Planting Garlic

We planted 30 lbs of stiff neck garlic yesterday, and for lunch we savored each variety. I enjoy the varieties. Each has its own flavor and taste personality. Some have a mellow heat and rich flavor, others pop with an instant flavor.

Garlic likes rich, well draining soils. It is suggested that you rotate your plot each year to be sure there is not a build up of pests in the bed. The location we are using this year has never had garlic in it before. In preparation for planting, we tilled and smoothed the soil in the garden plot. We set out the paths per our tractor wheel base at 30 inches of bed space.

We broke the garlic bulbs apart, but kept the paper wrappers on each individual clove. A few hours before planting, we soaked the cloves in a nutrient solution of 1T baking soda, 1T Kelp liquid into 1 quart of water. Then just before planting, we dipped the cloves into undiluted isopropyl alcohol (70%). We have been told the alcohol dip will not damage the cloves, and may discourage bacterial and fungal influences.

For planting, we prepared a bed 30 inches wide, and within this bed we made 4 equal spaced rows for the garlic, approximately 6 inches apart. Within the row, we planted the cloves from 4-6 inches apart and at a depth of around 3 inches. Last year we had garlic cloves pushed out of the ground because of freeze thaw, so we have planted them a bit deeper this year (3-4 inches deep). Our plan is also to cover the area with straw and mulch. A friend has read that you should let the ground freeze, and then place the straw on the bed. This would help keep the ground shallowly frozen, and decrease the freeze thaw cycles during the winter. If you find your garlic heaving out of the ground, then you need to cover it with soil, and plan to plant deeper next year.

Varieties we are planting:

• Chesnok Red, Purple Stripe
• Russian Giant
• Porcelain Musik
• Porcelain Romanian Red
• Silverskin S & H (softneck garlic)

The stiff neck garlic is a special, gourmet garlic. It brings a high price and is of excellent cash crop. It is easy to grow, and in our experience has few pests. I am not sure why the small gardener would not want to try it. If fact I think everyone should!

Resources:

• See our earlier post on garlic.

Drip T-Tape

As mentioned last year in the post on watering systems, we have found drip tape to be an excellent way to go for efficient watering. I have tried several systems, and this is hands down the best in consistent delivery and ease of use.

I need to find an efficient way to store the watering system over winter, as for much of our fields, I wanted to remove the tape and feed lines to allow for tilling and soil preparation.

Below are the items we have used, and comparative prices.

3/4 Main Line:

• Garden female hose beginning to 3/4" line connector - $1.50
• 3/4 main line hose - $0.15 per foot
• 3/4 hose tees - $2.66
• 3/4 coupler - $1.22
• 3/4 elbow (90 deg bend) - $2.10
• 3/4 hose end plug - $0.80

T-Tape:

• T-tape - 8 mil - $0.04 per foot (weeps every 8 inches)
• U Shape wire hold downs - $0.08 each, or $8.00 per 100.
• Tape x .400 barb connector - $0.50 each
• Tape x .400 barb connector with valve - $1.60 each
• .400 barb goof plug - $0.35 each
• Tape coupler - $0.64 each
• Tape elbow - $1.50
• Tape tee - $1.60

We have several hose timers which can help automate the watering process in case you are away on a trip. All in all, the t-tape system is very easy to use and trouble free. We are reusing all of our components, and they are holding up well for the second year.

Legumes

2013 is the year of the legume for our micro farm. We have a large planting of fava beans which are now starting to flower. In addition, we have planted a large number of other legumes for experimentation this year. Our varieties include:

Pole

• Corn Bean
• Cherokee Trail of Tears
• Hidatsa Red Indian
• Rattlesnake Pole
• Tarbias Pole

Bush

• Blue Lake
• Fava
• Purple Hull Speakled
• Purple Hull Pinkeye Cowpea
• Six Week Purple Hull Cowpea
• Soya Bean Envy
• White Rice
• White Whippoorwill Cowpea

Legumes are excellent sources of protein. They are the primary source of protein for vegetarians like our family. They also have the wonderful ability to associate with bacteria and fix nitrogen into the soil. You can use legumes as a cover crop to increase nitrogen content and build humus matter in the soil.

As we harvest the legume crop, I will add to this article a more "complete" variety description, and confirm or update what others have written. I will also add images and try to give an idea of yield per foot row of planting.

These legume seeds were obtained through Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.


Resources

• Beans (2012 post)
• Green Beans (2012 post)

Freeze Protection

On Monday morning, May 13, 2013, we likely had our last hard frost of this spring. To celebrate, we brought out all our laundry to cover the sensitive perennials and fruit trees. At one point, one of the boys said, Hey! This sheet was on my bed!

Late spring frost is a concern for fruit trees (ours were in full bloom), blooming strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and grapes.

Small plants can often be sheltered with an overturned 5 gallon bucket. The strawberries are low to the ground, and we just placed a tarp over the row/bed and secured the corners with buckets filled with water.

Our temps dropped from 31 degrees F at 6 am when I went out to check on things to 28 degrees F just before the sun hit the earth to warm it around 8:30 am. The sky was clear and wind calm. We had the classic radiation frost conditions.

A thin sheet is often enough to prevent frost formation on tender plant tissues, and preserve the harvest. This is possible with several hours of work on a micro farm like ours, but impractical for large farms. Local strawberry fields started irrigation the evening prior, and had an inch of protective ice on the plants by the time the temps rose.

Our 10 day forecast now stretches to May 24, with no danger of frost. The charts show our 10% probability frost date at the end of May, so I think we are fairly safe to set things out of the greenhouse into the field. If I am wrong, then we will have even more things to cover next time ;)


Resources:

• Frost probability charts per local and state (web / pdf)
• Assessing frost and freeze damage to flowers and buds of fruit trees (web)
• Critical spring temperature chart (with pictures - pdf)
• Critical spring temperature chart (without pictures - pdf)
• Vineyard frost protection ideas (web)

Fertilizer

I see one of my draft articles has come of age - and published itself without my ever finishing it! (Sorry for those of you who came and saw it in its rather raw form!)

Now that most areas of the USA are warm enough for planting, we need to think some about getting the crops to grow. I do not suggest adding a lot of fertilizer at the time you plant so your new plants will not be burned by intense amount of fertilizer. What is perfect is to add manures long in advance of planting. Even better, you could allow the manures age in a compost pile where they will break down and then be ready for use in the garden.

Fertilizers generally focus on adding nitrogen to plants during the growing season, but could address the addition of any needed substance for growth. For now, let''s focus on the addition of nitrogen to your garden plot.

A garden generally needs around 60 lbs of available nitrogen per acre over a growing season. Nitrogen can come from a variety of sources, generally of plant origin, or bacteria fixing nitrogen in conjunction with plants (legumes for example). I have started Fava beans this year, and look forward to this plant adding nitrogen to the soil for subsequent crops to use. There are so many good things to say about Fava, and I still wonder why I have not grown them before!

There are three ways to add nitrogen to your garden:

1. Cover crops, especially nitrogen fixing crops
2. Adding compost and manures
3. Chemical fertilizers (ammonia compounds)

The first option seems to be the best. There are a lot of nice things to be said about manuers, but you may introduce new weed seeds to your garden. The least favorite of the three I put last. If not done properly, chemical fertilizers can sterilize your soil. The organic gardener wants to feed the micro organisms, which will in turn feed your crops. So take care when adding chemicals to your garden.

