Two of my favorite winter vegetables are Bok Choi and Salad. They both like the cool weather.
Salad actaully seems crisper and sweeter in the cool weather. As long as it gets it start before it gets too cold it does well. Bok Choi, while slow to grow actually enjoys the cold too.
I plant lettuce in small bunches every time I start to harvest the current crop. It keeps me pretty close to havin year round salad.
The Bok Choi is something I try to get in the ground in Oct or Nov while there are still some warm days to germinate it. Once started it slowly grows until it is ready for the stir fry.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Saving Tomato Seeds
Part of planning your vegetable garden starts at the end of your growing season.
Here you can put away non-hybrid seeds to use to start your new garden.
Honestly, I don't do it because I am saving money. I do it to get better quality plants and to adapt plant for my area. Do plants really adapt to an area over a few generations when it takes years to evolve and change? Heck, I don't know, but I have fun with it.
For me I have tomato plants that I have grown from seeds-to-seed for 5 plus years now. It started off as cherry tomatoes that came from compost. Maybe even a hybrid for all I know, but the tomatoes did wonderful in my garden, so I do my part and propagate the best of the fruit each year.
Tomatoes are fun because you get to start with a mess. First, pick 3-4 really good fruit. You want really great taste and maybe size or shape. then crush them with a tiny bit of water. Let them sit for a week and start to bubble. This fermentation process is important to cracking the seeds and preparing them for germination.
The next step is to wash the seeds in a small strainer. You want to get ride of most of the meat and leave just the seed. This doesn't have to be perfect since you just need to make sure it isn't going to stink in storage. Then spread them out in a paper towel to dry.
If you have read about saving seeds, then you know that people warn you that this is a bad idea and seeds are going to stick to the paper towel. To those whom would argue this, I say 'how many seeds did you need anyway mate?' Really, if you are preparing seeds for sale then you need to clean them really well and make sure they don't stick to a paper towel. For those of use that just need a small handful of seeds, then the paper towel works great. One tomato has probably around a hundred seeds or so. Again, who is counting?
Once the seeds are dry, then scrape off what you need into a small zip-lock bag or other contain that you can keep them dry and somewhat air tight until you go to plant them. The ones that stick on the paper towel, leave them or give the paper towel to a friend and let them plant the paper towel in their garden and see their surprised look when it sprouts tomatoes.
What about storage? People say that tomato seeds are good for 2-4 years. They will loose their ability to germinate if not stored in perfect conditions. But if you get new seeds every year or two, then you don't need to worry much about this statistic either.
Next year when you are using plangarden.com software to plan your vegetable garden, you will already have the seeds for the spot in your allotment that is marked for 'Your Special Tomato's'.
Here you can put away non-hybrid seeds to use to start your new garden.
Honestly, I don't do it because I am saving money. I do it to get better quality plants and to adapt plant for my area. Do plants really adapt to an area over a few generations when it takes years to evolve and change? Heck, I don't know, but I have fun with it.
For me I have tomato plants that I have grown from seeds-to-seed for 5 plus years now. It started off as cherry tomatoes that came from compost. Maybe even a hybrid for all I know, but the tomatoes did wonderful in my garden, so I do my part and propagate the best of the fruit each year.
Tomatoes are fun because you get to start with a mess. First, pick 3-4 really good fruit. You want really great taste and maybe size or shape. then crush them with a tiny bit of water. Let them sit for a week and start to bubble. This fermentation process is important to cracking the seeds and preparing them for germination.
The next step is to wash the seeds in a small strainer. You want to get ride of most of the meat and leave just the seed. This doesn't have to be perfect since you just need to make sure it isn't going to stink in storage. Then spread them out in a paper towel to dry.
If you have read about saving seeds, then you know that people warn you that this is a bad idea and seeds are going to stick to the paper towel. To those whom would argue this, I say 'how many seeds did you need anyway mate?' Really, if you are preparing seeds for sale then you need to clean them really well and make sure they don't stick to a paper towel. For those of use that just need a small handful of seeds, then the paper towel works great. One tomato has probably around a hundred seeds or so. Again, who is counting?
