March 31 Column: Cool-Season Crops
For this week’s garden column, I decided to write about growing cool-season crops. Here is a link to it in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Mind your peas and onions, and other tips for starting cool-season crops. Or you can read my column below.
Column: Mind your peas and onions
It won’t be long before we can plant cool-season vegetable crops. These include peas, lettuce, onions, carrots, parsnips, beets, Swiss chard, spinach and kale.
When to sow:
You’ll often see instructions on seed packets that say “plant in early spring as soon as the soil can be worked,” but what does that mean?
It refers to planting in soil that isn’t sopping wet. Fortunately, there’s an easy test to determine if your soil is dry enough. Grab a handful of it and squeeze it together. If you just created a mud pie, it’s definitely too wet. Conversely, if it forms a ball that easily crumbles apart, you are good to go.
With the exception of peas and onions, I typically sow seeds for all of the others directly in the garden between the middle and end of April. However, our season might be a bit delayed this year.
Planting peas
In order to get the best possible pea germination, I start my seeds indoors about 10 days ahead of time. I’ll transplant them into the garden when they’re a few inches tall. I always provide some type of support for the vines to grow on, whether the seed packet says it’s needed or not. Years ago, I tried going without the support for a shorter variety of pea, only to have them all fall together in a heap. You can imagine how difficult it was to harvest those peas.
Planting onions
Onions can be planted from seeds, sets (small bulbs) or plant starts. While all of these can be planted in the same timeframe, I prefer to grow my onions from plant starts. No matter what you start with, it’s important to choose the right type for this region.
Did you know there are short-day, intermediate-day and long-day types of onions? This is based on the amount of daylight hours a region receives during the summer months. The Spokane area luxuriates in delightfully long days each summer. That means long-day varieties are what we should be growing.
Examples include Ailsa Craig, Copra, Highlander, Red River, Red Zeppelin, Redwing, Ringmaster, Sterling, Walla Walla Sweet, and Yellow Spanish.
Planting lettuce
When it comes to growing lettuce, I’ve noticed birds think their leaves are delicious. No matter what time of year it is, they will defoliate a lettuce patch in no time at all. To prevent this from happening, I place hoops over our lettuce bed and lay a sheet of bird netting on top. The birds might not appreciate this, but I’m happy to get a lettuce crop.
Growing cabbage family crops
Cabbage family crops — such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower — are considered cool-season vegetables. I’ve found they do best when planted at the end of April or in early May. I start them indoors ahead of time and transplant them outdoors later. Garden centers also sell seedlings.
Members of the cabbage family as well as beet family crops (beets, spinach, Swiss chard) are the most prone to insect problems. Because of this, I always cover the plants with floating row cover for the entire season to keep those pesky insects away. It works great because none of these crops requires pollination. Look for this lightweight fabric at garden centers and online. Since Mother Nature can be temperamental this time of year, it’s always a good idea to keep a close eye on the weather forecast. If temperatures are forecasted to dip below 40 degrees, we should all be prepared to cover our plantings.
Additional onion information
When it comes to growing onions, I like to go with plant starts rather than seeds or sets (those small onion bulbs you can find at garden centers). My main source for them has been Dixondale Farms, which is located in Texas. This spring, however, our awesome local garden center, Northwest Seed & Pet, decided to order some from them after I recommended Dixondale’s plant starts. I hear they have been extremely popular with customers so far, too!
What I’ve learned about onions is that there are 3 main types: short day, intermediate day, and long day. What’s this all about, you ask? The type is based on the amount of daylight hours a region receives. Since we have super long days here in the Inland Northwest, long-day onion varieties are ideal for us. Take a look at Dixondale’s map of the U.S., showing the types each area of the country should be growing.
And for the long-day regions, here is their list of cultivars. That way, whether you’re buying seeds, sets or plant starts, you’ll know which cultivars are best suited for your garden. If you live in an area where you should be growing another type, you’ll notice there are links to those cultivars on the left side of their map which I linked to above.
This week’s video: Pruning fruit trees
Since this time of year is all about pruning (or at least it seems that way right now), this week’s video is about pruning fruit trees: