Now is the time to start thinking about which delicious vegetables you want to grow in your garden. Ted and Rho will go over all the possibilities with you in this class.
Spring Vegetables
These vegetables don't mind the cold and can be planted from seed in February. They may grow slowly, but as weather warms they will grow more quickly. Lettuce, Swiss Chard, arugula, mustard greens, and other leafy greens do well. Radishes, beets, carrots, turnips, and happy during this time as well. However, by late spring/early summer, many of these plants can't take the heat and may “bolt,” sending up flower stalks that the bees enjoy.
Summer Vegetables
You can plant these vegetables from seed or transplant in late March. They prefer warm weather and may “sulk” and grow very slowly if you plant them too early. These vegetables include melons, squash, winter squash, corn, tomatoes, and cucumbers.
Hope to “see” you there!
Where*: On Zoom. You will receive a link the morning of the class.
When: Tuesday, February 22, 2022 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
Register at: http://ucanr.edu/spring/veg/2022
Instructors: Master Gardeners Rho Yare and Ted Hawkins
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- Author: Ed Perry
Hybrid
Most of the dependable varieties of vegetables that you grow in your garden are from hybrid seeds that were developed to improve the yield, quality, and dependability of crops. However, along with these advantages, the opportunity to grow seeds at home was lost because hybrid seed must be grown under very special conditions not found in most home gardens.
Hybrid seeds result from crosses between parent plants that are unlike. These crosses bring together the desirable characteristics of the parents, and allow you to grow better quality vegetables. However, any seed you save from hybrid plants and grow the next season will produce plants and fruits that have unknown and usually unfavorable characteristics. If you want to grow hybrids, the only solution is to purchase new hybrid seeds each season.
Open pollinated from plants that cross with other kinds of plants
A number of vegetable crops, including corn, squash and melons, cross-pollinate in your garden. In order to grow genetically sound seed from these crops, you must plant them at a considerable distance from similar plants. The distance varies for different crops, but ranges from several hundred feet to a quarter of a mile. Saving seeds from this group of vegetables is likely to give you disappointing results, unless you enjoy growing odd vegetables.
Open pollinated from plants that do not cross with other kinds of plants
Examples are tomatoes (non-hybrids), peas, beans, peppers and eggplant. You may save satisfactory seed from these crops from one year to the next for several years. However, even with these crops, a little genetic change takes place from year to year, so it's a good idea to get new seed every three to four years.