Article published November 11, 2009
Take time to review vegetable garden journal
Planting a vegetable garden in your backyard can be very rewarding - it satisfies the appetite and the urge to grow things. If you planted a small backyard farm last spring, its time to take stock of how your crops performed.Garden journal
You still may have a few vegetable stragglers in the garden, including a few winter onions and other root crops. Vines of squash are at their best right now. Pull out your garden journal. I hope you mapped your planting plan in its pages to keep track of what you plant each year. Professional farmers living around you do this too. They keep track of what crops were planted in what fields, when they were fertilized, and what herbicides were applied. Farmers also keep track of yields as part of their business plan. This helps them avoid repeating costly mistakes and plot their crop rotation.
You can do this too. After you draw this year's garden patch map, write down each vegetable you planted. If you still have the seed pack, be specific on the names. Make notes of planting dates and how many seeds or seedlings you planted. If you can remember, note the general time they started to sprout and the general time you started to see the plants flower.
It is important to keep a record of fertilizer application and how much water your garden received on a weekly basis. This might be tough to remember if you haven't been keeping track throughout the summer. If you had a sprinkler set on a timer, then make notes of how often you irrigated. Always include the amount of fertilizer you applied and the brand name.
Now that we are at the end of the growing season, give a general estimate on the amount of produce coming from each plant. Let's say you pulled five bushels of green peppers off three plants. That's a lot of peppers! Next year, you may want to grow only one plant if you are only feeding your family. If you harvested two peck of tomatoes off five plants, it looks like you might have a problem with that variety in your garden. Next year try a different variety or a more aggressive watering and fertilizing program.Taking notes
It is really important to make notes of garden problems. I got a nice letter from a reader, John Hrabovsky of Northwood. He says, "My tomatoes started to ripen, even had a couple. Then, however, they wouldn't ripen anymore. Just about all of them ended up on the ground. They fell off the vines. The ones left wouldn't ripen."These are great observations. It helps your extension agent, or friendly Blade garden columnist, understand what was going on. With the assumption that Mr. Hrabovsky had more than four hours of sunlight on his tomatoes plus regular fertilization and water, it sounds like his tomatoes had a serious problem this year. If the leaves were turning yellow, then it is a sign of fusarium wilt. It is caused by an aggressive fungus in the soil and makes the plant look like it is wilting and will kill the plant quickly. Upper shoots die off first, so the plant may get a chance to set some fruit before the fungus takes over.
This fungus only attacks tomatoes, so the first thing he should do is destroy the tomato foliage. Don't put it on the compost pile or you will spread it to the rest of your garden. Next year, look for tomato plants that are resistant to fusarium wilt and find a new location for your tomatoes. Plant something else in that spot, like beans, peas, or corn.
The fungus will live in that soil forever unless you get rid of it. One way to do this is to cover the area with black plastic next summer and let the sun heat up the soil for up to six weeks. That will help sterilize the spot again.
Contact Kelly Heidbreder at:
kheidbreder@theblade.com
Permanent Link
|
|
 |
|
Search
advertisement
