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Southern hemisphere interloper here! Hope you don’t mind.
Latitude 30°S Elevation 1000m (~3280ft)
Direct sown: beetroot, silverbeet (leaf beet), cabbage, radish, rocket, parsley, coriander (cilantro), peas (two for fresh peas, the rest for soup), turnip
Sown in trays: leeks, rocket ‘Apollo’ (both old seed but want fresh seeds of both)
Kales are coming up on their own and will be thinned later.
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Have you tried these two varieties from Baker Creek Seeds?
I was very pleased with both of them. Delicious pods, delicious peas, and they flowered more quickly than anything else (except one variety I got from a fellow gardener, and that one flowered about two days sooner). Not only that, they grew vigorous and tall and were very productive, and they seemed to be okay when the heat came along in May. They did die down completely by the end of June, but they’d finished their life cycle by then. I started a second generation of each of them in late July, and they germinated well and are now a about three inches tall and climbing happily.
Since our summer temperatures are usually between 90-99 degrees during the day and 60-70 degrees at night, I figure that means they’re probably pretty heat-tolerant peas.
P.S. By the way, it looks like Baker Creek Seeds says one is ready in 50 days and the other is ready in 60-70 days. I planted the seeds for both varieties on the same day, and they started flowering on the same day, I’d say about 60 days later ish.
Latitude: 30.9
Elevation: 230’
The weather is around 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day after around 12:00 PM and drops down to around 75 right before the sun comes up again the next day. We have high humidity and low cloud cover on most days unless it’s raining.
It’s so hot the okra is on its knees begging for mercy.
I went ahead and planted a bunch of seeds yesterday since my first frost is coming up around the middle of November. I planted a bunch of stuff as an experiment. A bunch of things that are probably a bad idea such as lettuce, cabbage, turnips, Brussels sprouts, short day onions, beets, kohlrabi, parsnips, radishes. I probably planted something else that I will discover later.
I expect some of this will fail rapidly and some slowly. I expect this to magnetize cabbage moths to the area in swarms. I am glad I have befriended the wasps.
40.5N and 545 ft
@UnicornEmily I just planted the magnolia tendrils pea about a week ago! Glad to hear it did well for you, will report on results, if the bunnies that have found a way through/under the fence don’t get to them first.
I planted a second crop of peas, which is up and growing, a few radicchio and tom thumb lettucesn and a row of Gaucho bush dry beans (which were growing nice but some bunny has found a way in and mowed half of the plants last I checked, adn that was all the seed I had.
Yeatersay Input in some mustars greens.
Am hoping to plant some red and golden beets one day soon. Our average first frost is October 10 I think…
You’re maybe a couple weeks early but mid September is when people normally plant turnips and stuff like that here. They should grow fine but I was told the insects are worse when you plant early. The thing about planting in the fall here is how dry it is. Last year we had a drought from mid September to first of November, 6 weeks long, and whatever people planted in that time didn’t germinate until November. I’m hoping to plant my fall garden around September first. We’re in a bad drought in Louisiana right now or else I would maybe go ahead and plant now too.
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I’ve planted a whole bunch of common beans, cowpeas, and tepary beans this month. As well as fava beans and peas, in preparation for winter. It’s probably a bit late to plant hot weather beans, but I’ve been sowing another batch of hot weather beans every two weeks for the past few months, in order to see what seems to work best for them.
So far, I’ve determined that an inch or more of mulch is too thick, no matter what the conditions (if it’s moist, roly polies will eat all seeds as soon as they germinate; if it’s dry, no moisture will get through and they won’t germinate). In spring, even thin mulch keeps the top of the soil too moist, and roly polies eat everything. I think I need to sow into completely bare soil in spring. In summer, thin mulch seems to be essential in order to keep in enough moisture for seeds to germinate.
I’ve also determined that some bean plants are doing noticeably better than others, which probably means they’re better adapted to my climate. I’m really hoping I wind up with a wide variety of beautiful patterns and colors when I save their seeds.
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I have to finish some bed preparation before I can put out my fall seeds, and I’m getting nervous that I’m not going to be ready in time. I would like to have my seeds in by next weekend when there is rain forecast. I only have experience planting mustard, onion, and radish in the fall.
My intentions for planting:
- Chicory and endive
- Red veined sorrel
- Brassica and mustard mix
- Carrots
- Elephant garlic and bunching onion
- Fava bean
Depending on how much space I have ready, I may not plant all of these, but I sure hope I can.
I am in the process of trying to establish Hibiscus moscheutos here so I will also be broadcasting seed that I wild harvest and I may bring some rooted plants home as well. This is a perennial herb.
Another project that is more of an experiment is establishing sochan, Rudbeckia laciniata. I haven’t been able to find any of that growing in my area, although this is its native range. So I have a small amount of purchase seed that I need to figure out where to plant. This is also a perennial.
I’ve been having the hardest time getting brassicas to germinate. I’ve been sowing them since July, and they keep refusing to come up. My suspicion is that the weather is too hot here, but if they don’t start soon, they’ll be too little to survive the winter. I may just have to resort to putting greenhouses around them because they won’t germinate until right before the frosts start coming. Sheesh.
