1 / 92

Vegetable Garden

Vegetable Garden. Rich Marini Department of Horticulture Penn State University. Unit 1: Garden Planning (Let’s Plan). Preparing for a Vegetable Garden Making the most of the Garden Space. Preparing for a Garden. Develop plans in February

zuri
Download Presentation

Vegetable Garden

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Vegetable Garden Rich Marini Department of Horticulture Penn State University

  2. Unit 1: Garden Planning (Let’s Plan) • Preparing for a Vegetable Garden • Making the most of the Garden Space

  3. Preparing for a Garden • Develop plans in February • Select a site – avoid shade, poor soil, wet and low areas, and walnut trees • List the vegetable species & varieties – consider season • Decide how much to grow – how will produce be used • Make a planting map

  4. Planting Map (24’ x 50’) pumpkins melons spinach (3/20) lettuce(3/20) radishes (3/20) Onions (4/1) gr. beans (4/15) gr. beans(5/8) carrots (4/15) peppers (5/15) 6’ 2’ 2’ 3’ 4’ corn (4/15) corn (5/1) corn (5/15) 3’ corn (4/15) corn (5/1) corn (5/15) corn (4/15) corn (5/1) corn (5/15) 3’ North

  5. Planning suggestions • Put vine crops on the edge • Plant 3 rows of corn for pollination • Put tall plants on north side • Plant small amounts several times to extent the harvest season • 1,000 sq. ft. takes about 1 hr per week of care

  6. Other considerations • Rather than rows, can plant broadcast (no rows), but rows are easier to care for • Consider equipment size for row spacing • Double crop to use space efficiently – Harvest radishes, peas, lettuce early then plant late-season crops in same space (peppers, beans, summer squash)

  7. Develop a Garden Calendar • January – look at seed catalogues • February – Order seeds • March – Plant peppers indoors, test soil • April – plant early season crops • May – Sept. – grow garden • Oct. – clean up garden

  8. Unit 2. Planting a Garden • Understanding soils – soils provide support, water, and mineral nutrients • Soil is composed of sand, silt, clay and organic matter • Soil has living organisms – worms, insects, fungi, bacteria: some are pests, some are beneficial • If too much clay, add organic matter

  9. Soil Chemistry • Soil pH should be slightly acid (6.0 – 6.8) • Too low: macronutrients are deficient • Too high: micronutrients become toxic • Macros: N, P, K, Ca, Mg • Micros: Fe, Cu, Mn, B, S, Zn • Most soils have enough of everything except N,P,K – complete fertilizer

  10. Soil Physical Characteristics • Sand – large particles, good for water drainage • Clay – very small particles, holds lots of nutrients, hard to dig, poor water movement • Silt – intermediate size, water moves slowly • Organic matter – holds water and provides nutrients and supports micro-organisms

  11. Buying plants & seeds • Buy current season’s seeds • May have to order unusual varieties • Look for disease resistant varieties • Buy good-quality plants – look for new shipments – avoid yellow or wilted plants

  12. Artificial Soil Mixes • Fewer disease problems than real soil • Usually contain fertilizer • Some brands better than others • I like “Mirical-Gro”, but others may be good • Usually contain peat, vermiculite & perlite and fertilizer

  13. Starting Plants Indoors • Need warm sunny place • Don’t start too early, plants will be pot-bound and “leggy” • Transplant to pots when about 1.5” tall • Put outdoors as soon as possible

  14. Planting in the garden • Cultivate the soil and incorporate fertilizer and lime • Use string to make straight rows • Small seeds are barely covered, plant large seeds 2 times their diameter in depth • Thin plants to appropriate distance – follow directions on the packet

  15. Transplanting • “Harden” plants by growing outdoors for about a week • Plant at about the same depth as in pot • Remove peat-pot bottom and side • Water • Avoid hot sunny, windy days

  16. 3. While You wait – Plant Science • Seeds – a seed is an embryo, a tiny plant with root parts, a stem, and about 6 leaves. A seed coat protects the embryo • Have a food supply until there is adequate foliage to produce enough carbohydrate • Endosperm and cotyledons (specialized leaves) – starch (corn & wheat) or oil (beans). Coconut “milk” is liquid endosperm.

  17. Two kinds of plants • Monocots: one cotyledons – grasses • Dicots: two cotyledons – beans, apple, maple, tomato

  18. Seeds and Seedling

  19. Dicot and Monocot Seedling

  20. Dicot Seedling True leaf Cotyledons

  21. Conditions for seed germination • Seeds are living organs • Need Oxygen for respiration to generate energy from food supplies • Need Water (imbibition) for cell expansion and for photosynthesis and biochemical reactions • Proper temperature – 45 degrees for lettuce, 70 degrees for pepper

  22. Water and air enter through the seed coat and carbon dioxide exit through the coat. • Some seeds (lettuce) require light (red light) to stimulation of hormones • If planted too deep, leaves don’t reach light before food reserves are used up. • Some seeds have hard thick seed coats and must be scarified (stratch the seed coat) to allow water in.

