We not want to take a second chance, picked up chillies, eggplants, cucumbers, squashes, etc. most of them are final cut except chillies.

Here is one pic of the half of the chilli harvets this evening.

Jay, yout chillies are superb! big jim is really big oin size and taste!

-Chandra

That's a lot of pepper Chandra. I picked almost all of mine earlier in the month, but I will have a few more to pick, mostly pablano. We were just talking about our peppers and how we usually have a lot of bell peppers about now, but this year they slowed down about a month ago but I have plenty in the freezer. I have hot peppers still blooming though.

I didn't plant Fall tomatoes, but I let some volunteers grow and they have bloomed and set fruit. Talk about too little, too late. I picked beans this morning and assumed it would be my last.

I still have 4 large winter squash that have not changed to their mature color, but the first one is just starting to change. I had hoped that all 4 would make it before this cold front, but they will not. This is a confusing time of year because you don't know if it's better to take things a little immature, or try to keep them from freezing. One year I picked some butternut a little early and they were still good and kept quiet a while. These are 2-3 times the size of butternut, but they have sure been slow to mature.

I have been gone all day and still have beans to snap, and a big bag of okra to take care of. I didn't have much okra this year, but Al's grandmother (in Arkansas) has a big garden that she no longer can plant, so she let's someone else use it. He had picked a big bag of okra for her and she said she had eaten so much okra this year that she couldn't stand to look at any more, so I brought it home. LOL

I cleaned out the last of the summer crops today, only had tomatoes, okra and peppers. I cut and tilled in the last of the green beans and cow peas last week. The tomatoes, peppers, and okra were stacked along the edge of the garden and shredded with the mower. The peppers smelled wonderful while I was shredding them, they still had a lot of peppers on them.

Larry

Low tunnels are going over the beds, I am holding out until the bitter end! LOL

Lee, Once again thanks so much for the heads up. We appreciate the advance warning you give us.

Chandra, That's a superb harvest and I know y'all will enjoy eating those peppers.

Carol, My sweet bell peppers just haven't done as well as usual this fall either, but the hot peppers have more than made up for it. I think the prolonged heat was just too much for the sweet peppers to recover from. Some of my sweet pepper plants have small fruit, and I harvested a few large fruit about 3 weeks ago, but I don't think these small ones will have a chance to grow and mature.

I only left two SunGold plants in the ground and today I'll strip them of all the ripe fruit and all fruit that is breaking color. I do intend to cover them up with Agribon and that ought to be good enough to protect them thru this cold spell if the weather only goes as low as forecast. If it surprises us and goes significantly lower, the plants might be goners.

I have 5 hanging basket type tomato plants in the greenhouse in containers. I picked all their ripe and ripening fruit yesterday. If they survive the cold a while longer, that's great but if they don't, they don't. I'm not going to spend money heating the greenhouse. There's also about a dozen hot pepper plants in containers in the greenhouse that ought to survive this cold spell if the forecasted temperatures materialize. If we go 10 degrees colder than forecast, they're goners, and we have gone 10 degrees lower than forecast....as recently as Spring 2012, so it could happen.

In the big garden, I am not going to cover up the Seminole plants. They're just too monstrously large. I will harvest all the remaining winter squash from them today. I think there's about 8 left, and only 2 have just begun to change from green to buff.

I have to cover up the southern peas and bush snap beans with floating row cover because they're producing so well that it would be foolish not to do so. The end of their productive lives likely is just 2 or 3 weeks away anyway, but I could harvest a lot in the next 2 or 3 weeks if they make it through this cold spell. I am going outside shortly to pick all the cowpeas and snap beans that are a harvestable size.