Does anyone have any suggestions to get brassicas to germinate successfully in midsummer?
The peas and fava beans I planted two weeks ago are coming up and looking great, so I’m pleased about that! I haven’t sowed carrots or put garlic in the ground yet.
39.17 N, ~770 feet
We planted around the heavy rains around August 10th:
annuals/biennials (semi-annuals/annuals?)
- cabbage
- kale
- collards
- chicory
- lettuce
- barley
- oats
- okra
- green beans
- zucchini
- parsnips
- carrots
- peas
- winter squash
- watermelon
- favas
- runner beans
- matpe beans
- chickpeas
- corn and pole beans
- fenugreek
- basil
- garlic
- ajwain
perennials
- perennial kale
- asparagus
- lovage
- cow parsnip
- long pepper
- cold hardy ginger lily
- cold hardy banana
- moldovan sea buckthorn
- oxeye sunflower
- boneset
- yarrow
Obviously some of these things make substantially more sense than others. Of the less sensible ones, many are destined to be cover crops. That’s okay to me - - some are actually from a cover crop mix.
Some of the gambles were motivated because I felt bad about what I ended up doing during the growing season compared to what I had planned. Some of them I had tons of seed and figured I’d just see what happened.
The gambles weren’t just emotional plantings though - - I suspect some of them will come through, and it’ll be alright in the very unlikely event none of them do.
I mostly used my preferred planting method of broadcasting which takes awfully little effort and allows for earlier communication between plant and environment than either transplanting or soaking and sowing.
I kind of want to show and tell a little more about what I did and where things are now so I’ll probably link to a followup thread.
EDIT: Here
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I meant to respond to this in the same breath as the main post. It seems to me that seeds that retain the better part of their natural intelligence (i.e. not too heavily influenced by unskillful stewardship) usually know what’s up better than their human stewards. I think this is true perhaps especially when grown with plant peers in a natural setting (e.g. not a growing area that gets stripped of all living roots after every season).
My point is your point - - your current conditions may not be what your seeds are waiting for. It appears to me that if your seeds retain enough of their natural intelligence and vitality and are otherwise sufficiently compatible with your conditions, they will know the right moment to germinate. I don’t have extensive experience, but I have seen some very young domestic brassicas (at least kale, mustard, and radish) do just fine in our 6b winter. By very young I mean they may barely even have true leaves yet, or even germinate and grow against a backdrop of some frosts.
On the flip side, I scattered possibly hundreds of bok choy seeds near our blackberries and raspberries in winter. I only noticed that one germinated and failed to grow past seedling. Maybe these seeds weren’t that smart, or - - probably more likely since this included a bok choy grex from the EFN - - there was something else uninviting about these conditions. Maybe these berries are strongly allelopathic and I should have done my research first. After a year of passive observation as an embryo, I would not be surprised if I see some next year though
Also, I have several turnips I let go to [copious] seed and didn’t collect seed from. I know the critters ate a lot but I’m sure a ton scattered on the ground. This seed is smart and vital and in many cases F1 or F2. I have very few turnip seedlings in these areas so far.
I think some of your brassicas are likely to start coming up soon as we get closer to fall
About germination in midsummer. I don’t have trouble with moisture most of the time here. Thankfully.
Thinking about it though, I use cardboard a lot and I wonder if cardboard could be helpful with midsummer germination. It helps retain moisture, so I can imagine that putting down the seed, then watering heavily, placing a sheet of cardboard on top, placing a small stone to hold it down, and watering again.
Then a person would check under the cardboard at least every day or two, so that once germination begins, the cardboard can be permanently removed.
I hope this idea from someone in a very different climate might be useful.
I have considered doing that! It seems likely it would do a good job of keeping the soil moist.
My main concern with that idea is that I think I might forget to check for days in a row, and then the seedlings might die from lack of light . . . 
It still might be something worth giving a try, however! If nothing else, it may be beneficial to see if it does work for me.
I have been astonished at the way certain plants (moss, violets, and dandelions come to mind) can survive under cardboard in my area for more than a month, while grass withers away. They turn pale and look sickly but rebound.
In terms of brassica sprouts, I have no idea how they would do for too long under cardboard, but it might be they shrug it off like the aforementioned.
That would be cool.
I’m also concerned about pill bugs, which seem to eat every seedling that sprouts under mulch for me. It would be such a bummer if the seeds germinate, only to be eaten by roly polies.
Any tips to prevent that from happening?
We have similar insects here, but not the same, and I have yet to notice them doing damage to any of the vegetable plants. In other words, no, I don’t have any thoughts on that point.
Our insect in that ecological niche sometimes swarms in the pursuit of warmth and moisture and will follow it indoors in the spring. Yech 
But at least they aren’t eating my vegetables as far as I know.
They only eat the little baby sprouts . . . but BOY do they eat the little baby sprouts. ALL of them. If the soil is at all moist on top, roly polies will eat all the cotyledons of any seeds that germinate, leaving a bare stem behind (which occasionally, but not often, manages to struggle to produce leaves and manages to survive).