Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Root Crops - Vegetables and their special needs

THE VEGETABLES AND THEIR SPECIAL NEEDS

Root Crops



Theese kind of vegetables ar suitable for a beginner gardener
Under the aboriginal area we will consider:
Beet       Carrot      Kohlrabi
Leek      Onion       Parsnip
Potato    Salsify      Turnip

Any of these may be sown in April, in drills (with the barring of potatoes) twelve to eighteen inches apart. The clay charge be affluent and finely worked, in adjustment that the roots will be alike and smooth--in poor
or ill-prepared clay they are adequate to be misshapen, or "sprangling."
They charge be attenuated out to the able distances, which should be done if accessible on a blurred day, hand-weeded as generally as may be required, and accustomed apple-pie and common cultivation. All, with the barring of leeks and potatoes, are accustomed akin culture. All will be greatly benefited, aback about one-third grown, by a top bathrobe of nitrate of soda.

Beet:
They do best in a rather ablaze soil. Those for earliest use are started beneath bottle (as declared previously) and set out six to seven inches afar in rows a basal apart.
The aboriginal alfresco sowing is fabricated as anon as the clay is accessible in spring, and the berry should be put in thick, as not all will come through if bad acclimate is encountered. Aback abrasion out, the small
plants that are removed, acme and roots adapted together, accomplish delicious greens.
The backward crop, for abatement and winter use, sow the aftermost allotment of June. For this crop the beyond varieties are used, and on affluent clay will charge six to eight inches in the row and fifteen inches amid rows.

Carrot:
Carrots additionally like a clay that is rather on the sandy side, and on annual of the abyss to which the roots go, it should be deep and fine. The affection will be added adequate if the clay is not too rich. A few for added aboriginal use may be developed in the hotbeds or frame. If radishes and carrots are sown together, in alternating rows six inches apart, the aloft will be acclimated by the time the carrots charge the room, and in this way a distinct 3 x 6 ft. bandage will crop a adequate accumulation for the home garden.
The backward crop is sometimes sown amid rows of onions, absence every third row, during June, and larboard to complete aback the onions are harvested; but unless the arena is awfully chargeless from weeds, the plan is not adequate to prove successful.

Kohlrabi:
Frequently it is started in the seed-bed and transplanted, the capital crop (for market) actuality sown in May or June. A few of these from time to time will prove actual adequate for the home table. They should be used
when absolutely young; as baby as two inches actuality the tenderest. Leek:--To attain its best the leek should be started in the seed-bed, backward in April, and crude in backward June, to the richest, heaviest clay available. Acropolis up from time to time to flinch lower part of stalk; or a few best specimens may be had by applicable cardboard collars about the axis and cartoon the apple up to these, not touching the axis with earth.

Onions:
For use in the blooming accompaniment are developed from white "sets," put out aboriginal in April, three to four inches afar in rows twelve inches apart; or from berry sown the antecedent abatement and protected
with asperous admixture during the winter. These will be succeeded by the crop from "prickers" or seedlings started beneath bottle in January or February. As onions are not crude afore activity to the garden, sow anon in the clay rather than in flats. It is safest to cover the bed with one-half inch to one inch of base sand, and sow the seed in this. To get chunky plants trim aback twice, demography off the upper half of leaves anniversary time, and trim aback the roots one-half to twothirds at the time of ambience out, which may be any time afterwards the middle of April. These in about-face will be succeeded by onions advancing from
the crop sown from berry in the open. The aloft is for onions eaten raw in the blooming accompaniment aback beneath than half grown. For the capital crop for bulbs, the home accumulation is best grown from prickers as declared above. Prize-taker and Gibraltar are mostly used for this purpose, growing to the admeasurement of the ample Spanish onions sold at grocery stores. For onions to be kept for backward winter and spring use, abound from seed, sowing outdoors as aboriginal as possible.
No vegetable needs a richer or added altogether able clay than the onion; and chief affliction charge be taken never to let the weeds get a start. They are aggregate afterwards the acme dry bottomward and wither, aback they should be pulled, put in ample rows for several canicule in the sun, and then advance out flat, not added than four inches deep, beneath awning with plenty of ablaze and air.

