BEETS

SOIL PREPARATION: Beets like plenty of organic matter worked into the soil, but it should be screened. Rough or course organic matter may cause beet roots to become hairy or misshapen. Use well rotted, screened compost, peat moss or sifted forest compost. Except on sandy, fast draining soils, beets grow better if you raise the beds somewhat for good drainage. Beets are difficult to grow on ridged-up rows because the soil tends to erode away from the roots.

Beet peculiarities: Most varieties of beets produce seeds in clusters called "seed balls." Two or three seedlings may grow from a single seed ball. To pre-sprout, mix a packet of seeds with a cup of moist peat moss or milled sphagnum moss in a plastic bag. Store in a dark area at about 65-70F until first sprouts appear. Scatter the contents of the sprouting bag down a shallow furrow covering ½ inch deep with sand or vermiculite and sprinkle once or twice a day until seedlings emerge. Even though 2 or 3 seedlings may come up from a single seed ball the strongest seedling will dominate the weaker and will soon take over.

COLE PLANTS

BROCCOLI

SITE: Broccoli is one of the few vegetables that will tolerate light shade, but be aware that any amount of shade on spring broccoli will delay maturity and make the plants grow open and lanky, with smaller heads.

SOIL: Broccoli is only slightly tolerant of soil acidity and grows best at pH levels of 6.0 to 6.8. A pH level below 6.5 can increase susceptibility to clubroot disease.

SOIL PREPARATION: The root system of broccoli doesn’t go deep; tillage to spade depth is sufficient .

CABBAGE

SITE: Cabbage prefers full sun all day. Some garden books claim that cabbage will tolerate shade, but it does so at the expense of quick, compact growth.

Avoid planting cabbage where any cole crop has been planted during the past 2 or 3 years. Crop rotations lessen the risk of soil-borne diseases.

SOIL PREPARATION: Cabbage will grow well in a wide range of soils. Gardeners who have heavy clay soils should set aside a section of their garden for spring crops such as cabbage. In this section, build frames or raised beds and modify the top two or three inches of the soil with sand and / or well-decomposed compost to lighten the soil and make it easier to work. Spring cabbage needs more of the nitrate form of nitrogen than summer planted cabbage because spring planted cabbage is planted when the soil is cold and the natural release of nitrogen from organic matter in the soil is proceeding slowly.

CAULIFLOWER

SITE: Grow cauliflower in full sun and in an area where no cole crops were planted the previous year. Spring crops of cauliflower benefit from planting on raised sandy beds, which permit the cauliflower to grow faster and to mature prior to hot weather.

SOIL: Well drained, sandy loam to clay loam soil is preferred for cauliflower. Cauliflower is especially sensitive to deficiencies of micronutrients (trace elements) which can show as hollow stems, discolored interiors or malformed curds which keep poorly.

SOIL PREPARATION: Be sure to incorporate a source of nitrogen, because this is the most important nutrient element for forcing cauliflower to mature quickly. At all stages, provide cauliflower with growing conditions which encourage rapid, steady growth.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS: The most common problem with cauliflower is starting too late. Cauliflower requires about two months of cool weather to mature and, very often, gardeners are timid about setting out plants in very early spring when the weather is still quite cold.

Another common problem with cauliflower is using the wrong variety for the season or for your zone. Some varieties require longer than 60 days to mature, and this difference can be critical. Your cauliflower plants can be large and vigorous and the curd just beginning to form when hot weather comes along; this is the signal for cauliflower to go to seed and, regardless of what you do, the quality will degrade rapidly, curds will burst into flower and you will have nothing to eat for all your work.

COLLARDS

SITE: In the North and Midwest, grow collard greens in full sun.

SOIL: Collards will grow on a wide range of soils, asking only to be supplied with sufficient water and plant food to maintain a steady, rapid rate of growth.

SOIL PREPERATION: Careful preparation is not necessary because collard seedlings are vigorous and strong growing. However, faster growth can result of the soil is prepared by working in manure or compost to spade depth and additional sources of nitrogen such as chicken manure or commercial nitrogen fertilizer are utilized.

KOHLRABI

DESCRIPTION: Kohlrabi is grown for its small, cabbage-like plants which have glob-shaped, swollen stems just above ground. Kohlrabi can grow to softball size but is best eaten at a diameter of 2 to 3 inches.

SITE: Grow kohlrabi in full sun. It will tolerate light shade for a few hours daily, but will grow spindly.

