Contact: Diane Relf, Extension Specialist, Environmental Horticulture

October 1996

January Tips
VEGETABLES

  • To invigorate potted chives, cut them back to 1 inch above soil. Place in the refrigerator for two weeks, then place the pot in a sunny window.

  • Where space is limited for seed starting, sow seeds thickly in each container. When the seedlings become large enough to handle (generally, when the second set of leaves, the first true leaves, develop), carefully separate the tiny plants to individual containers.

  • Some mail order seed companies offer pelleted seed of lettuce, carrot, and a few other small-seeded crops. Pelleted seed has a special coating to make them larger. This is especially valuable for children and gardeners with arthritic hands, weak eyesight, or poor coordination. Wide spacing of seed helps eliminate thinning. When using pelleted seed, plant in moist soil and keep it moist because the coating has to dissolve before the seed can germinate.

  • For varieties specifically adapted to your region, look for seed companies specializing in seed for your locale and those carrying locally grown, heirloom seeds.

  • Gardeners with small plots, who want to try a few of many types of plants, can turn to seed companies offering mini-packets or mixed-seed packets.

  • A number of seed companies provide useful publications free, free with a minimum order, or for a very reasonable price. These educational offerings give concise answers to frequently asked cultural questions or more complete variety descriptions.

  • Researchers at the Agricultural Research Center of New Mexico State University are breeding short-season, hot peppers that will ripen with a pungent flavor in cool temperatures. Hot pepper lovers will want to watch seed catalogs for Espanola, Casados, Chimayo, and El Guique Native.

  • You've heard of salad gardens. How about a gazpacho garden? As part of your garden planning, set aside an area for planting cucumbers, onions, sweet peppers, hot peppers, basil, and, of course, tomatoes, to provide the makings for a delightful, homegrown soup. Spicy salsa ingredients make a great garden, too!

  • The type of mulch matters when vegetables are grown in raised beds. Tomatoes and peppers grown in raised beds with bare soil, black plastic, white plastic, and living rye mulches had differing yields and pest problems. For instance, plants produced the lowest yields with the living rye mulch. Aphids were present in the greatest numbers on both species when grown on bare soil. Plastic mulches seem to work best when compared to living rye or nothing at all.

  • To keep pests at bay, red and green cabbage can be grown under floating row covers for the entire season without detriment to the plants. Keep in mind that the row covers will become brittle after 2 to 3 months exposure to sunlight.

  • Review your vegetable garden plans. Perhaps a smaller garden with fewer weeds and insects will give you more produce.

  • In the warmer part of the state, sow seeds of cool-season vegetables now for transplanting into the garden in March and April. Use individual peat pots, or simply cover the floor of the cold frame with a rich soil mix and sow seeds directly into it. Start broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, lettuce and spinach.

  • When reviewing your garden catalogs for new vegetable varieties to try, an important consideration is improved insect and disease resistance. Watch also for drought-tolerant types.

  • Continue harvesting the carrots, parsnips, turnips, and horseradish left in the garden in the fall.

  • Analyze last year's planting, fertilizing and spraying records. Make notations to reorder successful varieties, as well as those you wish to try again.

  • Before ordering your spring seed, do a "rag doll" germination test on those seeds left over from last year's order. Roll 10 or 20 seeds in a damp paper towel. Keep them moist and in a warm location. For most crops, germination of viable seed will occur within a week. If half the seeds germinate and you have enough left to plant twice as many as you usually do, you should get an adequate stand. Otherwise, order more seed. It's a small investment to insure success.

  • Order rhubarb, asparagus, strawberry, blackberry, raspberry etc., transplants for setting out in March.

  • Want to grow asparagus from seed, but hate to wait the extra year to harvest? Try seeding the asparagus indoors in late winter to get two year's worth of growth in one season. Plant seeds 3/4 inch deep in flats. Sow them 1 inch apart in rows 2 inches apart. Provide as much natural light as possible and supplement it with fluorescent lighting. Fertilize the seedlings every three weeks once they have their true leaves.

    Monthly Tips have been prepared since 1986 by various staff of the Office of Consumer Horticulture including Ellen Bennett, Michelle Buckstrup, Susan Day, Susan DeBolt, Sharon Dendy, Kate Dobbs, Sheri Dorn, David Gravell, Virginia Nathan, Jenny Shuster, Ellen Silva, and Ruth Sorenson. Resource material for the development of this information includes the Virginia Master Gardener Handbook; Extension Publications and newsletters from VCE, numerous other states, and the USDA; and an extensive library of over 900 books, magazines, and journals. Project funded by The Virginia Gardener Newsletter subscription fees. Diane Relf, Project Director and Content Specialist.

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