The cool-season crops should be fine because we aren't going to get cold enough to hurt them. We have fall lettuce in four places--in the ground in the garden, in the large cattle trough by the barn, in an old wheelbarrow by the barn and in big tubs in the greenhouse. I'm not going to cover up the in-ground garden lettuce, but will throw a floating row cover over the lettuce growing in the wheelbarrow and the cattle trough. These are large lettuce plants that are being harvested using the cut-and-come-again method but I feel like those two will be the first ones we lose to cold weather since their containers are elevated above ground and cold air can reach them from underneath. They likely will make it through November or even December, tbough, with row covers. I am hoping the greenhouse lettuce makes it through most or all of the winter. The bigger challenge with the greenhouse isn't keeping the lettuce from getting too cold---it is with keeping it from getting too hot on sunny days. I've been opening all the doors and vents and running the fan every day this week (we hit 90 degrees a couple of days ago, and the greenhouse was even hotter) to keep the lettuce from getting too hot and turning bitter. We didn't move the tubs of lettuce into the greenhouse until this week and even this week it has been kind of hot in there.

Ezzi, I am doing the same for as long as possible. I hate it when all the green is gone and everything is brown. My eyes need to see green plants growing every month of the year.

My broccoli, cabbage and other cool-season crops should be fine without row covers for a while longer if our forecast doesn't change. We're only forecast to go into the uppers 30s. If we were headed for the upper 20s, I'd have the row covers over the cool-season crops though.

I will cover up the zinnias that are scattered around the garden as well as I can. The bees and butterflies love them and there's not a lot else still blooming here except for helenium, so I'd like to keep the zinnias alive as long as possible. Well, the plum tree is blooming but I don't think that will continue for much longer. Silly tree.

I am going to leave the containerized figs outside. They need a certain degree of cold. The containerized orange tree has two whole oranges on it (it is a smallish, youngish tree) and they are breaking color, so they're in the greenhouse. The containerized lemon tree also has fruit (about a dozen) just beginning to break color and also is in the greenhouse. I might move those two citrus trees to the garage for the three cold nights in our forecast.

I am not ready mentally for this cold spell. I don't want to see the growing season end in general. On the other hand, once the remaining warm-season plants out in the garden freeze, then I can yank them out and compost them, and work on soil enrichment in their beds for next year.

I've been watching Tropical Storm Sandy the last couple of days and wondering if the northeastern USA's coastal areas may get a nor'easter from Sandy---not that it will affect us....just that it is interesting to watch the tropical storms as their season, too, is drawing to a close.

Dawn

Our forecast has now dipped below freezing for at least one night. I suspect it will get in the 20s.

Dawn,

There is a good chance that Sandy will end up being a very damaging storm for the East Coast. Most of the models now have the storm making landfall as an "extra"-tropical cyclone somewhere between Washington DC and southern Maine. It will likely be intense, but in a different way than typical hurricanes. When tropical cyclones go extra-tropical, they lose the "eye". So the most intense winds are diminished. But the entire wind field expands significantly. So, we probably won't see a landfall with winds over 100 MPH. But a 250 mile wide wind field of 60-70+ MPH winds is likely. Next week will not be a good week for the Northeast. Let's just hope and pray the damage isn't too bad.

Lee

Lee,
You certainly gave mus much much more warning on this weekend than my normal weather channels! And I thank you! I had plenty of time to (sadly) prepare.
I have a near off topic question:
I have a tendency to work odds, so really, this is an odds question and I will not quote you!
Since El Nino has not appeared as originally forecasted, what are the odds of a warmer than average winter here in OKC? Where would I find reliable information of this type? (Besides my almanac) There are plenty of online people with opinions, but none specific to oklahoma, and all are suspect.......

Scott, I bet you're right.

I said I would cover up everything at night because we only are forecast to go down to, I think, 36 on the coldest night. Because of the microclimate of our specific piece of property, I am expecting to dip down at least to, if not below, freezing, simply because we tend to go lower than forecast when major cold fronts roar through.

After spending all day yesterday picking and processing produce, I am a little less inclined to cover up the plants, but I bet I'll do it anyway.

I put three gallons of southern peas and green beans into the freezer yesterday and likely will pick and process just as many today, so if I decide I don't want to cover up warm-season plants with Agribon, I'll do so knowing that I got all the harvest out of them that I could before the cold weather arrived. However, there are many small bean and pea pods that will be a lovely harvestable size next week if I get them through the cold spell.