SOIL: Any soil except fine sand is suitable for kohlrabi, but moist, fertile soil is preferred.

SOIL PREPERATION: For spring crops, raised beds are recommended because the soil will warm up faster and will push the kohlrabi stems to harvest size before hot weather.

ALLIUM

ONIONS AND SHALLOTS

FORWORD: The saga of the onion family reads like a Russian novel, full of obscure relationships and, for its members, double and triple nicknames and highly individual personalities. That such a complex family developed over the centuries of onion / man interdependence is not surprising, for onions have been a key food crop to many civilizations. The onion family has grown and evolved at the hand of man, untrained farmers as well as plant scientists have left their mark. There are four onion clans. Each clan looks, tastes and is grown differently: Common Onion, Egyptian Onion, Shallots and Welsh Onion.

DESCRIPTION

COMMON ONION: The common onion, despite its many colors, sizes and shapes, goes through a singular process of development. You plant an onion seed and, in one season, it grows into a scallion, then matures into a bulb.

DAY LENGTH FACTOR: One of the least publicized peculiarities of the common onion clan is its so-called "day-length response." More accurately, it is a "night-length response." When you buy onion seeds, seedlings or sets locally, you get varieties whose biological clock is set for your area. But, when you order from a catalog published by a regional company in a latitude greatly different than yours, you may unwittingly specify a variety that will not bulb in your locality.

Varieties of common onions can be classified as to the length of day required to induce bulbing. "Long day" varieties require longer days to form bulbs than do the "intermediate" or "short day" varieties.

Long day varieties adapted to the USA and southern Canada contain the only types suitable for long term bulb storage. These varieties are called "hard storage onions." Short day onions are too soft and too high in moisture to store for more than a few weeks. If short day varieties are planted in the north, they will receive the full length of day required to induce bulbing early in their life cycle while the plant is still small, and the resulting bulbs will be corresponding small.

HARD VS. SOFT ONIONS: The large, tender slicing onions are universally loved for their mild taste. But, they store for only short periods as compared to hard bulb varieties which have many layers of dry scales and no "necks". Very hard bulb storage onions have a strong flavor, too pungent for all but the brave to eat as thick, raw slices.

DESCRIPTION

EGYPTIAN ONIONS: "Starts" of these Egyptian onions have been handed sown in families for generations and passed around to friends. Now, a few seed companies offer them. The mature plants split and grow a ring of sturdy shoots around the mother plant. These grow into tall, round blades, topped with clusters of bubils or bublets which can have gray-green, reddish or purple skin. In late summer bulbils can be pulled off and planted to grow through the winter to produce early spring scallions.

Egyptian onions have erroneously been called "Rocambole", which is a garlic with coiled leaves.

SHALLOTS, POTATO AND MULTIPLIER

ONIONS: To shallot aficionados, grouping them with potato or multiplier onions might seem to be mingling the sublime with the ridiculous. But genes, not man, decide the distinction. All three are winter hardy perennials and have large bulbs which divide into a number of cloves somewhat resembling garlic.

Shallots produce bulbs that split into distinct sections called cloves, loosely connected at the bottom. When you plant shallot bulbs, they shoot up a dense cluster of 6 to 12 scallions. (If you think that shallot cloves are the epitome of flavor, just try the scallions.)

Potato onions look something like shallots but the leaves are broader and the mother bulbs, at first glance, appear to be large, single bulbs. You have to peel off the skin to expose the numerous cloves which are flattened above and below into a broad "potato" shape. Potato onions have been cultivated in England since 1796. Multiplier onions are often confused with potato onions. They look and divide very much the same, except that the individual cloves are shaped more like garlic cloves and less like little potatoes.

WELSH, JAPANESE BUNCHING, OR SPANISH

ONIONS: This onion clan has no more connection with Wales, Japan or Spain than the Egyptian onions have with Egypt. In recent years, the Japanese plant breeders have concentrated on improving varieties and, in the garden trade, the term "Japanese Bunching Onion" is often used. The inscrutable United States Department of Agriculture prefers the term "Welsh Onion" for the Japanese variety formerly known as "Prolific White Bunching Onion". The Welsh onion is the one you most often see in grocery stores as bunched scallions.

SITE: Bulbing onions are a warm weather crop and to succeed in short season areas they need full sun, and preferably a south tilted slope. Shallots, potato onions, Egyptian and Welsh onions don’t form large bulbs and are not so critical as to site.

