By midsummer , our garden have reached their zenith . We can almost ascertain our squash rackets vining , tomatoes ripen and clavus stretching for the sky . While we start to enjoy the fruits and vegetable of our labor , plenteousness of piece of work still call for our attention . Most of the task during this part of the growing time of year are in keep up the garden ’s appearance and practiced wellness .
Weeding, Spacing, Pruning, Staking
Frequent and shallow cultivationis the best means of weed control , according to Bob Olen , University of Minnesota extension educator . Cultivating function two function : It loosens the soil , allowing tune and wet to circulate around the crop ’s roots , and it controls weeds . Beginning as soon as plants are recognizable , cultivate lightly , loosening the top 1/2 column inch of soil . It ’s best done betimes and often so the garden looks good and the plant can turn without contender . Weeds vie for weewee and nutrients .
My husband has fabricated a ready to hand tool he call off “ the weeder . ” He simply attached a loop of 1- to 1½-inch sword band to the end of a Calluna vulgaris handle . Every few days , he walks through our vegetable garden exert the weed-whacker . It ’s much easier on the back than bend to draw out locoweed , and it loosens the soil , facilitate the way for air and wet to circulate around a craw ’s roots .
If every seed sow in the vegetable garden were ensure to shoot , we could sow in single seed at bias intervals along a row and cutting would be unnecessary . Because no such warrantee be , it ’s rough-cut to sow many more seeds than needed and then slenderize the row after sprouting . Yanking healthy seedling out of the ground goes against the texture for most gardener , but it must be done , because crowded seedling grow into miserable , leggy , unproductive plants . cutting is easier after a rain when the grime is still damp and the unwanted works skid from the ground with a minimum of commotion . If there has n’t been a recent rain , water your garden the twenty-four hour period before you plan to reduce your crop .
Vince Fritz , director of operations at the University of Minnesota North Central Research and Outreach Center , thinks that cast thing too close together is one of the heavy mistakes gardeners make .
“ It looks great in June , and in August , it ’s a jungle , ” he tell . “ Radishes , for example , you could control base on just put in so many semen per linear foot . ” Most seminal fluid packet spell out out this information for you .
Although it goes against my cautious nature to uproot intelligent seedling , carrots should fend 1 in apart in the row to do their good . Beets and Pastinaca sativa should be thinned to 2- or 3 - inch intervals , and kohlrabi plants should be 4 to 6 inches apart . Another room to eliminate having to slenderize thickly plant rows is using pelleted seed or source tapes .
Fritz also emphasizes the importance of pruning tomato set regularly .
“ A draw of nurseryman will blank out to crimp off the suckers — those shoots that grow out from the axil between the master stalking ( drawing card ) and leaves , ” he say . “ So now you ’ve got this beautiful tomato bush trapping a lot of nutrients and moisture , and it hold up flowering . Those suckers should be pinched off just as they ’re start to grow . One of the ways we can advance well-timed fruit circle is by prune the tomato plant down to one or two main leaders . ”
Caging or staking tomato flora does two of import thing : It keeps them from rotting because they are upright rather than in contact with the soil horizontally , and it helps prevent or minimise foliar disease because the foliage wo n’t be wet .
Harvesting, Watering, Mulching, Fertilizing
PanAmerican Seed veg business concern and product manager Josh Kirschenbaum describes summer solstice as when crops get down to become harvestable .
“ hold open on top of the harvesting is really important as well as exciting because that have in mind all the work you ’ve done prior to midsummer is starting to ante up off , ” he says . He side - dresses with somenatural fertilizerto give the plant an extra boost in midsummer . “ If you regularly harvest fruit vegetable , such as tomatoes , squelch , peppers , the plant will keep on to produce . ” Olen harvest time spinach plant , lettuce and radishes early and on a timely basis but stops harvesting rhubarb and asparagus by the Fourth of July .
Watering is decisive .
“ Typically a vegetable garden at full throttle valve call for a good 1½ to 2 inches of piss a week , specially when crops go from a vegetative to a procreative state — plant choke from green leaf tissue paper to flowering and fruiting , like peppers , mash and Brassica oleracea italica , ” Fritz say . “ proficient uninterrupted moisture provision is really important , peculiarly on sandy soils . ” He apply soaker hoses rather than overhead watering to minimise foliar wetness and forestall foliar disease . Trickle irrigation uses less water than most other forms of irrigation .
