Spring Planting or Fall Planting

Having grown up in the North, springtime is planting time for me. However, since I've been living in Florida for over 20 years, I've learned that planting season tends to be more common in the fall and late winter. You might be wondering why I've posted this tidbit however I'll share a couple of my reasons:
Is your character a farmer?
Is your character having bad fortune? And if so, could planting at the wrong time give him or her problems?
Is a secondary character an older individual who loves to share their knowledge with younger folks?
The opportunities to use some of these tidbits are endless and adds just a touch of color to your historical novel that you might have missed. Anyway, Enjoy!

Here's a little tidbit from Collier's Cyclopedia of Commercial and Social Information ©1882:
In northern locations spring planting is preferable Southward, fall is preferred No certain line of division can be fixed ; but we should say that, as a rule, all south of the latitude of Phila delphia, Columbus in Ohio, and Quincy in Illinois, may most safely plant in the fall, while north of those points it is better to plant in the spring.
Note: This is in reference to fruit tree planting.

If spring planting is preferred, begin as soon as the frost is out deep enough and the ground in good working condition. One year with another, the entire month of May can be devoted to planting forest trees in Minnesota or Dakota. The advantages of fall planting are chiefly in the fact that the ground becomes firmly packed among the roots of the young tree to the exclusion of the air, and that it is in better position to appropriate the moisture resulting from the winter snows and early spring rains, getting thereby such a "send-off " as to enable the young tree to successfully go through a dry spell that would be very damaging, if not fatal, to spring planting. Such dry spells do occasionally prevail all over tbe Northwest about planting time, and hang on unmercifully. On the other hand, an open winter with frequent or occasional thawing and freezing, occasionally proves fatal to fall planting, the action of frost heaving the fall-planted seedling or cutting nearly or quite out of the ground. Where well rooted young trees are used we overcome this trouble to a great extent by deep planting. While spring planting escapes this danger, it is in bad shape to withstand a protracted drowth, and right there is where fall planting has the inside track. But should your spring planting be followed up by occasional timely showers, the newly planted trees grow right along with great vigor. The tree planter must take his chances. I have for many years planted largely both spring and fall, and my experience does not yet justify me in bringing in a verdict either way. In fact I consider it one of the least important of the many conundrums of forestry.
Source: The Minnesota Horticulturist: Annual Report ©1883

NOW is the time at the north to prepare for planting trees next spring, for all planting north of the latitude of this city is most safely done at that time of the year. Furthensouth the long autumn enables trees planted when the leaves are ripe to push out new roots and establish themselves before the ground freezes. Where cold weather follows close after the early frosts a tree planted in the autumn has no opportunity to develop new roots and, therefore, loses not only the benefit it would have obtained in a more temperate climate in an early and vigorous spring growth, but is forced to go through the winter without the aid of roots in actual working condition. Trees planted in cold countries at this season of the year do not necessarily die, but they are more apt to suffer than those planted in the spring; they are often blown over unless carefully staked. and they are frequently upheaved by the frost or thrown out of the ground entirely. For all operations, however, connected with the planting and care of trees, except the mere setting in the ground, the autumn is the best time. At this season planting plans should be made and stock selected, and the ground should be made ready to receive the trees as soon as the frost leaves it in the spring. Spring in this latitude is so short and the rush of spring work is so pressing that it is impossible to properly prepare ground for planting unless _tt is done during the previous summer or autumn. This 18 the time, therefore, when northern planters should decide what trees they want to use next spring and where they will plant them ; it is the time to select and order nursery stock, and here it may be said that better results are always obtained by personal inspection and selection by the purchaser than by leaving it to the seller to fill his orders. If the planter has facilities for protecting plants through the winter in a cold cellar or pit, it is better to obtain them now than in the spring, when nurserymen are crowded with orders‘and too busy to devote proper time and attention to digging and packing their trees. The ground being prepared, the exact position of each plant determined on and the plants on hand, the mere operation of setting them in the ground takes but a short'time.
Source: Garden and Forest ©1897

Cider

I know it is the wrong time of year for making Apple Cider however this tidbit is quite helpful, since we write our books at any time of the year. Perhaps it is harvesting time for your character. Or perhaps they make a mistake while bottling the cider. Hmm, what could happen? LOL only the fruitful mind of the writer knows. Enjoy!

CIDER.
In making cider see that the mill, the press, and all the materials be sweet an clean and the straw free from must. The fruit should be ripe, but not rotten, and when the apples are ground, if the juice is left in pumice 24 hours, the cider will be richer, softer and higher colored. If the fruit be all of one kind it is generally thought that the cider will be better; as the fermentation will be more regular. The juice of the fruit, as it comes from the press should be placed in open headed casks or vats: in this situation, it is likely to undergo a proper fermentation, and the person attending may, with great correctness, ascertain when the first fermentation ceases; this is of great importance, and must be particularly attended to. The fermentation is attended with a hissing noise, bubbles rising to the surface and there forming a soft spongy crust over the liquor. When this crust begins to crack, and a white froth appears x in the cracks level with the surface of the head, the fermentation is about stopping. At this time the liquor is in the fine genuine clear state, and mW be drawn off immediately into clean casks; and this is the time to fumigate it with sulphur. To do this, take a strip of canvass or rag, about two inches broad and twelve inches long, dip this into melted sulphur, and when a few pails of worked cider are put into the cask, set this match on fire and hold it in the cask till it is consumed, then bung the cask and shake it that the liquor may incorporate with, and retain the fumes; after this, fill the cask and bung it Bp. This cider should be racked off again the latter part of February, or first of March; and if not as clear as you wish it, put in isinglass, to fine; and stir it well; then put the cask in a cool place where it will not be disturbed, for the finery to settle. Cider, prepared in this manner will keep sweet for years.
Mr. Deane observes "I have found it answer well to do nothing to cider till March, or the beginning of April, except giving a cask a small vent hole, and keeping it open till the first fermentation is over; then draw it off into good casks; and then fine it with skim milk, eggs broke up with the shells, or molasses. A quart of molasses will give a fine flavour to a barrel of cider, as well as carry all the lees to the bottom. But lest it should incline the liquor to prick I put in at the same time a quart of rum or brandy; and it seldom fails of keeping well to the end of summer. Cellars in which cider is kept should have neither doors nor windows kept open in the summer, and the casks should stand steady and not be shaken to disturb the sediment.
The casks which contains new cider should be filled perfectly full to permit the froth or pummice to discharge itself at the bung. The pressure of the pummice should be slow that the liquor may run the clearer. Some say that if the cider be racked off in a week after it is made, ceasing the moment it becomes muddy; in ten days a second time, and in fifteen days a third time, it will need no other process for fining or purifying it. In every instance the casks should be clean, and perfectly filled, and when filled for the last time should be bunged up close, and placed in a deep, dry cellar, never to be moved _.till drawn off for use. *
The later the apples hang on the trees, the more spirit the cider will contain. In bottling cider it is recommended to raise the proof of the cider by putting in about two tea spoonfuls of French brandy to each bottle, which will check fermentation, and prevent the bursting of the bottled.
Source Family Receipts ©1831