Sunday, December 9

A vegetable gardener's notebook

A look at the 2007 growing season

Getting started
In an effort to conserve energy and keep heating bills lower, I didn't begin seeding tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli and other above-ground crops until March 19th. (I usually start seeds indoors in February, but I often try to consider moon phases when planting and those set things back a bit further this year.) Then, so I wouldn't be overwhelmed with transplanting, I started the kohl crops first and followed up a week later with the tomatoes and peppers. Since I don't grow preseason crops under frost-protective tunnels, this worked for everything except the peppers. They started out well because I have a warm, dark spot for germinating, but once they came out of the starting box, I failed to keep the soil warm enough to get them growing quickly and they stalled for a week or two. That put my 'set into the garden' date a month later than I would have liked. Note to self: In 2008, start peppers no later than March 8 and keep the soil warm!

Planting
The weather cooperated and I was able to get my potatoes and onion sets/bulbs planted right after Easter (April 10). That put me about a week after the full moon (I've noticed over the years that the tradition to plant potatoes on Good Friday does seem to correspond with a full moon). The potato and onion harvest was very good this year.

On the 20th of April, attention turned to our larger agricultural crops (corn and soybeans). We had only two fields of corn planted when we experienced a rain event-five inches in a one-week period! That set everything back. I was able to get the garden back on track by mid-May. Soil moisture was plentiful and everything took off in great shape...until the drought. We did not have any measurable rain again for six weeks. I do not irrigate, so the hot, dry conditions that persisted took their toll. When the rains did come, they just weren't enough to help the third and fourth sweet corn plantings. The third planting had some pollination problems and the fourth planting was a complete loss. Fortunately, all the small crops did well.

Pest Control
Weeds are the biggest problem I generally encounter during the growing season. They don't affect yields too much (except in sweet corn and green beans), but they are a nuisance and can increase disease pressure.

My sister, Patty, was a tremendous help all season long and her determination to keep the weeds down was really evident.

One of the best things we did this year was to completely mulch the tomato patch with my first cutting of alfalfa/grass hay. (It wasn't the best quality for livestock feed, so I made the decision to use it as mulch. In hindsight, I should have kept it because of the hay shortage this winter, but it made a world of difference in the tomato crop and harvest.)

All the tomatoes were staked and mulched and besides the woolly worms that periodically nibbled on some of the fruit, the harvest was the best we've ever had.

I am not a certified organic grower, but I prefer not using synthetic pesticides if at all possible. To keep from disturbing what little soil moisture there was, though, we did use some glyphosate (Roundup) on one of the seven-plus acres to kill young weeds before planting some crops. All of the rest of the weed control throughout the season was mechanical (roto-tilling, hoeing and hand pulling).

Insect control meant merely scouting and hand removing. I did have some Colorado potato beetles on the potatoes, but I kept them dusted with powdered lime and the few that I had were pretty easy to eradicate. I had a problem with corn rootworm beetles feeding on some of the young squash plants. I lost all of the 'Cinderella' pumpkins and most of the white pumpkins to them before deciding to do some selective rescue with Sevin, which I used on the other young squash and gourd plants to give them an opportunity to out-grow the beetles' growth cycle.

No fungicides or miticides were used.

Companion planting
We tried more companion planting this year than ever before with generally great success. After my peas came up, I planted a row of carrots and radishes along either side of them. I had never had much luck with carrots in the past, but did have at least a 50 percent harvest this year, which shows good promise.

Patty planted some basil in among the potatoes to try to deter the potato beetles, but the basil plants were very small when the potatoes were full-grown and they didn't have much impact. Next year we may try to have the basil transplants bigger by mid-May.

We planted marigolds in with the lettuces, chard and cabbage to try to discourage the rabbits. Thank goodness I planted enough Swiss chard, because the rabbits loved it! (I do think they stopped to smell the marigolds periodically, though...)

Harvest
Except for the sweet corn loss, harvest was an overall success. I did experience more cross-pollination in the squash/pumpkins than previously, but that sure made for some very interesting new varieties.

For a list of the specific varieties that Alex grew, including some outstanding performers, CLICK HERE.

After completing culinary arts training at Joliet Junior College and working as executive chef at the Heartland Health Spa in Gilman, Alex Panozzo returned to his roots on the family vegetable farm in Limestone. He is active with the Kankakee Farmers' Market, the local agri-tourism industry and the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener Program.