Grow It: Summer’s Here

How do we calculate the seasons?

Seasons reflect changes in the weather, which are dependent upon the tilt of the Earth. The Earth doesn’t rotate on a straight axis but tilts in relation to the sun. That tilt puts us either closer or farther away from the sun. The tilt determines the length of the days, which is then responsible for how hot or cold it is. The season are opposite from ours when you get below the equator. When we’re having summer, they’re having winter. The real confusion begins when you ask what date begins each season.

I’ve had a couple of questions about this topic. As I child, I remember winter was December, January, February; spring was March, April, May; summer was June, July, August; and fall or autumn was September, October, November. All of a sudden in the late 80s, the date for the beginning of a season was different. I asked myself what happened and why.

What I grew up with is based upon the meteorological dates for season. The seasons begin and end with months. It’s easier to remember and follows the changes in the weather. For example, autumn means cooling temperatures and many trees begin losing their leaves. That’s pretty simple right? It must be too simple since somebody decided to change the season dates.

So now when you read, hear or see the news saying that summer will begin on June 20 THIS year, what does it mean and how did scientists come up with THAT date? This dating of the seasons is called astrological season dating. No, you don’t have to go have get an astrologist work up your horoscope. This method, though, is completely based upon the earth’s movement and tilt. First some terms: solstices are when the days are either the shortest in December or longest in June, and equinoxes are when days are the same length as nights and fall in September and March. That means when you hear summer begins on June 20, that’s the summer solstice. By the way, the dates change just about every year, but they fall within just a few days each year. Whew!

To make this easier, I found charts for 2011 and 2012 at The Old Farmer’s Almanac (http://www.almanac.com/content/first-day-seasons). Here are the dates:

Are you confused yet? Some tables include the time as well as the date. The best bet is to look the dates up on the Internet and mark them on your calendar. I sometimes wonder if people who come up with this stuff have too much time on their hands. I think I’ll just stick with the meteorological seasons.

Light and temperature

This information is important to gardeners because the amount of sunlight is directly related to how well plants grow. I wish it was the only thing a gardener needed to understand to be successful. There’s also soil temperature to consider. You can plant your beans anytime, but they won’t germinate much less grow until the soil reaches 75 degrees. Plants that grow at between 40-50 degrees are lettuce, garden peas, potatoes, spinach, and turnips. Those that grow in the 60 degree range are dill and mustard. Everything else needs at minimum soil temperature at or above 70 degrees. There are a few that have to have 80 degree to grow: broccoli, corn, cucumber, okra, bell peppers, and tomatoes. So unless you want the seed to just sit there or worse rot in the ground, make sure your soil is the correct temperature before planting. That is why I don’t plant my corn or okra until June. We are 1000 feet higher than Mountain City so our temperatures are lower and the soil stays cooler longer.

Moon phases

I’ve written about planting using moon phases, but you might want to know why people use that method to plant their garden.

To understand planting by the moon you need to know a few things. Both the full moon and dark or new moon last three days. Waxing is when the moon appears fuller and lasts from the last day of the new moon until first day of the full moon. Waning is when the moon appears to disappear and lasts from the last day of the full moon until the first day of the new moon. There is some evidence that the pull of the moon affects the growth of plants.

I’m glad most calendars have full moon, quarter moons, and new moons on them. Here’s how it works. Plant above ground seeds during the waxing phase until the first day of the full moon. Plant below ground seeds during the waning phase until the first day of the new moon. The folklore says the pull of the moon waxing directs energy for the plants to grow upward. When the moon is waning, the energy goes to the roots. So you don’t want root vegetables to have all nice above ground foliage; you want those turnips, potatoes and beets to have large underground fruit. The opposite is true of beans, tomatoes and corn. I’ve seen this work. One year I grew the prettiest turnips, but when it came time to eat the bottoms, they were only about the size of a large marble.

What to do in June

Are your garden tools clean and sharpened? If not, get to it. Clean before sharpening any tool that needs a sharp edge. Use a grinder or file, or you can take the tool to someone who can sharpen it for you. If you aren’t used to doing this, you’ll be very surprised at how much easier gardening can become. This includes shovels, hoes, and even those little hand tools like a trowel.

As a gardener, you need to know what you have to do to keep your garden growing. Now let’s look at the to-do list.

Weed regularly as in every few days. No, not the whole garden but a section of the garden. I know how much weeding I can do in half an hour so I do that at one time. If I’m feeling industrious, I weed for the time allotted in both the early morning and late afternoon.

