July 7, 2016
The angry months can very
easily discourage new arid land gardeners. April, May, and June are the months
that are hardwired into the majority of folks to start their gardens. Yes I
have seen April showers but more common there are only winds storms with the
only precipitation being dust!
Having started the majority
of my seedlings early for late winter planting along with sowing the remainder
of the garden by the middle of March, these plants are well rooted and loaded
with fruit to ripen through theses months. They can do this because they have
deep well established roots.
There are a couple veggies
that seem to prefer hot weather. These are okra and sweet potatoes.
Okra can be sown by the middle
of April straight from the seed packet. If you soak and sow or even soak
germinate and sow, you can very easily hasten your okra harvest.
Sweet potatoes are grown
from slips which are rooted cuttings. Once the sweets are established and
sending out runners, cuttings can be made and planted. I grow Beauregard’s and
they are a 90 to 100 day crop. A crop planted the middle of April can
potentially start to be harvested in August. Cuttings rooted in June / July can
be harvested October to November before any freeze. Sweets hate being cool.
Soil below 50 degrees and the tubers begin to rapidly degrade.
The cuttings do not need to
be rooted to grow. Make a hole with a 1/2 inch dowel eight or so inches deep
and place a cutting from your sweet bed that has at least 3 leaf nodes. The big
leaves are clipped off and the cutting is placed in the hole with the tip only
being exposed. Collapse the hole and water thoroughly.
With okra and sweets it is a
good thing to mulch the beds to help retain moisture and then covered with
fabric (flat on the ground). At least 2 layers of 19 for the okra and 2 layers
of the heavy fabric over the sweets. Once the seeds sprout and the sweets
resume growth, the fabric can start to be raised. Once these crops have a
little size to them the covers are removed.
As for all the other crops
they have been covered with at least 2 layers of 19 and there is extra fabric
on the side in case of freezing weather or “hard water” (hail). The only
exception is with the cucurbits (squash, cucumbers, melons…), they need to be
uncovered to allow bees to pollinate.
This season is our hail
season and covers need to be ALWAYS at the ready in case of an event. It is a
lot easier on the plants for them to be covered all day if you will be “away”
than to have them run through a meat grinder. It does make covering easier by
having all but the cucurbits covered.
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