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Growing of vegetable gardens today is usually not done as a necessity for survival. Sales of vegetable seeds, however, indicate that the number of people growing their own vegetables is increasing. The increase in vegetable-growing is probably related to an increased cost-of-living and to leisure time, and gardening is relaxing and makes one feel that he is making constructive use of his free-time. Also accounting for the increase in gardening is that people know that fresh vegetables are unequaled as sources of minerals and vitamins and that store-bought vegetables do not match the taste of home-grown ones. Another justification for gardening is the economical aspects of growing ones own food. Even in fair times, the home garden has financial value, particularly if the vegetables are needed to provide an adequate diet.
Cost of maintaining a home vegetable garden include seed and fertilizer, which amount to a small cash outlay unless the garden is very large. Land and labor costs may increase the cost of home-grown vegetables considerably. If one does not own a plot of land, garden spots can usually be rented in small urban areas. In large urban areas, one may be driven to more indoor gardening. If one can provide his own labor for tillage and maintenance then costs can be kept down. The home garden should be small enough that it can be maintained by the family. Only the vegetables which the family enjoys should be grown. Generally, a 25' x 50' garden will produces most of the vegetables needed by two people and require about five hours of garden work per week.
A. The Garden Site.
On small properties, the home vegetable garden is apt to be placed on the worst site on the property. Often this situation is unavoidable, and appropriate modificating of the site should be made. However, if a choice of sites is available, some factors for selection of the area are given.
1. Sun - Full sun is needed with a minimum of 6 hours duration per day. Avoid planting in the shade of buildings or trees and shrubs. In addition to shading, trees and shrubs will absorb nutrients and water from the garden.
If shade creeps across the garden during the day, plant leaf and root crops in the shaded area, reserving the sunny spot for fruiting vegetables such as tomato, beans, squash, and cucumbers. Tall growing vegetables such as sweet corn and pole beans should be planted on the northwest side of the garden so that they will not shade lower-growing plants. When possible rows should be laid out in the north-south direction to increase the direct sunlight on both sides of the plant. The slope of the land is a more important factor in determining the direction of placing rows than the lighting factor. Do not run rows up and down slope.
2. Slope - A gentle slope is ideal and is slightly preferred to a perfectly level area. The pitch will allow for good surface drainage and drying. Avoid areas with basins or in basins since these may have standing water, and cold air may drain into them. Slopes of over 4 to 6% (4' to 6' fall per 100') should be gardened on the contour, often in narrow strips with sod between. This action is necessary to prevent erosion.
Slopes on the south side of a hill will dry out quicker and will be workable earlier in the spring than north-facing slopes. They may also need extra water in the summertime.
3. Convenience - Locate the garden close to the kitchen and toolshed. This will allow for quick, pre-meal harvest and make maintenance a more pleasant task.
4. Size - Dimensions of your property may limit your garden size. Beginners should start with a small plot. At first, it may be difficult to obtain organic materials or to build up enough compost for a large garden. Small gardens will not put unexpected demands on your time. When experience and confidence are gained, larger gardens can be made.
For a small family (4 or less), try 1000 to 1500 sq. ft. per person. For larger families, 800 to 1200 sq. ft. per person are adequate. Remember that each 1000 sq. ft. of area will need about 4 hours of garden work per week.
5. Things to avoid in site selection.
a. North slopes, north sides of buildings, and tall hedges.
b. Trees -- keep edge of garden at least half-height of large trees away from trunks.
c. Very shallow soils -- less than 5 or 6 inches deep.
d. Gravelly high spots -- droughty
e. Wet, heavy soil -- especially if spring-flooded. Poor drainage increases diseases such as club root.
f. Subsoil-filled areas.
B. The Spring or Early Garden
Includes frost-hardy crops sown in early April and May include up to one-fourth of garden area. The following statements indicate dates of seeding.
1. Late March or early as possible: Broad (fava) beans, peas, radish, spinach, onion sets.
2. Early April: Beets, swiss chard, carrots, lettuce (plants or seeds), cabbage (plants or seeds), onion seeds, and parsnips.
3. Late April: Broccoli plants.
4. Early May: Cauliflower plants and celery plants.
C. The Summer Garden
1. Sown or planted in May or later depending on season and location:
a. Early May: beans (snap, shell, lima), corn, cucumbers, summer squash, and tomatoes. Covers may be required for late frost protection.
b. Mid to late May: Peppers, eggplants, and melons.
