40 Gardening Tips to Maximize Your Harvest

[bacpacker]

It won't be long before the start of this years garden season, (Evolver may have a bit of a head start on the rest of us). In the spirit of the season I did some research to try and find some tips that might help us out a little. Mother Earth news had this posted on their site and While I haven't read each idea fully, I did go thru each of the 40 idea titles and do not disagree with any of them.

Give a read when you have a few minutes, it may end up being worth your while. Does anybody have any others to add to the list?

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organ...#axzz2MXElseRd



40 Gardening Tips to Maximize Your Harvest

Save time and money while growing even more great-tasting organic food.
By Barbara Pleasant
April/May 2011

Harvesting often, growing high-yielding varieties, watering efficiently and sowing in succession are all simple ways to maximize returns from your garden.

The best way to keep top-quality, organically grown produce on your table year-round is to grow as much as you can, and preserve plenty to eat for when your garden isn’t producing. This is a worthy goal, as organic, homegrown produce is more nutritious, delicious and sustainable than the typical store-bought fare. To help your garden reach its potential, you can implement many creative growing and preserving strategies. As you attempt to grow more organic food, be realistic about the time you have to maintain your garden and manage its harvest, and don’t bite off more than you can chew.

To create a roundup of the best gardening tips on maximizing returns, I brainstormed ideas with the MOTHER EARTH NEWS editors. Then I talked with readers who left wise comments on our online gardening surveys (sign up for our surveys). The result is a checklist of 40 ways to make your garden more productive. Choose the ones that work for you, and enjoy maximizing your return on the time, work and money you invest in your homegrown food supply.
Plan for Good Garden Production

Whether you draw your garden plans with pencil and paper or use a software tool such as the MOTHER EARTH NEWS Vegetable Garden Planner, you’ll need to think ahead to incorporate the following yield-maximizing strategies.

1. Grow High-Value Crops. “Value” is subjective, though growing things that would be costly to buy makes good sense, provided the crops are well-suited to your climate. But value can also be about flavor, which may mean earmarking space for your favorite tomato varieties and fresh herbs first, and then considering how much money you could save by growing other crops at home.

2. Start Early, End Late. Use cloches, cold frames, tunnels and other season-stretching devices to move your spring salad season up by a month or more. In fall, use row covers to protect fall crops from frost and deer while extending the harvest season for a wide assortment of cold-tolerant greens and root crops.

3. Grow the “Shoulder Season” Fruits. You can usually pick and stash June-bearing strawberries and early raspberries in the freezer before your garden’s vegetables take over your kitchen. Raspberries that bear in the fall and late-ripening apples are also less likely to compete with summer-ripening vegetables for your food preservation time.

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/organ...#ixzz2MXIj5F1q

[helomech]

My corn is already about 8 inches tall, my strawberries have flowers, watermelon is doing good, tomatoes are doing great, onions, berries, sugar cane, are all doing good so far.

[bacpacker]

Wow didn't know you had gotten a head start as well. Sounds like your a good 2 months ahead of us.

What do you have to do with sugar cane? I've never tried it before. If it'll grow here, sounds like something I need to give a try.

[helomech]

My sugar cane was actually planted at the end of the summer. It is about 6 foot tall now and will be ready to harvest soon. It is hitting the top of the greenhouse.

To plant it, you have to get a stalk. Just lay the stalk down flat and cover it with dirt (rocks in my system) and it will grow at each joint, just like bamboo.

[4suchatimeasthis]

Damn Helo......you are my freakin' hero! I was just thinking about sugar cane the other day....while watching "Looper".

Awesome thread, BP!

[bacpacker]

Ah crap Helo, your aqua system slipped my mind. I wonder if it gets too cold up here to grow cane. I see another research project coming up.

[helomech]

Ah crap Helo, your aqua system slipped my mind. I wonder if it gets too cold up here to grow cane. I see another research project coming up.

With a green house you could grow it, not sure if you could without a green house. My sugar cane survived some 15 degree nights, the green house kept it warm enough to keep them alive.

[bacpacker]

Here is another group of ideas to extend you gardening season on both ends. Growing time can be a huge advantage in putting up enough food to get you thru the winter.

http://www.veggiegardeningtips.com/

Plant Protection for Fall and Winter Vegetable Gardens

February 19, 2013

Your region may endure months of frigid weather, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t continue to harvest fresh produce out of the backyard garden. The previous post shared some of the hardy varieties grown by Niki Jabbour in her Nova Scotia garden; today I’ll cover some of the equipment and devices that she uses to stretch those growing seasons!

Niki refers to them as Sneaky Season Extenders but in my mind they are just brilliant and ingenious in the way that they allow the backyard gardener to grow crops in spite of harsh weather conditions. They also provide the flexibility of easily moving the devices from one place in the garden to another, and you have many options to purchase them ready-made or to build your own.
Everything from Cloches to Mulches for Protecting the Garden

Fall Garden Beds 300x225 Plant Protection for Fall and Winter Vegetable GardensCloches are simple devices designed to fit directly over top of crops and create “individual plant protectors.” You may have seen the traditional glass bell shaped cloches in photographs of vintage vegetable gardens. I still love the look of those heavy-weight versions but today you’re more likely to find plastic materials and a wider variety of shapes and sizes that make them even more useful and practical.

