soil « TopVeg – growing veg,fruit&herbs

March 26, 2010

Soil Temperature

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: soil, temperature — TopVeg @ 10:15 pm

Soil temperature plays an important role in seed germination and plant growth. Many varieties of vegetables prefer a warmer germination temperature than that required for plant growth.

Vegetable gardeners achieve a warmer germination temperature for seeds by either:

starting seeds indoors
or warming the soil up by covering it with glass or plastic for a week or two before sowing, then keep the soil covered once seeds are sown

cloche

Plastic sheets will warm the soil, but different types of plastic does different things:

Clear Plastic – encourages weed germination.
Black Plastic - discourages weeds & is cheaper.
IRT (Infa Red Transmitting) Plastic – discourages weeds & is more expensive.

cover-rolled-back

Measuring Soil Temperature

Any thermometer that will measure temperature at a specific depth can be used to measure soil temperature. Ordinary glass bulb thermometers are adequate, provided they are long enough to allow the temperature to be read whilst the bulb is in the ground at required depth. There are metal sleeves which can be placed round the thermometers to protect them from breaking.

Potatoes will not start to grow until the soil is 45 degrees. If they are planted before the soil has warmed up :

they will not grow
they may rot – particularly in wet soil
they may get small potato disease & just produce tiny tubers

Folk law decrees that the time to plant potatoes is when the Daffodils and Dandelions bloom. These yellow flowers do not open up until the soil has warmed up!

Measuring soil temperature will help decide when to plant vegetables.

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January 21, 2010

Cloches increase soil temperature in hours

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: cloche, soil, temperature — TopVeg @ 9:19 am

Research by PoshCloche shows that cloches increase soil temperature in a matter of hours. This is good news for vegetable gardeners as it was previously thought that cloches should be in place for 2 weeks before planting.

Seedling_Cloches

PoshCloche, took a series of soil temperature measurements in December 2009. The tests, carried out at a depth of 5cm, revealed that the soil warmed by 1.5 ºC in the first 5 hours of the trial. Details of the experiments can be found by clicking this link: Click Temperature Trial

Cloches are a great tool for vegetable gardener:

giving extra protection against cold & windy weather
extending the season by bringing sowing earlier & lengthening the growing season
increasing soil temperature

PoshCloche provide a selection of cloches for the small vegetable gardener and allotment holder. Their recent work showing that cloches increase soil temperature in hours, rather than weeks, will interest all vegetable growers.

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August 27, 2009

Growing Carrots on Heavy Soil in the Vegetable Garden

Filed under: root veg — Tags: carrot, container, soil — TopVeg @ 9:36 am

Nairobi-Carrots-growing

It is difficult, if not impossible, to grow carrots on heavy soil in the vegetable garden. It is hard to produce a seed bed, with very small soil crumbs, suitable to enable the carrot seed to germinate. When it rains the soil goes like concrete, and then when it dries out, it cracks.

On our heavy soil we have incorporated coarse sand to make it more friable. The sand particles help to keep the clay particles apart. You need a lot of coarse sand to have any effect. You need so much that it is not really practical.

Adding a lot of organic matter does not solve the problem, because you need to add so much to have any effect.

Carrots have always been grown on sandy soils, or sandy-loams. But gardeners with heavy soil could try growing carrots in a container – which can be filled with the perfect growing medium!

Containers make it possible to grow carrots on heavy soil in the vegetable garden.

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May 2, 2009

Growing Carrots on Heavy Soil in the Vegetable Garden.

Filed under: root veg — Tags: carrot, sand, soil — TopVeg @ 8:46 pm

Nairobi-Carrots-growing

Adding a lot of organic matter does not solve the problem, because you need to add so much to have any effect.

Carrots have always been grown on sandy soils, or sandy-loams. But gardeners with heavy soil could try growing carrots in a container – which can be filled with the perfect growing medium!

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April 19, 2009

Improve the soil with compost

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: compost, soil — TopVeg @ 3:24 pm

Compost:

    * improves the soil
    * enriches the soil with nutrients
    * makes heavy soil lighter.

Cover the soil with a layer of compost about 2 inches thick. Then gently fold it in to the soil using a garden fork.

The compost can be old decomposed grass clippings; old, decomposed leaves; well-rotted farm yard manure; well-rotted horse manure; well rotted straw.

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April 17, 2009

Earthworms in the vegetable garden

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: earthworm, soil, worm — TopVeg @ 3:30 pm

Earthworms keep the vegetable garden healthy and in good heart.

Earthworms are good for the garden. The more you have the better it will be.

worm

*
Worms pull the small bits of rubbish (like dead leaves) down into the soil.

    *
      They eat them up and convert them into humus, which is full of nutrients and available to help the vegetable plants grow.
    *
      Worms open the soil up as they wiggle through it, bringing air into the soil, which is essential for the roots to grow and produce healthy veg.