Following are some misc notes that for some reason I thought were earth shaking when I started this article some time ago:

There are 16 tablespoons per cup. Many commercial power fertilizers suggest using one tablespoon per gallon of water for fertilizing plants. In a 5 gallon bucket, this would be 5 T per bucket. To get ½ Tablespoon per gallon, put 2.5 T into a 5 gallon bucket.

So, did you do a soil test, and therefore do you know what your garden needs this year? Cheers for a fertile garden!


Resources

• Conversion tables for horticulture use (pdf)

Nut Trees

Nuts are a wonderful food source. Nuts are high in energy, and have a shell that helps protect the highly nutritious nut inside. Native Americans used various nut trees as a diet staple, and perennial nut trees seem a sensible permaculture (permanent agriculture) addition to every homestead. Author David Bunker suggests the homesteader plant 5 to 10 trees each year.

Let's look at some of the nut trees that are popular in the USA. If you have experience with ant of these, or one not listed, please add your comment below.


Chestnuts
This was once a dominant tree species in its range, but it has been decimated by the chestnut blight. New options of American species that are resistant are sold, as well as hybrids with a Chinese chestnut tree. These trees can grow to 70 feet tall, and withstand down to -20 degrees F.


English Walnuts
These are wonderful trees, but the nuts are encased in double layers of protection. Once you get to the nut flesh, then you will begin to think the effort was worth the effort. Actually, the English walnuts are thin shelled, and quite nice. I have had some where you could hold two in your hand and crack them together. The trees will grow 40-60 feet tall. Some may self pollinate, but plant at least two trees for good pollination. These trees are hardy in zones 4-8.


Hazel (Filbert) nut
These trees will grow in a bush-like habit, to 18' tall. They require at least two trees for pollination. The nuts are small and sweet meat. It is reported that may get nuts from two year old trees.

Shagbark Hickory
This native tree of America grows well from zones 4-8.
The tree grows slowly and once producing the tree can offer nut harvest for 100+ years. It produces a nickel sized nut that can be split with a knife in half and then halved again to easily remove the flesh from the shell. See the pictorial instructions on how to open Shagbark Hickory nuts.

We find the nuts are smaller than other nuts we use, but the flesh has a good taste, very similar to a pecan. They seem hardy and a large tree will produce a lot of nuts!


Pecan
From what I gather, pecans may be relatives to hickory trees. One reference went as far as to call them pecan hickory trees. Pecans generally are considered warm loving trees. They are long lived and these trees grow to be very large trees. (Plan on this before you plant one!)

Pecan trees need both a specific range of warmth, and a specific range of chill. So you basically need to get your pecans from a nursery where you know is compatible to your climate. You would hate to wait 15 to 20 years to find that the pecan you planted years ago will not produce in your area! For those in the far north, I have a link in the resources below to a nursery that claims to be getting full nuts from a pecan tree in Michigan.


Resources:

• GrimoNut Tree Nursery (web order)
• Hardy Northern Pecan Trees (web)

Fava Beans

Fava Beans are a new part of our garden experience this year. The more I learn about fava beans, the more convinced I am that I should have known about these botanical wonders long ago. These are closely related to vetch, and will not genetically cross with other garden beans. The cool thing is that these vetch plants grow fast and do well in cool weather. They can germinate and grow with nights below freezing, and are reported to withstand 15 deg. F. This is a cold hardy plant! Some varieties withstand down to 10 deg. F. before they winter kill.

Photo taken May 10, 2013; 47 days post planting seed.

It is possible in many areas to overwinter with these beans, and a very early planting may infuse the soil with nitrogen for later crops that can be subsequently planted as the season warms. To assure your fava have the needed nitrogen fixing bacteria, I suggest you purchase inoculant. Adding the incoulant is easy and will help assure the fava grow well. A retailer suggested I use "N-Dure inoculant for peas, vetch and lentils." Protect the inoculant from sunlight or high temps. Wet the seeds, and gently mix in the inocument, coating the seeds. Plant the seeds immediately.

Fava have a long central tap root that helps to break up clay soil. This is exactly the kind of plant that would be helpful when converting raw land to a crop field. Fava beans can be incorporated into the soil at flowering time if you will use the entire crop as a green manure. If you allow the crop to go to seed the plant stems will have grown larger and tough. Incorporating mature plants into the soil will likely require more mechanical chopping to physically break it down.

I plan to let my fava crop run through to maturity, as I want to see how these beans taste. I have read that there is a membrane around the bean that has to be removed. Some references talk of streaming the entire bean pod, and then shelling out the beans individually as you eat them. Some people eat edamame beans this way. I have heard of fava humus being very good, and perhaps for the humus you don't have to remove the inner membrane.

As you would expect from a miracle plant, people also eat the tender green leaves. It can be placed in fresh salads, cooked soups and a variety of other dishes.

The ground was dry enough to till the patch were I want to plant fava beans this year. Perhaps I will plant fava seed tomorrow, even though it will be 38 degrees F. I will post some pics when they come up.


Resources:

• Fava bean fact sheet (pdf)
• Growing suggestions (web)
• Fava Bean info and facts (wikipedia)

Spring into Gardening

This evening it was a pleasure to host the community event: Spring into Gardening. We visited for 2 hours on topics from planning your garden, sowing seeds, transplanting into soil, harvesting and seed saving.

There were a lot of great ideas from the group, and it was great to dream about spring time planting. It will not be long now before we start seeds indoors!


Tips gleaned from the class:

• You can use two ordinary 5 gallon buckets, a small container and a piece of pipe to make a subterranean watering garden pot. The outer bucket holds the water, the inner bucket holds the soil. The bottom of the inner bucket has a hole to hold a cup or container that will extend the dirt down into the water reservoir below. A 1" or smaller feed pipe will go from the inner bucket down to the lower bucket to easily refill the outer bucket's water supply.
• If you make a raised bed out of lumber, do not used treated lumber. It has chemicals to keep it from rotting that may not be the best for your soil and contact with food.
• If you make your own potting soil from your garden soil, pasturize the soil by heating it to 180 degrees F. for 1 hour. Then mix in equal parts of compost and sand. I like to have some peat moss as well to lighten the mix.
• Make a plan to start something in your garden this year. The more you try the more you will learn. Make gardening fun for your family, and don't just add another summer activity to your busy schedule. Rather replace TV and Internet with outdoor gardening.
• Being self sufficient is a skill we need to know, and only recently has the knowledge of how to survive on our own been lost from the general population.

Outline of the presentation:

5 Reasons to plan a garden!

• There is a blessing in working in the soil. There is something really peaceful and rewarding about growing your own food.
• God created a garden, then made man to tend it. We can find ourselves close to Him in a garden.
• Gardening and it's lessons are for character development.
• Trust in an all powerful creator
• Patience – plants grow slowly
• Plants need care and tending just like our children do
• Gardening allows you to brighten your environment with green plants and colorful flowers.
• Gardening allow you to be more self sufficient – Save $ and improve your health.

Your Goals for Your Garden:

My personal goal is that each person make a definite plan to grow something on your own – something new that you have never grown before.

