Planting Corn and Squash

 My corn and squash bed is a modest affair.  I’ve been using the same black plastic bed cover for 30 years.  The three inch long diamond shaped holes were cut at 16 inch square centres.  That’s three rows down the bed with 16 inches between each corn plant.

Pollination is always a concern with small blocks of corn since they are wind pollinated.  Growing a single row of corn looks cute but doesn’t pollinate properly unless you do it by hand and get the timing just right.  And multiple varieties cross pollinating leaves a tasteless mess.  Growing corn in triple row blocks works well for me.  I can grow more than one variety as long as each variety tassels at a different time. 

When we had kids at home I grew more corn: blocks of 9 or 12 per variety with three ripening dates.  Usually an earlier variety and later variety seeded at the same time and then the later variety seeded a couple of weeks later for a third planting.

Now it’s usually just the two of us so I only seed a dozen Golden Jubilee for easy eating.  I prefer full corn flavour and creamy texture rather than just sugary sweetness.  Corn for freezing hasn't been a priority for me with just a backyard garden.  Corn takes up a lot of space and nitrogen and can wear out / deplete a soil quickly of many other nutrients.  Corn for drying and grinding is recommended by Eliot Coleman for a “Hard Times Garden” but we’ve just never been into corn meal recipes.  However, we might get into dry corn and dry bean production if the economy falters or…. 

The three squash plants are transplanted into the south end of the corn bed with the corn at the north end.  The squashes were seeded indoors under lights on April 12^th and then grown in their pots in the greenhouse after a couple of weeks.  Judging by the root ball in the pots, I think I’ll delay my starting of my outdoor squashes by one week next year.  Set out time should be closer to the end of the month when it’s warmer.  

I prefer only vining squashes over bush varieties so that the squash vines can spread throughout the base of the corn stalks. I also choose winter squashes that store a good long time in my garage.  Currently my choice is a variety of Delicata.  But this year I’m also trying some Butternut.  The goal is to get five squashes per plant yielding me about 15 from my corn bed.  These two types keep at least until the end of February.  

I also have a Zucchini plant in some extra space at the south end of my Cabbage bed and another Butternut in 20 square feet of a newly decommissioned asparagus bed.  The three squashes in the corn bed are also free to wander across the path and surround the Zucchini.

The 50 square foot corn bed is in a spot where the chickens had been for a few months in the spring so there’s no need for extra nitrogen.  I added 1.5 lbs of lime and 1.75 lbs of Rock Phosphate then tilled it all in making sure the last bits of the mostly decomposed dump of fall leaves that the chickens had worked on was stirred in as well.

The bed is raked flat after which my row marker is used to mark the three lines 16 inches apart, down the length of the bed.  Then with the flat back of the bow rake I gently rake a bit of soil away from the three lines in both directions, creating three gentle troughs and rises down the length of the bed.  This will direct the water to arrive evenly at each plant.  

The black plastic bed cover goes over that with the planting holes lined up in the troughs.  Down each row, between each diamond shaped planting hole I place a large egg sized stone.  The plastic under each stone has a slit cut in it for more even watering.  Lastly, I use my coathanger wire staples to hold the edges of the bed cover in place near the paths.  This bed cover will leave the bed weed free all summer.  It also warms the soil nicely for better early germination of the corn.

The diamond holes stop nearer the south end and are replaced with cross slits.  This is where the squashes are planted.  Like my cabbages, I like to use a thin stick slid diagonally across the squash leaves and stem into the soil to help hold the young plant steady against any wind stress.  The final item is adding a four-foot stake just north of each squash plant to help identify exactly where each plant sits when the profusion of tall leaves hides its location since I need to know where to focus the most water.

Last year’s corn germination was good so this year I still only planted two seeds per diamond opening.  Once I’ve recorded the current germination rate I’ll thin them to one plant per hole.  If the rate is mediocre and leaves me with empty spots or weak plants, I’ll either go to three seeds per spot next year or replace the seed.  Multiple seeds guarantees a plant in each spot -- a full block is important for pollination and more productive.

