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Summer crops like warm to hot weather. The biggest mistake
people make is trying to plant to soon. Even though we have this
almost irresistible urge to plant we are not doing our plant friends a
favor. The ground needs to be warm at nights 55 degrees and soil
temperatures of 65-70 degrees. Old-times would say you need to
hear the Whipper-Will calling in the evening. Crops such as
tomatoes and peppers will drop their blooms and it can even mess up a
peppers ability to produce properly. If the leaves of beans get
frost-bitten it can stun them and actually slow down their ability to
grown properly.
Frost will kill summer plants. If you do get caught with a late
freeze you can cover your plants with newspaper, straw, or
plastic. Tomatoes can be covered with 5 gallon buckets or
grocery bags but even these will not always protect the tender young
plants from the cold. Every gardener learns this hard lesson sooner or
later. If frost gets on your plants, you must get up before the
sun and sprinkle water on your plants to wash off the frost. If
the sun hits the frost, it is too late. The frost is a lethal poison
to your plants and they will die.
I like to mulch my summer plants, especially ones that produce all
summer or are long growing such as cucumbers, squash, okra, tomatoes,
potatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon or pumpkins. Good
mulching reduces a lot of labor by helping to conserve moisture and
reducing those hateful, nasty weeds. It also makes the garden
pretty and in the fall provides humus to be worked into the
soil.
Mulching materials:
This is an excellent mulching material but the wheat or barley
seeds in the straw will sprout and grow. It is best if the straw
is allowed to get wet and go through a heat to kill the seeds before
using.
This is a way to recycle your newspaper! It will blow away if
not weighted down. Some like to use it under the straw as an
additional weed blocker.
These are free for the getting and a way to dispose of that extra
grass. Because it is a green clipping you may have to add extra
nitrogen to help compensate for the nitrogen it pulls out of the
ground.
- Weed Blocker or Black Plastic
Excellent protection but more expensive and has to be removed in
the fall. Always use black plastic as it helps to block the
sunlight. Be sure to punch holes in the plastic so water can
penetrate.
This is my favorite. Since we have a horse stable on
the premises, I have ample access to the sawdust/horse manure taken
from the stalls during cleaning. I love this as it adds fresh
manure at the same time. It makes a mulch that looks good, won't
sprout, grow, or blow away and is free!! But the down-side is,
it does smell and will attract flies at first. You also have to
be careful when applying that it does not burn your plants.
Almost immediately the load of sawdust/manure starts going through a
heat for several days and it gets hot to the touch. I have had
it actually scald the leaves of my plants, especially crops like cantaloupe
that vine on top of the mulch. They grow out of it but it stuns
them until they adjust. I try to mulch vines before they start
to vine to help eliminate this challenge. When you use a mulch
such as sawdust, shavings or grass clippings, nature immediately
sends signals to the microorganisms in the soil to start decomposing
this foreign product. You also have to compensate by adding
extra nitrogen for what gets pulled out of the soil to start
decomposing the mulch.
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Hertzler
Farm
and Feed Inc.
Blue Lake beans in
center with okra to the right.
I plant my cucumbers on a piece
of livestock panel. The Burpless plants look good but the National Pickling
plants don't look as good. They are still producing even though the leaves
have yellow spots on them.
Hales Best Cantaloupe
with Incredible Sweet Corn in the back.
Fordhook Limas