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Netting, chicken wire, garden fencing, and string supported by stakes are also successfully used by many gardeners. Varieties: Last year I planted a row of Tall Sugar Snap peas faced on either side by a closely planted row of short-vined peas. Smooth-seeded peas like Alaska are the hardiest, but I think the sweeter wrinkled-seeded kinds are so much tastier that they are worth waiting for.
How to Plant: If youve grown potatoes the previous year, chances are you have some small spuds left over. If theyve begun to sprout, thats just fine, although its better if they dont have long white spouts. If they do, you can break off extra long, weak sprout as long as there are several eyes remanding that can grow. Egg-sized potatoes are good for planting whole. Those that are much smaller may not have enough stored for good nourishment to develop a strong plant. Seed potatoes stored at low temperatures (around 400F, 40C) will grow into vigorous plants that produce more large tubers than potatoes hat have been kept in warmer storage. Large potatoes with many eyes should be cut, exposing as little of the cut surface as possible, into pieces containing one to three eyes apiece. Too many eyes will produce a leafy plant with small potatoes. ( the eye is a dormant bud). Let the cut pieces dry for a day or two before planting so the surface can heal over. They are less likely to rot in the ground then. Unsprouted seed potatoes may be nudged into growth by being exposed to the light for a few weeks in a cool room. When planting, place the potatoes or the pieces with the cut side down every 10 to 12 inches in trenches that are 2 to 3 feet apart. Cover them with 3 inches of soil. When the tops are 9 inches high, draw up loose soil around the plants. You can also grow potatoes in mulch. They will be clean and easy to harvest and should yield at least as well, sometimes better, than those grown in the ground. One of the advantages to using mulch is that scab and potato bug damage are seldom a problem. The one catch is that you must use large amounts of mulch; a good foot of mulch must be spread over developing tubers and replaced as it settles, or the tubers will turn green. The green parts of potatoes and the sprouts contain an alkaloid poison, solanine. Except for the greening problem, Ive been delighted with the potatoes weve grown under mulch. The only trouble we have is that its difficult for us to find enough hay or leaves that early in the season to cover all the potatoes we want to grow. Growing from Seed: If youre experimenting with planting seeds from a seed ball that one of your potato plants might have produced last year , be prepared for a wide variety of plants, most of which will be worthless. Plant the seeds in a marked row or seedbed in early or mid-spring. The best temperature for potato seed germination is 680F (200C). If good tubers do form on nay plants, save them and plant them to increase your stock of starter potatoes for cutting up the following spring. My trial plantings of Explorer, the first potato to come true to seeds, were disappointing. The plants, which I started indoors like tomato seedlings, grew slowly, had low vigor, and yielded poorly. Other gardeners have had similar results. Growing conditions: Soil for potatoes should be on the acid side, well-supplied with humus and enriched with wood ashes or greensand to supply the potash that make for a good mealy potato. Only well-rotted manure should be dug into the potato patch, because fresh manure encourages scab. Varieties: New and newly rediscovered kinds of especially good-flavored potatoes like Yukon Gold, Caribe, and Yellow Finnish are now available as seed potatoes to home gardeners. As a result of our home garden trials of these gourmet potatoes, weve added rich-flavored Yukon Gold and Butte (a baking potato high in vitamin C) to our standard annual planting of all-purpose Kennebec seed potatoes.
Days to Maturity: 100 to 115 When to Plant : Plant seeds in the ground after the last spring frost. How to Plant: Start pumpkins like squash, with a generous shoveful of compost or wellrotted manure in each hill. When the plant starts to develop vines, anticipate the squash borer by firming two to three shovelfuls of soil over several vine nodes to encourage auxiliary rooting. Try the new semibush pumpkin, Funny Face, if space limitations have kept pumpkins out of your garden. Other kinds need lots of space; a hill will ramble over an 8- by 8- foot square of ground by summers end. Planting at the edge of the corn patch works well. The vines wander among the corn and help to discourage raccoons. Seeds of naked-seeded pumpkin varieties like lady Godiva, Streaker, and Triple Treat have seed coats that are just a thin film. Lacking the thick protective coats, which make regular pumpkin seeds harder to get at, the naked seeds tend to rot more readily in cool, damp soil. Youll get more plants from a packet of seeds if you presprout the seeds and then plant them individual pots, setting them out when warm weather has come to stay. If you do plant the seeds directly in the ground, wait until warm weather has settled in. Growing Conditions: Pumpkins appreciate soil well supplied with organic matter. Mulching helps to control weeds that would be difficult to hoe out from the spreading vines.
How to Plant: Plant as for summer radishes, but thin them to 4 to 8 inches apart according to variety. Growing Conditions: loose soil, well supplied with potash, encourages the growth of well-shaped roots. Radishes that are watered well will be more tender. Varieties: some winter radishes, like Miyashige, grow over a foot long. Our favorite is Chine Rose.