Crops to Consider for Fall Planting

It’s pretty late in the season to be thinking about what to plant to make a profit, but there are quite a few crops that can be started in the fall and harvested into the winter.  Even if you’re not looking to grow a market crop, you definitely have time to grow a cover crop that can serve as a cash crop and improve soil health.  It’s always important to verify a demand and locate a market before deciding what crops to grow.  A few ideas for fall crops are listed below.
–

Broccoli

Broccoli can be a fairly profitable crop, but it does take time to grow.  It is best to start plants in transplant trays rather than direct seeding.  Broccoli takes a considerable amount of nitrogen to make a good yield (175 lbs./acre), so keep that in mind when calculating potential profit.  Broccoli is a versatile crop that’s season can be extended when grown in a high tunnel or shade house.  The University of Florida has done extensive research on growing crops in shade structures.  The UF/IFAS Publication Veggies and Herbs Made in Shade: A Growing Season Calendar for North Florida provides more information on season extension.

Crops grown in a high tunnel. Photo Credit: University of Florida/IFAS

–

Lettuce

Lettuce should be marketed strategically, and varieties should be selected carefully.  Lettuce types vary quite a bit with the most popular to grow in our area being romaine and leaf lettuce types.  A well-performing romaine is ‘Monte Carlo’, and the Salanova® series from Johnny’s Selected Seeds provides a variety of temperature tolerant leaf lettuce types.  Hydroponic producers sometimes choose to harvest the entire leaf lettuce plants and sell them in specialty clam shell containers marketed as “living lettuce“.

Lettuce varieties. Photo Credit: University of Florida

–

Cover Crops

Whether you want to improve your soil health or make a profit, some cover crops can do both.  Wheat and oats can certainly be harvested for their grain, but they also provide biomass and improve erosion control.  Other crops like tillage radish increase soil macrospore space.  The askifas website contains quite a few publications on this topic.

A Radish cover crop field in Escambia County. Photo credit: Murilo Morata, UF/IFAS Extension

–

Although it may seem too late, there are lots of options for crops to grow this fall and winter.  Below is a planting guide for growing vegetables in the Florida Panhandle.