When, Where, and How Close to Grow Plants

Cricket asked about planting Okra. Do you all know how, when, and where to grow
this popular vegetable??

She said she couldn't find anything about it in the Gardening Library. That's
because the best place to find this kind of information is in either the Garden
Wizard or Garden Master CD's.

Following is the information about Okra that's contained in the Preview Plants
section of the Garden Designer in each CD. This kind of information is there
for about 60 plants! I haven't counted, so don't know the exact number, but
most of what you ever grow is included. I highly recommend you get one of these
excellent software tools to help you learn all you need to know about your
favorite vegetables.

Very tender, warm season plant. Transplant seedlings 2 to 3 weeks after the
last frost of spring, in 2 rows per bed, 12" apart. Seeds can be planted
indoors 4 weeks before the last frost of spring. Time to harvest is 70 days.
Pick or cut pods daily when they are still small and soft, 4 days after the
flowers wilt.

Apply Pre-plant fertilizer (32 oz. Per 30' row) during bed preparation. Apply
Weekly Feed (16 oz. per 30' row) 14 days after planting and for 4 more weeks
thereafter.

Water at each feeding, and daily if after last spring frost, no more than 1".

Weed near last spring frost, and for 3 more weeks thereafter, or as needed.

GERMINATION: Plant crowns when soil reaches 50 degrees (F).

NUTRITION: Good source of vitamin C, Folic Acid, and Potassium.

STORAGE: Refrigerate and use quickly. Preserve by freezing or canning. .

.

Planted Late...when can I transplant?

Q. Some people say you need 21 days from the time the seed is planted until you transplant to outside. This will put me into June and some things like lettuce, beets, etc. seem to like the cool weather in May. So, my question is, what do I do? Do I wait and put in after 21 days or do I put in after the frost danger is gone?

A. Your “cool weather” plants will do fine in June, just keep them watered and fed. Most vegetable plants that can be grown in April and May don't "like" the cool weather so much - they can just tolerate it better than the tender plants.

There is nothing magic about 21 days for transplanting seedlings. Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant require about 8 weeks before putting them in the garden, and some things, like squashes are transplanted in less than 21 days.

Tender and frost-intolerant plants must be protected until the danger of frost is past, but both lettuce and beets have been known to go through hard frosts with little damage - just not much growth. Lettuce is more tender than beets, and so will do better with some protection.

Corn in grow box - removing sucker stems

Healthy corn stalks will often produce sucker stems from the soil-line. There are several things to consider in deciding to take the sucker stems off. Can the plant support 2 or 3 stems and bring them all to maturity, with fruit? Is there ample light for more stems? Will there be sufficient room for the pollen to get from the tassels to the silk on every stem?

When we plant every 8" in the row, with two rows only 10-12" apart, most varieties of corn will do best and produce the most if there is only one stalk per plant. We are already planting closer than the traditional methods. Of course the corn grows out into the aisles, in order to get space, light, etc. Our close planting is to make watering, weeding, and feeding most efficient. For these reasons, I do not recommend you leave the sucker stems on the plant. However, be sure your main stem is completely healthy, and is not broken or badly bruised, before you take off the surrounding sucker stems. It would be better to have a slightly smaller sucker stem become the main stem, than to have a stem that is damaged, which will be subject to pests, disease, and weather damage later on.

Don't worry about what other people say about how much you are fertilizing. Unless they have over 50 years' experience in 27 countries, with 75 major gardening projects under their belts, they don't know as much about it as our leader and teacher. Let your harvest speak for itself.

How many beds can I automatically water at the same time

Automated Watering Question. (Print and Save in Your Garden File)

The question of how many beds you can water with the "automated" system is very common and very important. How much you can water at one time is entirely dependent on the volume of water and the pressure with which it is delivered to your pipes. I'll give you some examples of extremes on both ends, and then try to give suggestions for your garden situation.

I have a 5 1/2 HP Honda gas-powered pump bring water to my garden in a 2" pipe, and I can water 20 to 25 30'-long beds at one time. The big pipe and strong pressure provide a large volume of water, thus allowing for fast watering of my garden of 125 beds.

At what you would think is the other extreme are Jan & Gretchen Graf in Santa Clara, Utah. Their garden has been watered by gravity. They collect water from a natural spring into 4-250 gallon tanks. Those are connected in tandem with 1" pipe, and a 1" pipe then goes to their garden. The top of the garden is only
about 3' below the bottom of the tanks, but with the fairly large pipe plus the pressure of the water in the tanks, they are able to water 4 30' rows at a time. And you will see from pictures in the Photos section of the MittleiderMethodGardening@yahoogroups.com that their garden is on blow-sand!

Meanwhile others who are on municipal water, supposedly with ample pressure, sometimes have a hard time watering two short beds without having the far ends of the rows suffer from lack of water. Four things usually contribute to this problem as follows:
1) they are using a garden hose (3/8" typically),
2) from a 1/2" hose faucet at the side of their house,
3) sometimes they mistakenly use 1/2" PVC pipes in the garden, and
4) some even use Schedule 40 pipe, which reduces the inside diameter even more.