2. For a full-season garden, two to four plantings at regular intervals must be made of bush beans, beets, carrots, cabbage, corn, lettuce, radish, spinach and should include the Spring Garden above and the Fall Garden below.
3. Peas, Iceberg lettuce, and turnips do poorly when not planted early.
D. The Fall Garden
Used for a late garden or for production for storage.
1. Late June: early July seeding: snap beans, carrots, corn, Chinese cabbage, rutabagas and winter radish.
2. Late June: early July planting: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussel sprouts.
3. Late July or into August: beets, spinach, radish, turnips, leaf lettuce, kohl rabi.
4. Storage crops for fall harvest:
a. Planted or seeded early (May-early June): onions, winter squash, pumpkins, potatoes, parsnips.
b. Planted or seeded late (about July 1): beets, carrots, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, rutabagas.
E. Crop Selection
1. High Food Value: carrots, chard, beet, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, snap beans, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, and turnips.
2. Flavor and freshness: sweet corn, greens and salad crops.
3. Row spacing:
a. Close-rows (12" to 18"): carrots, chard, beets, lettuce, spinach, onions, parsnips, radish, turnips.
b. Wide-rows (30" to 48"): tomatoes (42" to 48"), snap beans, broccoli, corn, squash (60"), pumpkins (72"), cucumbers (48"), peppers (12" to 30").
c. Cultivation implements may govern row spacing and necessitate wider spacing.
4. Good fall crops (Plant or seed late June-July): endives (curled or fringed leaf) and escaroles (broad-leaf), cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, rutabagas, kale, beets, radish, spinach, turnips.
5. Possible to over-winter: dandelions, spinach.
6. Often unsatisfactory in home garden.
a. Celery (diseases, need for irrigation).
b. Melons, peanuts, sweet potatoes (not enough heat here).
c. Cauliflower (cold weather may make small heads).
d. Brussel sprouts (hot weather hurts).
e. Winter squash, pumpkins (require too much space in small garden).
f. Corn, melons, sweet potatoes (poor producers for space required).
g. Peas, radish, turnip, and Iceberg lettuce do poorly when sown too late:.
7. Perennial Crops: rhubarb, chives, asparagus (also strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes).
F. Planting Details
1. Long thin gardens more easily plowed and cultivated than square ones.
2. Plan for more essential vegetables -- your choice -- and fill in as much as possible with others you would like.
3. A row may contain more than one vegetable.
4. Row spacing -- increase in poor, dry, or infertile gardens.
a. 12 inches adequate: beets, carrots (single row), Boston and leaf type lettuce, most onions, radish, kohl rabi, endive, escarole.
b. 18 or even 24 inches -- chard, carrot (wide or multiple row), kale, Iceberg lettuces, Spanish onions, rutabagas.
c. 30 inches (may be crowded) 27 -- bush snap beans, cabbage, broccoli, lima beans, horticultural beans, peas, corn, cauliflower.
d. 36 inches (larger gardens), late cabbage, late corns, lima beans, shell beans, cauliflower, brussels sprouts.
e. 42 to 48 inches -- flat and trellis tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers.
f. 60 to 72 inches -- cucumbers, melons, watermelons, pumpkins, fall and winter squash.
5. In-row spacings or thinnings.
a. Home gardeners often fail to thin properly, not allowing thickly seeded crops adequate root room. Thin after a rain or watering.
b. Some crops can be progressively thinned, removing every other plant for early harvest.
i. Thin to 1/2, 3/4, or 1 inch when two inches tall, and thin progressively thereafter; beets (beet greens), lettuce, radish, spinach, turnip (greens).
ii. Thin to 1 1/2 to 2 inches: beets, carrots, not stored.
iii. Thin to 2 1/2 to 3 inches: storage beets, carrots, onions.
iv. Thin to 4 to 6 inches: turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, leaf lettuce.
v. Thin to 10 to 12 inches (or plant in 10 to 12 inch hills): endive, kale, Chinese cabbage (does not transplant well).
vi. Plan on 15-18 inches between plants: cabbage, trellis tomatoes.
vii. Plan on 21 to 24 inches between plants: broccoli, pole beans (poles or trellis allow 7 to 9 inches between individual plants) early corn hills, peppers, eggplant, determinate tomatoes.
viii. Plan on 36 inches: summer squash, cucumber hills, some late corn.
ix. Plan 42-48 inches: flat tomatoes (on ground).
x. Plan 60-72 inches: fall and winter squash, pumpkins.
