Trying to Grow Veg in Harsh Climate and High Altitude

Ficksburg, South Africa

Hi All, first time poster at this site. I am hoping to get some helpful advice from successful veggie growers who are gardening in a similar climate. I am in South Africa in the Eastern Free State Highlands, close to the Lesotho border, at a Latitude of 29 degrees South. I guess most forum members are in USA or elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere so our seasons are phased 6 months apart. We are heading into summer now. This area receives its first frost around early April and our last frost can be as late as mid October. Our lowest winter temperatures are not that cold, very rarely below -11 degrees Celsius, coldest in my memory has been -15C. Our August month is wierd. Some mornings are below freezing and by mid day it has warmed up to around 20C. (Forgive me for using Celsius, I am not familiar with Farenheit). I think my biggest problem is with the intense sunlight at this altitude of 1900 metres, around 6000 feet. We are in a bit of a drought cycle, the last good rains were about 5 or 6 years ago, and consequently we have little cloud cover. I have to water my plants with municipal water, the supply of which has been somewhat erratic for the last 10 years. Our topsoil is shallow, under it is a yellowish clay. However I've been composting for years and where I'm planting my veg have much improved this situation, I even have earthworms 2 feet down. I have had some success with beans, leafy veg and small tomatoes (I think the cool nights even in mid summer cause the larger tomatoes to crack) also pears and apricots. I get hardly any fruit from the peaches and plum trees which I thought would do well in these parts. So from mid winter (June, July) this year I have been making my biggest effort in the garden. I am hoping to grow brassicas including Oriental veg also squash and melons, at which I have never had decent results. Any constructive advice will be greatly appreciated and I will try and put your tips into practice. Thanks so much,
Anomalous Ant

Augusta, GA(Zone 8a)

Not I can be of help as I have no experience with your type of climate, which sounds somewhat like a high desert. Brassicas are relatively easy, but they do require water. They will grow between O and 25 C. They struggle at higher temps especially in direct sun. You might try a shade cloth or similar. Most have a short DTM which makes it easier to find growing window. Squash and melons have varying requirements for growing condition including DTM of less than 2 months to more than 4 months.

Augusta, GA(Zone 8a)

Not I can be of help as I have no experience with your type of climate, which sounds somewhat like a high desert. Brassicas are relatively easy, but they do require water. They will grow between O and 25 C. They struggle at higher temps especially in direct sun. You might try a shade cloth or similar. Most have a short DTM which makes it easier to find growing window. Squash and melons have varying requirements for growing condition including DTM of less than 2 months to more than 4 months.

Ficksburg, South Africa

Hey Farmerdill, Thanks for the reply. This ecosystem (what little is left of it) I believe is known as high Savannah. I am using 10% shade cloth over 2 of my growing areas, a couple of trees throw some shade on the 3rd. I got my shadecloth direct from the manufacturer for a great price. I didn't realize it was so wide, 2 metres, So I have plenty left over. I can double it up the if I see the need. I don't get the DTM concept. Is that days from planting, from germination, from planting the seedling out or what. Whatever it is, the given DTMs seem to be over optimistic. I'm probably doing a lot wrong. I will have to look into the window concept for everything I want to grow. My goal is to be able to get something to eat out of my garden for almost every day of the year. Thankfully we have had a few drops of rain already this season. Today was a little cloudy. It's amazing how a few wispy clouds can attenuate the intense sunshine we get at this altitude and latitude. I am hoping the drought will be broken and we get some decent rain this summer. Ant

Augusta, GA(Zone 8a)

Days to Maturity is usually listed two ways. For things that are normally transplanted like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, peppers it usually means from time of transplant. For plants normally direct seeded, beans, turnips, pak choi, radish etc time of seedling emergence. Most brassicas do well starting about -6 C and failing at 30 C. Squash and melons do best between 15 C and 35 C. are more tolerant of sun and less demanding of water.

Augusta, GA(Zone 8a)

Days to Maturity is usually listed two ways. For things that are normally transplanted like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, peppers it usually means from time of transplant. For plants normally direct seeded, beans, turnips, pak choi, radish etc time of seedling emergence. Most brassicas do well starting about -6 C and failing at 30 C. Squash and melons do best between 15 C and 35 C. are more tolerant of sun and less demanding of water.

Thumbnail by Farmerdill
Ficksburg, South Africa

So I've just completed planting out a lot of my brocolli, cauliflower etc. I have some golden snap peas that have, just germinated very nicely. Do I hope to be able to harvest anything in midsummer from these crops? Or is my timing all wrong, and I should be getting them going some time in summer so I can pick something early winter? I'm trying to grow simple and organic, the plastic shadecloth goes somewhat against my values. Having started again, this time the most enthusiastically of any previous attempt, only July i.e. mid winter all I am getting now out the garden is salad leaves, and quite enough for 2 or 3 dark green salads a week.