Once the seeds are dry, then scrape off what you need into a small zip-lock bag or other contain that you can keep them dry and somewhat air tight until you go to plant them. The ones that stick on the paper towel, leave them or give the paper towel to a friend and let them plant the paper towel in their garden and see their surprised look when it sprouts tomatoes.
What about storage? People say that tomato seeds are good for 2-4 years. They will loose their ability to germinate if not stored in perfect conditions. But if you get new seeds every year or two, then you don't need to worry much about this statistic either.
Next year when you are using plangarden.com software to plan your vegetable garden, you will already have the seeds for the spot in your allotment that is marked for 'Your Special Tomato's'.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Northern California peas in winter
Here in Northern California we can get one last run of peas to start for a winter harvest. You can plant peas starting in August and all the way up through mid-November.
Peas are a great winter vegetable for many reasons.
Peas are a great winter vegetable for many reasons.
- Peas give you vegetables in the winter because they like it cool.
- Peas at nitrogen to the soil because they are a legume. Legumes take nitrogen from the air and store it in nodules on the roots. When peas are finished, it is best to turn the whole plant into the soil and compost in place. Once the soil has rested, plant a nitrogen lover in the same spot next spring.
- If you don't use hybrids, you can save the seeds and plant them next year and keep the cycle going. Saving seeds helps because the plants adjust to your climate and soil and can produce extra hardy plants over time.
Get to know your cool weather crops and plant them in early spring and/or fall. Even if you don't like peas, the plants are great for your soil. Use Plangarden.com and the online software to help in your planning stages. Planting peas right after or right before planting a nitrogen hog like corn helps keep your vegetable garden in top shape and will require less fertilizers of ANY kind.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Garlic Planting in Northern California
It is that time of year again. Garlic planting time. We love garlic and I plant 100-200 garlics per year.
The problem that I have is my soil has been contaminated with onion rot. A severe disease that can easily wipe out a crop. The nasty way to get ride of the disease is to fumigate the entire garden with chemicals so bad that some can not even be used by home gardeners. Obviously this will probably kill everything in the garden, and as a primarily organic gardener, I object to treating my garden this way.
Last year I went with sprinkling the garden with garlic juice. This is suppose to trigger the fungus that causes onion rot and since there is no real onion, it dies off. To do this it takes a lot of time because you need to do this several times to be effective and trigger the fungus bloom. Also the exact concentrations are a bit trick as a home gardener to figure out. There have been trials done in Canada that have had good results. The bottom line was: I did this last year, had moderate success, didn't have time to get it done this year.
The other way to tackle to problem is with a bacteria that lives off the disease. T22. This can be found in RootSheild and Root Guardian. This is the way I have decided to go this year. If I can repeatedly go after them with beneficial bacteria and get the bacteria established in my garden, maybe this is my answer.
So why do I plant garlic now, in November?
The final piece in the puzzle is to know that the onion rot disease isn't active in soil temperatures below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. So I use a soil thermometer and monitor the temperature. Once it goes below 55 and stays there is when I plant garlic. This way the garlic can get a head start in growing roots while the fungus is dormant. I will continue to drench the soil with the recommended dosage of T-22 and see what happens next spring.
Sadly, the onion rot doesn't appear (is noticeable) until you are just about to harvest. The garlic plants look fine up until May or June and then you notice unnatural leave yellowing that seems premature. I slight tug on the garlic and you have it in your hand with the awful rot around it.
One final note on onion rot is that is also doesn't survive at temperatures about 135 degrees. Last year I took bulbs that were on the edge (some rot, but not out of control) and washed them under 180+ degree water. While I know this is a BAD practice, we used this garlic right away and it did seem to lower the rate of post harvest garlic rotting.
I will become an expert at this disease because I refuse to accept conventional wisdom that says once onion rot is in your garden that it can stay there for 8-15 years. I simple love garlic too much and will not give in to the disease without a fight.
As for entering my last weeks information into http://www.plangarden.com/. Well I will do that this weekend when hopefully I will have more time to use the software that I created to help myself manage and control my own garden.
