Vegetables to Plant in August in North Florida

GROWING VEGETABLES, BERRIES & FRUIT TREES IN NORTH FLORIDA

VEGETABLES TO PLANT IN AUGUST (AND MY FAVORITE SUMMER SQUASH)
POSTED JULY 20, 2009

Despite temperatures in the 90s, it’s like early spring again for front-yard farmers in North Florida. This is the time we prepare the soil for many of the same vegetables that we grew in the spring and summer. Vegetable gardening may be a challenge here but few places offer so many growing months.

I will be putting out tomato transplants the first week in August so that I will have fruit to harvest in October and November. I will also be planting some pie pumpkins and other winter squash about the same time. If I don’t, the fruit may not have the time to mature before an early frost.

Vegetables we can plant in August include broccoli, bush beans and pole beans, cauliflower, collards, bunching onions, sweet corn, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins, summer squash, winter squash, tomatoes, turnips and watermelons.

Early White Bush Scallop squash
from my front-yard garden.

If you are going to include summer squash in your fall garden and have the space, you may want to try my favorite squash, Early White Bush Scallop by Ferry-Morse Seeds. Unlike most other squash I have grown in my garden, this patty pan type squash produces big plants and big yields. The plants seem to stand up better to powdery mildew than other squashes. The plants I planted this past spring are still yielding squash.

The fruits are mild and tender. For a real taste treat, slice them and fry them like green tomatoes. In our household, we like them better than fried green tomatoes!

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-- Jerry writes:
My son brought home a squash zucchini plant from his teacher. It has been a blessed plant to survive a toddler raising it. However we need some help. Each time it produces a squash it grows fine for a while, but then yellow on the tip. The yellow spreads backward toward the plant until the squash dies? Thanks for any ideas or help!

Hi Jerry, thanks for your email. It's always great to hear about youngsters learning about growing vegetables. Now if only we could get some of that squash to the kitchen table!

I believe the problem is lack of bees, i.e., lack of pollination. I think if you hand pollinate (your son can help) the fruit will grow and mature as it should.

A good way to do this is to use a cotton swab to transfer pollen from the male flowers (the long-stemmed flowers without the fruit) to the female flowers (the ones with the immature fruit at the base of the flower). You'll need to do it in the morning when the blooms are open. Just collect the yellow pollen from the stamen of the male flower and then roll it around on the pistol of the female blossom.

If you have lots of male flowers you can simply pick a flower, remove the petals, and then use the exposed stamen to paint the pistol with pollen. Hand-pollinate every morning and you'll be harvesting zucchini in no time!

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