Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers of Buncombe County

Vegetables & Fruits

Information about growing edibles.

Planning Your Summer Vegetable Garden

Cucumber 'Poona Kheera'_by TangledBranches_CC-BY-NC 2.0_Flickr
Cucumber ‘Poona Kheera’

Nothing quite compares to the excitement of planning, planting, and enjoying the harvest of vegetables from your own garden. It’s a good idea to plan before planting. Planting a garden plot or a container of herbs is an excellent activity while staying home during the current pandemic. Taking the time to plan can result in better vegetable production and can be great fun as well. Important things to consider in the planning of a garden are plant selection, sun, water, and soil.

Plant selection
The first step in planning your garden is to think about the plants you want to grow. Choose vegetables that you and your family especially enjoy eating. Also become familiar with the climate in your region. Optimal planting dates for individual vegetables can vary widely depending on your area. Before planting, refer to the NC State Extension web page, Garden Calendars, to view planting timetables for your region. Consider the space you have available. Decide whether you’ll plant in rows or raised beds or whether you’ll have both. Seeds and plants can be found through catalogs or local garden shops. Determine whether vegetables will grow vertically and need support poles or trellises, or whether they will require extensive ground space. Read the directions on seed packets concerning spacing and thinning. It’s a good idea to draw a diagram of your garden in a notebook or on graph paper so you’ll have a visual plan. Be sure to leave room for flowers to attract pollinators.

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Site selection.  Sun and water availability are essential.
The second step in choosing a garden site is the availability of sunlight. Most vegetables need at least six hours of sun each day, with eight to ten hours being ideal. Planting where there are no trees or other structures to block sunlight will help assure healthy plants and a bountiful harvest.

The availability of water is a very important consideration. Growing vegetables need at least one inch of water each week and rainfall can be unpredictable. Having a spigot near the garden can be helpful, but depending on the size of the garden, it may be possible to use a watering can. Many gardeners use hoses or portable sprinklers to provide moisture for growing plants, but prolonged periods of wet foliage can lead to leaf disease. The possibility of developing diseases in your garden can be reduced either by watering early in the morning so plants can dry in the sun or by using a soaker hose or drip irrigation. Avoid establishing the garden in a low area like the base of a hill since most vegetables don’t grow well with constantly wet roots. Applying organic mulch at the base of each plant can also help conserve moisture in the soil and reduce the growth of weeds.

Soil quality is the key to healthy plants.
The final consideration in garden planning is the soil. Healthy plants require loose, fertile, well-drained soil. The garden should be tilled or dug deeply by hand to loosen and aerate. A soil sample test kit can be used to find out the pH (acidity) of your soil so you will know whether you need to add missing nutrients. Under normal circumstances we recommend a soil test before planting, but due to the pandemic, the lab is currently processing only agricultural soil samples. The best way to improve soil is to add organic matter such as compost, well-rotted leaves, or old manure which is free from herbicide carryover. The top few inches of amended soil can be smoothed with a rake to remove rocks and create a level place for plants to grow. The development of rich loamy soil may take a few gardening seasons to establish, but it will definitely be an invitation for seeds and plants to grow.

Bountiful harvest

While it may be ideal to prepare a garden site in autumn, early spring can also be a wonderful time to locate and prepare a desirable place for growing. Consider the vegetables you want to grow, sunlight availability, water source, and soil enrichment as you anticipate an exciting summer of gardening.

Article written by Mary Alice Ramsey, Buncombe County Extension Master Gardener.

For additional information, refer to the following:

Gardeners Guide to Soil Testing
Herbicide Carryover
Planting Calendars for North Carolina 
Vegetable Gardening 101 

Vegetable Gardening: Time to Plant Potatoes?

St. Patrick’s Day is traditionally a reminder that it is time to plant potatoes (although anytime between March 15th and April 15th is fine in Western North Carolina). Another link between potatoes and the Irish, however, is the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s—the late blight that caused that catastrophe is an important reason to think carefully about potato plantings. What are the pros and cons of growing your own?

Potato eyes

What potatoes want
Potatoes will grow well in the ground—and even in containers—in WNC if you give them:
• Fast-draining soil
• Full sun
• Slightly acid conditions (pH from 5.5 to 6.5)
• Keep them well-fertilized—don’t overdo nitrogen fertilizers or you’ll get more green foliage than tubers—10-10-10 or 10-20-20 are usually fine!
• Weed regularly.

Choosing varieties
Potatoes have a relatively long growing season—at least 70 days, and as long as 150 days from planting—and plants likely potential yield can be as low as less than one pound per plant! Even high yielding varieties produce only 3 to 4 pounds per plant, so consider how much time and space you are willing to devote to a crop that is readily available at local markets.

In NC, varieties recommended for home gardens include ‘Kennebec’ (high yield, main season), ‘Red Pontiac’ (high yield, late season), and ‘Yukon Gold’ (medium yield, early main season)—all of which store well.