The problem that I have is my soil has been contaminated with onion rot. A severe disease that can easily wipe out a crop. The nasty way to get ride of the disease is to fumigate the entire garden with chemicals so bad that some can not even be used by home gardeners. Obviously this will probably kill everything in the garden, and as a primarily organic gardener, I object to treating my garden this way.
Last year I went with sprinkling the garden with garlic juice. This is suppose to trigger the fungus that causes onion rot and since there is no real onion, it dies off. To do this it takes a lot of time because you need to do this several times to be effective and trigger the fungus bloom. Also the exact concentrations are a bit trick as a home gardener to figure out. There have been trials done in Canada that have had good results. The bottom line was: I did this last year, had moderate success, didn't have time to get it done this year.
The other way to tackle to problem is with a bacteria that lives off the disease. T22. This can be found in RootSheild and Root Guardian. This is the way I have decided to go this year. If I can repeatedly go after them with beneficial bacteria and get the bacteria established in my garden, maybe this is my answer.
So why do I plant garlic now, in November?
The final piece in the puzzle is to know that the onion rot disease isn't active in soil temperatures below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. So I use a soil thermometer and monitor the temperature. Once it goes below 55 and stays there is when I plant garlic. This way the garlic can get a head start in growing roots while the fungus is dormant. I will continue to drench the soil with the recommended dosage of T-22 and see what happens next spring.
Sadly, the onion rot doesn't appear (is noticeable) until you are just about to harvest. The garlic plants look fine up until May or June and then you notice unnatural leave yellowing that seems premature. I slight tug on the garlic and you have it in your hand with the awful rot around it.
One final note on onion rot is that is also doesn't survive at temperatures about 135 degrees. Last year I took bulbs that were on the edge (some rot, but not out of control) and washed them under 180+ degree water. While I know this is a BAD practice, we used this garlic right away and it did seem to lower the rate of post harvest garlic rotting.
I will become an expert at this disease because I refuse to accept conventional wisdom that says once onion rot is in your garden that it can stay there for 8-15 years. I simple love garlic too much and will not give in to the disease without a fight.
As for entering my last weeks information into http://www.plangarden.com/. Well I will do that this weekend when hopefully I will have more time to use the software that I created to help myself manage and control my own garden.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Planting the last of the potatoes
Planning a vegetable garden also means taking a few risks now and then. Here we are in the middle of November and I am planting potatoes.
Yes, I have read Pam Pierce's book "Golden Gate Gardening". And yes, it says it is too late to plant potatoes, although she says she sneaks them in every now and then.
I keep most of my garden idle in the winter and plant only leeks, lettuce and some broccoli, so I have the room. Planting potatatoes also allows me to dig deep into the soil, something I don't often do and put comost at the lower leve of my raised garden. So I have been planting potatoes ever few weeks so hope to have some success and a series of harvests of potatoes early next year.
So the point is, if you have some space that is idle and your soil is not frozen, why not take a chance and see if you can sneak in something that conventional wisdom says you shouldn't do.
Some times planning a vegetable garden is a detailed task of optimizing space for the summer to get every last drop of goodness out of a vegetable garden. Sometimes vegetable gardening should be throwing the dice. The worst that could happen is watching plants not mature.
Yes, I have read Pam Pierce's book "Golden Gate Gardening". And yes, it says it is too late to plant potatoes, although she says she sneaks them in every now and then.
I keep most of my garden idle in the winter and plant only leeks, lettuce and some broccoli, so I have the room. Planting potatatoes also allows me to dig deep into the soil, something I don't often do and put comost at the lower leve of my raised garden. So I have been planting potatoes ever few weeks so hope to have some success and a series of harvests of potatoes early next year.
So the point is, if you have some space that is idle and your soil is not frozen, why not take a chance and see if you can sneak in something that conventional wisdom says you shouldn't do.
Some times planning a vegetable garden is a detailed task of optimizing space for the summer to get every last drop of goodness out of a vegetable garden. Sometimes vegetable gardening should be throwing the dice. The worst that could happen is watching plants not mature.
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