We are dry in the area, having received little rainfall in the month of October with only 0.06”. We did get almost 6” of rain in the last half of September which went a long way to helping fall crops in the field. Temperatures have overall been fairly warm with highs bouncing between the 60s up to about 80°F. Most areas did get some frost around October 14 to 15 but not super widespread. It was very calm and the soil warmth provided quite a bit of protection depending on your air drainage. Personally, at my house which sits very high I have tomatoes, peppers and beans still untouched by the cold, but other areas got significant frost.
Aside from the dry, most fall crops have done well. My fall cole crops have done very well (with a little added water). I have pretty well wrapped up harvest of my fall broccoli (‘Millenium’) no-till transplanted August 11. I also transplanted some cauliflower (‘Twister’ & ‘Cheddar’); however, it just now has some small heads. From previous experience and talking with other growers, it seems that cauliflower is very temperature dependent to initiate head formation and the warm fall has made for lots of foliage but still small heads. One year I harvested some of the nicest cauliflower on Christmas and that just might happen again. I’ve learned to be patient and its worth the wait! I haven’t pulled a row cover on it yet but if we get some temperatures in the 20s at night I might.
The pumpkin season is wrapping up for most all. It has been a good season for me. I got transplants in late June and had a good ripe crop to start mid-September as demand started and that has carried me through till now. I did have quite a bit of late powdery mildew by early October, but it never made it to the pumpkin stems, and then a frost came a week or two later. My last (third) powdery mildew spray was early September. I made one good insecticide application in late August and had very minimal insect issues after that. To me from an IPM stance I think this was a good season with the amount of sprays. It doesn’t really matter if disease comes in late as pumpkin quality was very good. Personally, the balance of supply and demand was pretty good and I’ve moved probably 90%+ of the good fruit, without running out of anything I needed. This is always a fine balance, especially with wholesale, to keep everyone happy with the supply they need and having over 70 varieties. Fall market weekends were overall very good weatherwise, and we had a very good turnout even the last weekend of October which historically has been slow as many people already have their pumpkins. In part, I think the warm weather has really spread the “fall mood” as many said “it just didn’t feel like fall yet” so rather than a big rush, people held out till a little later. Of course, some customers couldn’t help themselves and just came every week to get more pumpkins.
Cover crop planting is still on going, however, by now we do need to narrow our selections to more cold tolerant species. I am still planting some clovers and have some research on clover species and cereal rye on planting date. In our area I think we are still in the fair window to try something like crimson or balansa clover along with winter grains, but if our weather pattern shifts that could change in a hurry this time of year!