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Home  Vegetable germination |
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Vegetables:
Most vegetables require
sun to thrive. Six hours of full sun seems a good amount. So when
planning to do vegetables, look for a level sunny area. I have found
that when my vegetable patch gets sun in the morning and noon, but is
shaded in the afternoon it works well. Lettuce especially look better
when protected from the harsh afternoon site.
Whether you start your
seedlings indoors or want to sow your seed directly in the ground is
your choice. Root vegetables go directly in the ground.
A method that I like to use for starting peppers, tomatoes and eggplants is as follow:
I take 200ml
polystirene cups and make 3cm slits at the bottom running vertically up.
I fill the cup with vermiculite, sow seed 2cm deep and keep the
vermiculite moist and cups in a warm area. This method is the fastest
method I know to get peppers to sprout. I have had seed germinate in 10
days as opposed to three weeks. When the seed are coming up I lessen the
watering and add a small amount of Seagro, 25% of strength recommended.
The vermiculite stays
moist, each seedling forms it's own root ball and when 7-10cm high when I
transplant the seedlings I include the vermiculite and these are always
my strongest plants.
Vines- vegetables and fruit:
Here I am refering to pumpkin, squash, zucchini, gourd, watermelon and melons.
Vines can grow like
few other plants can in one season. For them to be able to do their
best, they need a lot of "food".
That does not mean a lot of money needs
to be spent on fertilizers, in fact the opposite is often quite true.
The nicest pumpkins often grow on compost heaps.
Adding great amounts
of vegetable matter prior to planting is the key. If you are going to
use garden refuse, you can prepare holes 1mx1m and 60cm deep, 4-5 months
ahead of time. Insert the garden refuse, not big stumps, leaves and
grass. Cover with a layer of soil, if it's slightly heaped- so much the
bettter. (No dog poo, due to health concerns pet poo is not a good idea,
unless your pet is a cow or chicken)
If you started your
garden all enthuisiastic and don't want to wait months for your heap to
get ready, then your option is buying some compost (not topsoil), and
working it into your hole, more is better, but 50% is enough already.
All these vines need
plenty of water to grow, but sprout easily enough, simply plant 4-5
seeds per hole at 5-8cm depth and water when ground gets dry.
Read individual item
descriptions to get an idea of how big a plant might get, there are some
big pumpkins around that need extra space between planting holes and
some miniature varieties that can be grown in smaller spaces. If the
fruit is smaller, your chances are so will the plant be.
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Root vegetables:
Here we are talking about carrots, onions, beet/beetroot and such.
Some
root vegetables grow shallow, like radishes, others medium depth, like
beet/beetroot and some deep, like carrots. Also the time till harvest
vary, radishes from 28 days, carrots from 50 days and onions sometimes
240 days!
With root vegetables you have to keep 2 things in mind:
1-it's about the root, so you need loose ground, without stones for the root to grow in, and
2-
it's about the root, the wrong fertilizer can supply you a lot of
leaves and no useable root. Moo-poo and super-phosphates are no-nos. A
good fertilizer would be bonemeal, but dogs will dig up your garden
after the smell.
So,
that means work your ground over to a good depth, removing stones,
using a piece of ground that had previously been home to other
vegetables is always a good idea. Long rows about 5-8 cm apart works for
root crops. Sow seed of carrots by mixing with a little soil and
sprinkling in a line ,made 2cm deep, cover lightly. Radishes and
beetroot are more easy to handle, plant them 3-6 cm apart.
Onions can be started close together and when grown to the thickness of a pencil, transplanted to 5-8 cm apart.
For a table when to sow vegetables in different areas in SA, go to http://seed.beingplants.com/Vegetable-table.php
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