Sowing and Transplanting in October
Photo - January Harvest from crops sown August - October
October is the month that finds us questioning: Should we transplant now?
It’s also the month to spring into action with seed sowing. The warm season is soon upon us!
To determine the right time to direct sow and transplant warm-season crops, keep an eye on night-time temperatures. Many cold-sensitive crops — including tomatoes, basil, eggplant, capsicum and zucchini — can be permanently set back if they are transplanted too early. We can mitigate this risk by using row covers and poly tunnels to provide extra protection while temperatures are still fluctuating.
In the home garden, you can protect tender plants on cold nights with hoops and blankets, by planting next to a wall that absorbs and stores thermal heat, or by covering individual plants with domes.
We’ve put together a simple temperature chart to help you determine when conditions are right — [here].
And if you’re wondering what to sow now, you can read more about sowing seeds for cool-season and warm-season crops [here].
Here are the crops we sow and transplant in October:
Tomatoes
It’s easy to sow tomatoes now!
And with the summer predicated to be warmer then average, you have a great chance of harvesting basket loads. We are thinking about best transplanting date for our field tomatoes - anywhere from mid October - Early November depending on temperature. We have found that if wait until night temperatures are consistently above 15C, we have robust growth that thwarts disease and pests.
Basil, Marigolds and Herbs
We start our basil and marigolds AHEAD of the field tomatoes...
We continue to successively sow coriander - as the days grow longer, its desire to bolt or shoot up to flower increases. To keep a constant supply, you need to resow it often through late spring and summer.
We usually sow parsley 3 times throughout the season... With the second sowing late in October.
Zucchini, Summer Squash and Cucumbers
We love ‘Ronde de Nice’ Zucchini as it is our earliest, very prolific and one of the tastiest zucchini.
We start our first crop of these inside the greenhouse and transplant them out in mid-late October. In our late frost prone fields, we plant our first seedlings with protection from wind and frost, ensuring the earliest of harvests.
We will successively sow these, starting the next crop when the first flowers, mitigating our risks from frost and disease. And ensuring a continuous harvest throughout the warm season.
Greens
Butter Lettuce — We have written about our love afair with butter lettuce here...The Belles of the Spring Ball. We definately try to have the longest season we can with these incredible lettuces and sow them late July - mid October.
And in addition to Reine d 'Glace, the french heirloom we also LOVE, we start sowing more crisp head lettuces such as Head Cardinal and Joker
These lettuce shine from September - December, Early January.
Silverbeet is our garden staple green - always there for when. we need and want it. But we adore english spinach and it adores spring so we sow lots of it now and harvest through until the heat of summer really settles in.
And the quick greens such as Rocket, Bok Choy, Tatsoi, Mustards, Mizuna are always great space fillers. Just protect them from the diamond back moth.
We also continue to sow and transplant celery for a continuous supply. Even though Fingal Celery performs well in less-than-ideal growing conditions, celery does like water!
Roots
Carrots — to keep a constant supply, we sow carrots every 3 weeks from now through March!
Beetroot — we continue sowing these every month.
Celeriac — we sow this once in October for harvest throughout late Autumn and Winter.
Onions and Leeks
If you are wanting bulbing onions, SOW NOW!!
We offer intermediate to long daylight bulbing onions.
We successively sow [spring onions] from now through March.
We use ‘Red Long of Tropea’ onions like spring onions as they are sweet and colorful and work well cooked and raw.
We have started our leeks from August - October. As we really like leeks in Autumn and Winter, we find a September- mid October start works well for us.
Flowers
It's time to sow your summer cut flowers. These warm season workhorses will take you through until Autumn!
We are sowing Zinnias, Celosia, Cleome, Phlox, Salvias, Strawflowers, Scabiosa (Pincushion Flower), Amaranth, Cosmos, Tithonia
Flowers that attract beneficial insects such as alyssum, calendula, marigolds , nasturtium, coriander and dill
Successive plantings of fillers such as pennycress and mignonette
And of course - Sunflowers! We wait until the soil is truly warm and direct sow these glorious orbs!
For this section, I'd make the groups link to your Summer Cut Flower, Beneficial Insect, and Flower Filler collections if you have those.
Capsicum, Eggplants and Chillies
We are thinking about best transplanting date for our capsicums , chilies and eggplant - anywhere from mid October - Early November depending on temperature. Both will stop growing if the night temperatures are below 14C. We have found that if wait until day temperatures are above 17C, we have robust growth and early flowering
Both will stop growing if the night temperatures are below 14C.
Brassicas
If protected from moths, ‘Piracicaba’ , bred in Brazil as a heat tolerat bunching broccoli, will continue to produce well in a cooler summer.
We pause our brassica plantings from now until February. Although there are new varieties which thrive in the heat, with our limited space and need to rotate crops to prevent disease and maintain nutrient density, we reserved our space for Autumn brassicas.
Beans
Beans are ready to get moving!
Optimum soil temperature for germination is 21–32°C. Plant when daytime soil temperatures average at least 16°C, or risk poor germination.
Sweet Potatoes and Potatoes
Our sweet potato slips are growing in the glasshouse...
We sow our potatoes mid-October.
PLEASE NOTE - These recommendations are completely based on our 14 years of growing on this patch in Southern Victoria, Australia. See Key Information To Record For Future Success to understand on what we base this information.