I have never soaked garlic before planting, but it might be a good idea. There is certainly a trend towards soaking with water, fertilizer, fish emulsion, or disinfectants. This post will examine these techniques to see if they affect plant growth and the size of harvested garlic.
American groundnut (Apios americana) is the North American equivalent to the South American potato. Unlike common potatoes, American groundnut is a perennial flowering vine which produces numerous tubers along its root system. The entire plant is edible though the tubers are highly valued by foragers and wild food enthusiasts for their nutty, slightly sweet flavor.
Asparagus is one of the best options for cold-climate gardeners interested in growing perennial vegetables. Most people – and mainstream plant retailers – have never heard of the perennial vegetables that grow in cold climates. You might be hard pressed to find American groundnut tubers or Good King Henry seeds but it’s easy to find asparagus cultivars and accompanying recipes and friends to use them up. Plus, asparagus prefers cooler climates and will continue to produce an abundance of delicious spears for up to 30 years.
Are you an onion addict who dreams of a steady supply of fresh Allium? Expanding your onion repertoire with perennial onions is your best bet. Egyptian walking onions (Allium x proliferum), also called tree onion or topset onion, is a three-in-one perennial onion that can be harvested from spring to fall in Zones 5 to 9.
My mother used to grow “low acid” tomatoes because high acid levels gave her mouth cankers, or so she thought. There is a concern that canning low acid tomatoes causes botulism because the acid level is too low.
Lots of seed companies and garden blogs talk about low acid tomatoes and usually identify yellow, orange and small fruited varieties as low acid. Some claim that modern breeding has increased the acidity of tomatoes and that heirlooms have less acid. Others claim that there is no such thing as low acid tomatoes.
It turns out that this story starts as a myth. People tried to correct the myth only to create a new myth in the process. I’ll have to debunk the debunkers.
Pinching and topping refers to the removal of the top part of a plant. Pinching peppers results in more side branches and a bushier plant which, it is claimed, leads to more fruit and a higher yield. Is this true? Should you pinch pepper plants?
Some people also suggest removing the first bloom to allow the seedling to grow larger and develop a better root system. Does this really happen? Does it increase yield. Should you pinch the first bloom?
There are lots of opinions online and in blog posts, but I found none that actually presented any scientific evidence for their suggestions. What does science say?
What is the difference between straw and hay? I am always surprised at all of the misinformation that is spread whenever discussions start about using straw or hay in the garden. Which one has more weeds? Do they improve soil? Are lingering herbicides a problem? Should either be used in the garden?
The answers to these questions are quite simple if you first eliminate the myths and that is what I’m going to do in this post.
Squash, cucumber and pumpkin belong to the cucurbit family and most garden varieties produce both male and female flowers. Since only female flowers produce fruit, gardeners get concerned when they see too many male flowers and like any other gardening problem they invent lots of ways to fix the problem. Unfortunately most of these so-called fixes don’t actually work.
What causes too many male flowers on cucumbers, pumpkins and squash, and what can be done about it?
I have put together a 12 part class to provide all of the basic information you need to grow better vegetables. The course is designed for both beginner and intermediate gardeners and is offered free on YouTube.
What is the fastest way to germinate pepper seeds? They do germinate a bit slower than other vegetables and that is especially true of hot peppers, so gardeners try all kinds of DIY solutions to speed up the process. In this post I will examine 10 popular ways to speed up the germination of pepper seeds and report on my own experiment that compares most of these methods.
Finally, a definitive answer to the question, what is the fastest way to germinate pepper seeds.
I was working on my new book, Plant Science for Gardeners (to be released spring 2022), and came across a claim that most beans twine anti-clockwise, but that runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus) twine clockwise. This claim was on a government extension site, so it just might be true. It seemed really odd to me, but why would someone make this up? Surely this is something that is easy to check?
I have been growing runner beans for many years but I decided not to plant any this year so I couldn’t even check my garden.
There are also claims that plants, including beans, twine differently in the Southern and Northern Hemisphere. The idea that water drains in a different direction in the south is a myth, so what about twining vines?
I recently asked our Facebook Group, Garden Fundamentals, what they used for washing fruits and vegetables and I got quite a range of answers. Some did not wash most items. Quite a few used just water and many used a type of soap. Vinegar and baking soda were also popular for washing fruits and vegetables.
What does the science say about different washing solutions for fruits and vegetables?
