See my recent post for info about fall broccoli and cabbage. Here I provide some more information and discuss other brassicas you could grow in the fall.

Temperature and Timing for Fall Brassicas

1. Germination: Brassica seeds will germinate at soil temperatures from 41°F (5°C) to 95°F (35°C). 41°F (5°C) can take 45 days for some brassicas, but in summer and fall, this isn’t the end of the thermometer we worry about! In summer and fall, soil temperatures are enough to germinate brassicas in 3-10 days. Optimum soil temperatures for germination are

• 77°F (25°C) for most Asian greens, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collards, kohlrabi, pak choy;
• 86°F (30°C) for cabbage, including Napa cabbage, kale, turnips and rutabagas;
• 68°F (20°C) for mustard greens, and perhaps arugula (which might do better even cooler)

2. Cold-Hardiness: Consult this list of winter kill (air) temperatures for brassicas, for the crops you are growing.

• 32°F (0°C):  some cauliflower curds, some pak choy
• 27°F (-3°C): many cabbage varieties
• 22°F (-6°C): some varieties of arugula
• 20°F (-7°C): broccoli heads (maybe OK to 15°F (-9.5°C)), some Brussels sprouts, some cabbages (the insides may still be good even if the outer leaves are damaged), some cauliflower varieties, some collards (Georgia Cabbage Collards, variegated collards), some mustards/Asian greens (Tendergreen), radishes (Cherry Belle), most turnips (Noir d’Hiver is the most cold-tolerant variety).
• 15°F (-9.5°C): some broccoli and cauliflower leaves, some cabbage (Kaitlin, Tribute), Red Russian and White Russian kales, kohlrabi, rutabagas (American Purple Top Yellow, Laurentian), most covered turnips, winter cress.
• 12°F (-11°C): some broccoli perhaps, some Brussels sprouts, some cabbage (January King, Savoy types), most collards, Koji greens, covered rutabagas
• 10°F (-12°C): Purple Sprouting broccoli for spring harvest, a few cabbages (Deadon), some collards (Morris Heading can survive at least one night), Belle Isle upland cress, probably Komatsuna, Chinese Thick-Stem Mustard may survive down to 6°F (-14°C), covered winter radish (Daikon, China Rose, Shunkyo Semi-Long survive), Senposai leaves (the core of the plant may survive 8°F/-13°C), Tatsoi, Yukina Savoy.
• 5°F (-15°C): some kale (Winterbor, Westland Winter), many of the Even’ Star Ice Bred greens varieties and the Ice-Bred White Egg turnip are hardy down to 6°F (-14°C)
• 0°F (-18°C): some collards (Blue Max, Winner, McCormack’s Green Glaze), Even’ Star Ice-Bred Smooth Leaf kale
• -5°F (-19°C): Leaves of overwintering varieties of cauliflower, Vates kale survives although some leaves may be too damaged to use. Lacinato Rainbow Mix kale may survive this temperature.

3. Your Climate: Consult WeatherSpark. com to see when it begins to get too cold in your area. At our farm, the average daily low temperature on November 30 is 36°F (2°C). Decide your ideal harvest date for each crop. Although kohlrabi can take 15°F (-9.5°C), I’d want to get it all harvested by November 30.
4. Days to Maturity: Next factor in the number of days a crop takes to reach maturity. Work back from your desired harvest date, subtracting the number of days from sowing to maturity (or from sowing to transplant, plus from transplant to maturity). Work back another two weeks for the slowing rate of growth in fall. And perhaps work back another two weeks in case in gets colder earlier than usual. This provides your sowing date.
5. Mid-Winter Harvests: For crops that survive your winter, are you sowing to harvest in the fall, during the winter, or only in early spring? Brassicas for early spring harvest only can be sown in September or October in our climate. For those to be harvested during the winter, you need to have big enough plants going into the winter, to provide sustainable harvests (once a week in November and February and more in spring, plus maybe once a month in December and January)

Various Fall Brassica Crops

In the summer we try to have a No Visible Brassicas Month to break the lifecycle of the harlequin bugs. Once our spring kale is finished, the spring cabbage gathered in, and the spring broccoli mowed down, the only brassicas are seedlings hidden under insect netting. Our hope is to starve out the harlequin bugs or at least deter them from making too many more.