Young people: If your family already has a garden, I challenge you to have at least one plant that is all your own to water and to care for.

• So, what are your goals for gardening?
• Remember to take into account what time and resources you have available.
• Decide what produce you want to grow. What vegetables you would enjoy consuming with your
  family, and plan to grow some or all of them!

Types of gardens:

• You can have a window garden, and enjoy green plants and salads growing from a window.
• You can have container growing, with the focus on one or two plants per container.
• You can try a raised bed, and put mulch down in the pathways to reduce weeding work. If you don't want to bend over, you can add height to your raised bed to make working in the planter even easier.
• You can mark out a garden plot with string and still plant in beds, but not have the wood side walls of a raised bed.
• You can incorporate flowers as a focus of the garden, or as a border around it. Make your garden space beautiful!

Your garden method will be best for you, and just your own. Doing anything in the soil is better than succumbing to the sterile, impersonal existence the mastermind of technology would like to foist on us.


Soil Preparation:

No matter the size of your garden, you will want to prepare the soil. Your goal should be a fresh dirt area of loose soil. Starting seeds indoors does well with a loose potting soil. If you dig up unimproved soil from your yard and bring this inside to start your seedlings, you will have more problems than starting them in sterilized potting soil. Seeds germinate best in loose soil.

Seedlings indoors are easily attacked by fungi and bacteria. Have you ever had seedlings pop up and then when an inch tall, form a dark ring at soil level on the stem and quickly die?

If you cannot afford potting soil, then you can pasteurize your own soil and loosen it by adding compost, sand and some peat moss. One bag of peat moss should make a lot of potting soil! Mix it in as needed to keep the soil light and not too compacted after a week of watering.


Soil Testing:

Soil testing can help you to identify deficiencies in your soil. You can read about how I worked with soil tests when I started a new garden plot. I don't suggest the do-it-yourself testing kits as they are poorly calibrated, and the point of getting a soil test is to know what you need to add to your soils. Soil tests from a commercial lab are under $20 and I think it is a good investment for a new garden plot.


Obtaining Seeds and Planting:

If at all possible, I suggest your using locally adapted seeds – that means a seed swap with others in the area, using heirloom seeds, or saving your own heirloom seeds from year to year. This is really not all that difficult, and you get the benefit of being able to select the traits you appreciate and have even a better variety next year!

Focus on true breeding seeds for your garden. F1 Hybrid means that the seeds produced from the hybrid parents may not be true to form. We suggest your using Heirloom or True Breeding seeds. You can easily save these year after year. Save some extra seed each year (don't plant it all) in case you are are not able to gather your own seeds, but liked the variety. There is more on seed saving earlier in this blog.

Keep track of what you plant – and what your seedlings are. Labels can be simple – using reusing a plastic knife with writing on it, to fancy – with plastic or metal labels

In the north, I suggest starting seeds indoors, and getting a little jump on spring. You can use simple containers like plastic cups with slits in the side walls set on a plastic tray, to the more "professional" (ie expensive yet efficient) seedling starter trays.

One of the things large growers have enjoyed is the soil blocker, where 2" cubes of soil are pressed into a form, and then set into a plastic tray for seed starting.


Commercial Seed Suppliers we Suggest:

• Baker Creek   http://www.rareseeds.com
• Burpee Seeds   http://www.burpee.com
• Seed Saver's Exchange   http://www.seedsavers.org
• Johnny's Seeds   http://www.johnnyseeds.com
• Harris Seeds   http://www.harrisseeds.com 
• Park Seeds   http://www.parkseed.com

Number of Seeds per Tray:

So, how many seeds do you plant in a plant slot or block? I suggest two or three seeds so you can select the most hardy one. Do not allow more than one seedling to grow as they will damage each other as you separate them later. You have to be ruthless in your thinning, and you will find one is generally stronger than the others.

Indoor plants need lots of light. A sunny windows is great, but may not be enough. Grow lights within 2-3 inches above the plant to keep it from becoming leggy. It has been suggested that you change your bulbs each year, as they can quickly loose their lumen power. I have not done this yet... Also it is suggested that you don't need expensive full spectrum bulbs. Rather you can use two cool and two warm bulbs in a 4 bulb fixture, and come off with a lower bulb cost. Use recycled fixtures when possible.

Remember that these tiny seedlings will grow, and need a larger pot of soil, perhaps every 2 weeks! You can easily have 36 or more starts on a tray, but when you go to gallon containers, a tray will only hold 3! So make sure you will have the room and number of lights to supply the plants that you start.

Some have suggested that plants started later will catch up to ones started early, so other than extending your enjoyment of working in the soil, take care to not make too early planting a burden.


Plant on a Schedule (and often):

Regularly in planting is important. If you want to harvest something each week, then you need to plant something each week. You do not have to plant a full seasons row of beats at one planting. Plant some each week, and then enjoy fresh garden produce all summer long! This is not to say you should not do large plantings for canning or winter supply, but more for your fresh eating, you have a constant supply of fresh food from the garden. Work "eating from the garden" meals more and more regularly into your meal schedule.


Seven Tips for your Upcoming Garden:

• Don't bite off more than you can chew. It is easy to get a lot of seeds, but remember that plants need some garden space and garden space needs weeding and watering. Our excitement today needs to be tempered with the reality of tomorrow.
• Plan your garden space. Plot out what you can grow on that space and enjoy the process.
• Start plants indoors to get a head start.
• Protect plants from pests. Deer can be a problem! An electric fence works well. You could even bait the fence with some metal foil coated with peanut butter. One lick should send the deer running and hopefully not to return! Row covers are lightweight material that can keep bugs off, but allows light and rain through.
• Weed and water regularly. Check for water needs 3 x per week. Weed the entire garden area each week. 
• Harvest when ripe for best nutrition and health-giving qualities. Plant enough to be able to share and get to know your neighbors.
• Save seed for next year. And save some extra to swap or give away.

Resources:

• Winter sowing (web)
• How to make your own potting soil (web)

Refugee Garden

I am not sure which of us thought of it first, as we have been kicking this idea around for so long. What about making a market garden training center focused on helping refugees? Refugees are people displaced by war & social unrest where they have had to flee their home country and try to start over in a new place. Refugees come to this country and are faced with a lot of traumatic life changes. They are in a new country, with a foreign language, customs, concurrency, employment system, etc. They are often familiar with agriculture in their home countries, but here in America they almost always occupy low paying menial jobs. Refugees often settle within the inner city of large urban areas. The children learn English faster than the parents, and role reversal upsets the family order. When old enough many of these refugee children join the military to master violence that they can use in the wars back in their home country.

Sunshine and Harvest have a dream of ministering to others via agriculture in a country setting.

We dream of a garden where refugees can come in peace and till the soil for their sustenance. Where they can work in agriculture  and do what they know how to do best, and stay connected as a family unit. Where they can learn English, grow produce for their family and to sell, earn an income for their family, and participate in producing wholesome food for their communities.

We are thinking about a project that would mentor and train refugees in a skill and open the door to an entrepreneurial, self employed business. We see better profit margins in organic growing, with strategic marketing to local consumers and outlets.

We dream of being able to minister to the soul and live out an expression of Biblical simplicity of a life of service.

