What to plant and pick in September: garden calendar

September is one of the most complicated months for the family orchard or pot garden, because You have to perform many tasks and make decisions. Most of the summer crops have finished their cycle -melons, watermelons, baby beans- or are entering their final stretch -cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes- and you have to dare to clear some terraces or cultivation tables so as not to delay planting and transplants of autumn and winter crops, such as broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, broad beans, spinach, escarole or peas.

My advice is that we start up and put in the compost all the plants or remains of crops that we see that are no longer going to be very productive, which will allow us to have spaces and prepare them for new autumn or winter crops.

What to sow and transplant in September

In this month we have a great activity in the seedbeds, since we can sow chard, celery, lamb’s lettuce, various types of cabbage, Chinese cabbage, kales, spinach, borage, peas, broad beans, endives, lettuce, rocket, leeks, radishes, turnips or fennel.

Radishes: without a doubt, their cultivation is the easiest and most versatile, since they develop without problems in any soil or growing medium, being able to grow them in very little space and even in pots. We can start consuming them four or five weeks after planting them. We will pay a lot of attention to its correct hydration, watering regularly.Canons: Very easy to grow, they do well with autumn humidity, away from the summer heat. As they are small and undemanding seedlings, we can sow them in pots and planters or directly between the lines of cabbage or broad beans.Spinach: We will select autumnal varieties and we will sow them in a soft soil or a substrate rich in humus. We can add 1 kg of earthworm humus per square meter. It is advisable to rake the soil well before sowing (broadcast or in lines about 20 cm apart).Broad beans: They are vigorous plants that prefer poor and little fertilized soils, being able to recycle the remains of compost from previous crops. We will sow 2 to 3 seeds in holes 20 to 25 cm apart, and 3 to 4 cm deep.Kales: They are cruciferous, cousins ​​of leafy cabbage, cabbage or broccoli, and have very similar soil, fertilizer or care needs. We can sow them in seedbeds or directly in the growing area and thin when they have 4 or 5 leaves.

Besides, we transplanted to full earth, On the terraces or in the pots and growing tables: onions, leaf and cabbage sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, kales, endives or leeks. In the orchards of temperate zones we can still transplant the clogs or cuttings of the artichokes.

What to harvest in September

Onions: when the bulbs are well formed and a few days before harvesting the onions, it is advisable to bend the stems and leaves at an angle of 90° to prevent any tendency to spike and flower; We will observe that this way they thicken more.Kales: it is convenient to harvest the largest leaves of the kales, even when they are still somewhat tender, thus we stimulate the plant to direct the nutrients towards the new leaves, which will develop more tender and with much greater vigour.Chard: some gardeners wait until the chard is fully developed and cut the entire plant for consumption. But when we have little space, it is preferable to cut the largest leaves and we can continue harvesting for months.Leeks: With the arrival of the first cold weather and the more humid environment, the leeks begin to thicken better and their texture is softer and more tender. It is not necessary to cover or blanch them as the nutrients are concentrated in the greener parts.trocadero lettuce: This variety of lettuce is very sensitive to summer heat, tending to spike, but from September it takes its time to form large heads, with very tender and buttery leaves, which are delicious in salads.

Beware of humidity and fungus

On the other hand, as we find ourselves in a time that is usually characterized by rain and high levels of night humidity, most of the problems derived from the development of foliar fungi, such as fusariums, powdery mildew or mildius.

If we grow plants that are sensitive to fungal attacks, it will be advisable to carry out regular applications of horsetail decoctions (rich in silica) or better yet, of buttermilk or yogurt (diluted at 10% in water), which will fulfill the double function of preventing the development of fungi (by modifying the Ph of the leaves) and at the same time it is an excellent foliar fertilizer, which offers an extra nutritional contribution in this season of vegetative exhaustion.

If September is dry, we will maintain the summer irrigation dynamics, but in the event that we are facing a rainy month, it is advisable to control and reprogram the automatic irrigation programmers, reducing the time or frequency, in order to avoid water stagnations that would cause suffocation of roots and promote the problematic presence of fungi and rot .

Look for remedies in the kitchen

When we carry out organic farming, we start from the maximum “Do not put any product on the plants that we would not put as a dressing on a salad”, because what we put on the plant will end up on the plate. For this reason, when we are faced with possible problems that may arise in our balcony or terrace crops, we will always start by considering the possibility of going to look for possible remedies directly in the kitchen.

Yoghurt: For example, as we have already commented, it is well proven that the yogurt diluted in water (a natural yogurt per liter of water) is one of the preventive and curative remedies for fungal attacks (especially mildew).Beer: If we do have slug attacks, it will suffice to have -facing the night- some saucers filled with an inch of beer, so that the slugs feel attracted and end up drunk and drowned inside the dish.Coffee: we will scare away the snails from the garden if from time to time we spray the plants and the cultivated land with well caffeinated coffee, because the alkaloids of the coffee repel the presence of snails.Hot sauce: You can keep sucking bugs, such as aphids or aphids, at bay by occasionally spraying your plants with the dilution of a very spicy sauce that we can make by grinding garlic, chillies, onion, ginger, basil and some cinnamon in water. These substances displease or harm the majority of aphids and aerial parasites of our crops. And surely most of us would put some of these ingredients in our salads and stews.

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