Planting in the Fall in NC

Since shortly after Labor Day, I've gotten this question weekly at the Farmer's Market: Is it worth my time to plant herbs now, or should I wait until the Spring?

And my answer is typically: It depends.

There are many, many herbs that benefit from planting in September/October in NC. In fact, I'm working on a new bed this week that will probably take most of the week to get filled and ready, and I probably won't be planting it until next weekend -- the end of October! However, this bed will be mostly rosemary and thyme, and I won't add the sages ( a GREAT companion plant to rosemary) until Spring, even though they'd probably do just fine if I planted them now, also. Both the rosemary and thyme are sort of evergreens here in our moderate region, and they don't need tons of water, so I'm not overly concerned. I'll probably plant them and will then need to cover them with Agribon in a couple of weeks, but no matter; by early Spring, they will look lovely, I'm sure of it!

In terms of watering, if you have a big garden area you'd like to turn up, just be cautionary about need for water use, since we're currently in such a dire state here in NC. BUT you can still plant! However, smaller areas, fill-ins, and potted plants are OK, provided you are cognizant of conserving water as best as you can.

Herbs that LOVE the Fall and early Spring weather:

• Chervil
• Cilantro
• Dill
• Fennel
• Mints
• Parsley

There are also some other herbs that -- if you plan on growing them from seed -- you must throw out the seed NOW for the seeds to germinate and sprout in the spring, since they need a cycle of cold weather. Most of them are non-culinary, but there are some commonly used:

• Blue vervain
• Hops
• Jewelweed
• Soapwort
• Valerian

Also, it's a good time to plant trees and bulbs!

Even now, you can plant most other perennial/biennial herbs, and you will probably get something out of them, since our weather (usually with some light covering at night once the evenings go below 40 degrees F) allows for many to grow through to December. Then, they will usually go to sleep and slow down/stop growing in January/February, but in March -- your garden will be green before you know it, and a lot earlier than if you start plants in the Spring!

On another note, another question I often get is if herbs can be grown year-round in pots. Yes, they can! Though there are a few more particular than others, most are easy to keep going throughout the year inside, with the following items to note:

• Mediterranean plants - such as rosemary, sage, and oregano - really don't like to have soggy roots, and people tend to overwater in pots, so I'd caution to LET IT DRY OUT before watering -- usually 3 or 4 days. Otherwise, rot will abound, and you will have trouble trying to keep the plants going.
• Basils also don't like to be soggy, or they will succumb to disease, such as fusarium (wilt). Again, this is a good plant to allow to dry out before watering.
• LIGHTING is very important -- sunny windows are nice, but keep in mind that a plant grows to the natural cycles of the year. Therefore, growth naturally slows down and/or stops when the days get shorter, even in the sunniest and warmest window! Supplemental lighting is a must, and the plant should get at least 10-12 hours of light a day. You can buy the expensive grow light bulbs, but actually, a plain flourescent light does the trick -- and you can get small ones to hang over it -- or even just put in a lamp over it with a flourescent bulb -- for a lot less money!
• In pots, don't forget to fertilize about once or twice a month with a good, organic fertilizer that has an NPK of 5-5-5 or less. More than that, and you'll be likely to burn the plant(s). A good fertilizer we've used that does well with potted plants is Metanaturals 3-3-3 (liquid), - it's OMRI listed for organic use, and you can get it or other similar organic-friendly fertilizers at GardenWorks on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh (http://www.gardenworks.com)
• A regular shot of 3.5% food grade hydrogen peroxide is a must for growing throughout the winter in pots. That way, the roots don't get stale and suffocated. You can spray the plant with it, and/or use it with your water at 8 oz/gallon of water.

The best advantage to growing herbs in pots is that this makes the plants easily mobile! You can move the plants inside for the winter, and then move them back outside once the nights stay above freezing. Or, you can just let the perennials/biennials go to sleep outside in the pots, and they will resprout in the Spring, as well!

Mushrooms in the Greenhouses!

A few weeks ago, during the CFSA Farm Tour, many visitors who toured our greenhouses took special interest in the bright yellow mushrooms that appeared in a handful of our beds throughout. I had seen these in plentitude before, but only a few throughout this summer. It seemed that the rain we'd gotten on the Friday right before the tour spurred on their growth, and it seemed they'd popped up everywhere! And ever since, they've been regular visitors in my raised beds.

Most people were entranced by these, and asked me repeatedly what they were, and if they were edible. Since they'd not ever seemed to do any damage to the plants, and their life span was fairly quick, I'd pretty much ignored them until my visitors took so much interest -- I HATED not having the answers for them!

So, here we go: I've identified the specimen as lepiota lutea, or leucocoprinus birnbaumii (see photos and more detailed descriptions at these two sites: http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/feb2002.html, http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Leucocoprinus_birnbaumii.html). They are very common in greenhouses, and show up frequently in potted plants. As for edibility -- I wouldn't eat them! Though not outright poisonous, they are known to cause intestinal upset.

And, as I had originally suspected, these mushrooms are not dangerous to the plants in their living space... so, since they are actually sort of cool looking, and add color to the landscape, I think I'll just leave them be, for now... I typically only see a few clumps here and there, and since they're most common in late summer and early fall, I'll let them live out their life cycle in peace!

Codling Moths in Your Herbs

I've found that the people who typically know about codling moths are those with fruit orchards (since the larvae are the stereotypical "apple worm"). This is after I've asked I don't know how many (vegetable) growers, who look at me as if I have two heads when I mention the pests! (For a photo and some information, you can look here: http://crawford.tardigrade.net/bugs/BugofMonth33.html)

This summer, I've had an unusually difficult time with them in the greenhouses. I didn't even realize what they were. All of a sudden, my thyme beds looked like they had clumps of mysterious webbing throughout, and (it seemed) within a few weeks, regardless of my efforts to eliminate the webs and the larvae (little worms), I'd lost a few beds. They progressed into quite a few other beds -- mostly the ones with tightly clumped leaves/plants, like mints, oregano, and rosemary. What a nightmare! Cutting back the plants didn't do much -- in fact, it sometimes seemed to make matters worse. The parent moths -- small, mottled, brown things -- were all over, and it took a bit of detective work to find out what they were, and that it was their larvae eating my plants!

So during my investigation, I first looked at biological controls. There are some insects that attack the larvae, and maybe long term, I will consider them, but I needed something fast, before they ate and killed everything! I found a broad-scale OMRI-approved (organic) insecticide -- Agroneem, with a base from the oil of the neem tree (http://www.agrologistic.com/content/agriculture/agriculture.pdf) -- that was supposed to control the buggers. And after several applications over a period of weeks, I noticed a marked improvement (though they're still not completely gone). However, I'm still not satisfied -- I hate having to apply anything like that regularly (even though it's natural and completely safe for humans) -- so I've been considering another method. Some fruit growers have had success using pheromones, which disrupt the mating cycle, and the process includes putting out bait traps in high concentrations to lure the males, confuse them, and prevent them from mating with the females. I've also read that nasturtium is a natural companion plant to deter the moth, and though putting them throughout the greenhouses would be a bit difficult, I might try it!

Anyway, I thought I'd share this with you, because I'd bet that many of you have had this problem in your garden, in one way or the other, and never understood why it was you lost some herbs from the mysterious webbing. I'll try to take some photos and post them, so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about...

I'd imagine this been particularly cumbersome in my situation because of the protected greenhouse environment, though I did see some of the problem (though not as bad) in my outside beds, too. I'm open to any other suggestions! Let me know your thoughts, and if you've had similar problems. Photos to come!