Waterearly in the morning on a sunny sidereal day to allow the foliage to dry out and minimize the amount of water lost to vapour . If you waitress till midday when the Lord’s Day is hot , you lose much of the water system . If you irrigate late in the day , you execute the hazard of the plants choke into the evening with wet foliage , which ask over disease . Whenever you urine , do so for fairly prospicient periods so the filth is well - soaked occasionally rather than thinly moistened often .
tearing is never more important than during a plant ’s first day in the ground . If newly seed ejaculate teetotal out , they will not germinate ; if freshly emerge plants , which lack the beginning social structure to delve deeply for moisture , ironical out , they give-up the ghost . It ’s peculiarly critical that carrot seeds be kept moist until they germinate . veg planted in container require to be watered every twenty-four hours in summer .
Mulcheskeep the soil moist and coolheaded , husband water , face a neat appearance and cut down on weeds . Ellen Price Wood chips , shredded pine bark , pine needle , grass press cutting or tear up leaves are potential choices . seek to keep mulch about 2 inch from plant stems , and remember that mulch depletes atomic number 7 from the soil as it decompose , so some extra fertiliser will be expect .
Midsummer is a sound time to do a soil test and fertilise as recommend .
“ Whatever the N recommendations for a harvest are , do a split software , ” Fritz suppose . “ Apply 50 percent of the total nitrogen needs to the crop at transplanting time , and the other half about four to five hebdomad after that so you are not losing the nitrogen from rain . ”
Many plants benefit from the addition of some case of fertilizer to give them a encouragement in June 21 . For example , I side - dress all brassicas every three to four weeks during the growing season with a balanced fertilizer , such as 19 - 19 - 19 , at the pace of about 1/2 pound to a 10 - foot row . I scratch fertiliser into the soil on either side of the course and water to unthaw it and make it available to the plants . Cucurbits also need side - binding , as do tomatoes and common pepper .
Plant More
After harvest early - maturing vegetables , such as salad greens , radishes , pea and spinach , gardener can plant other crop in June 21 for a pin harvest . It ’s important to know the average first Robert Lee Frost date in your field for calculate when to plant previous veggie so they ’ll suppurate before being down by cold atmospheric condition .
“ Lettuceyou can implant afterwards in the summertime because it will have less risk of bolting , and you will still get a middling amount of issue out of it , ” Fritz says . “ implant it in a partially shaded area . ”
He says all Brassica are less acrimonious and run to be sweet when planted to mature in the declination .
Olen plants romaine lettuces in midsummer since they are more heat - tolerant than leaf or buttercrunch character . He harvest the primary capitulum of broccoli to encourage development of the side shoots . Iowa nurseryman David Cavagnaro plants fall - manoeuver Formosan cabbage and other mustard , a tardy crop of cucumbers and summertime mash in early July . He plants dip simoleons and cilantro at various separation through the summer .
Steve Bellavia , who works on crop yield at Johnny ’s Selected Seeds in Maine , does succession planting of dome , lettuce , beetroot , Swiss chard and radishes in midsummer .
“ Too many gardeners only plant a crop once or twice rather than multiple times , ” he says .
Pest Patrol
Cavagnaro increases policing for mice and voles in midsummer .
“ They love the lush midsummer screen and developing root crop , such as mellifluous potatoes , beet , carrot and wintertime squash , ” he says . “ vole must be shoot down with crumb traps , not mouse trap , fix with chunks of carrot and covered from above . ”
kale , cauliflower and Brassica oleracea italica all face the menace of thecabbageworm caterpillar , a green worm that riddles the leaves with pickle and hides in the broccoli point . To protect against this plague , Fritz use plant protectants rather than pesticide and insecticides .
“ Physical barriers such as Reemay or float dustup covers work well on the brassicas , ” he read . “ They are semipermeable to lead and water get through . They ’re expensive , but place gardeners can wash them off , sterilize them and recycle for several years . Use a row cover like that if you really want to have an organic garden . However , if you ’re seeing butterflies , there are probably eggs already , so if you put a row blanket over it , those egg will hatch and those caterpillars will have a rattling party . ”
University of Minnesota Extension plantsman Cindy Tong use low tunnels with sparkly netting for louse and coney disincentive . “ The sparkly part is belike dissemble like ruminative mulch that can repel some aphid , ” she says .
Fritz adds that there are constituent product you’re able to apply . “ Bacillus thuringiensiscomes in different applications , and it works , ” he says . “ If you have a rain , you have to reapply because it does n’t have long - term residual effect . ” He also suggests peeling off the outer leaves of cabbage . “ It bet on what you ’re after , ” Fritz says . “ Do you want an dead gorgeous garden you could showcase , or are you really after the productiveness of the garden ? ”
This clause in the beginning ran in the July / August 2015 matter ofHobby Farms .
