organic vegetable growing
Mineral soil at least four functions for plants:
1. They provide anchorage for plants.
2. Plants store food (nutrients) the use of plants.
3. They have water for plants.
4. It offers aeration (oxygen) for the use of plants.
5. They act as temperature regulators for plants.
Some soils of these functions better than other soils. For example, clay soils along with the first three functions but the functions of the fourth and fifth floor, that hurts. The sandy soils either in the fourth and fifth floors of the office, but not very serious, in the first three functions. The Clay loam or sandy loam soils of good results in the five functions of land. Peat soils are well on tasks 1, 3, 4 and 5, but according to 2, they fail.
These examples show that almost all soil types can not perform all the functions that the soil is ideal to carry out.
Searching through a quickly realize that cultures are grown in many different soil types. Cultures seem to develop and whatever the soil type. Any and all types of soil and soil types to carry out these five functions will grow good crops. This includes both natural soils and artificial soil.
Thus, the clay soil can be improved by increasing the drainage and loosening up, either by culture or by the specific incorporation of organic waste.
Sandy soils can be improved by the introduction of peat, sawdust, organic waste, green manures, etc. These materials increase the retention capacity of sandy soils.
As the peat soils are infertile, they need adequate fertilizers whose crops need.
The high heat of summer has an effect on growth of many plants. Some plants are called heat-loving plants. Other plants are called cool-loving plants. These two words are used correctly in some places, but not tell the whole story in other places.
Almost everyone is familiar with dealing with tree seedlings. The nursery is divided into several groups, such as nurseries, ball and burlap, container producers, seedlings of flowers, nursery plants and potted flower, plant breeders within the canopy, the orchid growers, growers of azaleas, and vegetables producers of bedding plant, and others.
The producers of bedding plants will be used to illustrate the fact that the plants can be grown out of season. Peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, sweet potatoes, so the heat-loving plants. It freezes at 32A °. But producers of bedding plants (nursery) grow, and other heat-loving plants, during the coldest part of winter.
Thoughts, actions, calendula, sprouts, salads, etc. are called cool-love plants and are grown in nurseries, in July and August, the hottest part of summer. Nursery plants should grow bed off-season to be available for public sale, when the planting season comes.
All will agree, at least in southern California, nursery plants that grow out of season for resale, are of the highest quality and most purposes. How can they do?
It's really very simple. They simply indicate the ideal soil for growing media and a suitable environment. In other words, the cool-loving plants that grow in the heat, they provide diffuse sunlight and a cool, light, media, porous soil for plants to grow in. for the warmth, love plants that provide heating greenhouses and a medium light, porous soil. In both cases, the soil media is the important precondition.
In many places the soil is gray clay, red clay, clay brown or black clay. Due to the universal shortage of organic materials and the absence in the use of those available to improve clay soils, frequent rainfall pack clay soil, almost like concrete. Became so difficult for plant roots have a very difficult task, trying to penetrate the soil deeper than a few centimeters.
In the cold season of the year in applications for plant roots to provide the moisture and nutrients to the plant stalks and leaves is much less demanding than in the summer heat. In addition, soil temperature is the most ideal for growth of roots plants. Other factors being favorable, vegetables may carry out their normal functions in cold weather.
However, when the weather becomes hot day, and night, the temperature rises in the clay soil. The cracks are less frequent rains, and rains of hard clay contracts and major developments. These adverse conditions growth are generally more vegetable plants can cope with many, and culture that do not mature when planted in the ground hard in the summer heat.
Realizing that growing plants in nurseries throughout the years, many experiments were conducted with a soil-like material used by the nursery-a, and light organic porous and inorganic.
The results were impressive. The cultures of the most common vegetables have been grown successfully all months of the year in areas where it is grown the previous season. Experimental results show conclusively that if plant roots can easily penetrate the soil to the depth can reach the temperature of the earth and the plants prefer to grow and produce, even if the soil temperature becomes much hotter than the root zone of floor.
In other words, the temperature of the root zone soil (about 6 "to 8"), is the determining factor of whether the plants that grow in the heat of summer soil temperature.
Jim Kennard is the President of the Sustainable Organic Gardening Non-Profit Food for Everyone Foundation. Jim is also the gardening and technical force behind the site How to Organic Garden.
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