Don’t let your plants fry this July

Jul 03, 2010

By: Oakland Press staff

By Jody Headlee

If July’s typical heat and drought have clocked in, get out the hose and supplement your garden’s moisture requirements. It may not be as satisfactory to the plants as a good old rainfall, but it will keep them alive and avoid drying from the ground up.

Don’t stew as to which time of day is most propitious to apply the water. As long as it is wet, any and all times are good.

When you do offer water though, remember to provide it freely even if thoughts of the coming water bill make you wince. Plants want a real drink, not just a sip or two, here and there.

If your municipality has summertime water rules, be sure to follow them. The water bills will be shock enough, without adding penalties for failure to adhere to the rules.

Remember, while heat-loving vegetables like eggplant and corn can survive on a tight water supply, others like lettuce, cabbage and celery must be watered generously.

Take time to keep the cultivator churning regularly to help conserve moisture already in the ground.

If you are tackling your first bed of celery, it is especially vital that you water well and cultivate generously to ensure a hearty crop for later use.

Old-timers suggest that a serving of nitrate of soda (one ounce to three gallons of water) will keep the planting growing fast. Be sure to hill it as it grows but don’t let the soil accumulate above the heart and keep your eyes open for blight.

To extend your harvest yield, keep setting out late celery in places vacated by early vegetables. Though not deep rooters, onions too thrive on water and feeding. If possible, alternately give them servings of manure water, nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia in solution, another old-timers hint for veggie success.

Keep your bed of leeks hilled up as they grow, feeding them regularly with the liquid manure and nitrates if you are eager to have a flavorful harvest to be proud of.

This is the month to make two sowings of bush beans. If the ground bakes too heavily, keep earlier sowings well hilled, mulching additionally if necessary.

To train lima beans, keep their leading shoots tied to poles until they start climbing on their own. Bush limas slated for early picking by the end of the month should not be allowed to get hard and dry. They should be green when cooked, not white.

Lettuce is a three-timer. To keep your supply adequate and healthy, you should sow lettuce seed three times during the month of July. It’s another water lover, requiring generous drenchings to prevent the plants from seeding too quickly.

If the site is bathed in too much sunshine, build a cheesecloth frame over the bed to protect plants that are heading up. Plus, plan a nightly and morning spray during the warm weather, you and the plants will benefit.

I am told this is the secret behind producing crisp, crunchy lettuce and there is nothing more tempting on a hot summer’s day than a salad bowl of lettuce highlighted by a combination of tasty meats and complementing veggies.

While you are planning for tidbits to heighten your salad desires this summer, don’t forget to make time to sow rutabagas for winter. The early part of this month is best but if you are short of space, hold off the planting session for a week or two until the right site is available.

Don’t forget your collection of fruits also need attention. Remember, in future years, fruit trees bearing heavily need thinning.

This includes peaches, pears, plums and apples.

Plan on taking out one-third of the young fruits so you will have room to watch the others grow to their capacity as they fill the available space with tasty temptation.

Raspberry and blackberry plants should be pruned back to 2 and 3 feet, respectively, to encourage side-branching and stocky growth.

Bramble bushes do best when their canes are strong. It’s the stronger canes that keep fruit production at its peak, not the size of the mother bush.

Everbearing raspberries bear the first year, in fall, at the tips of their canes. To encourage a second crop, cut off the tips after harvest. The following season they will then bear on the uncut portions in early summer.

Cut back the whole cane when it finishes bearing and do not be surprised when both crops prove to be smaller than one produced by traditional summer-bearing raspberries.

Mother Nature planned it that way.

Jody Headlee is a contributing columnist for The Oakland Press. Contact her at thegoodlife@oakpress.com.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 at 3:08 pm and is filed under Community, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.