With my extra space in my modestly expanded garden and my two chickens for extra nitrogen, I might consider growing some extra corn for freezing next year.  I haven't seen fresh Organic Corn advertised anywhere here in the Fraser Valley and a regular non organic dozen is getting more and more expensive.

Happy Gardening.

Planting Cabbage

Last year’s cabbage crop was a good success.  This year could be even better with a minor change in my process.

Years ago, I struggled with cabbage root maggot. Cauliflower was the most susceptible.  The mid-sized crop was growing nicely but any amount of sun would suddenly wilt the leaves as if the plants were in water stress.  Pulling up the sad plants showed roots eaten away by white maggots.  

The next year I tried the recommended wood ashes stirred around the planting holes but that didn’t really help.  Finally, I learned that some kind of barrier on top of the root area solved most of that.  First I tried tar paper circles with a slit cut to the centre but later found that black plastic bed cover would be both a bug and a total weed barrier. 

Eventually I kept one 5 by 12.5 foot piece of black plastic specifically for my cabbage family bed.  The holes for the plants were actually slits or crosses cut into the plastic at the right places.  Using 24 inch square centres between the plants resulted in wonderful large cabbages averaging 7 lbs each.  The cabbages stored well in my garage until mid-April.  My only concern last year was that my hand watering through the slits wasn’t reaching all of my sandy soil and I feared dry areas under the plastic.

This year I changed my plastic and raking prep slightly.  I laid out my pre sliced plastic sheet over the flat raked bed and when it was in the exact right spot I stuck small sticks into the centres of each planting spot.  Then I removed the plastic and raked lightly with the back of the rake drawing a bit of soil away from the planting spots.  That left me with two very gentle troughs down the bed spaced 2 feet apart.  The water would run towards the plant’s roots.  Next, I made a smaller trough down the centre of the bed.

The plastic was relayed onto the bed and the small sticks removed and I transplanted the cabbages through the cross slits into the main pair of troughs.  The minor centre trough was held down with medium sized stones and under or in line with each stone I sliced another slit.  This will allow more water to reach the centre of the bed.  The perimeter of the black plastic is anchored with my 8 inch long staples, homemade from coat hanger wire.

The 50 square foot bed had been enriched the week before with 1.5 lbs of lime and 1.75 lbs of Rock Phosphate.  This was tilled / stirred in.  There was no need for added nitrogen from seed meals because my two chickens had been in that bed for a few months during the winter.

This year I planted seven Storage #4 F-1 cabbages from Johnny’s Seeds that were seeded in flats indoors on March 23^rd and transplanted into pots a month later.  I also included one almost Broccoli plant called Happy Rich.  It is technically not quite a true heading broccoli but rather puts out side shoots for a longer season, as long as you keep cutting the side shoots.

Each plant was given a small stick slid down diagonally between the leaves and stem to avoid the roots but to stabilize the plant from shaking in the wind in this early transplanted stage.  I also mixed a gallon of fish fertilizer to water in the transplants and give them that extra starting boost.  The far end of the bed has room for a zucchini squash plant that will be installed in a week or less.

This raking and black plastic all sounds like a lot of work for 7 or 8 cabbages but there’s no weeding to do.  Now I just water and watch them grow and possibly go after cabbage butterfly caterpillars or maybe the odd slug if damage is sighted.

Happy Gardening.

Fall Spinach Finishing and Spring Spinach Starting

 

My spring seeded spinach and lettuces are almost ready to steal some leaves from.  On March 13^th I seeded indoors under lights, Olympia Spinach from Pacific Northwest Seeds and Encore Lettuce Mix from Johnny’s.  I transplanted them into the garden on April 14^th and now they’re looking almost ready.

Meanwhile my fall planted (last year) spinach is finishing in the greenhouse with my third and final harvest now.  That was seeded last August 1^st in pots and transplanted into the finished pea bed a few weeks later.  August is a hot month and direct seeding doesn’t always work that well so using small pots in some shade is an advantage.