We realize we don't have the required knowledge, or financial backing to make such a plan work. But we are thinking about how God will use us. Right now it seems more practical for us to minister to refugees here in the USA than go to a foreign land as a missionary family. We hope to touch people here that could then someday return to their home countries with the beam of Gospel light radiating from their hearts as well.

We are not the first to think of this idea. Following are some refugee gardens we want to learn more about

• Columbia Refugee Garden blog (web) Columbia, MO. sponsor
• Tampa Bay Gardens, another (ancillary news story) Tampa Bay, FL
• New Roots Gardens (web) SLC, UT and other states
• Philadelphia Refugee Gardens, another (web) Philadelphia, PA
• PUSH Garden (web) Buffalo, NY
• Minnesota CoC Gardens (web) Minnesota
• Gardens of Eden (web) Minnesota. steps (pdf)
• Kentwood Refugee Garden (web) Kentwood, MI
• Pamoja (Swahili for “together”) Garden (web) Hudsonville, MI
• Refugee Garden Plots (gallery) Wheaton, IL
• Atlanta Refugee Garden (video) Atlanta, GA
• Jolly Avenue Community Garden (web) - Links to the video above, so likely Atlanta, GA
• SE Houston Garden (web) Houston, TX
• Phoenix Garden (web) Phoenix, AZ
• Interfaith Garden (web) San Antonio, TX
• Refugee Agriculture Program (web) Manchester, NH
• Global Gardens (web) Boise, ID
• Field of Dreams (web) Manhattan, NY
• Drew Gardens - New Roots (videos) Manhattan, NY

The Victorian Kitchen Garden

I am fond of 1800's history, and was pleasantly surprised to learn about the program "The Victorian Kitchen Garden". This apparently was a BBC series of the mid 1980's.

Source: Wikipedia on Harry Dodson

Back in the Victorian period (1800's) there were large walled gardens in each large estate in England. Food production was on a very local scale, and a team of people were employed as gardeners. All of this was new to me, but what I found especially interesting was to learn the tips and techniques from master gardeners of a hundred years ago. A time when there were no commercial fertilizers, few pesticides and a lot of attention to detail and the crop. There was no mono culture in these gardens!

The head gardener was one of the highest seniority staff members on the estate, and he was tasked with producing all of the food needed by the estate-- year round.

I have enjoyed the program, so I will organize links to the videos on you tube. I would caution you to beware of inappropriate content in the "suggested" videos area. It is sad to have good resources thrown in with the filth of a morals lacking society. Click the video link, and go full screen as soon as you can, and of course skip the ads if they are thrust upon you.

Note as of Jan 21, 2013, these video links are not working. The interview with Thoday is working which would give you an idea about the program.

Series Intro

January

February part 1, February part 2

March

April

May (first 10 mins)

June part 1, June part 2

July part 1, July part 2

August part 1, August part 2

September part 1, September part 2

October

November

December

Peter Thoday Interview From 2002 Part 1, Peter Thoday Interview From 2002 Part 2

High Tunnel Greenhouse

We have launched into learning first hand about greenhouses. We have a lot to learn, but we are interested in experiencing an extra month+ on each side of our growing season, and doing more with some intensive gardening within the greenhouse.

Our philosophy at this time is to not add additional heat to a greenhouse, but rather to buffer the lows and shelter the plants from desiccation. We won't be trying to grow tomatoes and peppers (warm loving plants) in the winter, rather we will focus on cold hardy plants with the goal of keeping them going all year long.

Our greenhouse dimensions are 16 x 48 feet and is called a high tunnel because you can walk inside of it. In this post, I will outline the placement considerations, assembly steps and tips we learn along the way. You can DIY (do it yourself) where you can purchase fence poles and do your own rib bending and collect the needed hardware. We decided to start with a kit containing all of the poles, hardware and greenhouse grade plastic included.


Location Considerations

Your placement of the greenhouse is important. You want your site to be level, have good sun exposure, and be conveniently accessible to you, power and water.

We cast about in our minds various locations for the greenhouse, and have come to decide on our oldest garden plot, which is the most level ground we have in garden, and is also closest to our pole barn, power and water supply. There are some tall trees to the west of this location, but perhaps we will trim these down, or they may help shade the greenhouse in the summer when it will likely be too hot anyway.

We have brought in a load of well composted horse manure to amend to the soil and help level it out a bit more. It looks good as a plot and location to start a greenhouse.


Parts

The general parts are straightforward:

• Anchor posts of 3 feet long are driven into the ground ~ 2 feet, with a 15" out of the ground. The anchor posts are driven along the perimeter of the greenhouse every 4 feet along the sides.
• Hoop poles are set into the anchor posts, held with a connector tube.
• Ridge pole attaches with hardware along the top ridge of the greenhouse
• Plastic sheeting holder hardware is attached to the frame
• End walls are constructed using 2x4s
• Plastic sheeting is applied and fastened

Assembly

1) Anchors: After selecting the location for the greenhouse, you need to layout the specific corner posts, and make sure everything is square. We wanted to square the greenhouse with the road in front and the pole barn to the side, so we took some measurements, and set the front two corner posts 16 feet apart that face the road. From these we measured out the back corners, measuring 48 feet along the sides, and 50'7" on the diagonal.

A little geometry review: We want the structure to be square. This means that all of the corners need to be right angles. The Pythagorean formula for a "right angled triangle" is a² + b² = c². This means that for a structure 16 x 48, the hypotenuse would measure 50'7". You measure both sides and both diagonals and make adjustments till every measurement is right. Then you set the back corner posts.

We measured the corner posts from soil line to the top of the post 15". We will use 2x12" side boards along the perimeter and 15" will leave some room above the side board for the attachment of the connector and hoop pole to the anchor post. With the four corners at the proper depth into the ground, we strung a flexible tape measure along the long sides and pounded in the side anchors every 4' and to the depth of the tape line. There is a pounding plug shown in the image which allows you to hammer the anchor in without destroying the mating surface of the pole. Once at the proper depth, you can re-orient the holes in the anchor pipe with a screw driver as shown in the image. We had a small level to help make sure we were placing the anchors straight into the ground, a feat generally accomplished.

2) Hoop poles are mated with the anchor posts. This is a fun step, as the greenhouse quickly takes "shape." There is a connector tube of about 5" long which is just large enough in diameter to slide over and onto the anchor post. There is a matching hole for a bolt to tie the connector to the anchor post. The hoop pole, being the same diameter pipe as the anchor post, also slides down into the connector tube. There is a matching hole for a bolt to tie the hoop pole onto the connector.

3) Ridge pole. The greenhouse kit that we purchased has a ridge pole of tubing that attaches a longitudinal pole with each hoop at the center. This ties the entire structure together as one unit. Larger greenhouses may have several longitudinal poles. The connection hardware is made of two brackets with a pipe holder form. Two brackets are rotated 90 degrees to accept both the ridge pole and the hoop pole. There are 4 bolts to hold the brackets together, and the nuts should be placed downward to not puncture the plastic.

4) Corner bracing. On each corner, there is a specialized pole that attaches to the second connector and the first hoop. These have a twist in them and there are right and left bracing poles (the twist is to the right or to the left.)

5) Construct the end walls. The end walls are secured to the hoops with clamps. These clamps need to be installed before the plastic holding strip is applied to the end hoops.

