| By Patty Glenn Leander
Contributing Writer |
You may already know the key recommendations for a successful vegetable garden; perhaps you read them in a book or learned them from a gardening friend. Or like most veteran gardeners you learned through your own experience and mistakes — after all, a mistake made is a lesson learned, right? But novice gardeners across the state are joining the grow-your-own contingent all the time, so here’s a rundown of common mistakes to avoid when growing vegetables. The list also includes a few missteps that even seasoned veterans are prone to make, especially when work and kids and life in general interfere with our gardening efforts.
Less than ideal sun exposure. Vegetables will certainly grow in shady conditions, but they will never reach their full potential and maximum yield. If you’ve ever grown okra in partial shade and it grew tall and spindly, produced poorly and later came down with a bad case of powdery mildew, then you’ve learned that okra needs sun, and lots of it. Sun is essential for the process of photosynthesis which gives plants the energy they need to grow and develop. Most vegetables require 6–8 hours of direct sunlight, especially here in Texas where our preferred growing seasons — spring and fall — have shorter days and less intense sunlight. Summer’s longer days may be preferable for short-season gardeners in the north, but the height of summer is a good time for most Texas gardens and gardeners to “go dormant.”
Following planting guides created with New England or California in mind. Texans take pride in a unique and independent spirit, so why would we want to follow guidelines for another part of the country? Northern gardeners spend their spring season hoping to plant tomatoes by Mother’s Day; here in Texas we spend our spring season watching our tomatoes slowly ripen with hopes of that first juicy bite by Mother’s Day. Planting vegetables in the proper season for your location is an essential key to a healthy garden and bountiful harvest. It is important to know your average first frost and last freeze dates, as well as the days to maturity for the crops you are planting. Texas Gardener publishes a planting guide every spring and fall, and most county Extension offices or Master Gardener programs offer a planting calendar or seasonal guidelines for planting vegetables. Regional guides can also be found in books or accessed online, but as far as I’m concerned any book or planting guide that fails to mention okra doesn’t deserve my attention.
Lack of soil preparation. Few soils in Texas are perfect for growing vegetables. Loosening the soil and amending with compost and fertilizer before each growing season will promote vigorous growth and allow for healthy root development. Gardeners with shallow, rocky soil or heavy clay may want to consider purchasing a quality soil mix and growing vegetables in raised beds. After planting, tuck your plants into their well-prepared bed with a 2–3” layer of mulch such as dried grass clippings, pine needles, shredded leaves or alfalfa hay. Mulch improves plant growth by conserving moisture, moderating soil temperature and suppressing weeds. Over time it slowly breaks down on the soil surface and at the end of the season can be turned into the soil as a source of organic matter, which in turn improves soil texture, drainage and fertility.
Inappropriate or inefficient use of water. With our future water availability at risk, it is critical to make every drop count. Overhead watering has little benefit in a vegetable garden — not only is it wasted through evaporation, but wet leaves are more prone to disease. Plants should be watered slowly and deeply, and since they take up water from their roots, it is neither necessary nor helpful to water the foliage. Drip irrigation and soaker hoses are effective at placing water at the root zone. If watering by hand, be sure to use a low flow of water and take the time to let it soak in. Deep and consistent watering also helps avoid plant stress and environmental issues, like blossom-end rot on tomatoes, which is often caused by irregular uptake of calcium due to moisture fluctuations.
Too much or too little fertilizer. Overfeeding and underfeeding plants is a very common mistake, according to A&M State Vegetable Specialist, Dr. Joe Masabni. Vegetables are cultivated with production and yield in mind, and most require supplemental fertilizer for vigorous growth. Follow soil test recommendations or contact your County Extension Agent for help in determining appropriate application amounts. Pay attention to your plant’s growth for cues. If plants are yellow, stunted or slow-growing, they are probably hungry and could use a fertilizer boost. On the other end of the spectrum, plants that are too heavily fertilized end up with lush green foliage but no flowers, and unused fertilizer ends up in the water stream.
Perpetuating disease and pest cycles. Diseases and pests can become a recurring problem when infected leaves are allowed to fall to the ground and linger in the garden. Disease organisms and insect larvae can remain in the soil, waiting to attack the next season of plants. Rotating related crops to another part of the garden is one way to break the disease cycle. Proper sanitation practices include removing diseased foliage, cleaning tomato cages, pots or fencing that have been in contact with diseased plants and disinfecting tools used for pruning diseased plants. When pulling up nematode-infested plants, be careful that you don’t fling the soil — and the nematodes — to other parts of the garden. Plants that are in decline due to severe insect or disease pressure may never recover sufficiently to yield a healthful harvest. And a weak plant is often a beacon to insects, which move in and set up housekeeping and egg-laying. Sometimes it’s best to cut your losses, remove the affected plants and start over.
Overplanting or underestimating plant size. Packing plants in too tightly is oh-so-easy to do when enthusiasm takes over a gardener’s sense of size, time and ability. Most seed catalogs and plant tags provide spacing recommendations that should be followed when planning your garden. Try to visualize the mature size of the plants you are growing and make sure you leave room (and time) to tend the plants and harvest the fruit. Crowded plants must compete for water and nutrients, and stifled air circulation creates an environment that is conducive to disease development.
Protecting plants from wind. Gardeners are really good at rigging up shade for young transplants or providing protection for frost-sensitive plants on a chilly night, but we don’t often think about the damage that can be caused by wind. Strong winds can tatter leaves, break stems or whip the moisture right out of tender seedlings. Protect tender plants with floating row cover or try open-ended boxes, plastic pots, metal cans or milk jugs. Leave these windbreaks in place for a few weeks, until winds have settled down or plants have hardened off and outgrown their protective containers. A strong wind can easily topple a tomato cage, so be sure to anchor cages with a couple of wooden or metal stakes. In a pinch, I’ll lay two heavy 6-foot metal stakes through the center of two or three tomato cages. The weight of the stakes is enough to keep the cages in place.
Allowing weeds to go to seed. “One year of seed equals seven years of weeds.” I picked up this little nugget of information from Dr. Masabni a few years ago. A motivating factor that makes you look at weeds in a whole new light. Young, green weeds are a good source of organic matter when chopped down and added to the compost pile before they have a chance to go to seed.
Misuse of pesticides. Monitor your plants for pest and diseases, and if you must use pesticides in your garden, start with the least toxic product and treat only the plants that need help. And be sure to read the label; many pests or diseases require multiple treatments to achieve control. Most importantly, avoid broad-spectrum sprays that kill pests indiscriminately.
Casual and inattentive seed-saving. Seed-saving has become a popular pursuit for the home gardener, but it is often a misunderstood process. Though it is easy to save seed from self-pollinators such as beans, peas, lettuce, peppers and tomatoes, most vegetables require some type of isolation to avoid cross-breeding. A good online source for seed-saving information can be found on the International Seed Saving Institute website (www.seedsave.org). One objective of seed-saving is to develop superior varieties adapted to regional growing conditions. Experienced seed-savers carefully select premium seed from healthy plants with desirable characteristics.
Procrastination. Putting off until tomorrow what should have been done yesterday is something I struggle with constantly in the vegetable garden. After all, vegetables don’t put their growth on hold just because I’m busy, tired or out of town. Okra and squash can grow past peak harvest size practically overnight, and it doesn’t take long for corn to go from sweet and crisp to dry and mealy. The moral of this story is to only plant what you have time to care for, harvest, consume, preserve and share.