Container planting

How to plant
Purchase seed potatoes, rather than potato seed—which will take much longer to produce potato tubers. Only certified seed potatoes are guaranteed to be free of disease, so do not risk introducing disease into your garden by using potatoes you purchase for eating! Seed potatoes may be whole potatoes or potato pieces that have “eyes”—indentations from which the plant foliage will grow. Your seed potatoes should NOT be shriveled or have sprouts before planting.

• Cut seed potatoes into pieces that weigh about 2 ounces—ideally with two or more eyes.
• Plant these pieces about 3 to 4 inches deep and about 12 inches apart.
• If you choose container planting:
o Use at least a five-gallon container with drainage holes.
o Plant 3 to 4 inches deep, but start with soil only 8 inches deep
o For larger, wider containers—such as bushel baskets—plant more than one piece about 8 inches apart from each other.
• Hill up earth around garden plants and add soil depth to container plantings once the stems grow 4 to 6 inches tall. Continue to hill up/add depth as the plants grow.

Colorado Potato Beetle Egg Mass
Colorado Potato Beetle Larvae

Concerns
Insect pests—aphids, Colorado potato beetles, and flea beetles—may damage your plants’ foliage and affect your harvest. Seek out and destroy Colorado potato beetle eggs and larvae to avoid total defoliation!

Diseases are a much greater risk for your crop—and the long-term health of your garden. Potatoes may suffer from fungal, bacterial, viral, and nematode-introduced diseases. Although planting certified seed potatoes and rotating the place you plant potatoes each year may help avoid most diseases, late blight (Phytophthora infestans) is a disease that is devastating to potatoes, and may impact tomatoes, too!

Late Blight on Potato

Potatoes late blight lifecycle
Late blight can survive year-round only on plant material, so late blight typically only begins affecting plants in our area once it moves north from frost-free areas in the south. Unfortunately, if you leave infected potato tubers in the ground, late blight may overwinter here and then infect your tomatoes earlier in their growing season. Although it may seem easy to remove all tubers from the ground, anyone who has grown potatoes will know that it is very easy to miss tiny tubers that will sprout again the next spring.

Bottom line: to avoid the risk of introducing late blight into your garden, think carefully about planting potatoes!

Article by Debbie Green, Buncombe County Extension Master Gardener Volunteer

For more information:

De Jong, H., J.B. Sieczka, and W. De Jong (2011). The Complete Book of Potatoes: What Every Grower and Gardener Needs to Know. Portland, OR: Timber Press.

Potato varieties grown in NC:https://ncpotatoes.org/varieties/

Potato late blight: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/potato-late-blight

General advice about vegetable gardening: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook/16-vegetable-gardening

 

Soil Temperature: Know Before You Plant

This time of year I get anxious to plant my vegetable garden. I look out at the sunny days and think that I should be working in my plot; but sunny, warm days can be deceiving! I need to take a step back and consider other important environmental factors before I begin.

Soil temperature is probably the most critical indicator of when to plant. I have found out the hard way that seeds do not germinate—and transplants won’t grow—if I plant when the soil is too cold.  A soil thermometer is now an essential component in my gardening toolbox.

Soil Thermometer

Factors that affect soil temperature measurement:

Time of day

  • Soil temperatures tend to be coolest between 6 and 8 a.m. in the morning, so use temperatures at this time as a guide as for planting early season crops.
  • In the heat of summer, soil temperatures are highest between 3 and 5 p.m., so use temperatures at this time as a guide for planting late season crops.

Depth of thermometer

  • Take soil readings for seeds at a depth of 1 to 2 inches.
  • Take soil readings for transplants at a depth of 4 to 6 inches.

How to measure soil temperature:

  • Push the thermometer into the soil to the depth of planting.
  • In dense soil, you can use a screwdriver to make an initial hole to the right depth to avoid bending your thermometer.
  • Follow the directions that came with the thermometer as to how long to leave the thermometer in the soil to get an accurate reading.
  • Record the temperature and then move it to another part of the garden.
  • Record measurements from 3 to 4 different places in your planting plot.
  • Take soil temperatures daily for a few days and average the temperatures to be sure your soil is the right temperature for planting

Soil temperatures vary for each type of vegetable plant!

Greens_Billtacular_CC BY-NC-ND 2.0_Flickr
Arugala and mixed lettuces

A list of soil temperature data for some vegetable seeds’ germination:

  • Lettuce: minimum 32℉; optimum range 60 to 75℉
  • Peas: minimum 40℉; optimum range 65 to 75℉
  • Snap beans: minimum 60℉; optimum range 75 to 85℉
  • Pumpkins: minimum 60℉; optimum range 85 to 95 ℉

If you check the soil temperature rather than the air temperature or only the calendar date, you can increase your chance of your seeds sprouting and thriving!

Article by Bob Wardwell, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer

Interactive Soil Temperature Map for North Carolina: https://climate.ncsu.edu/map/

Soil Temperature Conditions for Vegetable Seed Germination:

https://sacmg.ucanr.edu/files/164220.pdf

Range of possible planting dates: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/western-north-carolina-planting-calendar-for-annual-vegetables-fruits-and-herbs

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Buncombe County Extension Office
49 Mount Carmel Road
Asheville, NC 28806
Helpline 828-255-5522

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