6) Plastic-holding strips. These are attached along the side boards, and along the hoop pole on both ends. This will tie the plastic tight to the front and back hoop along the curve, and along the base sides. The strips are metal, and are attached with 1" self tapping screws.

7) Attach the plastic. The plastic is drawn over the hoop structure as a double layer. When it is secured, there will be two layers of plastic to contend with. This allows air inflation to add some air space between the two layers as an insulating layer. You want to attach and tension the plastic at a temperature of 65 degrees. If you attach it too cold, it would loosen as it warms up. If you attach the plastic when it is hot outside, then when it gets cold, the plastic may be too tight. When the tension is achieved, Z wire is attached to hold the plastic into place.

Remember to attach the fan motor before completely securing both layers of plastic.

8) Insulate the perimeter. We applied tar paper to the outside of the 2x12, and then piled wood chips against the outside perimeter. We plan to put building styrofoam on the inside of the 2x12 to add just a bit more insulation. These will fit nicely between the anchor posts.

9) Mark out the beds. We have a 16 foot interior, and considered several arrangements for the beds and isles. We concluded with 24" beds on each outside wall, 3 walkways running the length of the greenhouse at 18" wide, and the center beds being 42". This gives us 4 distinct beds, and rather easy access to any bed, even for Sunshine and the boys to plant and harvest from the edges. We will put a work table at the back north of the greenhouse, and will make that area our start house as well.


Resources

• Johnny Seeds greenhouse items (DIY) (web order)
• Planning and building a greenhouse (web)
• Manufacturer of our greenhouse kit (web)

Peanuts

When we evaluate the things we regularly eat, it includes a lot of grains. Along with the bread we daily eat, we enjoy peanut butter. All of us like it, and it seems we can use a lot of it.

We tried our hand at growing peanuts for the first time this year. We planted the nuts into the newest garden plot, just reclaimed from a bramble and forest. The soil in this plot is very rocky, and has minimal organic content. It is actually much closer to a gravel pit than I had imagined. While the peanut is a warm loving, southern favorite, I think most of our low production volume was related to the soil conditions.

We planted 1 lb of Virginia Jumbo peanuts, and harvested around 5 lbs. Many of the plants simply did not survive, and several had been severely cropped back by grazing deer. Those that did survive looked forlorn and in need of something more than they had. I was not sure if it was general soil nutrition, lack of water or pest pressure. All through the year the plants were small and seemed weak. We were almost resigned to think the crop had not produced at all, till we located some intact plants, and upon digging them up, we found peanuts!

Looking at how large the plants should grow, I think plant spacing should be 10 inches along the row. I think these plants would like long, warm temperatures, and I bet they would really like sandy soil. The areas were we had a lot of clay, they did not seem to do well at all.

The peanut shells are located off of "pegs" or flowering stems and bend down to the soil and the peanut develops under the soil level. At flowering time, you may want to loosen soil to assure the pegs can easily grow into the soil for pod production.

Back to where I started this post: we all love peanut butter. 1/2 a cup of peanut butter has been known to be consumed in at a meal. We prefer to make our own peanut butter by grinding roasted peanuts. After grinding, we place the jars in the refrigerator, and have no issues with the oil separating out. Ground peanut butter is more compact than whole peanuts, so it takes around 2 cups of peanuts to make a cup of peanut butter.

When you consider the work required to plant, water, weed, harvest, shell, roast, salt, store, and then grind; you can see this process takes a lot of work. And when you eat as much as we do, well, it gives you an appreciation of how much effort is required for this food item. We are not discouraged by the effort level, but I do see that we need a lot more land devoted to peanuts if we are to be self sufficient. I also think that if we were truly self sufficient, we would have to use less peanut butter. The total work involved is quite high, and it likely should be a "feast food".

If you have not tried growing peanuts, I would encourage you to try them. They were no problem at all, and just need some good soil. If you live in the north, get them going as soon as you can, as they like a long growing season.


Resources:

• How to grow Peanuts (web)

Wheat

I do not yet have any experience planting wheat, but I do enjoy bread. We have decided it is time to learn some things about growing wheat.

Winter wheat is planted in the fall, to allow the seeds to germinate, and set some roots. Then in the spring, it is ready to go. I have read that planting wheat in the fall will offer the farmer a 3 to 4 week head start, with harvest earlier next year.

Wheat does well in the western USA with their dry early summers. This is when the grain is maturing, and a lot of rain in this time period could lead to molds and grain quality issues. Our area is not known for growing wheat, but with global warming and the midwest drought, we may be the next wheat growing belt. Anyway, we want to see how it would go.

Earlier this week, I planted a field with a new kind of wheat: Khorsan, or Kamut wheat. It is a old variety, and reportedly has low allergy symptoms for those who are allergic to wheat. We are not wheat allergic, but it may be a matter of time considering the GMO contamination in the general food supply. There is linkage to GMO foods and general increased allergy response. I am also interested in the wheat as it has a different genetic makeup, and may resist GMO wheat pollen if it were around.

I found some references that called for planting Kamut in the fall, and then another references that suggested planting it in the spring. I had a field ready, so I planted it by broadcast, and I will see if it takes and any comes up. If it freezes out, I will just replant in the spring, so no great loss. To broadcast, it is suggested to put out 1/2 of your seed volume in one direction, and then go perpendicular, and spread the remaining 1/2 of seed. This will help to give an even sowing. A small crank broadcaster is suggested, but in the old days, I am sure people just spread by hand. The more even the sowing the better.

So tuck this topic away in your mind, and we will revisit it again in the spring, and again at harvest time. I look forward to the day when I could make a loaf of bread entirely from wheat I grew. That has long been a wish of mine, like a check box on my life list of things I want to do.

Here goes!


Resources:

• Khorsan, Kamut wheat (web)

Clearing Land in the West

Our family took an extended vacation to the west this summer. We spent several days in Idaho and helped friends clear some forest land for their future garden plot.

The soil of the west seems very different than the soil where we currently live. Of course it was dry the time of year we visited. The soil in some areas of the west seems very fine, and perhaps of high clay content. It would readily make billowing dust with each foot step. In disturbed areas that were dry, it seemed there was 6 inches of fine dust powder.

 The forest we were clearing was almost entirely conifer. There was a mix of young and old trees in the span. Based on several days of work on it, I estimated that there were about 20 trees in a 20 x 20 foot grid. We were able to process around 4 trees per hour not counting the stump. These 4 hours included the felling of the tree with a chain saw, getting it dislodged from nearby trees and on the ground, de-limbing it, and rounding the trunk to specific lengths for stacking. The effort involved in working with the stump is much as in the East. The larger the stump, the more effort required to pull it out of the ground. With light to medium equipment, I would estimate that you could extract a stump and hour.

So to total this up: for a 20 x 20 plot, you would need to spend 5 hrs removing the trees, 1 hr for stacking the logs, 20 hrs to remove the stumps and smooth the ground. If you could keep this up, to clear a 90 x 90 garden plot would take around 10 weeks.

Our experience in the West matched what we found when we cleared land in the East. The more machine muscle you can put into the process, the faster it can be done. Now is the time to get available land cleared and ready for garden production, while you have the potential of getting large equipment in to assist in the hard tasks such as stump removal. It is possible that in some areas you could swap the equipment work for the trees / lumber removed from the land, lowering your costs.

