Store apples, not touching each other, in baskets or boxes lined with perforated plastic or foil. Check often for any damaged fruit—apples give off a gas that speeds ripening, and injured fruits emit even more, accelerating ripening of nearby apples (thus the "one bad apple" saying). Apples are best stored at near-freezing temperatures (30–32 degrees F). Apples stored at this temperature will last up to 10 times longer than those stored at room temperature.
Harvest turnip roots when they are 2 to 3 inches in diameter and before heavy frosts begin.
Pick any green tomatoes before frost and wrap them individually in newspaper to ripen in a cool room.
Pick outer leaves of collards and kale for cooking. If you leave a central growing point, plants will continue to produce new leaves.
Hort Shorts
If you lack indoor space to store pots of tender impatiens, begonias, coleus, fushias and potato vines, take cuttings before the first frost. Cut 4- to 6-inch sections of stem and place in water in a small jar, bottle or vase. Pinch blooms and remove any leaves below the water line. When roots form, plant in small pots and keep in a sunny location. Cuttings often survive in water alone. Just be sure to keep the containers filled with water above the root line, trimming roots a bit if they become too matted. These can then be potted closer to spring and re-introduced into the garden after danger of frost.
Don't fertilize perennials at this time of year. They need to ready themselves for winter dormancy.