Plant Genetics Will Save Us-- or Not!

 

The garden catalogs are arriving. With each catalog is the mandatory "new" or "improved" varieties of seeds, plants, and ornamentals for our gardens. I would be happy if some of the hype were as true for the home gardener as these promises have been for agribusiness.

You only need to check corn yield statistics over the last 50 years to marvel at the wonder of plant genetics. Similar stories from statistics are our there for most of the major grain crops of the world, along with potatoes and alfalfa. The trend lines versus the actual statistics are probably the effect of severe extremes in the weather patterns in any given year.

But gardening, like politics and economics, tends to be local.

Lettuce and Peas...And Edamame!

Sugar snap peas, lettuce, 'Buttercrunch, and 'Cimarron' sown about 2 1/2 weeks ago in the large pot on my deck.  They had germinated before the last snow and night when temperatures reached 12 degrees (F).  Still looking good!  

Here in the United States, we must be pea snobs.  We tend to eat peas shelled and steamed (or boiled).  Regardless, when we eat peas we are usually talking about eating the immature seeds, not the fresh shots or tender pods.   We do this not only with peas, but a host of other garden vegetables.  We eat the beets, but tend to forego the beet tops, we eat the lettuce when it is mature.  We wait to eat the florets of broccoli and ignore the leaves.  Same for immature cabbage before it has formed a head, we decline to snip off a few tasty green, or red leaves to add an extra peppery crunch to our spring salads.

Once you start growing your own salad plots you begin to understand how much food we waste, even as gardeners.

Seed Germinating Tip for Beets, Chard, and Spinach

I read this about this seed germinating tip in "From Seed to Skillet".

I know that stratification is needed by some seeds, but never thought to apply this particular technique to this group of plants. Last summer, I direct seeded some beets and had particularly poor germination. Spring has been particularly cold here and any jump I can get on germination so my seeds are not rotting in the dirt seems like a good thing to me. What Williams does with these lumpy, bumpy seeds is roll them with a rolling pin to crush the outer seed coat. I felt I would surely damage the gymnosperm within, but no.

Upon seeing them crack, I dusted them into a cup of warm water for an hour. Then I strained them through paper towel, folded up the seeds in the paper toweling, and placed them in a Ziploc bag.

Two days later, I could easily see the root panicle emerge and quickly sowed them in the ground in my potager. I also did spinach and placed them in individual cells for planting in the family garden. The spinach on my light rack have emerged from the soil in one day.

With the difficult spring we have had here in central Wisconsin anything a gardener can do to save growing time will be rewarded in your harvest.

Planting Peas

Tomatoes under my lights!

Although it is supposed to be cold this weekend, if you haven't planted peas, you need to get on this. If you want spring peas, I planted sugar snap peas so I can eat them pod and all in stir fries. I will probably plant another round of peas mid-August to preserve. I soaked them overnight and planted them about two inches apart and one inch deep. I did not use an innoculant. I'll track my yield. My two rows are about nine feet long.

As I mentioned, I planted fifteen hills of Yukon Gold potatoes. I dug holes about eight inches across and deep and 18"-24" inches apart. I have them in an area I can water easily. Potatoes like grapes need plenty of water. I cut whole seed potato into sections, each bearing two to five eyes, about one and a half inches by one and a half inches by a couple inches. I placed one section in each hole. My row is about 24 feet long. I only press about an inch of deep down on top of the potato section so I can hill it up as it grows.

In front of the potatoes, I have a red leaf loose leaf lettuce, 'Little Fingers' Carrots, and French Breakfast radishes. I even planted the carrot is a short day variety, so I will be harvesting this stuff before my potatoes start to take up all the space.

That parsley I though was faking life? It has new growth, as does the oregano. Especially as it reached 80 degrees on Sunday and the parsley got "warm". I have to consider it passed the "warm and dead clause" and has effectively established it's biennal self in my yard. This parsley was the Italian flat-leaved variety (versus the curly type), if any of your are looking to have perennial parsley in Wisconsin.

I also intersowed my garlic with black annual poppies. I think the curly heads of the garlic will be attractive above the blooms of the poppies.

I planted out spinach without hardening them off, with no apparent ill-effects, which is something to remember.

I could also have planted out some of my other cole crops: kales, cabbage, broccoli, and probably will in the next couple days.

I should have my tiny cold frame together and I could have planted fennel and dill already as well.

The Crocus are Blooming!

The crocus are blooming! I'm sure many others have had crocus before me here in zone 4. Mine are on the north side of my house in my hosta bed under a white pine. That's not the best location if I want to be first. I don't. I planted them there simply because those hosta take their time. That whole shady side of my yard where I dug up the very sparse grass and planted my lush bed of hosta (65 different cultivars!) is pretty boring in the spring before about the third week in May.

Yesterday, I also took a chance and planted out six spinach transplants. I know it is a bit early, but I wanted to get a feel for whether I have a significant rabbit problem this spring. Lot's of proof (rabbit poo) from the winter, but no sightings in my relatively small backyard.

I also planted some sugar snap peas along the wiring for my grapes and the west side of my privet hedge. I am always looking for spots to double duty and figure the nitrogen fixing ability of the peas will help the grapes, strawberries, and privet. The grape wiring and privet can serve as pea fence, and I'll take my crop and run with it.

Peas are very problematic here in central Wisconsin. They like it on the cool side. Remember just scant two weeks ago out temps were not getting up to freezing during the day. This Sunday the projected temperature in mid-70s to 80 degrees! Many gardeners do not even try peas, particularly edible pod peas, in spring because of the unseasonable temperature spikes we can experience here in the Central Sands area. Once in a while I do see a commercial crop of peas, although two crops of soy beans, or regular beans are more common.

The night prior to planting my peas, I soaked them in warm water. Hoping a germination early next week! I'll post them when I get them!