  23. Germination requirements • Seed coats also contain “inhibitors” and some need to soak to leach out inhibitors. • Some seeds require a chilling period (vernalization) to break dormancy (apple seeds need 1,000 hrs below 45 degrees F) • Hormones (gibberellins) may overcome dormancy

  24. Common reasons for lack of germination • Improper soil temperature • Soil too dry • Seeds planted too deep • Seeds washed away • Damping-off disease (fungus)

  25. Basic Plant Needs • Light • Water • Mineral nutrients • Air (oxygen & carbon dioxide) • Proper temperature

  26. Photosynthesis • A biochemical reaction in the cells of green tissues. • Chlorophyll is the green pigment in organelles called chloroplasts

  27. Photosynthesis • Requires the green pigment (chlorophyll) in the chloroplast within the cell. • The light cycle requires light for energy . Water is split into hydrogen and oxygen. • The dark cycle occurs in the dark or light where hydrogen combines with carbon dioxide to form glucose. Oxygen is passed through the stomates. • Glucose or sucrose transported through the phloem throughout the plant.

  28. Light for photosynthesis • Chlorophyll absorbs light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars. Oxygen is also produced. Gases (oxygen, carbon dioxide & water) pass in and out of leaves through small holes called stomates.

  29. Respiration • Within specialized organelles (mitochondria) in the cells, sugars are converted to energy which is used for plant growth. Oxygen is used and carbon dioxide is produced.

  30. Plant parts - Roots • May store sugars (sugar beet, carrot) or starch (woody roots, sweet potato) • 2 types of roots • Primary tap root: long strong roots (some trees, carrots, dandelion) • Fibrous roots: short thin roots arising from larger roots (beans & tomato) • Root hairs are extensions of cells on the root surface (epidermal cells). These very small structures absorb most of the water and nutrients.

  31. Root Motion • Roots normally grow down. They are sensitive to gravity (geotropism).

  32. Stems • Connect leaves and roots, and supports leaves for light exposure. Similar to a pipe. Water and mineral nutrients move up in the xylem. Sugar solution moves down in the phloem. • Some stems store food – starch in potato, starch in tree trunks in winter, sugar in sugar cane.

  33. Simplified stem cross-section Epidermis - Xylem Phloem

  34. Longitudinal section of a woody stem

  35. Stem function • Epidermis – one layer of waxy cells • Phloem – live cells • Xylem – long dead cells lined up end-to-end to produce a “pipe” • Vascular Cambium – a cylinder several cells thick between the phloem and xylem. Responsible for diameter increase: produces xylem cells to the inside and phloem cells to the outside

  36. Geotropism • A plants grow in response to gravity • Positive geotropism – roots bend toward gravity • Negative geotropism – stems bend away from gravity • Curvature is caused by unequal growth on the 2 sides of the axis

  37. Auxin – a plant hormone • Produced in young leaves, shoot tips (meristems) and seeds. • Auxin moves with gravity, causes bud dormancy and causes cell elongation

  38. Growing tip

  39. Tomato Gravitropism

  40. Phototropism Auxin Auxin

  41. Motion of stems • Phototropism - Stems bend toward light. Auxin is destroyed by light, so cells on the dark side elongate and cause bending toward light. • Auxin produced in the shoot tip moves down the stem and accumulates on the lower side of the stem, so stems bend up. • Root growth in inhibited by auxin. Auxin accumulates on lower side, so roots grow down

  42. Apical dominance • Buds actually are short stems with about 6 leaves. • Auxin moves from the apex down and inhibits buds. Removing the apex (pinching) allows the buds below the apex to grow. This causes branching.

  43. Carbohydrate transport • Sugars can be used for energy or converted to structural molecules such as cellulose (cell walls), fats and proteins. • Sugars move from areas of high concentration (leaves) to areas of low concentration in the phloem.

  44. Flowers – modified stems • At some point buds switch from vegetative to reproductive – environmental cues. • Flowers are reproductive structures and attractive insects. • Pollen produced on anthers is transferred to the stigma, then germinates and grows down the style to the ovary where the sperm fertilizes egg to produce a seed.

  45. Types of flowers • Perfect flowers have both pistils and stamens (peas, bean, tomato, apple) • Imperfect flowers are either male or female (cucumbers, melons, squash). • Some species have male and female plants (ginko trees).

  46. Flower Parts

  47. Fruits • As ovules develop into seeds within the ovary, the ovary swells and becomes fleshy or hardens to protect the seeds. Fruit helps seeds disseminate. • Fleshy fruit (squash, tomato, grape) have fleshy ovaries surrounding the seeds. • Dry fruits have ovaries with thin, dry walls. Corn, wheat, oats and each fruit is a single seed. Beans are dry fruits with a nonfleshy pod containing several seeds.

  48. Seeds

  49. Varieties of bean seeds

  50. Tomato Fruit with Seeds

More Related