Watering Systems

This year (2012) has been hot across much of the USA, and much less precipitation in our area than normal. Where we have in the past been able to rely on our 3200 gal roof catchment cistern, it has been of no help this year. In the past month we have had around .25 inch of rain, which just enough to send a brief trickle into the cistern. We have had to use well water to keep the garden going this summer.

Last year we used 3/4 inch PVC pipe with regularly spaced small holes drilled, per the Mittleiter method. Our garden land has a slope to the row, and we found that we did not have enough water pressure to pressurize the PVC system, so the water just ran downhill, watering the lower end of the row too much, and no water at all at the top end of the row. This turned out to be a complete failure of time, material and effort.

This year, we have installed the commercially common T-Tape drip system, and we love it! The T-Tape system comes to pressure before the water is released from the in-line emitters, and we are finding consistent watering along a drip line with descending slope down the row. The system is simpler to construct and deploy than our PVC pipe system of yester year. These components are used by commercial farmers across the USA, and the system works well.

The watering is done with drip rather than a spray, so less water is lost through evaporation in the air. Some farmers may bury the drip lines and water under the soil.


Components:

Our feed line is a garden hose. There is slip connectors that join the main line tubing with the hose connection.  From the main line, you punch a small hole, and insert a T-Tape fitting that allows you to connect the T-Tape to the main line. At the end of the main line, you insert a plug. At the ends of the T-Tape lines, we tie the tape into a knot.

Our main hose to the garden has a flow rate of 5.5 gallons per minute. With this flow, we are able to pressurize and water up to 15 runs of T-Tape at a length of 90' each. This equals a row run of 1,350 feet. When we turn a zone on, it will take a few minutes to fill the main line and tape with water, and then build to pressure. All lines start to drip at the same time when there is pressure in the zone.

The links below go to the online store were we purchased our components.

Main line. We use 3/4 inch mainline
T-Tape: 8 mil, 8 inch on center
Fittings:
     3/4 inch connectors, including hose connectors
     3/4 inch barbed plugs
     Main line to T-Tape fittings
Tools: Punch for a .400 barb
Hold downs

We are experimenting with a few additional components: an in-line particulate filter, a fertilizer injector and tree drip line circles.


Resources:

• Dripworks (web store)
• Drip Depot (web store)

Garlic

Garlic was the first thing we planted for this season. You plant garlic in the fall for a mid summer harvest the following year. Our garlic sprouted early and has been growing strong. We selected stiff neck garlic for our planting, and it does have a wonderful taste!

Some say no vegetable is easier to grow or harvest.


Planting

Plant the garlic in the fall, in rows spaced 18 inches apart, and set the cloves into the row about 8 inches apart. Cover with one inch of soil and mulch for winter. See our 2013 planting garlic article.


Garlic Scapes

Early June, our garlic started producing seed scapes. These start off straight, and then curl into loops as in the following image. We remove these when they curl, and use them fresh in garlic pesto and other recipes. They are really good, and just as powerful as clove garlic. It is a great to have fresh garlic even before the cloves are ready to harvest.

Note: Garlic scapes are fantastic baked with a little oil and salt. We ate them like finder food. Mmmm good.


Harvest

When the garlic leaves lower (and outer layer covering the bulb) are dead and dry, and the rest of the plant appears dry, the garlic is ready to harvest. Gently remove the bulbs from the ground. You do not want to smash or damage the integrity of the bulb and enclosed cloves. Let the entire plant dry out of the sun for several days. The stem and leaves should become completely brown and dry. The roots under the bulb should be completely dry as well.

At this point, you can cut off the stem leaving a few inches above the bulb. Keep the bulb intact till you plan to use the garlic cloves. Select the largest bulbs / cloves for your seed cloves. These will be planted in the same fall for next years harvest.


Resources

• Planting garlic (web)
• Planting & growing garlic (web)

Creating an Orchard

Fruit is wonderful, flavorful, and healthful! If you get fruit varieties suited to your climate, you will have a much easier return on the investment of time as compared with vegetables. Fruit trees do not have to be coaxed to life each year.

Just as in my article: Creating a Garden, you have to prepare the ground of your orchard before you plant. Take special care to add mineral nutrients to make your soil a perfect location for a tree to thrive. In addition to these suggestions, I want to provide some planting guidelines and spacing suggestions for your orchard.


Orchard considerations

• Some trees need partners to pollinate well. Some trees are male and others female, and these surely need pairs to be successful.
• There are different tree root stocks which will help control the size of the tree. You need to plan your orchard spacing with this information in mind.
• How you plan to cultivate weeds, irrigate and harvest your fruit may influence your inter-tree spacing within the row, and the space between the rows. Orchards take a lot of ground, so plan out the grid and prepare the holes before you purchase trees.
• If you are wanting to go organic, or at least avoid toxic chemicals as much as possible, consider purchasing disease resistant trees. (See this reference also.)
• Orchards need attention at specific times of the year. An orchard is not something you plant and forget till harvest. There is something to do each month and some months, there are a lot of things to do. You need to be able to devote time to the trees for watering, training, insect control and pruning.

Propagation

• You may want to propagate free stock. Any tree cultivar less than 17 years in production may be under trademark, and should not be propagated without permission and payment of royalty.
• Starting fruit trees is not hard. Root stocks are selected for their vigorous growth. The grafted stock, or scion is also easy to grow. With one root and one scion tree source, you could have hundreds of grafted trees in a period of a few years.
• Some trees and bush varieties grow directly on their own root stocks, and are easy to self propagate and share with others.
• Vines, berries, and all of the trees are readily propagated. Find examples to take terminal clippings from. The normal pruning process will yield a large quantity of new starts if wanted.

Apple tree just after planting.

Spacing

I have enjoyed walking through surrounding orchards, and observing the pruning methods, and orchard layout. The spacing would depend on the type of root stock which determines the size of the adult tree: dwarf, semi-dwarf or regular.

Fruit trees need a fair amount of space. For the small orchard like ours, I would assume you will be looking for semi-dwarf root stock varieties (where possible.)  I do not suggest you work with dwarf stock unless you really have no room for any trees. Dwarf root stock stunts the tree so badly, that you have tree health issues ongoing. We chose to lay our orchard out on a 15 foot grid. This will be just right for the semi-dwarf trees, and a bit small for the regular sized cherry trees. We decided to place the cherry's on the north side of the orchard plot so as they grow they will not shade the other trees too much. Some full sized apple trees could use a diameter of 25 feet, so know your root stock, and plan your spacing accordingly.


Orchard Planting 2012

When looking to plant our orchard, we decided to focus on trees that were hardy and disease resistant. We wanted trees that would offer a low chemical spray requirement. Our selections are as follows:

• Pear: Moonglow, Starking Delicious
• Apple: Freedom, Crimson Crisp, Galarina, Goldrush x2, Gala-like Resista
• Peach: SunHaven, Contender, Cresthaven, Glowhaven, Stellar Glowingstar, Stellar Blazingstar, Stellar Autumstar
• Plum: Sugar/German, Mount Royal
• Cherry: White Gold Sweet, Black Gold, Stella

Orchard Update 2016

The Apple trees and peach trees had their first real year last season. This year the peaches have come on thick, and it has taken days to thin out the thousands of extra peaches. The peach tree borers have been hard on the peaches. Several trees are affected, and it seems also that some of the early limb angles were not enough to prevent bark being impacted in the growing tree bark, making for what looks like very weak crotches. I will have to support these, and watch this closer with any future trees planted.

