10/02/2026
🍂 PREPPING FOR FALL IN FLORIDA: Calendar, High-Yield Crops & What Those Mushrooms Are Telling You 🍂
Fall is prime planting season here in Florida, and with all the rain we've had lately, there's a lot to cover. Here's what we're working on in the beds this month.
📅 BASIC FALL PLANTING CALENDAR (Central FL / Tampa Bay area):
• Late Sept-Early Oct: Start broccoli seeds, direct sow collards
• Mid-Late Oct: Transplant broccoli & cabbage, direct sow kale
• Late Oct-Mid Nov: Transplant collards, direct sow carrots, beets, lettuce, radishes
• Through November: Succession-plant lettuce & greens every 2-3 weeks for continuous harvest
🌱 HIGH-YIELD CROPS THIS SEASON:
🥬 Collards & Kale – frost-hardy, heavy producers
🥦 Broccoli & Cabbage – reliable fall staples
🥕 Carrots & Beets – root crops that store well
🥗 Lettuce & Spinach – fast growers, great for succession planting
🫛 Beans – nitrogen-fixing AND food producing (double duty!)
🌿 HERBS THRIVING RIGHT NOW:
Dill, fennel, oregano, sage, rosemary, and thyme all do well through our fall months. Cilantro loves the cool season too — much less bolting than in summer heat.
🫐 DON'T FORGET THE BERRIES:
We've got a healthy stand of American Beautyberry around the property, and our veterans have been putting those bright purple clusters to good use making jam! This native Florida shrub is low-maintenance, drought-tolerant, and fruits right through fall. Raw, the berries are a little astringent — but turned into jam, the flavor is often compared to a mix of muscadine and apple jelly.
🌾 SEED PREP TIPS:
• Soak larger seeds (beans, peas) in water for a few hours before planting — it speeds up germination
• Check seed packet dates — older seeds germinate less reliably, so test a few in a damp paper towel first if you're unsure
• Plant at the right depth — a good rule of thumb is roughly 2x the seed's width
• Label your rows! It's easy to forget what went where once things sprout
🌱 TRANSPLANTING SEEDLINGS (TRAY TO BED):
• Harden off first — set trays outside for a few hours a day over 5-7 days so seedlings adjust to sun and wind before going in the ground
• Transplant in the evening or on a cloudy day to reduce shock
• Water both the tray and the bed before transplanting — dry roots transplant poorly
• Handle by the leaves, not the stem — a damaged stem kills the plant, a damaged leaf doesn't
🛒 BUYING STARTS FROM THE STORE? WHAT TO LOOK FOR:
✅ Compact, bushy growth — not tall and leggy (leggy means it stretched for light and is weaker)
✅ Deep green color — yellowing leaves can mean nutrient stress or root problems
✅ Check the roots — gently slide it out of the pot; white roots are healthy, dark mushy or heavily tangled/circling roots mean it's root-bound
✅ No visible pests or spots on the underside of leaves
✅ Avoid plants that are already flowering/fruiting in a small pot — they'll struggle to establish before putting energy into the transplant itself
🪴 PREPPING YOUR ROWS:
• Turn and loosen soil a few weeks before planting
• Work in fresh compost — Florida soil is naturally low in organic matter
• Rework into a smooth, firm bed right before planting
• Rotate plant families to protect nutrients and cut down on pests/disease
🌿 W**D CONTROL:
A fresh 2-3 inch layer of mulch suppresses weeds, holds moisture, and regulates soil temp as nights cool. Hand-pull or hoe young weeds early — before they go to seed and multiply.
🍄 ABOUT THOSE MUSHROOMS...
Good news: mushrooms popping up after heavy rain are a SIGN OF HEALTHY SOIL, not a problem.
The fungi responsible are usually saprophytes — organisms that break down dead organic matter in the soil. That mushroom you see is just the "fruit" of a much bigger underground network called mycelium, which has been quietly working beneath the surface for a while before conditions were right to send something up.
Here's what's actually happening to the soil, step by step:
🔬 BREAKING DOWN THE TOUGH STUFF
Fungi are one of the few organisms that can break down tough plant material like lignin and cellulose — the fibrous compounds in wood chips, mulch, old roots, and dead plant matter that bacteria alone struggle to digest. As fungi digest this material, they convert it into simpler carbon compounds.
🌱 RELEASING NITROGEN & PHOSPHORUS
Organic matter holds nitrogen and phosphorus locked up in forms plants can't use yet. As fungi decompose that material, they break those nutrients down and release them into the soil in forms your plants' roots CAN absorb.
⏸️ A TEMPORARY "HOLD" BEFORE RELEASE
Here's the interesting part: as fungi actively feed, they also temporarily pull nitrogen and phosphorus into their own fungal bodies — holding onto those nutrients rather than releasing them all at once. This isn't a loss. It's more like a nutrient savings account: as the fungi themselves die off and break down, those stored nutrients release back into the soil gradually, feeding your plants over time instead of washing away in the next heavy rain.
🧱 BUILDING SOIL STRUCTURE
Those thread-like mycelium strands physically bind soil particles together, creating structure. Better structure means better drainage, better water retention, and more air pockets for roots — exactly what we're trying to build after a washout.
📈 OVER TIME
The longer this process runs, the more organic matter converts into stable humus — the dark, rich material that holds nutrients and moisture long-term. So those mushrooms you're seeing aren't just a one-time event; they're evidence of an ongoing cycle that's steadily improving your soil's fertility and structure season after season.
✅ The bottom line: they are NOT harmful to your crops — no need to panic or treat them.
If you want fewer mushrooms showing up, the fix isn't chemical — it's usually just improving drainage or airflow around that spot. Otherwise, let them be. They're doing good work underground.
💡 A LITTLE HISTORY:
During both World Wars, government Victory Garden campaigns didn't stop at summer — pamphlets specifically urged Americans not to overlook the opportunity for a fall garden, since cool-season crops kept food on the table while commercial harvests went overseas to the troops. Eighty years later, we're still out here doing the same thing: growing food in the fall, on purpose, for a reason bigger than ourselves.
Come get your hands in the dirt with us this fall — there's always something new to learn. 🌾
