Planting Guide & Tips

Mulch Your Plot or Plant Cover Crop

Once you harvest your spring garden, please plant a cover crop or mulch your plot with at least a foot of leaves to prevent the "summer jungle effect." If you don't, when it's time to plant your fall garden in September, you will face 8-foot-tall weeds. (No lie! You will need a machete!) Save yourself a lot of sweat! Mulch your garden or plant a cover crop. Ask an experienced gardener for planting suggestions.

The problem of weeds and neglect is acute during the warm months when growth is rampant and many people leave town. If you are planning to be away, PLEASE NOTIFY THE OFFICERS and do one of the following:

1. thoroughly mulch heavily

2. thoroughly weed and solarize (this involves laying clear plastic over your garden as a measure against nematodes (and weeds) -- ask for details

3. thoroughly weed and plant a cover crop (seeds available) -- again, ask for details.

Potatoes can be successfully planted in this area as a Spring crop and should be planted in the ground early to mid February depending on weather conditions.  Delay planting if the ground is saturated with water to discourage rotting.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PLANTING POTATOES

1.  The co-op is providing certified seed potatoes. Potatoes from the grocery store may carry harmful diseases that will limit your yield.

2. Cut the potatoes into parts about the size of an egg, with at least one bud, called an “eye”, on each part.

3. Allow the cut pieces to “heal-over” for a couple of days prior to planting. To heal the cuts, leave the pieces in a cool, dark, well-ventilated place for one or two days. (If you wait longer than this, the pieces might mold.)

4. Potatoes do not tolerate flooded conditions, so hill the row into a mound to facilitate drainage. Mounded rows should be at least 36 inches apart.

5. Space the plants about 8-12 inches apart. Place the potato pieces about 4 inches below the soil surface with the cut side down and the eyes (or sprouts) facing up.

6. Be patient! It may take 2 weeks before plants begin to emerge from the soil.

7. Later in the season watch for the appearance of any potatoes at the ground surface, and cover with extra soil immediately to prevent damage from the sun.

8. Potatoes are ready for harvest between 80 to 115 days after planting. You can wait until the plant dies before harvesting all the potatoes from each plant, or you can start harvesting earlier by carefully digging and removing potatoes from the root system of the plant.

Weeds are the biggest challenge to overcome in an organic setting. Close to 60% of all pesticides are herbicides that are readily available to agronomists in a conventional setting. To overcome such overwhelming odds organic farmers need to use a combination of tactics to manage weeds.  The best way to beat weeds is to eliminate or limit sunlight for active growth.

Many people believe that by actively pulling weeds you can eliminate future weeds from plaguing their gardens. While pulling weeds is certainly helpful, it can also damage desired roots from your crop. Most importantly, there is an endless supply of dormant weed seeds waiting to germinate as soon as conditions are favorable (light exposure, bare ground, irrigation). Using a hoe to cut above ground weed growth will slow down the weed’s photosynthesizing capabilities and leave your crops roots intact. It is wise to pull weeds in rows and borders that don’t threaten your crop.

Probably the most effective way at limiting weeds is with competition using cover crops and desired crops. A healthy crop will limit sunlight to weeds. Cover Crops are used to create a rapid canopy cover and prevent weed seeds from germinating or surviving. There are many cover crops available and many are much less expensive than typical vegetable seeds or seedlings.

Many people think that native weeds are just as effective as a cover crop. Unfortunately, most weeds are weeds because of their rapid growth, high seed dispersal rate and persistent nature. What this means is that most weeds mine the soil of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) to store in their rhizomes or stolons and put out copious amounts of seeds that may lay dormant for many years in your plot and throughout the garden. The benefit in cover crops is their ability to quickly out-compete weeds with beneficial impact on the soil and provide green manure for your garden. Many varieties also add nitrogen to your soil. Their slower reproductive rate makes it much easier to manage. The biggest benefit is that they are low maintenance. Most varieties can be planted and left alone.

So if you are planning to be away from your plot, it’s a good idea to plant a cover crop to help your soil and help your neighbor’s plots by not exposing them to your weed seeds. When planting cover crop seeds it is usually a good idea to seed heavily to allow for complete coverage of your desired area.

There are many cover crops available. For summer, a combination of buckwheat and Iron/clay cow peas is a great cover crop. Buckwheat germinates quickly, out-competes Bahia and Bermuda grass as well as most other weeds, helps add organic matter, attracts beneficial insects, and increases soil structure. The cow pea helps add nitrogen to your soil. Other summer cover crops include Sorghum-sudan grass, Sunn hemp and velvetbean. Legumes are always helpful, particularly if they have nodules on their roots that fix nitrogen.

Good resources for cover crops:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AA217

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/topic_cover_crops

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/TR003 (Sunn hemp)

This article was adapted from one submitted in 2013 by Rafael A. Vega,  Doctor of Plant Medicine Student, IPM Florida, University of Florida, Entomology and Nematology

Fire ants can be controlled by regular cultivation, luring them to a specific site (they tend to congregate under pieces of wood), and then drowning them in a large bucket or soapy water. Please ask for details. Commercial ant poisons such as Amdro and D-con are not allowed in the gardens.

The compost pile is not a trash bin

It is an active controlled environment. Materials put into a compost pile are meant to decompose. Keep all non-compostable trash out of the compost pile. Steel cans, aluminum, and glass bottles can be dangerous to the person working the compost pile and contaminate the compost. Old chicken wire, hardware cloth or fencing material and twine can be especially hazardous when the mower is used to chop the vegetation.

All herbaceous debris is welcome including papaya trunks, okra stalks, vines, mallow stems, etc., but please cut these into pieces roughly 12 inches (30 cm) long with a machete before putting in the compost.

No woody branches or bamboo are allowed. They decompose slowly and interfere with the turning of the pile. Branches should be placed in their own debris pile in back of the manure pile.

Dump only into two bins #6 and #7.

Do not disturb a "working" pile. Do not add or remove material.  Finished compost will be labeled when it is ready.

An empty bin is not an open bin. Some are empty because we will be turning the compost into them from the adjacent bin. Periodically, all the bins are occupied until the compost is turned and ready to be used. Once again, please be patient or better yet, see the compost coordinator to help turn the compost.

Bury kitchen scraps in the compost. Please don't simply throw them on top. They can attract rats and other vermin. Place them under the top layers of the accumulating material.

Take non-compostable materials home for disposal.   In particular, coffee filters are often left on the ground or dumped on top of a working pile.  You are responsible for disposing of your own trash.

Help other people who are unsure. If you are not sure, just ask. If you see somebody who needs help, offer it. The compost operation is there for you. Its quality and success is in your hands.