Vegetables Archives - Page 5 of 7

Growing Food in Plastic Containers – Is It Safe?

Growing food in plastic containers is on the rise, but is this a safe practice? What about the chemicals that leach out of plastic – are they absorbed by the soil or the food? Do they cause a health risk?

There is a great movement towards organic gardening to grow healthy food locally, and for smaller back yards and balconies it’s attractive to grow food in small containers. I’ve even seen pictures of people grow vegetables right in the bag that contained the soil they bought. This is all so simple but is it a healthy way to produce food? Is it still organic if you grow in plastic?

Growing peppers in containers, photo source: http://lowcostvegetablegarden.blogspot.com

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Nutrient Density – Can it be Measured With a Brix Refractometer?

Everybody wants to grow nutritious food and it has become common to measure nutrient density with a Brix refractometer. High Brix is equated to highly nutritious food, but is this really true?

Brix readings have been used in agriculture for many years but is there a reason for gardeners to bother making this measurement? What does it tell you about the quality of food? I’ll answer these and other questions in this post as I take you down the yellow brix road.

Nutrient Density - Can it be Measured With a Brix Refractometer? — Nutrient Density – Can it be Measured With a Brix Refractometer?

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Why Do Beets Always Need to Be Thinned?

You sow beet seed in the garden, and they come up too thick. So next year you plant less seed, and what happens? They grow too thick and need thinning again. Why is it that beet seed can’t be sown so that it does not need to be thinned?

I decided to have a close look at beet seed and in this post I’ll explain why beet seed is always planted too thick. I’ll also introduce you to a couple of new cultivars that don’t need to be thinned and tell you about my favorite heirloom beet which I have been growing for 30 years.

Why Do Beets Always Need to Be Thinned? germinating beet seed — Why Do Beets Always Need to Be Thinned?

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Potato Towers – Do They Really Produce High Yields?

Potato towers are a hot topic, probably because a lot of people have smaller backyards and they want to produce as much food as they can. The ads are very seductive: “Grow 100 pounds of potatoes in a 4 x 4 ft tower.” And then there are the pictures of someone opening a small container and having dozens of large potatoes falling out. I never knew gardening was so easy.

There are two approaches to finding out if potato towers actually work. One is to look for actual studies that compare potato towers to other forms of growing potatoes, and the other is to try and understand how potatoes grow. After all, humans have been growing them for hundreds of years, so we do know something about them. I’ll take both approaches in this post.

Potato towers made from wood, built by craftthyme.com

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Heirloom Seed Myths – Are They Worth Buying?

What is so special about heirloom seeds? I see a lot of online questions from people looking to source heirloom seeds. Are these seeds really that much better, or is this just another new craze or fad?

People grow their own food mostly to be healthier and they believe heirloom seeds are better for you. Is this true? Do they produce better tasting food, or produce a better yield? What is the real value in heirlooms?

Maybe the attraction to heirloom has more to do with tradition as suggested by this comment; “To the gardeners who love them (heirlooms), it matters that ‘Mortgage Lifter’ tomato came from a man who bred his own tomato plants, selling enough of them to pay off his mortgage”.

Heirloom Seed Myths - Are They Worth Buying? — Heirloom Seed Myths – Are They Worth Buying?

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Tomato Seed Fermentation – Is it Required?

Is tomato seed fermentation required? There are quite a few methods described on the internet for collecting and cleaning tomato seed, but which one works best? How do we define ‘best’? What works well for a commercial seed company may not be the best option for a home gardener.

A very common option is the ‘tomato seed fermentation’ method. Some say that it is absolutely necessary in order to get a high germination rate, but not everyone uses it, and they still claim to get good germination.

It is also believed that fermentation reduces pathogens on the seed. In this post, I will look at the science behind collecting and cleaning tomato seeds.

Tomato Seed Fermentation - Is it Required? — Tomato Seed Fermentation – Is it Required?

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Planting Garlic – How Late is Too Late?

I hear about a lot of people planting garlic in winter or even early spring. In most cases they never report how well the crop turned out so I wondered, how good is the crop if you plant late? Can you plant in spring, in a cold climate, and still get a good crop?

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Garlic – the King of Companion Planting

Garlic is one of the most popular companion plants. It can be grown next to most plants as a natural pest and fungus deterrent. It takes up little space, is not fussy about soil and can grow in most conditions.

I am sure that its pungent flavor is what convinces people that it keeps pests and diseases away. If it keeps vampires away, surely a few bugs are not a problem for it.

Garlic - the King of Companion Planting — Garlic – the King of Companion Planting

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Three Sisters Agriculture – an Example of Companion Planting

I’d like to talk about the Three Sisters. No, not the play written by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, and not the three mountain peaks near Canmore, Alberta , Canada. I am talking about Three Sisters Agriculture used by Native Americans; corn, beans and squash.

If you have read anything about companion planting you will have come across a description of the Three Sisters as one of the best examples of companion planting that works. But have you ever seen any data to show that this system works? Did the Native Americans actually use this system?

The Three Sisters are the corner stone of the companion planting movement and if it is all a myth, is there any validity to the whole idea?

Iroquois family growing beans, corn, and squash using three sisters agricultural companion planting — Iroquois family growing beans, corn, and squash using Three Sisters agricultural companion planting

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Seedless Tomatoes – Everything You Need to Know

I understand the reason we want seedless watermelons – because of the big seeds, but seedless tomatoes? Do we really need them? Why would you grow them? If they don’t make seed, how can they be grown from seed? Are these some kind of new GMO franken-toms?

The story of seedless tomatoes is quite interesting and can teach us a lot about plants. In this post, I’ll squash out the current knowledge about them and provide you with the background you need to make the proper choice when buying plants for your garden.

Ketchup manufacturers would love seedless tomatoes

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Aquaponics – Grow Vegetables in Your Pond

Imagine growing vegetables in your pond. You never have to water them or fertilize them. Since ponds stay cooler than soil, cool-growing crops like lettuce can be grown over a longer period of time. Ponds are a natural source of nutrients, especially if they contain fish, and these nutrients help vegetables grow aquaponically. Not only do you produce food, but the growing vegetables also help keep algae levels low.

Vegetables can be grown right in the pond or in an associated bog garden without any extra equipment, or you can get more serious about this and pump water to an external hydroponic growing area.

Lettuce ready to harvest from a Styrofoam raft floating on a pond — Lettuce is ready to harvest from a Styrofoam raft floating on a pond

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Will TUMS Cure Blossom End Rot?

People speculate that blossom end rot in tomatoes and peppers is caused by a lack of calcium in the soil. Many now suggest that dropping a TUMS (common brand of antacid) into the soil below each tomato or pepper will prevent this problem.

Will TUMS cure blossom end rot (BER)?

This is a very good example of a myth that can be debunked very easily, knowing nothing about BER.

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