Augusta, GA(Zone 8a)

I don't know. I would think that Your September would be equivalent to our March which is an ideal planting time for peas and brassicas in much of North America. They would finish before the soltice. ( longest day when the new season begins)

Ficksburg, South Africa

OK then maybe I'm doing something right

Ficksburg, South Africa

I'm really pleased with the golden snap peas. They were really dry looking when I opened the packets. Soaked them for 20 hours in weak compost tea and they plumped up nicely before planting. Got over 80% germination so far. Tried Oregon sugar pods but so far only 3 have pushed out shoots. IIRC I've had better results from those planting them late summer. Some people don't learn.
We have basically 2 seasons here ..... too hot or too cold. One summer (summer rainfall area if we get any) it rained only twice, once for 12 weeks continuously and then shortly after, again for 3 weeks. One year we had hail the size of cricket balls one afternoon. As I said we haven't had hardly any rain for a long while, but so far this early summer or spring (whatever one calls it) we have had some cloudy days. I hope this bodes well for not getting a late frost, clouds at night seem to insulate us. I have one beautiful apricot tree that sets fruit much to early for this clime.

Ficksburg, South Africa

My other apricot tree takes its time, no hurry to put out fruit. We rely on this tree to give us a heavy harvest every year.

Ficksburg, South Africa

Another question that might be trivial, i.e. is it one of those things that just don't matter? I tend to plant things in a square grid, spacing plants in rows, with an equal spacing between rows. Planning for about a month or 6 weeks hence, when there is little chance of a late frost and the days are very warm, I want to plant a good amount of sweetcorn, together with beans, squash and mini pumpkins. So I'm planning on planting the sweetcorn 10cm, 4 inches apart in rows and 20 cm, 8 inches between rows. Is my spacing too close and should the rows run from north to south or east to west, or east to west, or is it just not important?

Augusta, GA(Zone 8a)

Because I have traditionally grown field crops, I plant in rows for ease of cultivation. As long as plants have proper spacing for the species, I have not noticed any difference in performance between block planting and direction of rows. Of course it is important to plant rows across a hill to hold water and prevent erosion. Under my conditions sweet corn needs space. I plant in rows 1 meter(36 inches)apart at 15 -18 inch spacing (38- 45 cm)

Thumbnail by Farmerdill
Ficksburg, South Africa

Hey Farmerdill, only between the 2 of us we have this discussion up in "Most Active" threads. I don't know where I got that close spacing for sweetcorn from, probably some YouTuber. I will have to rethink that, I want to have at least 100 sweetcorn plants growing. But I still have plenty time to work that out. Thanks again,
Ant

Augusta, GA(Zone 8a)

Unfortunately this forum has faded away since Dave left. I am active only in Plant files and just stumbled across your posts. Out of curiosity, I looked up Ficksburg. Seems to ba major farming area with cherries leading the way.

Ficksburg, South Africa

Hi FarmerDill, Pity that this forum is fading, it hosts some nice features. Thanks for your interest (or curiosity).
Cherries are not as big an enterprise as 15 years ago. They are a luxury niche product with a very short season. In Ficksburg town the biggest employer was a produce packer, who used to process cherries into glace cherries, and their other big operation was exporting asparagus to EU, mostly Germany. It boggled my little pip how the retail price in Europe could cover air freight. That business fizzled out and put a lot of people out of work. I guy I know tried to revive the asparagus side of it with someone else's money and lost the other guy's boots. So now there is a lot less land under both cherries and asparagus near Ficksburg, for which local conditions are well suited. Most of the agriculture around here is GM, RoundUp and insecticide intensive with maize, sunflower and soya the main crops, also winter wheat. Almost all dairy operations around here have ceased. There are a few top down chicken and/or egg producers (where they grow and mill their own feed) in these parts.
If you really want to know what's happening in South Africa one needs to look at politics. No comment.

Guffey, CO(Zone 4b)

I don't view this forum often, but just saw your post when looking for some info on high elevation vegetables. I am in Colorado at 9,000 ft elevation and have a quite successful garden. I am probably USDA Zone 4b. My main growing season is from June 15-September 15, with exceptions. This year we had a freezing night July 1st and snow Sept 9th. One of the keys for high elevation is using shade cloth to protect from too much of the sun's rays, and being able to cover everything at a moment's notice on those frigid nights that happen too late in the spring or too early in the fall. You'll need to keep in mind that because of our high elevation cool nights, most things grow more slowly than they would with warmer conditions. While a plant may grow, maturity dates may be significantly longer than what is listed on the seed packet.
I am growing brassicas, peas, beans, summer & winter squash, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, onions, garlic, asparagus. I grow tomatoes in my greenhouse, as the summers here are just too cold for them.
For more info see highcountryliving [dot] net.

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