Last fall when I rolled the greenhouse to its next rotation spot, the spinach and lettuces were waiting for it to extend the season.  The lettuce doesn’t survive the winter, but the spinach does.  I did cover it with leaves for a week during our only cold snap.  It’s been bearing nicely this spring.

The Strawberries are starting to bloom now.  They were transplanted into their new bed last August 13^th -- 44 Shuksan plants in 50 square feet.  (named after the 85,000 foot peak near Mount Baker in NW Washington.)  They were top dressed with 2 lbs of Alfalfa Meal on March 15^th and have really taken off.  

Too bad they can’t stay to produce a second year.  I suffer from Strawberry Root Weevil and must start new plants and move them to a different spot in the garden each year to beat the pests.  But we’re hoping for maybe 25 lbs this year.  We’ll see, I’m getting my Lovely Wife, who inherited the berry picking gene, to weigh them this time.

Happy Gardening.

Planting Potatoes

I once read, the more hunger a group has experienced, the more potatoes they grow.  Another book once stated that spuds should be one quarter of one’s vegetable garden.  Just before the Soviet Union collapsed, the government had instructed the army to help pick the potatoes, by hand (not much mechanization) but at that time they were even struggling to pay the army.  I remember the photo – a couple of forlorn soldiers standing in a large frost covered field.

During these current unsettled times I have increased my potato production.  Not so much out of need but more as insurance.  Plus, I get lots of excellent tasting organic potatoes to eat and give away.

For me April is the month for planting spuds.  Our average last frost here is April 15^th so that fits well.  Last year I rediscovered mid-late season Red Pontiacs after about five years of Red Chieftains.  There is quite a difference, in my opinion, and it was good to get back to the Pontiacs.  Last year my son TOG introduced me to an early white variety called Alta Blush and it was great – firm, clean skinned and kept very well – it just didn’t produce as well per square foot as the later season Reds.

This year I was on my own for finding seed since TOG had missed his supplier.  So, at the local nurseries I picked up Pontiacs, and some earlier Red Norlands.  Finally, I figured I could use the last of my own Alta Blush as well.  They’d been very disease free so should stand one more generation.

I got the earlys planted April 14^th and now I attacked my next two beds for some of the Pontiacs.  My spud rotation usually follows the carrots, root crops and onions.  I know spuds are roots too but that’s the best I can do currently with only four rotations and trying to keep the tomatoes away from the spuds -- alternating years.  The other three beds to get the potatoes had the chickens’ run in them previously and so they didn’t need any additional nitrogen, but these two ex-carrot beds hadn’t had my two hens in them because I’d stored my carrots in these beds all winter until now under a one-foot layer of fall leaves.

I lifted the last of the sweet juicy carrots, beets, parsnips and rutabagas and my Lovely Wife filled her fridge with them.  The leaves went into bins to later go into the two beds of the chickens’ summer run.  Then I edged the bed next to the lawn and marked the bed perimeters with temporary pegs measured from my benchmark fence line.  I don’t usually use a string line but just keep an eye on the pegs for the path boundaries.

On these two beds I got to experiment with different nitrogen sources.  In one bed I used one five gallon pail of one year old composted chicken manure from my brother-in-law’s organic free run layers.  The other bed I added 3.75 lbs of Soya Meal and 3 lbs of Alfalfa Meal.  This is a bit more than I usually add but my potato plants haven’t been quite as tall as they used to be. (with chickens staged in the beds over the seasons this should all change).  Both beds also got 2 lbs each of Rock Phosphate.  I never add lime to the spud beds.  I have enough trouble with scab on my Pontiacs and the Rock Phosphate helps relieve that too.

This was all nicely tilled in with my little electric Mantis Tiller.  The machine isn’t for sod busting or attacking hard ground but it is perfect for mixing in soil amendments and loosening the soil down to 8 inches.  Remember, I Never Walk On The Beds so they’re always very loose and friable.  The tiller works best with a rocking motion: two feet forward and then pulled 1.5 feet back.  It spins away and digs itself down to the fender whenever held in one place.  All tilling is done while standing in the paths.