They're producing so well it is hard to just say "enough is enough" and walk away, but I think I could do it now and be okay with the decision. All our freezers are crammed full and it seems like every time we eat a few things from the freezer and empty it out a little bit, I just harvest more produce and fill up the empty spaces again.

Perhaps the decision will be taken out of my hands....for example, if the fire pagers go off at about the same time I was going to start putting row cover over plants...then the decision would be taken out of my hands.

Lee, I've been watching Sandy and wondering how bad it could be. Thanks for the explanation. Watching tropical storms go extra-tropical is fascinating.

That's a huge windfield and since it is only October I assume most of the affected areas still have foliage on deciduous trees. It seems like the power companies better be getting ready for some serious issues within the areas affected by the strong winds.

Is it too early to know if the areas in the windfield will have precipitation--whether frozen or not? I'm picturing a sort of snow-i-cane, and hoping it doesn't happen to anyone.

Dawn

We pick another batch of peppers this morning and finished just as the high wind hit. Our temp is still 73, but just a few miles away it is 48, so I know it is coming.

I still don't know what to do about my winter squash, two of the four are showing signs of changing color, but are still mostly green. I am seeing a forecast of a low of 33 and another of 29, so it makes it hard to decide.

luvabasil......unfortunately, none of the "normal" seasonal indicators show a strong trend in forecasting for this winter here in Oklahoma. Since the ENSO (El Nino/La Nina) will likely be Neutral, there isn't much of a signal either way for Oklahoma. I can say that a lot of the cold winters typically happen during Neutral years, but I'm not sure it's the ENSO Neutral that drives that. A lot of our Arctic Outbreaks are driven partially by the North Atlantic Oscillation, and that is not forecastable past about 3 weeks. My guess is that we'll have a fairly "normal" winter with some wild temperature swings and a few snow/ice events. My guess is that the combined December-February period, as a whole, may be slightly above normal. Let's just hope we have some rainfall!!

Dawn.....I'm not sure if some of the leaves have fallen in the Northeast. I imagine they have at the inland locations, but probably not closer to the coast. This will definitely be an issue. I imagine power outages will be widespread. Initially, there will be a lot of "warm" air with the storm. But, a day or two after it moves inland, it will wrap in some cold air from Canada and produce snow in the mountains of PA and northward. I don't think we'll see a big snow storm all over the Northeast. There will be a whole lot of rain on the north and east side of the circulation. If it comes ashore south of NYC, we'll likely see significant flooding across most of New England.

Lee

Thanks, Lee!

So far today I've picked several gallons more of green beans and peas as well as any Seminole Pumpkin (winter squash) that has started to turn from green to buff-colored.

The front has come through here, the wind has gusted a little here and there, and our temperature has dropped about 12-`14 degrees since I came inside about 11 or 11:15 a.m.

I still have to strip the pepper plants of any peppers that are a harvestable or usable size.

I shouldn't have to cover plants tonight since they're saying 44 for a low, but I'll make up my mind about whether to do it anyway....or not...around 5 p.m.

Lee, I've been trying to imagine heavy rain, or sleet or snow, in combination with the wind in a widespread area where trees still have foliage. It could be a monstrous storm, and just a year after Irene made such a mess of things in so many areas. Then, there's the potential storm surge next week at high tide and on the days around high tide. Significant flooding sounds bad.....for the NE or maybe even some of the Mid Atlantic states, and I hope everyone in that region is paying attention and preparing.

