The Yellow Farmhouse Garden

May 28, 2015

Double your pepper yield (or more) this year

Filed under: Planting,Vegetables — bob @ 9:09 am

If you’ve never had much luck growing peppers, you can vastly improve your pepper yield by doing a bit of extra work now before the plants go into the garden. The secret is to use plastic mulch.

In the past I’ve experimented with several colors of plastic mulch: clear, black, red, blue and silver. All of them showed a huge improvement over organic mulch or no mulch at all.

Using plastic mulch is not a new concept, it’s been around for decades. Commercial farmers and researches have improved yields even more than double.

There are several reasons why plastic mulch works so well. The most obvious is reduced weed competition. Plastic mulch prevents nearly all weeds from growing by blocking sunlight to the soil. The only weeds that you have to contend with are those that sneak up through the hole made in the plastic for planting. The exception is clear plastic mulch. It lets sunlight through allowing weeds to thrive under the greenhouse-like conditions.

Whenever you hoe or till around plants, no matter how careful you are, valuable surface roots get cut. Since plastic mulch keeps weeds from growing, there is no need for hoeing or cultivating except in pathways between the rows of mulch.

Soil temperatures are warmer under plastic mulch which is important in a relatively cool environment like Michigan. Peppers are warm season crops that respond well to warm soil temperatures. Organic mulches on the other hand, tend to keep soil temperatures cool.

Oxygen is critical for plant roots. Garden soil under plastic stays loose, leaving space between soil particles so that air can move. This creates a better environment for plant roots and soil microbes to do their job.

Bare garden soil loses a lot of water through simple evaporation. Plastic mulch keeps the soil from drying out allowing more water for the plants to use when they need it.

Some plant diseases are spread by rain or irrigation water splashing soil up onto the plant. Plastic mulch keeps plants clean and less susceptible to disease infections.

Carbon dioxide is produced in the soil and is a normal part of the soil dynamic.  On bare soil it diffuses directly into the air. Since gases can’t pass through plastic mulch, carbon dioxide tends to collect in very high concentrations underneath the plastic sheet. It can only escape by moving through the planting holes resulting in very high levels of C02 right at plant level where the plant can efficiently use it for increased photosynthesis producing higher yields.

Black is the default color of plastic I use in my garden. Mainly because you can find it just about anywhere, although I’m seeing more red plastic around lately. Also, black plastic is available in heavier grades than the colors allowing you to use it for more than one season if you want. I never use clear because of the weed problem I mentioned earlier.

With some care, you can re-use plastic mulch another year.

With some care, you can re-use plastic mulch another year.

Lay your plastic before planting, it will be much easier to transplant through holes in the plastic. I had an assistant years ago that transplanted the plants first and then tried to install the plastic. He got it to work but it was a chore.

It’s important that the surface of the planting bed is smooth and flat, sloping slightly so rain water can run off.  Rake out all debris and don’t step in the prepared soil.

Farmers use special machines to lay plastic in their fields but we don’t need anything like that in a home garden. I just stretch a string where I want the edge of the bed to be and dig a trench. I unroll the plastic and bury one edge with soil. Then I measure the width I need for the second trench — allowing for covering the opposite edge — stretch the string again and dig my second trench. A 48 inch wide roll gives me a planting bed just over three feet wide.

I cut an “X” through the plastic where I want the plants to go and transplant through the cut.

It takes some time to properly prepare the bed and install the plastic but you will be amazed by the results.

Bob

 

 

 

 

 

May 20, 2015

Thoughts about tomato planting

Filed under: Transplants,Vegetables — bob @ 9:00 am

I’m sure someone somewhere has done a survey on what is the most popular vegetable grown in home gardens. My guess is that it would be tomatoes.

In virtually every vegetable garden I’ve been in and on every deck or patio with a planter, I’ve seen tomato plants.

Since we are past the average frost-free date in southeastern Michigan, it’s now safe to plant tomatoes outside without any frost protection. That’s not to say that a frost won’t happen this spring, but it is very unlikely. So now is the time to get those tomatoes planted.

Beginning gardeners should keep in mind that although tomato seeds are available, tomatoes are grown in the garden using young seedlings called transplants — plants that were raised to plantable size in a greenhouse or under grow lights. Tomato seeds sown directly into the garden at this point may not have enough time to produce tomatoes before the growing season ends.

If you are buying transplants, the best ones are those that are short, compact and leafy. This early in the spring most transplants fit that description but later on as they grow older, they will eventually become spindly and leggy. However, even leggy plants are usable, if that’s all that is available.

Over time, through natural selection, tomato plants have developed the ability to grow roots anywhere along their stems. These types of roots are called “adventitious roots”.  Adventitious roots help tomato plants survive during times of stress when their main roots would be damaged, such as during a wet spring when soil becomes water logged or flooded. The adventitious roots in that case would form and replace the damaged roots allowing the plant to continue to grow.

By setting tomato transplants deep into the soil, we can use adventitious roots to our advantage. Roots will quickly form all along the buried part of a tomato stem.

A leggy transplant, instead of sticking up above the soil surface, should be set on an angle into the garden soil so that its stem is covered with soil up to the first set of leaves.

Even well-shaped tomato transplants can be placed in the soil lower than the level they were growing in their pot or flat container.

Tomato plants are tougher than you think. Often plants purchased on-line or from a catalog will be shipped without a pot or even soil, they’re just tied together in a bundle and shipped in a box or envelop. These plants recover nicely if you take them out of their mailing container and transplant them soon after they arrive.

We still have time to plant tomatoes. Memorial Day weekend is traditionally the date when many gardeners plant tomatoes. Depending on the season, many times those later tomatoes end up producing fruit almost as soon as those planted earlier.

Bob

 

 

 

 

 

May 9, 2015

Start a new tradition, throw a daffodil party!

Filed under: Flowers — bob @ 1:36 pm

Are booming daffodils a good excuse for throwing a party? It is if you are Dick Deionne of Ann Arbor.

Each spring he throws a daffodil party where he treats his friends to the spectacle of thousands of daffodils that includes dozens of different varieties.

Beginning gardeners should note that daffodils are planted in the fall.

Beginning gardeners should note that daffodils are planted in the fall.

 

Most of his plantings are under trees or around the edges of the wooded areas.

Daffodils thrive in the rich woodland soil.

Daffodils thrive in rich woodland soil.

Dick doesn’t fertilize or deadhead his daffodils because they thrive in the rich woodland soil.

A few daffodils in the yard are nice, but a large plantinng like this makes a bold statement.

A few daffodils in the yard are nice, but a large planting like this makes a bold statement.

 

 

 

Daffodils grow well around black walnut trees.

Daffodils happily grow under walnut trees.

Normally black walnut trees are troublesome for flowers because of a poisonous chemical that walnut roots release into the soil. This makes the area in the tree’s root zone unsuitable for most plants. Daffodils are resistant to the chemical and do well under black walnut trees.

If you want to start your own version of an annual daffodil party, keep in mind that daffodils are planted in the fall. Flower bulb sellers start taking orders for daffodil bulbs in mid-summer for fall delivery.

Bob

 

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