After tilling, the beds are raked flat and with the row marker I mark two lines 24 inches apart down the length of the beds.  For main season potatoes I mark cross lines 18 inches apart (14 inches for the Alta Blush) which gives me 16 plants per 12.5 foot long, 50 square foot bed.  I find the double row within the four-foot-wide bed works well for optimum use of space.  The full leaf canopy nicely shades out most weeds in the bed.

I had slightly over purchased Pontiacs and so didn’t need to cut all the spuds in half.  I cut the biggest ones first, always making sure lots of eyes on each piece, until I had the exact number of seeds I needed and left the rest whole.  The spuds are gently dropped onto the marked line intersections and then with my bare hands and on my knees beside the bed, I scoop a hole and place them about 2 inches under the surface.

That just leaves laying down wire fencing pieces, 4 feet by 6 feet pieces with a 2 by 4 inch wire grid, to deter the neighbours' cats.  The potatoes are free to grow up to about 8 inches high through the fencing before I lift the wire.  Any taller and it tends to tear the leaves when removing.  The first hilling can be done at about 18 inches tall.

Happy Gardening.

Setting Out Spring Spinach and Lettuce

18 pots of Olympia Spinach (Pacific Northwest Seeds) and 17 Encore Lettuce Mix (Johnny’s Seeds) were seeded indoors on March 13^th in one cup pots at 2 seeds per pot.  Germination was 100% and 83% and they were thinned to one plant per pot and grown under lights for 2 weeks then into the greenhouse on trays for 2 more weeks.

14 square feet of bed was fortified with 1.5 gallons of one year old composted Chicken Gold, 1/3 lb of Lime, and ½ lb of Rock Phosphate.  Tilled in with my little Mantis tiller, raked flat and smooth with the back of the bow rake, and marked out with the row marker on 8 inch square centres.  I was tempted to work with 10 inch centres this time since I had surplus space in that bed but declined – the tighter rows will shade out weeds more easily once the crop is established. 

I first sat the pots in a tray of water for an hour to absorb water up through bottoms making sure no dry patches in the root balls.  One month in one cup pots was just the right amount of time – the root balls were not too root bound but just able to keep their shape when flipped upside down and pot tapped upwards on the rim to dislodge the pot.

I planted alternating spinach plants with lettuces so that when the spinach finishes before the lettuces, they’ll leave more room for mature lettuce plants.

Covered the bed with 2 by 6 inch grid fencing wire sections elevated on 6 inch overturned empty pots --- to keep the cats away.  

In the morning I won't soak in one gallon of fish fertilizer mix to give them that transplanting boost.  It's probably too close to harvest for that kind of treatment with a chance of some fish getting on the leaves.  It is such wonderful stinky stuff -- but not this time.  I'll hope the ancient chicken already mixed in the soil will do the trick instead.

Happy Gardening.

Potting Up Tomato Plants

The time has come to Repot / Transplant the tomato and pepper plants into bigger containers.  The tomatoes were seeded on March 10^th.  The pepper seeds were soaked on March 1^st and planted on the 6^th.  They were all seeded into 4 litre milk jug bottoms at either 9, 11 or 12 seeds per container with about 1.5 inches of potting mix in each container.  Overall germination of the tomatoes was good at 90%.

Five days before transplanting, the plants were ‘sliced’ with a sharp knife through their roots to separate them and let them recover from the stress of the slicing.  This results in a great flurry of new rootlets coming from the main roots of each plant.  Pre-slicing helps them through the dual stresses of the breaking of the roots and transplanting.  

Years ago, I had a poorer germination of one container of peppers and so didn’t need to slice and transplant some of them but left them widely spaced in the original container.  Others were transplanted and within a few weeks the non-transplanted ones were visibly smaller than the sliced and moved ones.  I believe the slicing, causing the fresh flush of rootlets, helped in growing stronger, bigger plants.

