Q. Why do melons rot on the ground side or take so long to ripen?

A. Heat speeds up the ripening. Place young melons on a brick while they’re still attached to the vine and you’ll speed up their ripening.

Q. How come melon seed doesn’t sprout as well as other seed?

A. Because melon seeds have a large case with a soft center, they’re more often injured or crushed in handling or shipping than a smaller, uniformly harder seed would be. Cantaloupe, pumpkin, watermelon, cucumber, and squash seeds all have this problem. To avoid disappointment, why don’t you soak your seed to speed germination and let it sprout before you plant? Soak the seed in a cup of lukewarm tea for two hours, then soak a big old bath towel in weak tea and wring out well. Now place a row of seed in the middle of the towel and fold the towel over the seed. Place the whole shebang in a plastic garbage bag and keep it at 70 degrees for six days. Then remove the seed and plant the sprouted seed in the garden.

Q. Can mustard greens be grown indoors?

A. They sure can. Put them in large pots on a sunny windowsill, and they’re usually ready to eat in five to six weeks after planting—that’s the same length of time as grown outside. Remember, you can plant mustard greens early and then again in August to September, as they like cool weather. For those of you who’ve never eaten, greens, you don’t know what you’re missing. Their taste is a great addition to any salad bowl.

Q. I heard that you don’t have to plant peas in soil but can plant them in straw. ls that true? 

 

A. Sort of. You can sow peas in lightly tilled soil, near a fence or chicken wire screen, and cover the peas with ten to twelve inches of straw, and they grow great! Peas like to grow up something, so give them a hand.

Q. How do you get onion sets to be big onions for storing?

A. Onions can be grown from seed or sets, both of which are tough little fellows that can be planted as early as you can get into the garden. Plant early sets or seeds four inches apart and let them grow. Never let a seed pod form on top; pinch it off. In late August or early September, bend the tops over to stop the top growth. Soon the bulb will get bigger. Pull it up and let it dry in the sun for two or three weeks and then store.

Q. Is it true that parsnips grow all winter in frozen ground?

A. Well, it’s almost true. They don’t grow after a hard frost, but you can leave them in the ground all winter—even if the ground freezes—and dig them up as you need them. They taste better after a heavy frost. Parsnips grow and like the same soil as their cousins, the carrots. Parsnips are my very favorite vegetable and make super wine.

Q. Why don’t peppers grown from seed planted right in the garden do well?

A. It’s probably due to you, your garden location, and the soil, not the seed. It’s true that vegetables you put in as plants do better than those put in as seed, but that’s because pregrown plants have a head start and so are stronger. Give peppers a dry, light soil in a sunny spot, and they’ll do fine.

Q. What plant can’t you put near pumpkins?

A. Squash! These two plants crosspollinate when together, leaving you with some pretty odd-looking offspring.

Q. I want to grow my own potatoes. Where do I begin?

A. You can begin by deciding if you want to grow only enough to harvest and eat or enough to store some as well. Buy good seed potatoes from your local garden center in March or April and plant them in good, well-drained soil. You can plant in mounds or in a foot of marsh hay or straw piled on top of the soil—my favorite way. Cut seed potatoes into pieces with at least two eyes each and plant. in April, May, and on June 1.

Q. Why won’t radishes grow well in the middle of summer?

A. Because they like cool weather. Early spring and late fall are best to grow radishes, but if you plant them in light shade, they’ll provide a pretty good selection of sizes for eating.

Q. If you use spinach as a border planting under evergreens, won’t it pick up a strange flavor?

A. I’ve never had that problem, and I use spinach as a border all the time. Spinach loves shade, where it’s cool and damp. Feed spinach a little lawn food every three weeks.

Q. Can you plant more than one kind of squash on a mound?

A. You sure can. It’s only pumpkins and squash that get each other in trouble.. I grow zucchini and yellow summer squash back to back in a mound with a round clay sewer tile pushed a third of its length into the soil so I can water easily. Acorn and butternut are a must with winter squash. So many good squash varieties are available that I try a different one each season. Remember, squash likes sandy, gravelly soil, so make heavy soil light by adding sand and gravel or make foot-high mounds of sandy loam.

Q. When do you start tomato seeds indoors so that they don’t get too tall and leggy and fall over?

A. I start mine six weeks before it’s time to go outside in commercial African violet growing medium. When the new plants are two and a half to three inches tall, I plant them deeper in paper cups. As a matter of fact, I leave only the top layer of leaves above the soil. I let this plantlet grow until it’s nine inches high and again transplant. This time the plant goes into a four-inch clay pot without disturbing the root ball and gets planted deeper than it was in the cup.

Q. Is it really necessary to stake tomatoes?

A. It is unless you like sore backs and rotten tomatoes. There are lots of ways to keep tomatoes off the ground without staking. Old fencing made up of large squares, wooden frames, and plastic pails with the top and bottom cut out all do fine as supports. I still like stakes. Me, I drive a six-foot metal pole—only metal will do—into the same hole and at the same time I plant my tomatoes. As the plants grow, I tie them to the stake with pieces of nylon pantyhose, not rope or twistums. I use metal poles and nylon because they attract static electricity, which makes stronger, greener plants, and deeper fruit.

Q. Do you have to take suckers off tomatoes?

A. No, you don’t have to, and most folks don’t want to go to the trouble. I do because I plant fewer plants and want more fruit. I remove free-loading suckers that ride along for a free meal and don’t produce.

Q. What makes the bottoms of my tomatoes turn soft and grayish black every year?

A. It’s caused by improper distribution of water to the plant. If you will wait until about four weeks after you plant your tomatoes and cover the roots with four or five inches of grass clippings or straw, you should never be bothered by blossom end rot.

Q. What makes tomatoes stop growing in the middle of the summer? The fruit falls off, the leaves curl up, and the plant dies.

A. This is called fusarium wilt and can be prevented by spraying the soil in the fall and early spring with the fungicide Benomyl. If you had the problem last season, treat it before you plant again ’cause it sure as hell ain’t going away by itself.

Q. ls it true that pipe, cigar, and cigarette smoke can ruin a tomato crop?

A. That’s the truth, friend. I suggest that you smokers wash your hands well before working in the garden. The disease you could be transmitting is called tobacco mosaic; it also loves potatoes.

Q. ls liquid cow manure good for tomatoes?

A. Only if the cows don’t step on the tomatoes! Sure it is; and so is fish fertilizer, garden food, and any of the labeled tomato foods.