We sow other fall outdoor brassicas a bit later than cabbage and broccoli. These get transplanted from our netting-covered nursery seedbeds, to our raised bed area which is more accessible for winter harvesting and more suited to small quantities.

Asian Greens

Outdoors we grow Senposai, Napa Chinese cabbage and Yukina Savoy. We have also sometimes grown tatsoi and komatsuna. Note that senposai grows quite large – give it similar spacing to collards.

We sow Asian greens for outdoors in the last week of June and first week of July, aiming to eat them before we start harvesting the ones in the hoophouse, which feed us all winter. We use Asian greens outdoors as quick-growing greens to fill the gap before our main fall greens (spinach, kale, collards, cabbage, broccoli) are ready to harvest. We don’t grow a lot outdoors.

If you don’t have a hoophouse, you can sow for outdoors later into the fall than we do, to get a longer harvest season than you otherwise would. And you certainly can direct seed them.

Collards

We sow collards in the first two weeks of July and transplant the bare-root transplants from the nursery bed when they are 3-4 weeks old. We plant at 18” (46 cm) in the row, with rows 12” (30 cm) apart. (if you grow a large kale, you might want similar spacing. Our Vates kale is small)

Brussels sprouts

are rather a challenge in our climate, and not worthwhile. We have worked on finding the best variety (Oliver) and timing for our situation. Harvest timing is critical, as Brussels sprouts will not overwinter here.

Cauliflowers

are a tricky crop for us too. Be sure to check the “days to harvest” for each variety (they vary widely) and sow at a realistic date to get a crop before too many frosts endanger the curds. The number of days quoted for fall varieties of cauliflower already allows for the expected rate of growth at that time of year, so the 14 days for slower growth isn’t a factor. However, cauliflower is more tender, so allow for the possibility of a fall frost earlier than average.

Kohlrabi

We sow Vienna kohlrabi mid-July and transplant early August at 8” (20 cm) apart in the row, with 9-10” (23-25 cm) between rows. Later sowings (up till early September) would also work for the fast maturing varieties. Superschmelz Kohlrabi (60 days from transplanting) can also be summer sown for fall harvest. It produces 8-10” (20-25 cm) bulbs, which remain tender and an attractive globe shape.

Kale

We direct-sow two neighboring beds of kale on each of 8/4, 8/10, 8/16 and then carefully thin them, leaving one plant every 12” (30 cm). These plants grow quicker than transplants, as they have no transplant shock. Meanwhile, if we have gaps, we use the carefully dug thinnings from those beds to fill them. We want a lot of kale, and there isn’t time to transplant it all. Dividing up the sowings lets us focus on watering just one pair of beds at a time. Vates kale is the hardiest variety we have found, although I’d love to find a taller Scotch curled variety that could survive our winters (Winterbor does not survive as well as Vates).

Rooty Brassicas

Radishes, rutabagas and turnips are also brassicas, but I won’t say more here. look in the further resources.

Brassica Aftercare

Brassicas started in hot conditions do not usually bolt if they have enough water.

 

• Protect seedlings and the new transplants with insect netting if you have brassica leaf pests (most of do!) You can remove the netting when the transplants are well established, or leave it on.
• Use shadecloth to keep greens cool in hot weather, or plant them in the shade of other plants.
• To keep crops in good condition later into the winter, use rowcover. I recommend thick Typar 1.25oz rowcover, which provides 6F degrees of cold protection. I wouldn’t spend the money on anything thinner, it’s too frustrating! We do not normally use rowcover in the winter for kale and collards, as they will survive without. In harsh winters we lose the collards.

Cultivation is a simple matter of hoeing, weeding, watering as needed, and watching for pests.

Further Fall Brassica Information

• Fast Growing Vegetables Written  in spring, but crops worth considering
• Fall and Winter Vegetable Growing, Harvest and Storage
  
• Season Extension and Frost Preparations
• Garden Planning, Winter Harvests
• Slideshow on late fall, winter and early spring vegetables
• Root Crops in November and other posts in the Root Crops of the Month series.
• Cold-hardy Winter Vegetables Slideshow
• Winter-Kill Temperatures of Cold-Hardy Vegetables 2021
• Cooking Greens in June
• and other posts in the Cooking Greens of the Month series.
• Asian Greens for April: This post contains links to all 12 Asian Greens posts.
• We grow some winter brassicas in our hoophouse: Russian kales, turnips, and Asian greens – more about those in my winter hoophouse posts (includes slideshow).