Here's what I recommend you do to have the most volume and pressure for watering your garden:
1. Tap into your main water line, before it enters your house. This will be at least a 3/4" line, and often is 1", and the pressure will be unreduced by all the things going on in the house.

2. Use the same size PVC pipe between the main connection and your garden as the source pipe. This will assure that the same volume and pressure are available at the garden.

3. Continue with the same size pipe for plumbing between the beds, and do not go smaller than 3/4" pipe, even in the individual beds.

4. Use 200 PSI pipe in the beds, rather than Schedule 40. It will carry more water, it is much easier to drill the holes, and won't break your drill bit nearly as often. And if properly cared for will last 20-30 years.

5. Drill 3 holes every 4" at 45 degree angles using a #57 or #58 drill bit (see chapter 15 of the Gardening Course or look in the Files section of the Group site for details and graphic illustrations).

6. Do not make your beds much longer than 30', and certainly do not allow the far end of the bed to be higher than the water-source end. Water still hasn't learned to run up hill.

Harvest from the garden

Have you started to plan your sustainable garden for next year?

One thing that keeps me going over the winter is planning my garden for the spring. What are you going to plant next year? I plan on increasing the amount of berries greatly. We will also be connecting with local churches and schools to offer gardening demonstrations as well as having vegetable days where we sell our produce and split the proceeds with the Church or Non-Profit.

It is going to be a great 2009

How not to repeat last years bad gardening experience

Q. First of all I mixed up my lids (on the storage containers) and think I remember that the Pre-Plant is the brown and the Weekly Feed is white... Correct?

My beds are about 8 foot 8 inches long and about 4 foot 8 inches wide. I need to figure out how much preplant and weekly feed to put in there and what is the axiom... A cup is a pound the world around? Right? Soooo How much... of each?

Last year I found these big grubs in my beds as well and they look like a green beetle grub I have read about that gets into compost piles... I live in PG, Utah... Any idea as to whether there would be any reason to mix pyrethrum granules in at this point or not?

My garden did OK but not really well... Most plants were pretty small and stunted last year. I did not mix Pre-Plant in last year, got started too late and tried to use a different Fert-i-lome gardener fertilizer, as I did not (think I had) time to mix my own and did not know I could get Mittleider fertilizers. So I had some problems that I don't want to repeat.

A. Your problems of last year are not that un-typical. Many times people think they can change this and that and the other thing and end up with a Mittleider Garden yield. It doesn't work. The promise is "a great garden in any soil, in any climate", but only if all instructions are followed. Don't waste another year and hundreds of hours - buy and read The Mittleider Gardening Course, available at www.growfood.com. It is simple and concise, and you WILL have success!

Measuring your fertilizers accurately is essential. If you used a cup thinking you were applying a pound, you were starving your plants. "A pint is a pound the world around" is the correct adage. A cup is 8 ounces and a pint is 16 ounces, or 1 pound.

The dark fertilizer is the Pre-Plant, but this is only true if you are using gypsum, which is done in low rainfall areas, such as the Mountain West in the USA. If you have more than 20" (50 cm) of annual rainfall you will use lime in your Pre-Plant, and it will likely be whiter than the Weekly Feed.

The standard measurement for fertilizer application is 2# (900 g) of Pre-Plant to a 30' bed 18" wide, which will grow 2 rows of most plants in the 12" planting area. This amounts to just over 1 ounce per running foot of planting area.

You should plant 4 rows of most vegetables in a 4'+-wide bed, with the first row next to the 3 1/2' aisle, the next row 12" in, then two rows near the opposite aisle the same way. Climbing plants will have only two rows - each row 12" in from the aisle. Apply 20 ounces of Pre-Plant and 10 ounces of Weekly Feed and mix well with the soil. Again, remember the "rule of thumb" for Weekly Feed is 1/2 ounce per running foot each time you apply it.

Thereafter on a weekly basis, you should apply 5 ounces of Weekly Feed down the center between 2 rows of plants - so you will apply 10 ounces of Weekly Feed each week to your 8' 8" bed or box, until three weeks before your crop matures.

If you do not have compost or other "Bug Hotel" material in or on your garden you shouldn't have trouble with grubs, but if you do, take one to your local nursery and have them give you a corrective treatment regimen.

Having a great garden is really quite simple. The book 6 Steps to Successful Gardening, also available at www.growfood.com, is so simple a child can read and understand it, but it's profound enough to give you a GREAT garden, if followed. Just remember these steps and follow them religiously.
1) Clean ground at all times - no weeds, compost, etc.
2) Sunshine all day long, especially for fruit-producing plants (greens like lettuce, etc. can stand fewer hours of direct sunlight).
3) Regular watering - daily if necessary, never letting the ground dry out.
4) Vigorous weeding to eliminate all weeds as soon as they appear.
5) Proper nutrition applied in small amounts weekly until 3 weeks before crop maturity.
6) Harvest the crop at peak maturity. Never leave mature crops in the garden, as their quality decreases rapidly, plus bugs and diseases will proliferate.


The Mittleider Gardening books and Manuals teach all you need to know about successful vegetable gardening, and can be purchased in the Store section, or as digital downloads.

A digital copy costs 30-40% less, and is available instantly!