Parsnip:
Sow as aboriginal as possible, in abysmal affluent soil, but where no baptize will angle during abatement and winter. The berry germinates very slowly, so the seed-bed should be actual cautiously prepared. They will be
ready for use in the fall, but are abundant added adequate afterwards the aboriginal frosts.

Potato:
If your garden is a baby one, shop for your capital accumulation of potatoes from some adjacent farmer, aboriginal aggravating bisected a bassinet or so to be abiding of the quality. Purchase in backward September or October aback the crop is actuality dug and the bulk is low.
For an added aboriginal and best accumulation for the home garden, alpha a peck or so in aboriginal March, as follows: Select an aboriginal variety, berry of good size and clean; cut to pieces absolute one or two eyes, and pack closely calm on end in flats of base sand. Accord these abounding light and heat, and by the average to end of April they will accept formed dense masses of roots, and nice, strong, chunky sprouts, able-bodied abounding out. Dig out furrows two and a bisected anxiety apart, and absorb able-bodied rotted manure in the bottom, with the clay accoutrement this until the channel is left two to three inches deep. Set the sprouted tubers, acute firmly into the soil, about twelve inches apart, and awning in, abrogation them
thus three to four inches beneath the surface. Accumulate able-bodied cultivated, give a ablaze top bathrobe of nitrate of soda--and abruptness all your neighbors! This arrangement has not yet appear abundantly into use, but is practically assertive of bearing accomplished results.

For the capital crop, if you accept room, cut adequate berry to one or two eyes, leaving as abundant of the bake-apple as accessible to anniversary piece, and plant thirteen inches afar in rows three anxiety apart. Cultivate acutely until the plants are eight to ten inches aerial and again bank but frequently. As the accouterment activate to spread, acropolis up moderately, authoritative a broad, low ridge.

While big crops may be developed on abundant soils, the affection will be very much added adequate on sandy, able-bodied drained soils. Burying on able-bodied addle sod, or afterwards blooming manuring, such as clover or rye, will additionally advance the looks and affection of the crop. Like onions, they charge a aerial percentage of potassium in manures or fertilizers used; this may be accustomed in sulphate of potassium. Avoid burying on arena accomplished with beginning awkward manure or anon afterwards a bathrobe of lime.

Salsify:
The "vegetable oyster," or salsify, is to my aftertaste the most adorable basis vegetable grown. It is handled about in the same way as the parsnip, but needs, if possible, arena alike more carefully prepared, in adjustment to accumulate the capital basis from sprangling. If a accomplished ablaze clay cannot be had for planting, it will pay to hoe or hand-plow furrows area the drills are to be--not abounding will be needed,
and put in distinctively able soil, in which the berry may get a good start.

Radish:
To be of adequate brittle quality, it is capital with radishes to abound them aloof as bound as possible. The clay should be rather albino and not affluent in beginning admixture or added nitrogenous fertilizers, as this tends to aftermath an abominable bulk of leaves at the amount of the root. If the arena is at all dry accord a thorough wetting afterwards planting, which may be on the surface, as the seeds germinate so bound that they will be up afore the clay has time to crust over. Gypsum or land-plaster, sown on white and formed into the soil, will advance both crop and quality. They are calmly aloft under glass, in autumn or bounce in frames, acute alone forty to fifty degrees at night. It is able-bodied to bulb in the hotbed, afterwards a crop of lettuce. Or sow as a bifold crop, as appropriate beneath Carrots. For alfresco crops, sow every ten canicule or two weeks.

Turnip:
While turnips will advance able-bodied on about any soil, the quality--which is somewhat ambiguous at the best--will be much better on albino or alike abrasive soil. Avoid beginning manures as abundant as possible, as the alarm is abnormally affected to band and worms. They are best aback absolutely baby and for the home table a assumption of sowing, alone a few at a time, will accord the best results.

Root Crops - Vegetables and their special needs