Fall Vegetables for San Diego

Fall in San Diego begins subtly. It’s not a dramatic burst of color like in the East Coast or other temperate climes, but rather a shifting in light and temperature – how it feels outside. That’s how it strikes me as a native. I always know when it’s Fall.

Click here to jump to the Vegetable Planting Schedule for Southern California!

August, September and October is a time when you can start to dream about what you want to plant for the Fall and Winter season , and put some seeds in pots or directly in your garden.

Here in San Diego with our mild Mediterranean climate, we are blessed with all-year-around growing. Fall is our “second spring” as far as planting goes. And when the rains come in early winter the local grasses and native plants will start to green up the golden areas of summer.

Now that the season is changing to progressively cooler, shorter days and less intense sunlight, we transition to cool-weather crops. Warm weather crops like corn, tomatoes and squash – plants that develop fruits that we eat – require long warm days and a long growing season. Cool season crops are generally plants where we eat the leaves, stems, roots or immature flowering parts, such as lettuce, kohlrabi, carrots, broccoli and so forth.

It’s a good idea to take this opportunity to add to your soil: spade it and work in some organic matter. It’s been depleted from the summer’s growing. Add some compost and/or manure, and ideally a balanced organic vegetable fertilizer to it (the fertilizer helps to compensate for the mulch that hasn’t broken down into nutrients yet). Water your plot  and let the soil settle for a couple of days; then sow your seeds. Water them gently: most winter crop seeds are small, should be planted at a shallow depth, and can wash away easily.

Planting Period Key

	Optimal - Fruiting type (mostly summer vegs.)
	Acceptable - (mostly summer vegs.)
	Optimal - Greens type (mostly Fall/Winter vegs.)
	Acceptable - Greens type (mostly Fall/Winter vegs.)
	Optimal - Root type (mostly Fall/Winter vegs.)
	Acceptable - Root type (mostly Fall/Winter vegs.)

The key on the right will help you interpret the vegetable planting guide table below.
The general pattern of summer veggies is that they are warmth-loving plants, grow quickly, and yield fruit of some type. Obvious examples are tomatoes (which I used as the key icon for summer types), corn, beans, squash, cantaloupes, etc. In contrast, most Fall and Winter vegetables are ones that you grow for their leaves or roots, such as lettuce, cabbage-family veggies, mustard greens, and root crops like turnips and rutabagas.

Of course there are exceptions to the “rule” for summer fruiting crops, such as Fava Beans (Broad Beans), which prefer cooler temperatures. Some leaf or root crops can be grown any time in Southern California, such as Swiss Chard and Carrots.

Southern California Vegetable Planting Schedule

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Asparagus
Beans (bush)
Beans (pole)
Beets
Broccoli
Brussel Sprouts
Cabbage
Cantaloupe
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chives
Collards
Corn
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Endive
Fava Beans
Garlic
Jicama
Kale
Kohlrabi
Leeks
Lettuce
Lima Beans
Mustard
Okra
Onions
Parsley
Parsnip
Peas
Peppers
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Radish
Rutabaga
Spinach
Squash (summer)
Squash (winter)
Sunflowers
Swiss Chard
Tomatoes
Turnips
Watermelon
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

That should be plenty to choose from!

If you’re curious about Fava Beans: “In mild-winter regions sow broad beans in early autumn for winter harvest (from Harvest to Table website).”:  How to Grow Broad Beans

And if you don’t want to plant veggies and just want to over-winter your plot, consider doing a favor to the soil and plant “green manure” such as alfalfa or Fava Beans. This will contribute nitrogen and help the soil community.

MORE ABOUT TYPES OF FALL VEGETABLES – A MINI-GUIDE (a work in progress)

Rutabagas

Links:
Fava Beans:
http://ucanr.edu/sites/scmg/The_Kitchen_Garden/Feature_Vegetables/Fava_Beans/

“Fall can be a 2nd spring for planting” (Union Tribune Newspaper, October 22, 2006)

*Here’s a table from digitalseed.com for Southern California with a slightly shifted schedule (October instead of September for most things)

“Vegetable Garden Planting Guide For San Diego County” – Master Gardeners San Diego  / U.C. Cooperative Extension (PDF file).

“Veggie Gardening in the Fall? – San Diego’s Unique Growing Season”
http://greenlifestudios.com/blog/2011/home-owners-greenlifestudios/veggie-gardening-in-the-fall-san-diegos-unique-growing-season

“Veggie Gardening in the Fall? – San Diego’s Unique Growing Season”
http://greenlifestudios.com/blog/2011/home-owners-greenlifestudios/veggie-gardening-in-the-fall-san-diegos-unique-growing-season

* From a flier from Walter Andersen Nursery.