In May 2016, I planted three more threes on the west end of the rows. This will make the three rows from North to South:

1) Royalton Sweet Cherry, Sugar/German Plum, Mount Royal Plum, White Gold Sweet Cherry, Chinese Apricot, (dying) Stellar Autumstar
2) SunHaven Peach, Contender, Cresthaven, Glowhaven, Stellar Glowingstar, Stellar Blazingstar
3) Liberty Apple, Crimson Crisp, Galarina, Goldrush x2, Gala-like Resista

Orchard Update 2018

The tree layout for 2018 is by row:

• 1: Pear: Moonglow, Moonglow
• 2: Pear: Starking Delicious, Starking Delicious
• 3: Apple: Freedom, Crimson Crisp, Galarina, Goldrush x2, Gala-like Resista (not doing well)
• 4: Peach: SunHaven, Contender, Cresthaven, Glowhaven, Cresthaven, Cresthaven
• 5: Royalton Sweet Cherry, Sugar/German Plum, Mount Royal Plum, White Gold Sweet Cherry, Black Gold Cherry (new), Stella Cherry

In the perspective of time, I would not plant any apple trees again (in my area). The diseases and pests make organic apples not worth eating (in my opinion), and conventional apples are readily available in our area.

Tree planting principles

1. For maximum production, trees need deep soil ~ 3 feet deep.
2. Many areas have a clay or hardpan under the surface, and this needs to be broken up and penetrated so the roots can develop and allow for proper drainage. Prevent a hard layer or clay glaze around the hole you dig. You want the roots to penetrate out of the hole into the ground beyond.
3. When preparing the planting hole, care should be taken to not include so much mulch that the tree settles and the crown sinks below the surface of the soil line. The tree needs to be planted at the same depth as it was grown at.
4. Do not let the roots dry out in the planting process. If bare root trees can not be immediately planted, the roots should be protected from drying out, perhaps even temporarily being planted.
5. Add to the hole: mulch (leaf mould), top soil and the soil from the hole. Add some kelp powder or a small amount of sea salt for micro-nutrients. Do not fertilize a new tree.
6. Deep in the hole, place a plastic pot upside down, a section of drainage tubing, or some object which can form an air / water cavity. This is not as needed in well drained soils such as sand.
7. Add some rocks deep into the hole, but not a solid rock layer.
8. Mound up the soil contents in the center of the hole, preparing a base for the tree roots to rest on.
9. In windy and exposed areas, consider placing a large rock on top of the mound, around which with tree roots could rest and grow. The rock would serve as an anchor for the tree.
10. Plant the tree to original soil depth, filling in around it with the soil mixture already prepared.
11. Plant the graft union notch to the north east to help prevent sunburn on the graft.
12. The soil line around the tree should be 1-2 inches above the surrounding soil. This is a slight mound around the tree.
13. Water the tree with 5 gallons of water after planting to help remove excess air from the roots, and provide moisture.
14. If the soil is heavy loam or clay, care should be taken to not drown the roots with too much water. Mixing soils as mentioned should remove this danger because of the mixture of the top soil and compost into the planting mix.
15. Water the tree regularly (2 times a week may be a minimum in hot / dry weather.) The tree must be nursed to life and its roots will not be able to stand much stress. Make a circular watering basin around the tree at the perimeter of the roots and beyond to water the planting area. Do not have the water pool around the trunk.
16. Mulch the tree 3 feet around the trunk to prevent competing weeds and hold moisture. The mulch can be wood chips or other mulch material, around 6 inches in depth. Do not mulch right up to the trunk as this could encourage crown rot and harbor pests that could damage the tree.

Initial Pruning and Training

Mail order trees may be initially pruned for you. If you buy local, the initial pruning will not be done, and you must prune the trees right after planting, so the branches and leaves are cut back to the level the disturbed roots can support. Bare root trees must be pruned to survive. How you prune depends on the type of tree. You want to prune to select the apical bud that will grow outward from the tree, rather than inward to the center.

On almost all fruit, it is important to train for wide crotch angles of at least 45 degrees. This measurement is from the trunk to the branch angle. A narrow crotch angle is weaker and more prone to break under the fruit crop load. Good healthy trees have crotch angles of 45 to 90 degrees.


Resources

• Choose trees that will produce in your area (web)
• Getting started with fruit production (web)
• How to grow organic peaches (web)
• Planting and pruning guide (pdf)
• Planting and care of young fruit trees (pdf)

Beans

Beans are a favorite staple on our homestead. You can pick them young and tender for steaming and fresh eating, or let them mature in the bean pod to a dried bean which can be easily stored and cooked for consumption. Legumes have the benefit of not only being healthy for us to eat, but they can fix nitrogen with the help of bacteria in nodules on their roots.


Nutrition

Beans are high protein food. As green beans, they are perfect fresh, canned or frozen. If you let the beans dry in the pod, they store will as seeds all winter.


Planting

Plant beans two weeks before your areas last frost date, and transplant them to soil one week after your last frost date. Then sow a new patch of beans every 2 weeks for a consistent and long lasting harvest through the summer. Beans generally take 50-60 days to mature, so take this into consideration as you approach the fall season.

Sow bush bean seeds 1 1/2" deep, and 12" apart. Sow pole beans along a climbing trellis.

In our area, there are a host of reasons we don't get good success with planting directly in the field. We have  had good success planting inside, and transplanting the established plant into the field. Soil temperature is a key factor, in that beans do not germinate well when the soil is below 50 degrees F. If sowing into the field, make sure your soil temperatures have risen above 50.


Harvesting and food preservation

For fresh beans, pick them while tender, and eat them as soon after picking as possible. They are simply outstanding! If you are going to freeze the beans, soak them briefly in boiling water (called blanching) to stop the enzyme activity from lowering the bean taste and quality. Cool as quickly as possible, such as dipping into ice water, and then package for freezing. We regularly use 1 gallon freezer bags, and as we set the bag into the freezer, I try to bunch the beans into two sections of the bag, so that we can easily extract 1/2 a gallon for a specific meal without having to thaw the entire bag.


Seed saving

Most beans are self fertilizing, and are very easy to save seed from. Bees can be pollinators, and for seed purity it is suggested that you exclude bees or separate crops by one mile. On select plants that you want to save seed from, allow the pod to fully mature, or be over ripe to a tough and dry pod. Then harvest the pods, and shell the beans for storage. Make sure the beans are well dried before over winter storage. It is expected that beans will remain viable for 4 years.


Varieties we are planting in 2012

• Blue lake - bush bean 
• McCaslan - pole bean 
• Bell's Corn Bean - pole bean * 
• Gregory's favorite lima  - pole bean *

*Non commercial varieties.