The tomatoes were moved from 9 plants per milk jug to 2.  Using a scissor, I removed the first two non-true leaves then gently lifted each plant with a tablespoon and placed it into the bottom of the new container using just a thin layer of potting soil underneath it.  After half backfilling the container, I watered them in and then finished backfilling well above those first two removed leaves.

My choice of tomato varieties this year are all from Johnny’s Seeds: 

1) Sun Gold, a small orange cherry with phenomenal flavour.  

2) Bolseno, a dependable, red slicer.  

3) Mountain Magic, a plum sized early and late dependable producer. 

4) Tiren, a large successful paste tomato with some orange shoulders.  

5) Big Beef, retrying this standard slicer.  

6) Chef’s Choice Orange, the best tasting, productive slicer I’ve found, but for some it’s just the wrong colour.  

All these varieties are indeterminate and grow well in my greenhouse up 7 and 8-foot lengths of twine using tomato clips.  Since I live in an area that is very prone to Late Blight, growing tomatoes outside isn’t really an option.  Some kind of cover from the rain is necessary, so why not enclose the sides as well = a greenhouse.

The pepper plants stay smaller, are a bit slower growing and are transplanted into their own smaller single pots.  They go back under the fluorescent tube lights.

The tomatoes now leave my fluorescent tube lights and grow under my new LED (beginner pot grower’s) grow light.  I’m using aluminum foil on plastic sign board as reflectors for that light and I’m still learning the proper spacing from the light to the leaves.

In about 3 weeks they’ll be wanting more room and so will get repotted again into their own 1+ gallon pots and will head over to the greenhouse until their time comes to be planted into the beds in the greenhouse in mid-May.  I only need 8 tomato plants for my greenhouse this year so the rest will be given away.

Happy Gardening.

Planting Onions

I transplanted my winter storage onions into their 50 square foot bed this week.  I seeded two varieties: Patterson F1 on January 7^th and my later arriving, Talon F1 on Jan 15^th -- both from Johnny’s Seeds.  Their germination rate was 73% and 80% respectively.  I seeded two seeds in each one cup yogurt container.  That resulted in 66 Pattersons in 39 pots and 24 Talons in 14 pots. 

 

The onion seedlings were under the grow lights for 5 and 4 weeks and then hit the greenhouse (unheated) for the balance.  We experienced no cold snaps during that time and I was ready to bring them into the garage on short notice if a bad frost was headed our way.

The goal was to have them just filling their pots by the time they were set out into their bed.

The bed had been a chicken run bed up until February and so there was no need to beef up the soil with any feed or seed meals for nitrogen.  I sprinkled 1.5 lbs of Rock Phosphate and 1.25 lbs of Lime over the surface of the bed and tilled it up with my little Mantis tiller.

I raked the tilled bed flat with the flat side of my bow rake.  I need a flat bed surface rather than a domed one – I find the watering (with a wand) works better in the summer with less run off and erosion using flat beds.  With my Row Marker I marked rows across the bed one foot apart.  Then I marked lines down the length of the bed 8 inches apart for my onion spacing within the rows.

The pairs of onions were just root bound enough to hold the root ball together while transplanting.  The single onions were just a bit too loose so I had to be more careful transplanting those.  I have discovered they don’t like their roots disturbed. Seeding Onions In January  Once they were all transplanted I watered them in with two gallons of mixed fish fertilizer.

We still have two more weeks before our last frost (technically) so I quickly covered them with one of my new fencing wire bed covers Bed Covers.  I drove the small stakes into the edge of the bed and arched the six foot long fencing wire pieces across the bed between the stakes.  

I covered the arched wire pieces with a 7-foot wide piece of clear plastic and held that down on its edges with good sized rocks.  The bed cover should increase the soil temperature by a couple of degrees as well as shield the onions from any stray frost.  

There’s little left to do but the occasional weeding and watering.  Once the soil really warms up in late May I’ll mulch with old maple leaves to suppress weeds and keep the roots evenly moist.  Harvest is expected sometime in late July.  

Currently, we’re still eating our crop of winter storage onions from last year.  That’s more than an eight month supply of organic onions.

Happy Gardening.