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April 15, 2009

How to Reduce Weeds in the Vegetable Garden by using a Stale Seed Bed.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: soil, stale seed bed, weed, weeds — TopVeg @ 3:05 pm

A stale seed bed reduces the number of weeds which have to be controlled when the vegetable seedlings start to grow in the garden.

What is a stale seedbed?

A stale seed bed is a seedbed which has been prepared, & given a false start, some weeks before the seed is due to be sown. Any weed seeds in the bed will be encouraged to grow, so that they can be raked out & killed before the actual vegetable crop crop is sown.

weeds-in-stale-seedbed

The advantages of a stale seed bed:

    * the number of weed seeds which have to be controlled, when the vegetable seeds start to grow, is reduced.
    * competition, for light, food, water & space, between the vegetable seedlings & weeds will be reduced, by reducing the number of weeds.
    * there will be a wider window for hand weeding between the egetable plants if there are not many weeds. It is not so crucial to weed them out immediately, which is important for weekend gardeners.
    * the seedbed will be more even, as it has had time to settle down and the moisture will have spread out. Thus germination will be more even.

How to make a stale seedbed:

Before sowing vegetable seeds,

* prepare the seedbed
* encourage weed seed germination by keeping the soil damp, either with rain, or with gentle watering (gentle because do not want to destroy the structure of the seed bed.) Use a very fine rose on the watering can.

shallot-in-polytunnel

    * Do not over-water or the seedbed will become structureless or hard.
    * allow weeds to grow
    * just as weed seedlings are emerging through the soil, gently rake the bed in dry weather, so that the weed seedlings are disturbed and destroyed. Rake when the weeds are at the cotyledon (seed-leaf) stage. Seedlings are vulnerable then, because they are changing from being dependent on the seed for food to becoming reliant on the roots for survival.

rake-weed-seedlings

* do not allow the weeds to get too big because the root system will be well developed and difficult to kill.

stale-seedbed-half-raked

* do not over-rake, or the seed bed will become too fine
* allow a few days for the disturbed weed seedlings to die, then sow the vegetable seed in the normal way.

The stale seed bed system of weed control is only practical on light, sandy soils. It is not recommended for clay soil.

The stale seed bed system will not eliminate weeds completely, but will reduce the number of weeds germinating at the same time as the vegetable seeds.

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March 22, 2009

Measuring Soil Temperature

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: soil, temperature — TopVeg @ 11:34 am

Thermometers
Any thermometer that will measure temperature at a specific depth can be
used to measure soil temperature. Ordinary glass bulb thermometers are
adequate, provided they are long enough to allow the temperature to be
read whilst the bulb is in the ground at required depth.

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March 15, 2009

Zero-tolerance approach to Weeds

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: soil, weed, weeding, weeds — TopVeg @ 9:27 pm

The zero-weed policy in the vegetable garden is helped by friable soils
which have not been walked on. These two factors, friability & lack of
compaction, contribute to much easier weeding.

Friability

Our soils were originally difficult, heavy clays, which set like
concrete after a rain. But the addition of sand has helped, by keeping
the clay particles apart.

Adding compost from the heap does help, but an enormous amount of
compost is needed to make any difference on the depth of soil in a
vegetable garden. Sand has been the salvation of our soils.

Lack of compaction

picking-stick-beans

Narrow beds accessed from the walkways keep us off the beds, so we do not tread
the soil down. The beds are just wide enough for all the work to be done
from the edge, so that we do not have to walk on them.

board-protects-soil

The only problem seems to be picking the stick beans from the wigwams. A
walking board has been placed beside the wigwam, to minimise the
compaction caused when picking. Last year we did not use a board (just
trode on the soil), & the soil around the wigwams had been trampled
during picking, so that it was pressed down and very difficult to dig
later on – & difficult to make into a seedbed.

Wide rows.

wide carrot rows

Having enough room between the rows to use hand tools for hoeing & breaking the
soils, makes working easy.

Weed when the weeds are small.

Hitting the weeds before they get too big, & before they have had time
to develop a strong root system, makes it easier, too!

Little & Often Weeding.

Weeding little & often in the vegetable garden makes it less of a chore.
You are more likely to adopt a little & often approach if it is not hard
work &:

    * the soil is friable
    * the soil is not compacted
    * the rows are wide
    * the weeds are small

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February 15, 2009

Preparing soil for onions

Filed under: root veg — Tags: dig, onions, soil — TopVeg @ 2:42 pm

Preparing soil for onions

dig1

The time to dig the garden has changed. Recently we have had wetter
autumns. So the garden is often very wet in November and too wet to dig.
The soil structure is damaged, if it is paddled (stood on) when wet. Now
we dig just after Christmas to prepare for onion sets.

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