September starts vegetable season in South Florida

If you moved here from up north, the calendar takes some getting used to. In most of the country, September means pulling tired tomato plants and planting garlic for next year. In South Florida, September is when the main vegetable season begins. The heat starts to ease, the rains taper off over the coming weeks, and the next seven months are the most productive stretch of the year for a home garden.

Urban Abundance, which designs, installs and maintains home food gardens, works out of SmartyPlants, so this is the time of year our edible section gets busy. Here is how we think about the season.

Why fall is the main season here

South Florida summers are hard on most vegetables. Nights stay too warm for many crops to set fruit, heavy rain encourages disease, and insects thrive. The cool, drier months from roughly November through April are the opposite: mild days, cool nights and far less disease pressure. UF/IFAS lists November through April as peak fresh vegetable season in Florida, with October and May also good.

September is the on-ramp. Anything that takes a couple of months to produce should be started now so it is ready to harvest when the weather is at its best.

Start these in September

Tomatoes and peppers lead the list. Transplants set out in September will be producing by November and can keep going well into winter. Cherry tomatoes are the most forgiving choice for a first fall garden, since they set fruit more reliably while nights are still warm. Our post on growing tomatoes in Florida goes deeper.

Other warm-season crops that do well started now include eggplant, squash, cucumbers, bush beans and okra. Herbs like basil can go in now too. If you are starting from seed rather than transplants, give yourself about a month for seedlings to reach planting size.

Plant these in October and November

As the weather cools, shift to cool-season crops. Lettuce, kale, collards, Swiss chard, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, radishes, beets and green onions all do well in South Florida's mild winter. Cilantro, parsley and dill finally have a chance here once the heat breaks.

Stagger your plantings. Sowing a short row of lettuce or radishes every two weeks gives you a steady harvest instead of everything ready at once. Broccoli planted in October will be ready around December.

Set up beds that drain

Most South Florida yards are sand over limestone, with little organic matter and fast drainage. Raised beds filled with a good garden mix solve most of that at once. They warm and drain well, they are easier on your back, and they keep the garden defined in the yard. Our guide to building a raised garden bed walks through it.

Whatever you plant in, give vegetables at least six hours of direct sun. Most of the fall garden failures we hear about come down to a bed that sits in shade by mid-afternoon.

Water and feed through the transition

Early fall still has rainy days, then the dry season takes over. New transplants need consistent moisture to establish, so check beds daily at first and water whenever the top inch of soil is dry. Drip irrigation or a soaker hose on a timer keeps the leaves dry, which helps prevent disease.

Vegetables are hungry. Mix compost into beds before planting and feed with a balanced vegetable fertilizer through the season, following the label. Many local fertilizer rules apply to lawns and landscape plants rather than vegetable gardens, but it is still worth checking your city's ordinance.

Plan the season on paper first

Before you buy a single transplant, sketch your beds and decide what goes where. Put tall crops like tomatoes and pole beans on the north side of a bed so they do not shade shorter plants. Leave room to walk between rows so you can reach every plant without stepping on the soil.

Then sketch the season in two halves. The first half, September and October, is for warm-season crops that need the last of the heat. The second half, November through February, is for greens, roots and brassicas that like the cool. As the tomatoes finish, the same space can go to lettuce or carrots, so one bed can produce two very different harvests in a single season.

Watch for early-season pests

Early fall is still warm and humid, so pests are active when your transplants are youngest. Check the undersides of leaves every few days for whiteflies, aphids and caterpillar eggs, and look for chewed edges or holes that point to hornworms and armyworms. Catching them early, when you can pick them off by hand, is easier than treating a full infestation later.

Row cover fabric over young plants keeps many insects out while letting light and water through. Planting flowers and herbs among your vegetables brings in the beneficial insects that eat pests. Our post on natural ways to manage garden pests covers more options before you reach for a spray.

Keep harvesting to keep plants producing

Many fall crops produce more the more you pick. Harvest tomatoes when they first show color and let them finish ripening on the counter, which keeps birds and squirrels from getting there first. Pick beans and squash young and often. Cut the outer leaves of kale, chard and lettuce and leave the center to keep growing.

A well-kept bed of greens can be harvested every week for months, which is the real payoff of a South Florida winter garden.

Get help if you want it

You do not need a big yard to grow a meaningful amount of food. A couple of raised beds by the back door can keep a household in salad greens and herbs all winter. If you want help, Urban Abundance designs, installs and maintains home food gardens, and you can talk to the team at the nursery.

Either way, stop by the edibles section. We stock vegetable transplants, herbs and fruit trees through the season, along with the soil, compost and organic fertilizer to go with them.

Frequently asked questions