Vegetables
Okra pods not pollinated
Q: I was away for a week and wasn’t able to cut my okra while gone. When I returned there were ants on the stalk and I noticed that the small pods would fall off when I shook the plant...
School Garden – Resources
If you’re a teacher or parent involved in setting up a school garden, you know there’s lots more to it than digging the dirt and planting some seeds. Do you have a good garden spot? When will you plant? What...
Vegetables – Cold Damage
Vegetable crops differ in their hardiness to cold temperatures, depending upon their genetics and origin. Warm season crops, such as tomatoes, snap beans, and the cucurbits originated in tropical areas and can be severely injured by even a light frost....
Tomato – “Horns” and “Nose”
Over the years I have received several pictures of oddly-shaped tomatoes. They had “horns” and I couldn’t figure out why. Now Dr. Joe Kemble at Auburn University has finally laid it out for me: It is a physiological/genetic disorder. With...
Squash/Pumpkin/Cucumber/Watermelon Cross-Pollination – Explanation
I frequently receive from gardeners pictures of crazy-looking squash, cucumbers and gourds. Typically the plants sprouted in a compost pile, from discarded fruit of the past year. The gardeners suspect cross-pollination is to blame for the odd shapes and they...
Pumpkin – Growing Giants
10 Steps to a Giant Pumpkin – by Don Langevin Taken from http://www.thepumpkinmaster.com/ For many of us, fall means a bounty of pumpkins for pies and jack-o’-lanterns, along with a gathering in of the rest of the autumn harvest. But...
Broccoli
Brassica oleracea var. botrytis Broccoli is a member of the mustard family, and grows along the seacoasts of Europe from Denmark to France, and in other locations from Greece to Great Britain. • More detailed information can be found in...
Onions and Leeks – Home Garden
Growing Onions and Leeks in the Home Garden by Orin Martin taken from the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems newsletter zzyx.ucsc.edu/casfs/community/20.2.pdf Over time the genus Allium, which includes onions, leeks, and garlic, has been variously listed under the...
Tomato – Early Blight
Most tomato gardeners have seen the symptoms: lower leaves turn bright yellow then drop off the plant. As the season progresses most leaves may drop off the tomato vines, leading to sunscald of fruit if any form. On ripening fruit,...
Tomato
Lycopersicon lycopersicum Tomatoes are unquestionably the most popular garden vegetables in the United States. The flavor of a newly picked red tomato from your garden easily surpasses that of premium, greenhouse-grown fruit and no other vegetable comes close to producing...
Squash – Pollination
Gardeners growing yellow squash and zucchini may notice that many blooms come on the plant early but fall off without forming fruit. Members of the cucurbit family (melons, squash, pumpkins, gourds) have separate male and female blooms on each plant....
Potato
Solanum tuberosum The potato ranks with rice and wheat as one of the world’s leading food crops. It is the number one vegetable crop, grown in nearly every country of the world. The potato is actually a shortened stem called...
Spinach
Spinacia oleracea Spinach is probably native to southwest Asia. Gardeners have cultivated it for centuries as a salad green and cooked vegetable. Even though many youngsters are dissuaded by early experiences with boiled spinach, most adults eventually appreciate its diversity...
Pea, Southern
Vigna unguiculata To a Southerner, “peas” means blackeyed, not English. Also known as field pea, cowpea, and protopea – or just plain Southern pea – these high-protein bean relatives come in a huge array of pod and seed color, size,...
Sorrel
Rumex acetosa (scutatus) Sorrel, commonly called garden sorrel, produces leaves with a sharp, lemony flavor. A high oxalic acid content, which may be troublesome for persons subject to gout, causes the sharpness. • More detailed information can be found in...
Squash
Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita moschata, Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita mixta Squashes are warm-season vine crops with flavorful flesh. The many types are divided into summer squash, grown for the immature fruit, and winter squash, which is harvested mature. • More detailed information...
Asparagus
Asparagus officinalis Asparagus is a cool-climate perennial plant that is fairly well adapted to all but the hottest areas of the South. Its tender spears, which arise from the crowns in the spring, make it an appetizing product of the...
Mustard Greens
Brassica juncea This leafy relative of cabbage and collards is grown early in the season and also as a fall crop. Mustard, close in popularity to collards and turnips, is an important green vegetable in southern gardens and one of...