As far as our winter goes, I am more worried about the lack of rainfall than the cold. Our soil is cracked (and the cracks are expanding) now in areas where the soil didn't even crack last year....in the sandy/silty band that traverses our generally dense, red clay sort of like a creek...only a creek filled with sand, not water. The clay always cracks and contracts and expands, yada, yada, yada....but the sandy area normally does not. It might have cracked in 2003, but if it did, I don't remember it now. We had less than 19" of rain in 2003, but roughly 27" last year and slightly more this year. I suspect the cracking has more to do with two back-to-back exceptionally dry years than anything else, and nothing can fix it except lots of rainfall. I am worried we're not going to get good rainfall this winter. We need good, deep, prolonged rainfall to restore soil moisture down deep, and it just isn't happening. Usually if we are going to have a rainy fall/winter here in our part of the state, it has started by now.

I've been hoping, hoping, hoping for a strong El Nino even though it clearly has not been developing. If we stay neutral all winter with low to moderate rainfall, then spring planting will be going into pretty dry ground. Been there, done that and don't want to do it in 2013!

I'm watering the garden right now, where the fall/winter veggies are thriving and the broccoli harvest is soon to begin. In a better rainfall year, I wouldn't have to water the fall/winter garden at all.

Dawn

Significant rainfall to go on the Novena Prayer List.........

We are very fortunate in our area. Especially in Coloarado where a lot of our weather moves in from. There is a private/commercial/independent meteorologist that is on two local radio stations. The same one who was the head man for the recent sky dive. I can remember when it was just him. He now has 2-3 more helping him. At one time he was at least one of those hired to make to make predictions for the company I work for. He not only is good for the next 48 hours but the best for the next 10-14 days usually. He was warning about this as early as the end of last week. He is the reason I pay little attention to the others. I do watch the local WUG site for temps, rainfall amounts, ect and the Intellicast forecast for Elkhart and compare it too the one on the radio as it is fairly accurate up to ten days out. I miss the NWS forecasters we had up till 15 years or so ago. The current ones forecast for Dodge City which is 120 miles from us. And can be quite different from what we experience. I'm basically ready. I have covered what I wouldn't mind saving but ready to accept the loss of everything except the beans in the one cold frame. I think I can save them. Time will tell. They are around two weeks away from being able to save seeds from. They are the WCM beans George sent me seeds for. Most of the rest of the beans are mature enough that I'm just letting them dry anyway. So shouldn't be hurt. I will pick a few more tomatoes. I pulled the last two loaded jalapeno plants yesterday. I need to get the peppers removed and saved from at least 24 plants. And finish saving the beans. I removed the winter squash two weeks ago. Picked over 50 spaghetti squash. Tried a new hybrid variety that I really like. I haven't watered any in three weeks. Will have to water the last garlic in over the next few days. They are saying possible moisture a week away. We have seen more of an increase in rainfall with the current weather pattern than those east of us. And we needed it. The wheat is up and looking well if moisture will continue to fall. The long range forecasts I have seen for our area is normal to just above normal temps with slightly above normal moisture. Hope they are correct. Jay

WOW, I would love to pick 50 spaghetti squash. I think I need to plant winter squash as early as I can because I always seem to be struggling to get it to mature before a frost or freeze. I have been planting it from seed after the Sugar Snaps finish, but I guess that is too late. Maybe I will just plant it along the fence next year.

I picked 3 of the 4 big squash that I had been waiting for. They haven't lost all of their green color, but had started to change. The 4th one is still very dark green.

I have one little lettuce plant I was hoping to save. I walked out there yesterday morning and all my bush beans are coming in now! So I covered them and I am hoping. my experimental plants are all tucked in now. But I didn't have enough to cover the bok choy or the peppers, so I am not holding out hope for the peppers, but the bok choy would be nice to keep.

Carol I can look at the date I planted the spaghetti squash but know it was in July. Last year I planted it the first day of August and got some production. I know I planted at least two weeks earlier this year and also planted the hybrid variety for the first time. The vines spread but not near and much and it was at least 10-15 days earlier. Whether that is because of the year or the variety I'm not sure. I will grow it again next year. Jay

I brought in 16 more winter squash (Seminole) yesterday and still have more to harvest today and it seemed like a lot until I read Jay harvested 50. : ) That brings my total Seminole harvest so far to about 36. We had quite a few butternuts over a longer harvest period, but Seminole is a much heavier producer for us even though they mature very, very late most years. I have had all the winter squash curing in the lovely heat and humidity of the sunporch, but with temperatures dropping down to freezing or lower the next couple of nights I plan to move them to the garage today since it stays warmer at night.

