Garden

These are some notes that I made for myself when I first started my container garden on my balcony in the Midwest….

Material on this page is summarized from

The Bountiful Container by McGee & Stuckey

unless otherwise noted.

CUCUMBERS

Interesting Facts:

• There are bush and vine varieties of cucumber plants
• Training cucumbers on a trellis can mean straighter fruit

Advice on Planting and Growing:

Care

• Make sure that cucumber soil never dries out especially when plant begins producing fruit (or else bitter, hollow fruit will result)
• Fertilize once per week especially when plant is producing fruit
• Harvest cucumbers while they are smaller and tender. Plant will stop producing fruit if any one cucumber grows long enough to produce viable seeds. The goal of the plant is to reproduce, and if these seeds are made, the plant will stop making more fruit since it has achieved its goal of propagation.
• Cucumber plants produce male and female flowers; female flowers have a bulge between the base of the flower and the stem. Only female flowers directly result in fruit.

Common Diseases and Problems

• If cucumbers develop lopsidedly, it might be necessary to hand-pollinate. Use a soft paintbrush to gather pollen from a male flower and brush it into a female flower and so on.  [Update:  hand-pollination may also be necessary if the tiny baby cucumbers behind the female flowers shrivel and die before maturing.  I have written a separate post about hand-pollinating cucumbers, complete with photos.]
• Cucumbers can get many different kinds of diseases, but most of them are soil-borne and therefore are largely avoided when using sterilized potting soil in containers
• Powdery mildew: occurs when weather is hot and humid. Patches of mildew appear on leaves. Treat by cutting off the most severely affected leaves, then spraying the rest of the plant with 1 tsp baking soda dissolved into 1 qt water. Repeat sprayings may be necessary to ensure the mildew does not spread.

TOMATOES

Interesting Facts:

• tomatoes belong to the nightshade family
• also in the nightshade family are potatoes, peppers, and eggplant

Types of Tomato Plants:

Determinate

• grow to a specific height and then stop growing.
• flowers and fruit grow at stem tips
• yield fruit in a certain span of time

Indeterminate

• tip ends continue to produce more stem and leaves rather than flowers
• flowers grow on short stems along branches
• fruit begins ripening starting near bottom of plant
• fruit yield is not confined to a certain span of time
• Note: the variety we’re growing this summer, Early Girl, is an indeterminate type

Advice on Planting and Growing:

Container

• tomatoes need a large amount of soil because they are heavy feeders with large root system
• size: at least 5-gallons for a large-tomato producing indeterminate plant
• deep planting encourages a large root system
• tomatoes, especially indeterminate types, need support, since they are a vining plant
  • insert the support trellis or cage when the plant is first planted in the pot

Care

• tomatoes need a lot of water
  • heavy watering washes away nutrients in soil; fertilize every two weeks
• prune indeterminate tomato plants
  • suckers form at the connection between stem and branch or leaf
  • pinch off suckers to prevent bushy foliage and few fruits
  • pinch off growing tips from tops of plants when they reach the top of the support
• it may be necessary to tie main stems to supports to keep stems upright; use strips of old t-shirt or pantyhose to protect stems
• fruit on indeterminate vines begin to ripen from the bottom of the plant
• allow fruit to remain on the vine until completely ripe for full flavor

Common Diseases and Problems

• Blossom-end rot: flower end of the fruit turns dark and sunken. Prevent by consistent watering so that the soil does not dry out completely between waterings. Adding agricultural lime or crushed eggshells to the bottom of the planting hole for added calcium might help.
• Cracking: fruit splits. Prevent by consistent watering.
• Cutworms: brownish, caterpillar like worms eat around stem of plant at the base.
• Tomato hornworms: striped green body with sharp horn; eats holes in fruit.

PEPPERS

Interesting Facts:

• red peppers are not a separate variety, just green peppers left to mature naturally on the plant
• peppers belong to the nightshade family
• also in the nightshade family are potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and tobacco
• sweet peppers and hot peppers are the same species

Advice on Planting and Growing:

Care

• peppers like to be kept warm, but it is possible for peppers to get too warm.
  • when temperatures are in the 90s, move plants that have fruit into shade
• Harvest by cutting fruit, leaving some stem, with scissors or clippers.  “Early in the season, harvest green peppers when they reach a good size…The more you pick from the plants, the more production you will get.  Then, later in the summer, let the peppers stay on the plant until they are fully ripe–that is, until they reach their mature color…”
• Nutrients for peppers
  • phosphorus: add superphosphate, bonemeal, or bulb food to soil at planting time
  • calcium: add dried crushed eggshellls to the bottom of the planting hole (prevents blossom end rot)
  • magnesium: add Epsom salts to water and spray on plants when blossoms appear (promotes production of fruits from flowers)
  • sulfur: add a matchbook stripped of its cover in the bottom of the planting hole, cover with ~1 inch more soil, then add plant. also found in Epsom salts (promotes plant protein, enriches nutritional content of fruit)
  • Note: do not give plants extra nitrogen, which encourages foliage prodduction without fruit production.

Common Diseases and Problems

• Tomato or Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV): some varieties are bred to be TMV resistant; don’t let smokers handle plants
• Aphids: suck the juices out of plants. Spray hard with hose or rub them off with (gloved) hand; if this doesn’t work, use insecticidal soap. If infestation does not cease, remove and dispose of plant to prevent contamination of other plants.
• Flea beetles: tiny, black, jumping beetles that eat holes in leaves of plants. Raising containers several feet from the ground can prevent these beetles from leaping onto plants.

HERBS

Basil

• Basil is a Mediterranean plant and therefore likes hot temperatures. It is also good to let the soil go partially dry between waterings. Don’t over-water!
• Fertilize when first planted, then once in mid-summer with high-nitrogen plant food.
• Take plants inside (or cover) if temperature will drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Regular harvesting encourages new plant growth.
• Pinch off growing tips as branches develop to encourage new branches to grow, but this may encourage flowering rather than new foliage if there is too much pinching. Basil flowers are also edible but not as flavorful.
• To make plants continue producing leaves without flowering: “As soon as you see flower buds forming, cut the main stem all the way back to the point where just four leaves are left. Then give the plant a light dose of fish fertilizer, and it will quickly grow new leaves.”

Chives

• Smallest member of the onion (and garlic) family
• Edible part of chives are the grassy tops to the bulbs. Bulbs are left to grow and multiply; chives are perennials.
• Fertilize once per month if harvesting regularly.
• To harvest, just cut off a few stems at a time near the base.
• Chive flowers are also edible.

Oregano

• Needs well-drained soil; do not over-water. Also ensure that pot does not stand in a saucer of water, which will result in root-rot.
• Harvesting encourages regrowth and increased bushiness.
• Oregano flowers are also edible, they make a good garnish
• has a similar flavor to marjoram

Parsley

• Member of the Umbelliferae plant family, which also includes carrots and Queen Anne’s lace
• is a biennial: it takes two years for the plant to go through its entire life cycle. However, only foliage in the first year is tasty in cooking.
• Grows in full sun to partial shade; do not over-water.
• Cut oldest leaves first, leaving more central, younger leaves to grow.

REFERENCE BOOKS

Here’s a list of books that I heavily reference for garden information.

• McGee & Stuckey’s Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers

by Rose Marie Nichols McGee & Maggie Stuckey

c. 2002, Workman Publishing Company, ISBN 0-7611-1623-0

• The Healthy Garden Handbook: An Illustrated Guide to Combating Insects, Garden Pests, and Plant Diseases

by the Editors of Mother Earth News

c. 1989, Mother Earth News Partners/Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-671-65788-7