Posts Tagged “planting”
Posted by: Rose in cucumbers, tags: planting
 It is a good idea to plant cucumbers in hills so they can vine in peace and do not get too crowded.
A week or two after your last frost date, make hills that are 4-5 feet apart from each other on all sides, and approximately 12” in diameter. Plant 6-8 seeds per hill.
After 3 weeks, thin to 3-4 plants per hill, depending on the quality of the soil.
Keep on top of weeds without disturbing the vines once they started running.
If you wish to save seed, take them from over ripe cucumbers that have already turned yellow and slightly soft. Wash seeds from the cucumber and dry them. They are ready to be stored away when they break instead of bending.
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Posted by: Rose in tomatoes, tags: planting
 As tomatoes are most gardener’s favorite plant, especially but not exclusively amongst beginners, here are a few things that might be worth knowing about growing tomatoes. If those among you who have decades of tomato growing experiences are unhappy with my information or have things to add, please feel free to comment 
- Basically, all that tomatoes need is healthy, well draining soil, sunlight – don’t plant them in a shady spot – and sufficient water. To keep the soil from drying out too quickly, mound grass clippings or other mulch around the plants and cover the soil of the whole garden bed with mulch too. This will also improve the quality of the soil.
- If you have a square foot garden, plant one tomato per square foot, that should give them enough room.
- You can pinch the suckers if you wish, but you do not have to. Pinching suckers will lead to less, but bigger fruit, whereas leaving the suckers on the plant will lead to more, smaller fruit. If you are not sure what suckers are, just forget about them
- As for suitable companions, do not plant tomatoes and peppers within root distance from each other, as they stunt each other. The same counts for onions. Tomatoes like the company of carrots, lima beans, and parsley.
- Marigolds will help keep bugs away.
- Keep an eye out for the tomato horn worm. It likes your tomatoes (the leaves mostly) even more than you will. Here is a little site that is rather informative and has some pretty impressive pictures, too.
 Here is the link and one of the pictures you find there. http://www.gardengrapevine.com/TomatoWorm.html
- When your tomatoes get taller, you might want to stake them. You don’t have to, but if you don’t, you will have to be very attentive to ripening fruits that rest on the ground. If you let them sit there for too long, they will rot. If you stake the tomatoes, this will not be an issue.
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You might think it’s weird to think about the gardening season now, but it isn’t. Even though your garden patch might be buried in snow right now, depending on where you are, you still need to get off your hindquarters and start planning now.
2009 might very well be the year when, for the first time in a long time, many people will have to rely on their own crops or go hungry, so plan well, and order early, and order heirloom seed that you can save so you won’t have to spend money again next year. When I went through our seed catalogs earlier this week, I noticed just how many crop failures are mentioned, and how much more expensive seed has become compared to last year.
I suggest looking at Fedco’s, or Seed Savers Exchange, to get an idea. Both places let you order online or via snail mail. Fedco’s is a little less pricey, but they have hybrids too, so make sure you don’t get a hybrid accidentally.
In addition, buying a little seed dispenser might help you not to waste seed, and a germination mat, for example Hydrofarm MT10008 Seedling Heat Mat, 20 By 20 Inches , will make sure that the seeds you start indoors will grow nicely even if you start early. Hydrofarm even sells a Hydrofarm CK64050 Germination Station with Heat Mat which gives you the seedling pots and the heat mat all in one go. If you are new to the whole idea of growing your own food and don’t have a basement full of little seedling pots already, this might be the way to go.
If you have difficulties deciding what you want to grow, consider this:
- What do you like to eat ? (Don’t grow what you won’t wish to eat.)
- What will fill your family’s belly well ? (You might like radishes a lot, but they are hardly satisfying if that’s all you have to eat.)
- What stores well ? (What can nourish your family well through the next winter.)
- What can you process ? (Will you can, freeze, dehydrate, or store in a root cellar.)
Tomatoes and peppers are tasty and wonderful additions, but you will want to have beans, potatoes and corn too.
Be wise, and don’t go hungry !
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We are using this book a lot… Maybe you will find it useful too if you are new to the whole homesteading business or are just looking for something that sums up everything you need to know in times such as these…
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Generally speaking, you can plant zucchini, squash, pumpkin and gourd a plant per foot. Note that zucchini does not vine, whereas squash, pumpkin and gourds, do.
IN ROWS:
- 18 inches between rows for zucchini, squash and gourd
- 12 inches apart
- plant 3-5 seeds, thin out if necessary
Pumpkins are usually planted in hills dues to their size. Leave plenty of space for them to vine.
Corn, Beans and squash, pumpkin or zucchini together make what is commonly called “The Three Sisters”. Here is how you plant a three sister mound:
1. In late May/ early June, pile up soil a foot high and 20 across. Place the mounds four feet apart, flatten the tops.
2. Plant five to six corn kernels in a small circle.
3. When the corn has grown about five inches (about a week or two later), plant seven to eight pole beans in a circle around the corn, about six inches away.
4. At the edge of the mound, a foot away from the beans, squash or pumpkin seeds, seven to eight all in all.
5. Weed out the weaker plants once they have grown enough to tell which are strong and which are weak plants.
6. Wrap the beans around the corn stalks as they grow. The squash will crawl around corn and beans.
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Buy plants, and remember when you buy them that you need some space for them as they will grow quite a bit.
IN ROWS:
- leave 18 inches between plants
- plant in a somewhat shady spot
- cover plants with straw in the fall
Strawberries are easy to propagate. They send out runners that root and grow into individual plants. There are different varieties of strawberries:
- June Bearing strawberries produce a single, large crop per year during a 2 – 3 week period in the spring. They produce many runners and the largest fruits. You find early, mid-season and late varieties.
- Everbearing strawberries produce two to three harvests of fruit from spring to fall, but unfortunately do not send out many runners.
- Day Neutral strawberries will produce fruit throughout the growing season and only few runners, too.
If you have limited space and are not too keen on runners, Everbearing and Day Neutral varieties are best for you, even if the fruits are somewhat smallish.
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Posted by: Rose in kohlrabi, tags: planting
 Plant your spring crop early, 4-6 weeks before the frost date, as kohlrabi that grows slowly and in hot weather will be woody.
IN ROWS:
- 1/4-1/2 inch deep
- thin to 3-6 inches between plants, thinnings can be planted elsewhere
- 12-24 inches between rows
IN A GRID:
- plant 9 plants in a 1 foot square
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It is a good idea to plant carrots and radishes in alternating rows as the radishes come up much earlier than the carrots and will remind you where the carrots were Both vegetables can be planted as early as 25 days before your frost date.
CARROTS IN ROWS:
- 1/4 inch deep
- 1/2 inch apart
- 12 inches between rows
 RADISHES IN ROWS:
- 1/4-1/2 inch deep
- 2 inches apart
- 6 inches between rows
As the radishes will be gone by the time your carrots need the space, you can plant the radishes in between the carrot rows, thus saving space.
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Posted by: Rose in potatoes, tags: planting
To prepare seed potato,
- expose them to warmth (60-70F) and light about a week before planting time.
A day or two before planting,
- cut them into seeds with a sharp knife. Each seed should have at least 1 or 2 “eyes”, each piece should be about 2 square inches.
- Wait until a thick callous has formed over the cuts before planting.
The callous will prevent the seeds from rotting once they are planted.
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Posted by: Rose in potatoes, tags: planting
It’s easiest to plant potatoes in rows in a large field. Just make a furrow with a hoe and drop pieces of seed potato into it.
IN ROWS:
- 2 1/2 feet apart
- 3 inches deep
- 6-8 inches between the seed potatoes
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