Planting those babies

Written by: Karley Thompson

for the DeKalb County Times

The market was bustling last week! If you want to try those chicken thighs and Boston butts everyone is talking about, you'll have to get there pretty early. Fried pies, baked goods, granola, soaps, lotions, salsa, pork rinds, fresh and dried herbs, early season lettuce, kale, and garlic scapes will all be available this week. You can also pick up herb, flowers, squash, and tomato plants.

The market will have a grand re-opening event on Saturday, June 9^th! Most of the produce vendors will have fresh veggies by then, and then we'll really get the 2012 season cranking. 

It's the perfect time for planting those veggie bedding plants. The soil is good and moist from this past weekend's rain, and unless it all peters out before it gets here, there's a chance for more rain the forecast. We usually plant in the late afternoon or early evening, after the heat of the day has passed and the garden is shady, or on cloudy days. It can be hard on the little plants if you put them out on a hot, bright sunny day. If that's the only time you can get out in the garden, you can ease the trauma by being very gentle with their roots, giving them a good drink, and maybe providing a little shade that first day.

Some plants are hardier than others, as far as how much abuse they'll tolerate and still give you good production. For example, plants in the cucurbitaceae family, like squash, melon, and cucumber, are extremely tender. They are particularly unappreciative of having their roots disturbed, and they don't perform very well after becoming root bound in pots. We do transplant some squash and cucumbers, but we are extremely gentle when handling their roots balls. We're also sure to get them in ground by the time they have their fourth set of true leaves. These plants practically grow before your eyes, and their roots grow even faster. That's why most people skip the delicate transplanting and just direct sow these crops.

The cucurbitaceae are nutrient hogs and will pretty much take as much compost as you can give them. These are often the volunteers that pop up from compost piles, or wherever the chickens drop the seeds. Since they grow in compost piles, it's probably not surprising that they'll grow in a hill of mounded compost. Most gardeners plant two or three seeds per hill and thin to the strongest plant. Cucumbers, vining squash, and even melons appreciate being trellised, but be sure to use sturdy materials. For the heavier fruit, you'll even need to make a sling.

Not all plants needs such tenderness, though. The tomato plant can take a lot, perk up, and then produce a lot. Last year we got way behind on our transplanting to-do list and ended up with dozens of tomato plants that were floppy, almost two feet tall, and still in their 4 inch containers. We picked off the suckers and leaves up about 75% of the stem, used a post hole digger to dig some massive holes, and laid the plants on their sides. Once we filled in the dirt, only about 25% of the plants were left above the soil. Those plants ended up being over 7 feet tall and continued producing through those two scorching months without rain and without irrigation. When we pulled the plants up at the end of the season, we could see that the entire buried stem had sprouted a 

serious root system. 

Peppers can also tolerate quite a bit of abuse, once temperatures are comfortably warm. Small pepper plants will sulk after cool nights and will just huddle down and not grow very quickly if the days aren't warm enough. Not to worry; the weather right now is perfect, so get those pepper plants outside. The stems of pepper plants will also sprout roots, so we also bury the peppers deeper than they are planted in their containers. 

We're experimenting with the peppers this year. We buried up to 75% of the stem of some of the peppers, and others we only buried about 25%. I'll report later in the season and let you know how the experiment is going. 

Peppers and tomatoes are heavy feeders, so they benefit from soils with a lot of organic matter. Both of these nightshade cousins may develop blossom end rot, drop their flowers, or produce cracked fruit with uneven watering, so we always use a thick layer of organic mulch to keep in the moisture. As I've mentioned before, we use old hay. Many gardeners prefer not to use hay because of the weed seeds, but it is locally available and provides drastic moisture retention and soil tilth improvement, so we deal with the weeds.

Many gardeners find that foliar feedings of an Epsom salt dilution are beneficial to pepper and tomato plants. Epsom salt contains magnesium and sulfur in a highly soluble form. Lime is a common garden amendment to the highly weathered, acidic clay soils in our region, since lime is composed of calcium carbonate, which is a base. In addition to raising the pH, lime adds calcium to the soil, but soil calcium and magnesium must be in the proper balance in order for the plants to be able to utilize the available calcium. Since the magnesium in Epsom salts is highly soluble, it provides a boost of nutrients to the plants. 

One tablespoon to a gallon is all you need for a good Epsom salt foliar feeding. Foliar feeding means fertilizing your plants by spraying a solution on their leaves. Very early morning is the best time for foliar feeding. You don't want to spray the solution during the heat of a sunny day because the plants need to be able to respire to tolerate the heat. Many gardening advice sources advise not to spray in the evenings, so as to not encourage mildew problems. That being said, we almost always spray in the evenings because that's when we get around to it. Thus far, we haven't had any mildew problems. 

If you're concerned or just curious about the nutrient levels in your soils, you can have your soil tested through the local extension office or a private lab. If you're not sure if your pepper and tomato plants would benefit from an Epsom salt feeding, you can always do an experiment and only spray one or two of your plants and compare their performance over a couple days or weeks.

Part of the fun of gardening is experimentation, and all the exercise you get from growing all that fresh, healthy produce is a great perk. Experimenting with new methods and unusual varieties keeps each year exciting and each iteration of your garden novel. Coming up with new trellising ideas, or garden layouts, or hypotheses as to why one plant out performed another or the beans were better last year than this year exercises your mind, and you can't help but do dozens of repetitions of glute, hamstring, and quadricept exercises out in your garden!