chard can be planted between September and February. And it can tolerate heat a little better than most other leafy greens. So I don't really have a problem with saying that you could plant it as late as February. Even still, it could get a little bit more bitter, but you also could harvest the leaves while they're still young and tender and they'll taste better that way. The planting window for mustard is September through March. It's a pretty fast maturing plant, so I don't really have a problem saying that March is the end of the planting window. Like everything, it does taste better in the cold weather and it does start to taste bitter once it starts to get hot. So you may want to cut it off a little earlier than March if you don't like bitter flavors. Turnips can be planted between September and January. Radish grows really fast, so the planting window is September through mid-March. And that's one of the few things that I think is okay to plant as late as mid-March because it does mature so fast. So you could probably have a harvest in like 20 days. It will start to get bitter as it gets hot in April, but I think you can squeeze in one last planting in mid-March if you want to. Lettuce, you probably don't want to plant it any earlier than late September and you can plant it through mid-February. But it's quite sensitive to the heat and can definitely bolt very quickly as soon as we start getting some hot weather. Now a lot of these vegetables that I've talked about are quite tough and can handle cold weather, including a freeze, a frost. In fact, a lot of them just taste really nice and sweet after a freeze or a frost. But lettuce can be killed by a freeze or badly injured by frost. So I would cover lettuce if a freeze or a frost is predicted. Endive or escarole, that can be planted late September through February. I've never grown that myself, so I can't really comment on if that's a very accurate planting window. Spinach, the planting window is October through December. It is pretty intolerant to heat, so that's why it's got a later planting window in the fall and an earlier planting window in the winter. The planting window for kohlrabi is October through March. I've never grown kohlrabi, so I can't really comment on that. But I would suspect that like most other things in this list, it probably is likely to be more bitter if you start seeds as late as March. But I don't really know for sure, so I just put what it says on the planting guide, and we'll just go with that. Beets, the planting window is October through February. And here again, the guides say you can grow this through March. But again, I think earlier than March is better, and later is going to be bitter and tough and woody. The planting guides say through March, I say through February, and that's probably still pushing it. Carrots, same thing, October through February. But the guides say you can plant it through March, but again, I think planting it earlier is better. And carrots sometimes get what people describe as a soapy flavor when they're grown in the heat. So you certainly can plant carrots later, and I do think you can plant them all the way through March. And you can still get an edible harvest, but it's just probably not going to taste very good. I mean, they definitely taste better in the cold. So I prefer October through February as the latest. Peas, late October through January, they are very intolerant of heat. We're talking about English peas, not the southern peas. English peas are not heat tolerant, so their best time to plant them is November through December. If you really want to extend the season into late April, there are a few strategies you can use to extend the growing season. One thing you can do is to put up a 30 or 40% shade cloth to bring the temperature down some. But just remember that most plants need at least six hours of full sun, so you don't want to block out too much light. You just want to bring the temperature down as much as possible. And ideally, it would be good to place a shade cloth where it's going to block just mostly the intense midday sun, but not necessarily the morning sun. I also wouldn't suggest using too high of a percentage of shade cloth. I've always just used 30 or 40%, and that's worked well for me. Another thing that is important to do in the spring is to make sure you keep your plants well watered. By April, it will likely be hot enough that you'll need to water every day. Spring in Florida is during our dry season, so it's both hot and dry, which adds even more stress on the plants. So it's important to stay on top of watering. If you know you're going to want to try to grow cool season crops until late April, then it's a good idea to plant varieties that are known to be heat tolerant, at least for your last plantings during the late part of the planting window, the ones that are actually going to be growing in the heat. You can also continue harvesting some vegetables while they're still young and in their baby stage, because they're going to be more tender and better tasting than they would be if you left them to fully mature in the heat. So this works best with vegetables like lettuce and carrots and greens. So moving on to a couple of crops that we grow in the fall and the winter that are not started by seed. One of them is my favorite, strawberries. Most of the strawberries we're used to eating are the kind that are grown from bare roots or plugs. Plugs are easier to grow in my opinion, but they're harder to find. There's less variety available in plugs. So strawberries can be planted from late September through November. I'd say the ideal time really is October, but I have planted them as late as November. It's kind of stressful when it's strawberry season because the bare roots do not last long. As you might imagine, they're literally roots that have been dug up and they're not in soil. So they will rot very quickly. So when it's strawberry planting season, as soon as you get your bare roots, you've got to be ready to plant them as soon as you get them. But you can store them in your refrigerator for up to like three weeks at the most, but they're going to start deteriorating after a couple weeks, even in the refrigerator. There are certain varieties of strawberries that grow better in Florida. These are some varieties that are good for growing in Florida, and they're the ones that I think taste the best. So in order of my favorite tasting Florida varieties to my least favorite, Florida Medallia, that's my favorite, followed closely by Chandler. Ember is also really good. Albion is pretty good. Festival is good. Sweet Charlie is good. Sweetsensation, I've had some really good ones and then some that are just kind of bland, but they're good. When the conditions are just right, they're great. And then last is Sequoia. It is good. It has a good sweetness, but it seems like it's more prone to getting tart if the conditions aren't just right. Like if it's dry conditions, a lot of these can get tart, and Sequoia seems to have that problem a little more than some of the others. So it's not really my favorite. And then there's garlic. You plant cloves of garlic to get a new garlic plant, and the planting time for that is November through December. Ideally, probably more like mid-November is ideal, but I have planted it as late as early January, and it still did give me a decent harvest. Now, there is a trick to getting garlic to develop bulbs here in Florida, because it is a very cold weather plant. It needs a certain amount of cold to be able to develop a bulb. So the trick is to put it in the refrigerator and trick it into thinking that it's in a cold climate for 10 to 12 weeks. Some people say 8 to 10 weeks, but I like to do it as long as possible. Softneck varieties are considered best for growing in Florida. Some of my favorite varieties that I've tried are Lor's Italian, Polish White, California Early, and Inchelion Red. Or maybe it's pronounced Inchelion Red, I'm not sure. There are a lot of herbs that you can grow in the fall and the spring. Most of them have two planting windows, because most of them you don't want to plant during the dead of winter. But you can do one planting in the fall, and then you can do another planting in the late winter for a spring crop. Now, basil is the most cold sensitive, so that one's got the earliest planting window. You can plant basil between September and about mid-October, and then you can start more for the springtime in late February through March. Rosemary you can plant for the fall in September through November, or you can plant it indoors for the spring, mid-January through February. Oregano has a planting window of September through November, and then again another round can be grown in the spring, mid-February through mid-March are your planting dates. And it's the same for thyme and sage and lemon balm and marjoram is similar. It has a planting window in the fall of September through November, and then you can plant again for the spring in late February through March. Mint can be grown from September through February, and I noted here that catnip is in the same family as mint, so you can also plant it in that same planting window of September through February. Fennel likes the cold and is not very tolerant of the heat, so it just has one planting window from October through December. Same with cilantro, it has no tolerance for heat. It loves the cold, so you only want to plant cilantro in October through January. Parsley is similar, you only want to plant that between October and the end of February, and dill also you can plant from October through February. Dill is really easy to start from seed, it will start itself from seed once you get a plant established. I hope this video encouraged you and gets you excited about a fall vegetable garden. I'd love to hear what you plan to plant this fall, so let me know down in the comments. And if you liked this video, please remember to like and subscribe. Until next time, happy gardening!