Plant onions where they can be protected from foot traffic. They have a dense, compact root system concentrated near the surface of the soil, and soil compaction can retard development.

SOIL: Common onions are particular about soils and prefer sandy, sandy loam or organic muck soils. On heavier soils, raised beds will pay for themselves in increased yields.

Common onions are only slightly tolerant of acid soil and grow best in 6.0 to 6.8. They remove little nitrogen from the soil, a moderate amount of potash and a significant amount of phosphorus.

Egyptian onions, shallots and Japanese bunching onions are not as particular about soil as common onions but, nevertheless, prefer fine textured, sandy, sandy loam or muck soils.

On heavy soils, build up beds to promote drainage and to keep rain water from standing around the maturing bulbs of common onions.

PLANTING SEEDLINGS AND DIVISIONS

Onion seedlings grow slowly and need to be cultivated and weeded carefully for several weeks. For this reason some gardeners prefer to plant seeds early indoors and transplant seedlings to get an early start on the season. Of the three ways to produce common onions --- seeds, seedlings and sets, seeds offer the greatest choice of varieties and the best likelihood of producing large, uniform bulbs.

Plants of onions are also known as seedlings or transplants, these resemble scallions. You can buy a limited selection of varieties that have been grown to pencil size by commercial specialists, but these will be of the soft, non storage varieties.

In the north, seedlings can be grown indoors for transplanting at pencil size or slightly smaller.

STARTING FROM SETS

Onion sets are more expensive than seeds or seedlings, but are so convenient that gardeners with small plots often use them to produce scallions sooner than from direct seeding and to produce a few early bulbs for storing. Sets are usually sold by the pound and, in retail stores sans variety name. You buy them by red, yellow, or white colors.

Sets would seem to be the way to grow onions --- easy to plant, fast growing, sure to bulb. They are all of that, but they are more expensive than seeds or seedlings, are available in only a few varieties and are usually sold only during a short period of spring in retail stores and by mail order.

Purchase sets in sizes 3/8 to ¾ inches in diameter. Lager sets will bolt to seeds and smaller ones will come along slowly. Place the sets upright and press them firmly into 2 inch deep furrows. Space sets 2 inches apart. Cover sets with loose soil. If for scallions only, double or triple rows can be spaced as closely as 4 inches but you will need to allow at least 24 inches between each set of rows to provide enough soil to pull up around the scallions for blanching long stems.

If planted to produce hard storage bulbs, sets should be placed no closer together than 4 inches, in double rows 6 inches apart. You can kill two birds with one stone by doubling the planting rate and harvesting every other plant for early scallions.

STARTING FROM CLOVES OR DIVISIONS

Shallots and potato onions are usually purchased as bulbs in early spring in zones 1 through 5. The bulbs can be separated into cloves and planted 6 to 8 inches deep. Plant shallot or potato onion cloves 6 to 8 inches apart in rows 12 to 15 inches apart.

(Remember, onion sets will produce small, hard onions.)

POTATOES

SITE: Place your potatoes in full sun and near a water source. In all probability, furrow or drip irrigation will be needed. Do not plant in soil used for growing potatoes during the last three years, since some diseases from the refuse of previous crops can survive in the soil.

SOIL: Potatoes grow best in sandy loam or highly organic soils. In heavier soils it is better to grow them on top of the soil rather than in it. Potatoes are one of the few crops that are very tolerant of soil acidity. They will grow at pH levels of 5.0-6.8, but their susceptibility to "scab" disease increases at pH levels of 6.5 and above.

SOIL PREPERATION: Experienced potato growers generally avoid adding large amounts of stable or cattle manure to potato beds because it tends to raise the soil pH and encourage potato scab disease.

PLANTING SEED PIECES: When planting tuber seed pieces, every seed piece should grow if it has been properly cut to have at least two eyes. Commercial growers have long known that large seed pieces produce somewhat stronger plants in the early stages. Plant the seed pieces 2-3 inches deep and 9-12 inches apart. Rows should be 36 inches apart. Subsequent pulling up of the soil around the plants should cover the tubers to a total of 5-6 inches.

WATERING: Potatoes grow best in a climate with frequent but not excessive rains. Never permit plants to wilt – especially once they have begun to blossom. Even a temporary shortage of soil moisture during the time of tuber formation can cause cracked or malformed tubers. If you have to irrigate frequently watch the leaves of your crop for yellowing, a sign of nitrogen deficiency, because heavy watering can leach away this important nutrient.