Resources

• Growing Beans in the Vegetable Garden (pdf)
• A followup post on the results of our bean plantings in 2012. (web)

Onions

Onions with potatoes are a wonderful fit, both in the skillet and in the garden. We have tried yellow, white and red onions, and it seems we always come back for the yellow ones. They store better than whites or reds, and storage is a big factor for us, since we cant eat hundreds of pounds of unions all at one time.

Last year we started from onion sets, which are small onion bulbs, and had over 50% make seed pods. This year I am trying onion plants in stead. The theory here is that it takes a lot of energy to make the seed pod, and if this can be avoided, you will have larger production toward the onion bulb. Another factor is that the seed stalk rising from the onion causes it to spoil faster. Since onions go to seed on the second year, if the onion set is too large, or undergoes unusual temperature extremes, it may think the planting is the second year, and go to seed. I am hoping that using plants will completely solve the issue this year.

When onions are first planted, their growth is concentrated on new roots and green leaves or tops. The onion will first form a top and then when a specific combination of daylight, darkness, and temperature is reached, bulb formation starts.

"The size of the onion bulb is dependent upon the number and size of the green leaves or tops at the time of bulb maturity. For each leaf there will be a ring of onion; the larger the leaf, the larger the ring will be. The onion will first form a top and then, depending on the onion variety and length of daylight, start to form the bulb. Onions are characterized by day length; "long-day" onion varieties will quit forming tops and begin to form bulbs when the daylength reaches 14 to 16 hours while "short-day" onions will start making bulbs much earlier in the year when there are only 10 to 12 hours of daylight. A general rule of them is that "long-day" onions do better in northern states (north of 36th parallel) while "short-day" onions do better in states south of that line." (web)


Planting suggestions

Onion plants are hardy and can withstand temperatures as low as 20 degrees F. They should be set out 4 to 6 weeks prior to the date of the last average spring freeze. Set plants out approximately one inch deep with a 4 to 6 inch spacing. We set rows in a bed, and space the rows 8 to 12 inches apart. We mark out a 4 foot bed, and have 4 rows in the bed.

Onions are not very good at supressing weed growth, and regular weeding will be needed to protect your crop yield. We have tried adding leaf compost and another year straw to the bed. These items help, but hand weeding seem a needed action on our farm. Always hand-weed any weeds close to your onions as they are easily damaged by garden tools.


Companion plants

Onions do well in companion planting, assisting nightshades and brassicas. If you are having pest pressure on the onions themselves, carrots can help confuse attacking insects. (web)


Resources

• Onion information (web)

Potatoes

Potatoes are a staple of our family. They are perhaps my favorite vegetable, and this year, we are growing a lot of them. By planting a lot of them, I am going to have to build a root cellar this fall to store all our harvest.

We have always enjoyed potatoes from the store, but when we grew our own for the first time, it was like an explosion of soft, tender flavor. "Wow" could be heard over and over around our table. Our youngest boy wondered if he had been transported to potato paradise. "These are the best potatoes ever!" I hope I have encouraged you to try growing potatoes. They are simple to grow, and don't take a lot of work to maintain till harvest. We had no pest pressure last year, and we are moving this years planting location to the other side of the garden. We hope if there was a potato beetle that we did not see, its larva will die before finding the location of the new crop.


Varieties

There are many varieties of potatoes. We have only tried a few, and will branch out over time to try more. If you are new at potatoes, try what other area gardeners suggest works well in your area. I suggest you get certified virus free seed potatoes. It is possible to plant again from your own stock, but I hear that the size of the potatoes will diminish over time if you have virus buildup.


Our history for 2012

April 19, planted:

Yukon Gold       75#
Red Pontiac         7#

We have found that 7# of red potatoes took up 80 feet of row space (one row). Also planted 50# of Yukon Gold, and we ended up with 4 additional rows of 80 feet. We have yet 25# to plant.

July 17: Counted up the potato early harvest: 560 lbs. This represents 6/10 of our planted rows,15 bushels. We sorted all of the potatoes and only the firm, uncut and completely dry potatoes went into the seller for longer term storage. Our rows are 90' and 6 rows equals 540 feet, yielding just over a pound of potatoes per foot of planted row.

When harvesting potatoes, we found some of the seed potatoes still intact, but soft or spoiling. We took care to sort these out of our harvest, to not spoil the new harvest.

August 2: Attempted a fall planting, by planting 1/2 bu of sprouting potatoes. We will see how this goes.

November 4: The second planting survived the early October frosts with just some slight leaf burn, but were dead by the end of October. We harvested perhaps 4 bu from the second planting. They were fine potatoes, but since the plants did not die down on their own, I think an earlier planting date would have been helpful to the yield.


Planting

It is suggested that you plant your potatoes about 2 weeks before your last frost. Potatoes can withstand some cooler temps, but not prolonged or hard freezing.

Potatoes can be planted in hills or rows. Last year we tried hills, and we did not have as dense or complete production as we would have had with a row. So, after testing it out, rows is our planting format of choice from now on. You set the seed potatoes 18 to 24" apart within the row, and set the rows from 3 to 5 feet apart.

We have a 3 point implement called a "middle buster" for setting a planting furrow. It will also work perfectly for digging the potatoes in the fall. We have seen this tool demonstrated by a friend last fall. We started with a straight track in the field, and then returned for the next pass and drove the wheel down in the previous track. This resulted in the furrows being just over 3 foot apart, which is perfect for potatoes.

Prior to planting, you can chit the seed potatoes by setting them in a warmer location, out of direct sun light. this will encourage the eyes to sprout, and speed up the early growth process. If you have sprouts, point the sprouts upwards. These will be stems for the plant. If you have large potatoes with several developing eyes, you can slice the potato into sections around each eye. Then each section can be planted on its own. If you do slice the seed potatoes, allow them to sit out for several days for the cut surface to harden a scab. This will help prevent rot that may happen if the cut potato was immediately planted.


Pests

Virus blight and insects are potato crop killers. Crop rotation will help in both cases.


Companion plants

Beans, cabbage, corn, and horseradish are excellent companion plants. Some even claim these make the potatoes taste better.

Tansy, nasturtium, coriander, and catnip planted nearby repel Colorado potato beetle.

Interplant potatoes with lettuce, scallions, radishes, and spinach. All of these crops mature fast and will be harvested long before the potatoes are ready to harvest.


What not to plant with potatoes

Avoid planting potatoes with tomatoes, sunflowers, raspberries, pumpkins, squash, and cucumbers. These plants may encourage blight.

Don't plant potatoes in an area that has been planted with any other Solanaceous crops in the last three+ years. This includes tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.


Family story

Family history has passed down this true story: My great grandfather was Irish and a potato farmer in Iowa. At harvest, he had a wagon piled high of good sized potatoes, and with his horse team he pulled the load into town. Stopping by the grocery, he inquired as to how many potatoes he could sell.

The grocer came out to the street and said, "I won't buy any of your potatoes, not a one! These large Irish potatoes have a holes in them. My customers do not like the hollow space in their potatoes, and I will buy none from you!" My great grand father as convincingly replied, "Not a one of my potatoes has a hole!"  He picked a large potato from the pile, and taking his knife, sliced the potato in half. There to his dismay was a very large void -- a hole in his potato.

The story goes that he said nothing more, but got on the wagon and drove to another grocery. I would guess he limited his claims from then on.


Resources

• Potato Growing Guide (web)
• Potato Diseases (web)