When potato plants are about a foot tall, you need to mound up soil until all you can see is the top four inches. You only do this one time. Multiple times encourages disease and doesn’t do much to get the plants to make more potatoes. Now, mulch around the plants to keep the weeds down.

If you are growing runner or pole beans, you should have whatever contraption you want to use in place and check the plants to make sure they are using the supports. Keep in mind that pole beans tend to curve clockwise when growing. It won’t do you much good if you try to make them grow counter clockwise.

Keep an eye out for diseases and pests. If you see problems, go into combat mode. If you grow flowers that help with bugs, you should have to use less insect killer. However, if you find bugs eating your plants, try a non-chemical pesticide to get rid of them. Dusting with diatomaceous earth really works. You can buy or make insecticidal soap to spray on the bugs and plants. You can make it by the quart or gallon. For one gallon, mix a few tablespoons of a mild liquid soap (not detergent), canola oil and a gallon of water. To add more insect killing punch, boil garlic and hot pepper powder in a little water for about ten minutes then let it cool and strain the mix through cheesecloth. Add this to your soap mix. You just spray the bugs and plants, but do the spraying in the evening or very early in the morning. You want the water to evaporate before the sun gets high in to sky so your plants won’t get burned. You’ll need to do this every week or after a rain, but it is chemical free.

Beans can get rust if we get too much rain so you have to watch for that too. I had to quit growing pole beans for about three years as they got anthracnose. Bush beans are less susceptible to disease. YUCK! The plants and beans develop purple lesions, and the disease kills the plants. Too much rain and high humidity lead to these diseases. Both rust and anthracnose are fungal. The section after tomatoes will cover how to deal with fungal infection for both types of plants.

A word or two about tomatoes is in order. Some people pinch off suckers and others don’t. I do, but you have to pinch (not cut) them and do it when they first appear. Suckers? They are side shoots that appear where leaves and the stems that produce tomatoes join to the main plant and will produce another tomato vine if left unchecked. The agricultural experts say that suckers take energy from the main plant, and you’ll have fewer healthy tomatoes. Tomatoes are vulnerable to blight up here, and it takes work to keep blight away. Right now it isn’t such a big deal, but our tomatoes don’t start producing fruit until July at the earliest so it pays to be prepared. I’ve tried many ways to grow healthy tomatoes that produce fruit until the first fall frost. The biggest problem is late blight. You will see this awful disease develop when there’s prolonged rain and the humidity is high even when there’s no rain. I’ve mixed up weak chlorine bleach and water with a dab of vegetable oil to spray the plants. I’ve used copper sulfate. Blight, either early or late, is a fungus and must be dealt with as such.

I’ve had invasions of Mexican bean beetles, those nasty Japanese beetles and Colorado potato beetles. They can be dealt with, but fungus is a whole different problem. First, you have to try to keep away the moisture on the plants. You can’t stop the rain, but there are methods to allow the moisture to evaporate. First, don’t plant seeds too close to each other. The recommendation for beans is three inches, but I plant them six inches apart. Tomatoes should be about two feet or more apart, and they need staking or cages. By planting both of these a little further apart, you allow for air circulation so the water evaporates. One of the reasons I cut the tomato suckers is that also allow the air to flow more freely.

The next thing you should do is mulch. A pine chip or nugget mulch works for beans. The acid doesn’t seem to hurt the plant but it does help keep fungus away. I’ve had great success with red mulch for tomatoes. There is scientific evidence that it helps prevent blight and makes the tomatoes ripen more quickly.

But what if all this fails? You can buy sprays that are supposed to control or kill fungus. I haven’t had much luck with them. So I thought about what kills fungus, any fungus. Well hydrogen peroxide does so I tried that mixed with water, but it bleached the leaves. Baking soda kills fungus, but my mix with water in a spray bottle didn’t do much good. So I started searching the Internet and found something that worked for me. Potassium bicarbonate mixed with water and sprayed on both the foliage and stems will kill the fungus. You absolutely have to do this at the first sign of fungal infection. There are lots of brands but the best known is Green Cure (http://www.greencure.net). I happened to find and buy a product called GreenSense (http://www.greensense.net), sold through Amazon. There are other brands but the main thing is potassium bicarbonate works.

Finally, it’s time to plant corn, okra, squash, cucumbers, and more beans. If you live at a lower altitude, you may have already done your planting. Just remember you can plant beans every few weeks until the end of July.

There are more things to do in your garden during June. However, the list above should keep you busy. The best tip I can give you is to enjoy your garden and avoid getting all het up if things don’t go the way you want them to.