October started as a continuation of the above normal temperatures and dry conditions. Temperatures have started to get closer to average in the last half of the month and finally we broke our dry spell. We had 2.71 inches of rain as of October 19 which was the first rainfall in almost a month and first daily rain over 1 inch since late July. We dried out some and are in the midst of some wet weather here in the early part of the week of October 27, which has included some slow soaking rains to help our soil recover from drought conditions.
The drought has made a lot of challenges with our fall plantings as I mentioned last month as well. Irrigation has been a saving grace to many fall crops which otherwise may have struggled, however, with water, we have had lots of sun and adequate temperatures for good growth. Cover crops have also struggled. We planted some pearl millet and cowpeas in some fallow land, and it had barely any moisture to work with. The stand at first was very thin but continued to slowly grow. Plants branched and spread and now there is a really nice cover about 2-3 feet tall. Its days are numbered, as with a hard frost, it will all be done for the season.
Tomatoes have been a struggle this season, however, personally I have some of the best tomatoes (and peppers) of the season now. Late plantings of snap beans and cole crops are coming in. With some water I have had a really good fall crop of broccoli and cauliflower. Broccoli has been coming in for a few weeks now but cauliflower has just started to come in, within the last week. I have tried various varieties in the past but this year I have ‘Millenium’ broccoli and ‘Twister’ (white) and ‘Cheddar’ (orange) cauliflower. Fall cole crops were transplanted August 10.
With more moisture we will have to see how the fall temperatures treat us to see how much longer we can get good growth from our fall crops. There has been some very patchy frost, within the last week, but nothing widespread yet. We have some cooler weather with lows in the 30s predicted, and the end of the growing season for some crops might be near.