For the do-it-yourself-er it’s a snap to create a functional cloche out of empty soda bottles or plastic milk gallon containers. Simply cut the bottoms off of the containers and they are ready to be sunk over top of individual plants, and the removable caps function as your ventilation control.

For a modern, commercial take on cloches Niki gives a nod to the wall-o-water style cloche that wraps tubes of water around plants to warm the soil and protect plants even as temps fall below freezing. Cloches are great for frost protection during early spring.
Blanketing the Growing Beds with Floating Row Covers

Row Covers are lightweight semitransparent fabrics spun out of polypropylene or polyester fibers. They allow water, light, and air toRow Cover 300x225 Plant Protection for Fall and Winter Vegetable Gardens pass through but hold onto warmth and offer some wind protection. Row Covers come in several thicknesses for use in various seasons, and in addition to offering weather protection, they are also used as a barrier to keep animal and insect pests away from crops.

Row Covers are made in different widths to accommodate the garden layout and easily cover an entire garden bed or a number of rows of plants. The fabric is light enough to “float” right on top of plants without causing any damage, or it can be suspended over wire hoops or PVC tubing to form low tunnels. Anchor the fabric to the ground with staples, boards, rocks, or soil to keep it in place.

The latest materials are a lot more durable than the fleecy fabrics that were originally produced. This gives you the advantage of a row cover that will hold up and can be used over a number of years with just a little care in handling. These materials are more of a mesh than a fabric and are a bit more expensive but well worth the difference in price.
Mini Hoop Tunnels are Perfect for Taller Crops and Colder Conditions

Mini Hoop Tunnel 300x225 Plant Protection for Fall and Winter Vegetable GardensMini Hoop Tunnels are similar to supported Row Covers but are typically larger and use plastic covers or greenhouse films rather than the lighter weight fabrics. Hoop tunnels are easy to construct and can be set up or removed relatively quickly. It’s best to use sturdy supports such as PVC tubing or even metal conduit bent into shape. The covering material should be attached more securely to ensure that it remains in place and sheds water runoff.

It’s not an issue during winter, but row covers and tunnels need to be opened or removed when crops are flowering in order to allow insects access to pollinate the plants as necessary. The hoop tunnels also need to be ventilated on warmer spring and fall days to prevent plants from over heating.

I have experimented and had success with using a double walled Mini Hoop Tunnel… a tunnel within a tunnel. The inner tunnel covered with a heavyweight fabric is underneath of an outer hoop tunnel covered with greenhouse film. This set up is great for protecting hardy crops through the coldest months of the year.
Cold Frames: the All-Around Favorite for Cold Season Production

Cold Frame 300x225 Plant Protection for Fall and Winter Vegetable GardensCold Frames are Niki’s favorite and mine also for fall and winter production in the veggie garden. Basically a box with a clear top, a cold frame can be as simple as an old window sash over a base made of straw bales, or as high-tech as commercial units utilizing an aluminum frame, poly-carbonate panels, and automatic solar venting systems.

Cold frames are perfect for the backyard gardener desiring to stretch the harvest into the winter holidays. But they are versatile and also great for growing early spring crops, hardening off seedlings that were started indoors, or warming up cold spring soils before planting heat loving crops. During summer you can remove the top and use the cold frame to raise crops such as heat loving melons.
Other Season Extenders and Ideas for the Backyard Gardener

Niki also recommends mulch as a simple season extender that can be used to protect plants as the temperatures drop during Autumn. She covers plants such as root crops with a foot of loose mulch to protect them until later harvests. A row cover or old sheets can be placed over the mulch and anchored down for additional protection and to keep the mulch in place.

An Unheated Greenhouse is an option that adds the luxury of virtually unlimited growing space to work in and increases Year Round Gardening Cover 235x300 Plant Protection for Fall and Winter Vegetable Gardensthe production of your year-round garden. With a greenhouse there is no bending, cramped quarters, or fussing to pull back coverings to access your harvest. On the other hand there is more expense, effort, and maintenance involved with an unheated greenhouse and they may be better suited for market gardeners and farmers.

[Jimmy24]

My stuff is mostly up and getting it. Though I don't do sugar cane, my uncle grew cane for probably 40+ years. Around here it's started now for harvest in the fall for syrup making. That's what my uncle did all those years. His syrup was in high demand for many years. He generally cooked off about 1000 1/2 gallon tins a year. That was always a fun time when I was a kid. It's a fairly large operation. About 2 cookers, 3 mashers and one fire tender. Then a couple of folks for filling and stacking.

What was so great, nothing went to waste. Used juice for syrup and the mashed cane went to the livestock. Those were some good ole days...not many doing it anymore and they usually add corn syrup to it to make it go farther...grrrr

Have fun Helo!!

Jimmy

[Onestep]

The best thing one can do is plant by the Farmer's almanac. I've proven its accuracy time and again over the years.