Friday, October 1, 2010

The Cultivation of Vegetables

Before the garden vegetables individually, I will make a statement of the general practice of cultivation, which applies to all. The purpose of cultivation are three to get rid of weeds, and growth by (1) letting air into the ground to stimulate and release of plant food available, and (2) to preserve moisture. Weeds, the gardener of an experience not to be told the importance of keeping his crops clean. He has learned from bitter and costly experience the price of letting them get anything resembling a start. He knows that one or two days' growth, after they are good, probably followed by a day or so the rain can easily double or the work of cleaning a patch of onions or carrots highs, and that where weeds have attained any size they can not be taken out of sowed crops without doing much damage. He also realizes, or should every day the growth as many plant foods available stolen from under the roots of his legitimate crops means. Instead of the weeds to get away with any plant food, he must design more than clean and frequent cultivation will not only break the soil up mechanically, but let in air, moisture and heat in the performance of all essential those chemical changes necessary to convert non-available in the available plant food. Long before science in the case was detected, the soil cultivators had learned by observation the necessity of keeping the soil nicely loose their crops. Even the lanky and uneducated aborigine saw to it that his squaw not only put a bad fish under the hill of maize but multiplied her shell hoe over it. Plants need to breathe. Their roots need air. You might as well expect the pink glow of happiness on the WAN cheeks of a cotton-mill child slave as to expect the lush dark green of healthy plant life to see choke on a garden. Important as the question of air is that of water ranks beside it. You may not see the first issue of what the frequent cultivation has to do with water. But let us stop a moment and look into it. Take a strip of blotting paper, a swim, and watch the moisture run up hill, enjoyed by the blotter. Scientists have "capillary action" the water crawls up little invisible tubes formed by labeled the texture of the blotter. Now take a similar piece, cut it in, hold the two cut edges firmly together, and try again. The moisture refuses the line: the connection is broken. Similarly, the water storage in the soil after a rain begins once again to escape to atmosphere. On the surface evaporates first, and soaked in begins to soak into the soil through to the surface. It is leaving your garden, by the millions of soil tubes, just as surely as a two-inch pipe and a gasoline had poured into the pump the day and night! Save your garden by stopping the waste. It's the easiest thing in the world to reduce the pipe in two. By frequent cultivation of the soil surface no more than one or two inches deep for most small vegetables the soil tubes are kept broken, and a mulch of dust is maintained. Try to get over every part of your garden, especially where it is not gray, once every ten days or two weeks. If that seems too much work? You push your wheel hoe through, and so the dust mulch as a constant protection, as fast as you can walk. If you wait until the weeds, you will almost by crawling does more or less harm by disturbing your growing plants, losing all the plant food (and they are the cream to be) that they have consumed, and can effectively infinitely more disagreeable work more hours. If the beginner in gardening is not convinced by the facts given, there's one thing to convince him experience. After so much space to the reason for constant care in this matter, the question of methods naturally follows. Get a wheel hoe. The easiest species will not only save you an infinite amount of time and work, but work better, much better than it can be done manually. You can grow vegetables well, especially if your garden is very small, without one of these labor-savers, but I can assure you that you never the small investment required is a pity to buy it. With a wheel hoe, the work of preserving the soil mulch is very simple. If you are not a wheel hoe, for small areas very rapid work can be done with the scuffle hoe. The issue of keeping weeds cleaned up the rows and between plants in rows is not reached quickly. Where hand work it is needed, let it happen immediately. Here are some practical suggestions that this work to a minimum, (1) to receive this work, while the soil is soft when the soil begins to dry after rain is the best time. Under such conditions the weeds will pull out by the roots, without breaking off. (2) Immediately before weeding, go over the rows with a wheel hoe, cutting shallow, but as close as possible, creating a narrow, highly visible strip which must be hand-weeding. The best tool for that purpose is the double wheel hoe with disc attachment, or hoes for large plants. (3) See to it that not only the weeds are pulled, but that every inch of ground surface is broken. It is fully as important that the weeds just sprouting be destroyed, if the greater be drawn up. One stroke of the weeder or the fingers will destroy one hundred marijuana plants in less time than one weed can be pulled after a good start given. (4) Use of a small hand-weeders until you skilled with her. Not only is more work to be done but the fingers will be saved unnecessary wear. The clever use of the wheel hoe can be acquired through practice only. The first thing to learn is the need to only look at the wheels: the blades, disc or rakes will take care of themselves. The operation of "hilling" consists in drawing up the soil about the stems of growing plants, usually at the time of the second or third hoeing. It is used to practice all that hill could be hilled "up to the eyebrows," but it has gradually been discarded for what is called "the level of culture, and you will easily see the reason, from what was said the escape of moisture from the surface of the soil, because of course the top two sides of the hill, which can be represented by an equilateral triangle with one side horizontal, give more than the exposed surface smooth surface represented by the foundation. In wet soils or seasons hilling may be advisable, but very seldom otherwise. It has the additional disadvantage of making it hard to maintain soil mulch which is so desirable. Rotation of crops. ------------------ There is a different thing for them to be considered in making each vegetable do its best, and that is the rotation or vegetable to follow each a different kind on the following plants. Some vegetables such as cabbage, this is almost necessary, and almost all by him helped. Even onions, which are popularly thought to evidence an exception to the rule, is healthier and just as well after a number of other crops, provided the soil is as finely pulverized and rich as a previous crop of onions would leave. Here are the basic rules of rotation: (1) of the same fruit or vegetable crops of the same family (such as turnips and cabbage) should not follow each other. (2) Vegetables that feed near the surface, like corn, should follow deep-rooting plants. (3) Vines or leaf crops should follow root crops. (4) Quick-growing crops should follow the country occupying the entire season. These are the principles that should determine the rotations to be followed in individual cases. The proper way to attend to this matter is when making the planting plan. You will then have the time to do well, and will have to give no further thought for one year. With the above tips in mind, and uses, will not be hard for the crops those special attentions which are needed to let them do their best.

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