What Foods to Plant in October (Vegetables, Fruit & Herbs)
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October is one of those indecisive months that you can never wholly predict the weather. Sometimes it is more of a winter month while others years, we’ve been known to sit outside in the garden on Halloween (well, one year anyway!)
When it comes to what foods to plant in October, the focus switches to preparing for spring and ensuring that crops and plants cope with the harsher months of winter. Let’s look at the jobs to do for growing vegetables, fruit and herbs in October.
What vegetables to plant in October
There’s not as much focus on planting at this time of year but there are still some jobs to be done.
Direct sow outdoors
If you are in warmer areas of the northern hemisphere such as southern England and parts of the US, you can still sow some quick maturing salad crops such as summer lettuce, radish and rocket.
You can also keep sowing things like spring cabbage and Oriental vegetables. If you are in the southern areas, overwintering onions can be sown outdoors during October.
Broad beans such as Aquadulce Claudia should be sown in October to get early crops next year. You can also plant autumn onion sets so you can harvest them next summer.
This is also the time to sow those green manures such as Italian ryegrass or crimson clover to help improve soil condition ahead of the spring. These work well to cover bear areas, improve nutrients and also help with soil texture ahead of the planting season to come.
Sow in the greenhouse or indoors
You can sow salad leaves indoors for winter crops including things like Winter Gem lettuce.
What fruit to plant in October
In most northern hemisphere areas, there’s not much in terms of fruit to be sown in October unless you are growing things inside or in a kitchen windowsill.
However, if you want to have blueberries fresh next year, you can plant them around this time. A number of other fruit trees will work well being planted during October to help prepare them for the next year.
What herbs to plant in October
Many herb crops are in the hold-over mode for the winter or annual plants have finished entirely.
If you are in warmer areas, like with the salad crops above, there are a few quick maturing options you can plant. Chicory is one and fennel is another that you can plant in October and get a harvest from before the weather generally turns nasty.
Other herbs can be planted indoors or in greenhouses such as basil, dill, chives and parsley. This will mean you have a constant crop throughout winter.
Garlic is excellent to plant at this time to get a crop next summer.
Other jobs to do
October is a maintenance month so there are a few jobs to do and things to watch out for as your crops go into a more dormant state for winter.
Vegetable jobs
Watch out for those unseasonal dry spells as a lack of water can result in the splitting of root vegetables, flower abortion in runner beans and problems with blossom end rot in plants like tomatoes. So if there’s a spell without rain, help out with some watering.
Keep on top of hoeing to remove weeds as they can harbour pests and diseases that you want to be gone by the spring.
Raise any marrows off the ground so they don’t get discoloured by the soil and keep earthing up any celery plants. You can also use a layer of paper between stems and the soil.
Thin out any late-sown carrot seedlings so they don’t attract female carrot fly.
Fruit jobs
Summer prune any of the side shoots on restricted trees such as fans so they are 3-4 leaves to form fruiting spurs. Apples, pears, nectarines, apricots, plums and prunes can all be summer pruned after harvest.
Watch water levels on blueberries, cranberries and other similar fruit trees, using rainwater where possible.
Loosely tie up new blackberries and other berry canes. Prune the fruited raspberry canes before tying in new ones.
Remove any straw and old leaves from around strawberries once they have finished fruiting.
