Winter Dreams

So how does a gardener survive winter?  Especially such a long and cold one (Michigan has been in the path of the "polar vortex" and has received more than 40 inches of snow so far this winter).

The first line of defense is, of course, the garden catalogs.  This is the time to pour over the pictures and imagine a garden full of every delightful plant possible.  I find myself dwelling over Johnny's and wondering why I can't grow exotic varieties of vegetables that I've never even eaten.  My particular obsession is with lettuces - nothing more beautiful than lettuces like blooms on the soil, especially to my winter eye. Seed catalogs often tempt one to over-order but there are also stalwarts that simply must be obtained every year.  I have a number of favorites that my garden would miss if I didn't order them.

But the consequence is that the seed packets arrive in the mail, and many of them need to be started indoors.  This is a benefit.  It is an opportunity to work with living things and see the green of chlorophyll in spite of the snow cover.

The techniques of seed starting can be very simple or extremely complex.  Most garden plants have been selected over hundreds of years to be started easily from seed.  Wild or recently domesticated plants often have dormancy mechanisms that need to be overcome before the seeds will germinate.  The survival value of this is obvious.  Seedlings may be killed in one year's bad weather and others can germinate in a different year to flower and set more seed.  Here is a discussion of factors that inhibit germination.  Here is a master list of conditions for seed germination in many wild species.

Even easy garden plants have requirements. Seed germination requires several environmental triggers to be present, and the combination of these varies somewhat from species to species.  First, water must be present.  Even dead seeds will soak up water (imbibition) and it is the first step in germination. Light and temperature are the other two triggers.  The right combination, and sometimes the right sequence, will cause a complex series of hormonal changes in the seed that allow the embryo to grow and use the stored food reserves.  Here is a scholarly review of the physiology of seed germination.

For the great majority of garden plants, higher temperatures (around 70° F) are best for germination.  This can be supplied by "seedling heat mats" for sale in many garden stores and catalogs.  There are also many light fixtures for growing plants (fluorescent lights are best) that can be fancy or simple.  I use shop lights propped up on blocks.  It is necessary to keep humidity high while germination occurs - this can be with plastic domes, plastic bags, or even transparent sweater boxes.  A timer should be used to turn lights on and off.  I use a 14-hour day length.

Seedlings are easily killed by a couple of common fungi.  This is called "damping off".  For that reason, seedlings should be started in sterile artificial medium, typically sphagnum peat that has been finely milled.  The germination medium I use also has vermiculite added to keep it from clumping.The medium should be kept damp, but not flooded.  I use a plastic spray bottle to keep dampness at the right level.

 

Clean containers should be used to start the seedlings.  I use simple plastic trays (and plastic bags in the beginning).  But there are many "seed starting systems" for sale.  The trays last for decades and I clean them with bleach before use. 

Most seedlings should not be transplanted until they have developed some true leaves. For most garden plants, the first "leaves" are the cotyledons, which had been the location of stored food reserves and then become green and photosynthetic after emergence.  The seedlings are still very young and don't have much of a root system yet.

Later, the true leaves have developed and the plant has begun to grow.  Eventually it has become time for what the British refer to as "pricking out" - transferring them to single containers.  I prefer 4-cell packs which allow more root room than the 6-cell packs many commercial growers use to sell flats of annuals.

In the cell packs, the plants can grow under the lights, and later be moved outside.  I use a cold frame to temper them until it is consistently warm enough to plant.  But they'll last in these cell packs until June or later.

ADDENDUM: A question left unanswered here is, "When should you start the seeds?" This depends on your location and the first frost-free date for your area. In Southern Lower Michigan, it is approximately May 15, so vegetable seeds should be started with that in mind.  Johnny's Select Seeds has a handy seed-starting calculator for that decision.   Flower seed starting is variable: some need to be started as early as January in order to bloom in a reasonable time after they are planted out. Petunias take a very long time to become planting size, for example.  Hot-weather annuals like zinnias and marigolds will need to be held until the frost-free date, so that should be taken into account.  Some others, like pansies and violas, can be planted earlier so should be started earlier.  Perennial plants often grow slowly so benefit from an early start.  The seedlings shown above were all planted this year (2014).  A cold frame is useful to temper seedlings in the couple of weeks before the frost-free date.

A Bad Year for Garlic

Last year's harvest of garlic, my first, was very successful. We ate our homegrown garlic all winter, right up to mid-June, when I reluctantly bought one head of store-bought to see us through to harvest again. I was so pleased that I have ordered more than twice as much seed garlic to plant this fall.

But this year's crop seemed ill-fated. First, when I received the seed garlic from Johnny's, there was a note that they had detected some fungal infection on the New York White and let them know if any problems developed. Yet it was the German Extra-Hardy that had penicillium mold on them. I violated the first rule of gardening, which is Never plant bad seed. It was so late and the fall weather was so capricious (we did have a very early winter, with snow the week before Thanksgiving), that I just put everything into the ground, including some of my stored garlic.

Not everything came up in the spring. Further, when I first ventured out to the garden after the thaw, quite a few cloves had heaved out of the soil. I pushed them back in, but I don't think it worked. Probably mulching would have helped. Once the plants did come up, many of them were very small. Then we had unusually cool wet weather all June and into July. I harvested the garlic earlier than I wanted to, about mid-July, because the plants were flopping over and I didn't want the bulbs to rot in the ground. The harvested bulbs sat in my garden shed to cure for a couple of weeks before I sorted and cleaned them.

