weed « TopVeg – growing veg,fruit&herbs

June 7, 2009

Weed the Vegetable Garden

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: hoe, weed — TopVeg @ 6:19 pm

Weeds have started to grow in the vegetable garden, and they have to be dealt with before they seed. This will pay dividends in the vegetable garden next year.

A weed-free vegetable garden is a healthy garden.

Air is able to circulate freely around the vegetables, which helps the battle against fungal diseases, such as blight and mildew.
Insects will not be able to hide on weeds, and the gardener is more in control of the plot if the crops are not obscured by weeds.
Water is used more efficiently if there are only crops, and no weeds to take up the water.

Handpulling weeds is sometimes easier than hoeing at this time of year. It depends on how loose the soil is.

Although this is the time for harvesting vegetables in the garden, it is well worth putting time aside to get rid of the weeds.

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June 6, 2009

Volunteers, unwanted potato plants, & ground keepers.

Filed under: potato — Tags: potato plants, volunteer, weed — TopVeg @ 6:48 pm

In spring, unwanted potato plants appear in the vegetable garden. They can grow from tiny potatoes which were missed last year, or even from parts of damaged potatoes which were left in the ground previously.
These potatoes, from the previous year, are called ground keepers. The new potato plants they produce are called volunteers. This is a photo of volunteers appearing in the bean patch.

potato-volunteer

Volunteer potatoes should be treated as weeds, and removed as soon as they are seen. It is tempting to keep them, as it seems a shame to discard a promising-looking, forward plant. This is a photo of one of the volunteers which was in the bean patch growing from a ground keeper:

groundkeeper-potato

But it is very bad practice to keep the volunteers, as they allow disease to spread.

Volunteer potatoes act as a ‘green bridge’ for pests and diseases that cannot persist in the absence of the host. Viruses can survive in ground keeper tubers as can potato blight. The presence of volunteer potatoes can maintain a high population of potato eel worms in soil throughout a rotation.

So, treat the volunteers as weeds, they are unwanted potatoes; get rid of them, and keep your garden healthy.

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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

Weeds in The Vegetable Garden

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: weed, weeding, weeds — TopVeg @ 6:39 am

How to tell a weed from a vegetable plant is a common problem for new gardeners.

The definition of a weed is a plant out of place. So a weed is only a weed if you don’t want it there.

If you have planted a row of vegetable seeds, anything growing out of the row may be classed as a weed. It is therefore important to:

    * be organised
    * mark rows at either end with prominent sticks
    * keep the distance between rows at least the width of your hoe
    * hoe regularly between rows, shallowly, as soon as you see leaves emerging

Watch the vegetable plants within the row. Hopefully your seeds will all
emerge at about the same time, and look similar. Any rogue plants can be
pulled out.

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March 16, 2009

When is the right time to sow vegetable seeds

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: cotyledon, seed, seeds, sow, weed — TopVeg @ 9:21 pm

*The right time to sow vegetable seeds varies according to the
weather experienced in the spring. A cold spring will mean the ideal
time is later than if it was a warm spring.

*The soil takes time to warm up, to reach the right temperature for
seeds to germinate.

*Weeds are a good indicator. If it is warm enough for weed seeds to
grow, it will be warm enough for some vegetable seeds to be planted.

*Look out for the first seed leaves of weeds (they are called cotyledons).

cotyledon-of-weed

weed-cotyledon

*As soon as the weeds appear, hoe them out.

*Read the back of the seed packet to see the recommended time period
for planting.

*Listen to the weather forecast & cover the seeds & seedlings when frost
is expected.

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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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May 8, 2007

Keep Weeding the Vegetable Garden.

Filed under: diary — Tags: weed — admin @ 1:35 pm

A gentle reminder to keep weeding the vegetable garden. Remove the weeds as soon as they emerge. Tiny seedlings are much easier to remove. Pulling roots of tiny seedlings out of the ground does not disturb the roots of the vegetable plants left behind.

If weeds are allowed to grow and develop a strong root system, they take a lot of water out of the soil.The roots of the vegetables will probably be dislodged & spoilt when the well-grown weed root is pulled out.

Shallow hoeing will remove small weeds. Shallow hoeing breaks up the soil surface, which keeps the soil user friendly!

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April 8, 2007

Keep Weeding the Vegetable Garden.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: weed — TopVeg @ 5:31 pm

A gentle reminder to keep weeding the vegetable garden. Remove the
weeds as soon as they emerge. Tiny seedlings are much easier to
remove. Pulling roots of tiny seedlings out of the ground does not
disturb the roots of the vegetable plants left behind.

If weeds are allowed to grow and develop a strong root system, they take
a lot of water out of the soil.The roots of the vegetables will probably
be dislodged & spoilt when the well-grown weed root is pulled out.

Shallow hoeing will remove small weeds. Shallow hoeing breaks up the
soil surface, which keeps the soil user friendly!

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