In previous issues I dealt with potatoes and the cabbage family of garden vegetables, but perhaps I should also take a look at all and any successfully grown Prairie vegetable crops. To do this, I should list all vegetable crops into related categories, as in the table shown here, so we can more clearly plan our vegetable crop rotations, in the event of disease or insect outbreaks that attack related vegetable crops.
Read Also
It’s chicken day
This issue’s recipe: honey lemon chicken. Chicken Day means getting whole processed birds from a local farmer, getting them home in coolers, cutting each up for bagging and freezing, then stripping the carcasses for stock and pet food.
Vegetable seeds — with some exceptions such as potatoes, beans and peas — are not grown in Canada. Some of our seed comes from the United States but the bulk of it originates in Europe. Consequently, when you buy vegetable seed from different catalogues, the seeds, such as a variety of carrot, could have come from the same seed farm in the south of France. The same carrot seed lot could end up in 10 different seed catalogues. Another factor is the number of seeds in each package. Some companies are generous; others, not so.
Farm gardens as well as colony gardens should undergo periodic soil tests, just like your cropland. Soil testing has shown me more than a few gardens have high levels of salt, low fertility or high nitrogen levels. Saline soil meant it was time to set up a new vegetable garden. In moving to a new garden site, you will also leave behind many soil-borne diseases, particularly with those vegetables such as potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers.
Herbicide residue
A significant and recurring problem I saw very many times over the years was herbicide injury to garden crops. The prime culprit in this instance was picloram.
Picloram is an herbicide used on roadside vegetation in all three provinces and perhaps more so in Alberta. This herbicide gives municipalities a low-cost method of controlling vegetation such as large perennial weeds and tree and shrub seedlings. The picloram does an excellent and inexpensive job and is of little consequence to good provincial highway maintenance. The problem is that farmers will take hay cut from major highway embankments. The hay is perfectly edible and safe for livestock, but unfortunately the resulting manure retains the picloram herbicide. If this manure is spread on vegetable garden land it can be devastating. It only takes a few parts per million or less to wipe out sensitive potato, bean or pea crops. Other crops such as carrots, beets, onions and cucumbers can also be significantly damaged. This manure-carrying residue may now take several years to disperse in garden soil, so it may be prudent to seek a new garden site right away.
Picloram can also find its way into farm gardens when pasture or hayland is treated with a combination herbicide that contains picloram. If a compost is made of this cattle manure, using it on a vegetable garden would be disastrous. So the word, on farm gardens in particular, is to avoid any use of cattle manure unless you are absolutely certain it is picloram-free. Poultry manure or alfalfa pellets are an alternative if you must go organic.
When we use peat moss mixes to start garden crops, or perhaps to grow them for a while in the greenhouse, do not take it for granted that this crop starter soil mix is squeaky clean. On a few occasions I have found corn herbicides in the peat mix that have been very toxic to seedling establishment. I must admit, though, this problem is not very common.
Salinity
I had mentioned in earlier articles that garden soils can become saline from irrigation with saline ground water and previous use of cattle manure high in salt. Remember, when you are raising garden seedlings in particular, you must use rainwater or melted snow or pond water of low or very low salinity. Often a few good waterings of saline ground water on pot-grown tomato plants can kill or severely damage them. The use of ground water, for example, on potted houseplants is a sure way to kill them off in a few months and make you believe you have a black thumb.
Another point is that if you have a greenhouse, never use it for storing herbicide — or for that matter, never store herbicide in your house. Volatile herbicides, particularly when spilled, can wipe out a greenhouse or house plant population, especially if herbicide spillage occurs.
Orchard sites
If you intend to set up a fruit orchard for your personal or commercial use, it should be situated on a well drained area, preferably facing north, west or east, and should be separate from the vegetable garden. Remember, the B.C. fruit growers — apple trees are now planted five to eight feet apart, north-facing, and treated as bushes. Who wants a 20-foot apple tree?
What I’m trying to say is that your fruit tree orchard needs very different conditions from your vegetable garden. For convenience, though, your strawberries and raspberries should be rotated every two to three years in your vegetable garden. Please check out my article on fruit growing in a previous issue.
Frequently-grown farm fruit crops such as raspberries and strawberries are normally at their best when grown inside or alongside the garden vegetable crops. This is due to the fact that for best results, both raspberry and strawberry planting areas or rows should be renewed every second or third year. In an ideal garden situation, you would plant out new rows of both strawberries and raspberries. Not doing so leads to sluggish growth and poor berry yields in both these crops in their third and fourth years. Just like their companion vegetable crops, they should then be rotated — perhaps not annually, but certainly by the third year.