G. Garden Tools
1. Essential
a. Spade
b. Hoe
c. Stakes, strings and markers
d. Buckets
2. Useful
a. Rake, steel
b. Trowel
c. Spading fork
d. Wheelbarrow
3. Optional
a. Various fancy hoes
b. Power equipment
c. Irrigation equipment
-------------------------------------------------Approximate Vegetable Yields--------------------------------------------- |
------------Approximate Plantings per Person---------------- |
--------Vegetable----------- |
Average yield expected per 100 ft of row |
------Fresh consumption----- |
Fresh consumption plus storage, canning, or freezing |
Asparagus |
30 lb |
10 to 15 plants |
10 to 15 plants |
Beans, garden (snap) bush |
120 lb |
15 ft |
15 to 20 ft |
Beans, garden (snap) pole |
150 lb |
5 to 6 ft |
8 to 10 ft |
Beans, lima bush |
25 lb shelled |
10 to 15 ft |
15 to 20 ft |
Beans, lima pole |
50 lb shelled |
5 to 6 ft |
8 to 10 ft |
Beets |
150 lb |
5 to 10 ft |
10 to 20 ft |
Broccoli |
100 lb |
3 to 5 plants |
5 or 6 plants |
Brussells sprouts |
75 lb |
2 to 5 plants |
5 to 8 plants |
Cabbage |
150 lb |
3 or 4 plants |
5 to 10 plants |
Cabbage, Chinese |
80 heads |
3 to 10 ft |
Not applicable |
Carrots |
100 lb |
5 to 10 ft |
10 to 15 ft |
Cauliflower |
100 lb |
3 to 5 plants |
8 to 12 plants |
Celeriac |
60 lb |
5 ft |
5 to 10 ft |
Celery |
180 stalks |
10 stalks |
Not applicable |
Chard, Swiss |
75 lb |
3 to 5 plants |
8 to 12 plants |
Collards and kale |
100 lb |
5 to 10 ft |
10 to 15 ft |
Corn, sweet |
10 dozen |
10 to 15 ft |
30 to 50 ft |
Cucumbers |
120 lb |
1 or 2 hills |
3 to 5 hills |
Eggplant |
100 lb |
2 or 3 plants |
4 to 6 plants |
Garlic |
40 lb |
Not applicable |
1 to 5 ft |
Kohlrabi |
75 lb |
3 to 5 ft |
5 to 10 ft |
Lettuce, head |
100 heads |
10 ft |
Not applicable |
Lettuce, leaf |
50 lb |
10 ft |
Not applicable |
Muskmelon |
100 fruits |
3 to 5 hills |
Not applicable |
Mustard |
100 lb |
5 to 10 ft |
10 to 15 ft |
Okra |
100 lb |
4 to 6 ft |
6 to 10 ft |
Onions |
100 lb |
3 to 5 ft |
30 to 50 ft |
Parsley |
30 lb |
1 to 3 ft |
2 to 5 ft |
Parsnips |
100 lb |
10 ft |
20 ft |
Peas |
20 lb |
15 to 20 ft |
40 to 60 ft |
Peppers |
60 lb |
3 to 5 plants |
5 to 8 plants |
Potatoes, Irish |
100 lb |
50 to 100 ft |
50 to 100 ft |
Potatoes, sweet |
100 lb |
5 to 10 plants |
10 to 20 plants |
Pumpkins |
100 lb |
1 or 2 hills |
2 to 4 hills |
Radishes |
100 bunches (7-10 bunch) |
3 to 5 ft |
Not applicable |
Salsify |
100 lb |
5 ft |
10 ft |
Soybeans, edible |
20 lb |
50 ft |
50 to 100 ft |
Spinach |
45 lb |
5 to 10 ft |
10 to 15 ft |
Squash, summer |
150 lb |
2 or 3 hills |
3 to 5 hills |
Squash, winter |
100 lb |
1 to 3 hills |
3 to 5 hills |
Tomatoes |
100 lb |
3 to 5 plants |
5 to 15 plants |
Turnip greens |
50 to 100 lb |
5 to 10 ft |
Not applicable |
Turnip roots |
50 to 100 lb |
5 to 10 ft |
10 to 15 ft |
Watermelon |
40 fruits |
2 to 4 hills |
Not applicable |
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Garden Planning
Refer to University of Massachusetts Publication No. 85. The Home Vegetable Garden by Thomson, Gilgut, and Wheeler, or to Brooklyn Botanical Garden Handbook No. 69 (Brooklyn Botanical Garden Record, New Series Vol. 28, No. 2, Summer 1972), or other state, federal, or commercial publications on vegetable gardening.
