Zone 9 Winter Vegetables

What should I plant in Zone 9 in Texas

I'm just around the corner from you. I always grow tomatoes, peppers(anykind), beets, turnips, greens, broccoli, cauliflower. Got my bed ready and going to plant seedlins and/or seeds this weekend.
Susie

Urban Harvest, a nonprofit organization in Houston is a great resource - their entire website is fabulous. Also Dr. Bob Randall (their retired director) has written a book - I consider the ultimate source for Houston Gardening - Year Round Vegetable, Fruits and Flowers for Metro Houston. The info is invaluable, and there are great charts for when to plant different veggies year round. Urban Harvest sponsors quite a few neighborhood and school gardens for charity and learning all around Houston.
/www.urbanharvest.org/resources/yearroundveg.html

The Harris County Extension Office also has a calendar of planting. Dr. Randall's book takes different areas of the city and talks about our micro-climates due to pavement and big buildings. I've found it invaluable.

I strongly recommend buying Bob Randall's book. I took his planting calendar and made it into a color coded chart since it was kind of frustrating to read in the format it appears in the book:

http://www.settfest.com/files/DrBobRandallCalendar.png

I planted tomatoes on Saturday (about a week to 2 weeks late truthfully), will be planting cukes and beans soon, and will be following his calendar for the most part this fall.

This message was edited Aug 29, 2008 8:54 AM

Here in Elgin/Bastrop, zone 8B, I have had maters in the ground about a month, and beans planted last weekend. I will plant another set of beans in about another week, to help stagger the harvest some. I should be dropping in some broccoli and cauliflower transplants all during september. Carrots seeds go in during october. I think that will be the extent of my garden this fall. Next spring, I will have some more raised beds ready and plant a few more things.

I don't suppose anybody knows of any similar information for central Florida? Zone 9b also..

It really comes down to if you are planting crops which need COLD and hate hot weather. Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Parsnips, and Sugar Snap Peas/Snow Peas among others really react poorly to hot temperatures. So you want them to be maturing when it is cold, even minor frosts do not bother them. Then figure out the # of days of harvest and work backwards. If you want to be harvesting in January, and a crop takes 100 days, then you want to be planting in late September.

You also have to figure in the loss of sunlight due to the angle of the sun. The sunlight reaches my backyard at a very shallow (?) angle in the fall which makes some beds which are very useful in the summer almost unusable in the 'winter'.

This message was edited Aug 29, 2008 2:29 PM

Feldon - I've used your chart many times since you posted it a while back. Makes Dr. Randall's information a lot easier to use! Thanks for posting it. Do you have much luck with fall tomatoes here?

Not large ones, but cherries do great.

But the last 2 years we have had early and record breaking-early frosts.

I am in North Florida and planted heirloom tomatoes in my earthboxes today. I found them at the local garden center and they are about 14" tall. We also tilled up the garden and will plant string beans tomorrow, with the cole crops to follow in late September, I think we are in the same zone. We usually harvest warm stuff until mid December.

Without raised beds and EBs, we would be hurting as Faye just dumped 12+ inches on us. Maybe we can dodge the bullets for the rest of hurricane season. I am terrified for the folks in Gustav's path.

Aquanine - glad you are doing ok after Faye! Hope the rain helped the dry spell much of Florida was having. I'm now wishing Louisiana the best of everything with Gustav. Looks like Houston is out of the danger zone and I'm relieved. Do you get freezes before Dec. 15?

Feldon - I have planted some varieties from Buchanan's - only one heirloom (Black Krim) and two Big Beef. There have been years we haven't had frost until mid/late December, but not since I started trying fall tomatoes, of course :(
I do have a Sungold and a Stupice from seed and will hope they make it.

Hey Bookworm,
We almost never have a freeze until the day before Christmas. Then it kills all of our poinsettias and they never make it to the holiday. That is how I remember the timing. But like gardeners everywhere, we keep trying because we just can't throw those potted plants away. We must plant them in the yard every spring. Maybe our 'maters will turn out OK.
Keep your head down. We get to sweat Hanna now.