I went ahead and covered up the one bed of peppers that has the jalapenos and habaneros after stripping them of every jalapeno pepper of a usable size. There's tons and tons of little ones left, so if I can get those plants through this weekend's cold spell, the little peppers will have a chance to get bigger. I don't know if I can keep them warm enough. The forecast is for 32 tonight and 33 tomorrow night and we often drop significantly lower than forecast.

I also have the southern peas and bush beans covered. Yesterday's harvest was at least as big as the one the day before, and I was too tired to process them last night, so today I'll be shelling peas and snapping beans, blanching them and freezing them. If yesterday's harvest was the last one, I'd be perfectly satisfied with how well the fall beans and peas produced...but I am greedy enough that I'd love to keep them producing another week or two.

I have been picking tomatoes at breaker stage every day this week, and today will look to see if there's any I missed.

The pepper harvest was great. I picked about 5 gallons of peppers and didn't even pick all the habaneros. If they were orange, I picked them. If they were green, I left them. The sweet peppers are in a different area and I am not even going to try to cover them up. The only plants left with full-size peppers are the Yummy Orange. All the yummies are currently green but full-sized, so I guess I'll pull up those two plants by the roots and hang them in the garage today.

I guess today I'll pick the two little watermelons that have formed in the last few weeks. They are only about the size of a baseball and won't be mature enough to be sweet, but I'll cut them in half and give them to the chickens.

Even if I manage to get my warm-season stuff through this weekend's cold spell, I know its' time is limited. I think this is the last time I'll cover up the warm-season crops with row covers. The next cold spell can have them, if this one doesn't take them out despite them being covered.

We are harvesting cool-season crops already, so I have plenty to keep me busy as it is.

I need to harvest herbs today and harvest some catnip for the cats.

We still have morning glories, nicotiana, Laura Bush petunias, periwinkles, zinnias, dahlias and four o'clocks blooming in the garden. I expect that after tonight's freeze, we'll only have nicotiana and Laura Bush petunias left. Some zinnias might survive because they are in the bed with the purple hull pink eye peas so they are covered up. The bees and butterflies will miss those flowers once they're gone.

I don't know how well the containerized plants in the greenhouse will do on these cold nights, but I stripped all the usable peppers and tomatoes from them yesterday. There's a lot of green tomatoes left. Last night the greenhouse only went down to 48 degrees while our outside temperature was 44. Maybe tonight it will stay warm enough for them to live a little while longer.

Chris stopped at a grocery store in Denton on his way to work this morning to pick up groceries for the fire station, and as he left the store he was greeted with light rain with a little stuff that was either sleet or snow pellets and a few snowflakes. It was 45 degrees at the time. He was a little freaked out by it. Said it only lasted about a minute before it all turned to rain. I wish we had that rain here.

After harvesting most of the day for the last two days, I am totally exhausted, especially from bending over picking all those rows of beans and peas (about 220 row feet of them). I think I will hibernate inside in the kitchen today and focus on food preservation. I have more food to preserve than I can manage in one day, but I think I can get about 75% of it done today and then will do the rest tomorrow.

The first veggie I will process is the cowpeas, and that is so I can cook a pot of them for lunch.

I'm still watching Hurricane Sandy in a sort of horrified fascination. I cannot believe how bad it potentially could be. I hope the people in the area that will be impacted are preparing for it. We may have lots of wacky weather in OK, but at last we don't have hurricanes and nor'easters here. Of course, we had Erin a few years back but she was just a remnant low pressure system by then, and that's about as close to a hurricane as I expect we'll ever see here.

Y'all stay warm today. Our wind chill is pretty cold here. It definitely feels colder than you'd expect from the temperature we have. Last time I looked, it was 44 degrees with a wind chill of 36.

Dawn