The yield was just under 9 pounds. I estimate that my home-grown garlic cost about $2.50 a pound (seed garlic is expensive). But worse, I saw symptoms of disease on them. I identified the likely cause as a Fusarium immediately because of the pinkish color. Sure enough, Fusarium rot is a known problem on garlic.

I think that most of affected bulbs were the softneck type, New York White. Luckily I didn't order that again this year. I noticed that even after a couple of weeks curing in the shed, the cut stem of the garlic was still moist, a bad idea.



According to an excellent source on garlic cultivation that I just found, stiffneck garlic is most successful in Northern home gardens. Apparently the softneck type (which I have never cared to braid) is easier for market gardeners to plant, but the stiffneck type is hardier.


A difference between stiffneck and softneck is that stiffneck must be pruned of its flower scape in June. Not a problem for me. These yield a delicious bonus - they are good in stir-fries and especially good in scrambled eggs.

The three varieties I've ordered for planting this fall, German Extra-Hardy, Russian Red, and Music, are all (by chance) stiff-neck. I've also found a new source that I might explore.

Meanwhile, I've cleaned the garlic from this year and put it into the driest spot I can find. I hope to beat the fungus to eating it.

Extreme Planting

Late May is the moment of truth in the vegetable garden. All those appealing pictures in the catalog, those seedlings lovingly raised for transplant, those visions of harvest and culinary preparation of new varieties, are for naught if they are not planted. We are between the threats of frost of early May and the likely heat waves and thunderstorms of mid-June. Now is the time.

So I find that I am doing as farmers have done forever - planting and working the soil from dawn to dusk, or as nearly as I can. No problem getting to sleep at night - I fall into the bed and turn out the light without ceremony, only to wake with the birds thinking of what to plant where and the other tasks that must precede that. Last winter my (non-gardening) husband announced that he would help me to expand the vegetable garden by removing the turf from more of the back lawn (it is composted and the topsoil used in future years). This had several consequences. I expanded my reach by ordering more varieties and twice as much garlic. Then I decided to plant things I had not tried before (the potatoes are looking fine, not sure if I should have gotten those onion sets), and of course it seemed reasonable to plant more of everything. Now the original garden is nearly full, but with several rows of direct seeded vegetables to go, plus the squash and cucumbers. Meanwhile, my husband sprained a muscle so now I am removing the turf myself from the area where all the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants (plenty of each), currently waiting in the cold frame, are to go.

But the kohlrabi was planted and the stems are starting to swell already.

And we are eating lots of salads from the lettuce, arugula and spinach planted back in March.

The Transplant Conundrum

The gardener's holy grail, right up against yield and taste or quality, is getting the maximum out of the growing season. Season extenders like row covers, plastic mini-greenhouses, and even hoophouses have become popular. So it seems natural to get a jump on the season by starting plants indoors and transplanting seedlings once the weather is more favorable. Another garden blogger in my area reported planting her kohlrabi by direct seeding and I proposed a race. We planted at about the same time - my germination log says I planted Kolibri (Johnny's Select Seeds) on March 20 and her blog report is dated March 22.


The seedlings (now about 3 weeks old) were pricked out some time ago and yesterday I put them into the cold frame for hardening up. They mostly have two true leaves by now. I'll probably plant them into the row in about another two weeks, depending on how the weather goes. My cold frame has an automatic opener so that when the internal temperature gets too warm, it opens to vent. Meanwhile the seedlings are being treated to fluctuations in temperature (but not below freezing) and real sunshine. I know from past experience that they will really take off once into the row.

But as simple and elegant as this process (which I use for all my brassicas, or cole crops) is, I was startled to find that it is controversial.

Recently I purchased a book, "Gardening When It Counts", subtitled "Growing Food in Hard Times". Its stated purpose is to explain subsistence gardening, that is, growing vegetables out of necessity rather than fashion. The main point - and a valuable one - is to use plant spacing rather than intensive gardening, to reduce necessary inputs of fertilizer and water. Unfortunately the book also contains a number of diatribes. One of them is against the use of transplants. The author, Steve Solomon (who founded Territorial Seed Company and now lives in Tasmania, apparently for the fine gardening to be done there), has nothing good to say about use of transplants for any but the most frost-sensitive plants (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants). I was particularly dismayed to see his criticism of growing brassicas from transplants. He claims that the harvest is not much advanced and complains that everything becomes mature at once. He hit home with his mention of cabbages splitting, since I've had that problem. But his advice to plant just a few seeds every week for a while sounds burdensome.

I first saw the practice of growing cabbage from transplants in visiting fields in Wisconsin where cabbage was grown for commercial kraut production. They planted transplants as early as possible, using a mechanical planter. I've always done it and been happy with the result. So I'll probably continue, but I'm going to be more observant. In particular, I'll be interested to know how my gardening acquaintance's kohlrabi advances. I'm guessing that right now her kohlrabi looks a lot like the lettuce I planted on March 18 and grew under row cover. The little seedlings are just now beginning to put out a true leaf.