Exercise
Plan a full or all season garden for your own garden giving dimensions, location (town), and number of persons to be fed from the garden. Also tell whether the garden produce is to be eaten entirely fresh or partly fresh, stored, canned, or frozen.
If you have no definite garden area to plan, plan a 25' x 50' full season garden for four people.
Hints
1. Start your plant by selecting your essential vegetables. Plan for the needed amounts of these. Then add other desired vegetables to fill in the area. Make a rough, estimated plan.
2. Regroup your crops so that you can start at one end and move progressively down the unfilled garden. In regrouping be sure that the tall growing crops are together and not shading the low growing crops.
3. In regrouping try to group vegetables that will reach harvest and removal condition at or near the same time to allow for succession planting of other crops.
4. Use interplantings when possible.
It is not necessary to turn in your garden plan.
SEED TESTING
Seeds which are sold for starting plants must be tested for germination prior to sale. Except for small packets of seeds the percentage germination is printed on the packet. The year for which the seeds are packed for sale is stamped or printed on all packets. The quality of seeds as purchased is usually high and guarantees good germination in the year in which the seeds are sold. In cases where seeds are left over from the preceding year, a germination test may be necessary to determine whether or not the seeds are still viable.
The longevity of seed viability is related to the kind of seed and storage conditions. Good storage conditions are cool and dry environments. Seeds stored under good conditions might be expected to germinate well after the following storage times.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Number of Years of Storage and Kind of Seeds _______________________________________________________________________________
One or two |
Three |
Four |
Five |
Sweet corn |
Asparagus |
Beet |
Broccoli |
Onion |
Beans |
Chard |
Brussells sprouts |
Parsnip |
Carrot |
Fennel |
Cabbage |
Okra |
Peas |
Pepper |
Cauliflower |
Parsley |
Pumpkin |
Celery |
|
Tomato |
Eggplant |
||
Endive |
|||
Kale |
|||
Lettuce |
|||
Muskmelon |
|||
Radish |
|||
Squash |
|||
Turnip |
|||
Watermelon |
The suggested years of viability of stored seeds vary with conditions of storage. If conditions are warm and humid, storage life will be shorter than those listed. Often seeds will germinate for many more years than those listed. Sometimes, however, seedling vigor may be greatly reduced when old seeds are used.
Germination tests may be run in several ways, that is with seeds planted in sand, or other mixes, seed rolled in paper towels, seed placed in dishes with moist paper, agar, or placed in aerated water, and other ways.
a. Rolled paper towels -- works well for large seeds.
b. Covered dish -- works well for small seeds.
c. Peat-lite mix -- works well for all sizes of seeds.
1. Working in groups, test the germination of one kind of seed using each of the procedures, a, b, and c, above.
2. Twenty-five seeds are the minimum to be used. Try to stay close to 25 to 100 seeds, being sure to count the number used. (400 seeds are used in official tests).
3. Place the seeds in a room at about 70oF.
4. In one week, count the number of seeds which have germinated. Criteria for germination are the emergence of a vigorous primary root and emergence of plumule. For the seeds in Jiffy-Mix, count the number of live seedlings.
Complete the data sheet and hand-in within two weeks.
SEED TESTING
Kind of seed _____________________________________
Date started______________________________________
Date terminated __________________________________
Original year of packing and % germination if known ___________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Test |
Number of seeds |
Number germinating |
Percent gerrmination |
Rolled towels |
_______________________ |
_______________________ |
_______________________ |
Dish |
_______________________ |
_______________________ |
_______________________ |
Peat-lite mix |
_______________________ |
_______________________ |
_______________________ |
Question
1. Would you expect these seeds to germinate as well in the garden as in the tests? Explain.
_______________________________________________________________________________
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COMMONLY USED DISEASE TOLERANCE CODES: ASC Alternaria stem canker BSp Bacterial speck F Fusarium wilt F1 Fusarium wilt, race 1 F2 Fusarium wilt, race 2 N Root-knot nematode St Stemphyllum (gray leaf spot) TMV Tobacco mosaic virus V Verticillium wilt V1 Verticillium wilt, race 1 V2 Verticillium wilt, race 2
Description | Syllabus
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| Internet | Lab
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Produced and maintained by Allen Barker
University of
Massachusetts, Amherst.