Gardening Workshop

Plant peas and beans twice...
Swiss chard manages heat better than lettuce...
Make cucumbers grow to make them climb..
Heritage Tomatoes - cross between Heirloom (taste) and Hybrid (yield)
Plant seed twice as deep as it is wide
Tamp down soil but not compact
Okra takes a long time to grow... more of a Southern plant
transplants: tomato, pepper, eggplant, cabbage, broccoli, herbs

carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium,
nitrogen - leaf growth, too much not much fruit production, manure, blood meal, cottonseed meal
phosophorus - rock phosphate, bone meal, cottonseed
potassium- wood ashes, manure, green sand, compost
synthetic fertlizers are more readily available because they are water-soluable
new garden - Nitrogen - Phosphorous - Potassium 10-10-10
2 cups = 1 lb. synthetic fertilizer
don't fertilize until you get the first set of true leaves
water after planting seeds or transplants, water especially when flowering and fruit
65 gallons
dig a hole 3 or 4 inches deep don't water it is until it is dry...
best time to water - late afternoon before sundown or early in the morning don't water in the heat of the day...
soaker hose cuts down on evaporation..
Add organic matter to soil to conserve water...
2-4 inches deep but don't let it touch the plants - encourages slugs


Weeds
skinny trowels, hand pull, mulch
plant in a row, weed every 10 days...
check label to seed how soon you can spray after using insecticides
slugs - pans of beer, half of cantelope upside down...

www.growit.umd.edu

Aphids - most common - most easy to deal with when they are young....
Whiteflies - in hoop houses mostly
Stink bugs white specks on tomatoes indicates
squash bug - red, adult brown, usually comes after you are sick of squash
Japanese beetle - hand pick - defense mechanism is to fall off so have cup underneath
Cucumber Beetle - yellow and black stripes - tough to control organic

Beneficial Insects
Ladybeetle fit on a pencil eraser
Syrphid Fly - maggot
Ground Beetle
Lacewing - hang under a leaf
Parasitic wasps - eats its hosts - mummy -
Tachinid Fly