Grow your Own Vegetables

G A R D E N T • A • B • L • O • I • D
M I S S I S S I P P I S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y E X T E N S I O N S E R V I C E Grow Your Own Vegetables
There are many good reasons for
growing a vegetable garden in
Mississippi. A garden offers the oppor-tunity
to enjoy vegetables at their
freshest. Sometimes only minutes
elapse between harvest, preparation,
and eating. On the other hand, most
fresh vegetables available at the gro-cery
store travel about 1,800 miles
between producer and consumer, and
this travel often occurs over a period of
several days. There’s a lot to be said
for “homegrown” freshness.
Vegetable gardens are traditional in
Mississippi. There was a time when
the state was more rural than it is
today, and most of the family’s food
was grown at home. Today, vegetable
gardens are often thought of as a form
of family recreation. Many older
Mississippians grow gardens that are
much too large for their own use just to
have fresh vegetables for family,
friends, and others who are unable to
garden.
Here is what some of today’s
Mississippi gardeners have to say
about their gardens and why they gar-den:
“We have enough for our family,
plus some to share; what more could
you ask?”
“There’s no way to keep count of
the people who stop to visit my garden
and talk awhile since it is on the side of
a field road that leads to a catfish pond.
I was so proud when I was told it was
the prettiest garden they had seen. I
have filled 3 freezers and canned more
than 300 jars of vegetables.”
“I have always had a love for gar-dening.
I have helped in caring for
the family garden ever since I was
large enough to help plant and work
in a garden.”
“I enjoy giving vegetables to the
elderly, shut-ins, neighbors, and
friends.”
“I enjoy people visiting my garden.
Some come just to enjoy seeing it, oth-ers
to learn better ways to garden.”
“I have gardened over 50 years and
still do my own work. The hard work
and good food keep me healthy. I save
some money, but I receive other bene-fits
that are greater and that cannot be
bought.”
“We give more vegetables away
than we keep. We have a large family,
5 children, 13 grandchildren, and 6
great-grandchildren, so you see we
really enjoy a garden.”
“There is a great difference in
cooking fresh food from that which
has been picked for several days. To
watch your food grow gives you some-thing
to look forward to each week. It’s
a profit, but it’s also a great pleasure.”
Decide What You Want to Plant
Select vegetables and the amount to plant by looking for-ward
to harvest and how you will use the vegetables.
There’s no sense in planting something that won’t be used.
Available garden space should be a factor in selecting the
vegetables to grow. Some vegetables take a lot of garden
space for a long time, while others are planted and harvest-ed
in a short time period, producing a lot in a little space.
Melons, pumpkins, vining types of squash, and sweet pota-toes
are in the garden for a long time, yet the harvest period
is relatively short. Okra, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and
pole beans are also in the garden a long time, but these pro-duce
a continuous supply of food.
Sweet corn is one of those vegetables you just have to
plant despite how much space it takes (expect to harvest
one ear per plant) because it is so good.
Vegetables to consider for small gardens (because of the
space they need and the amount they produce) are bush snap
and lima beans; leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, mustard,
and turnips; green onions; tomatoes; sweet peppers; and
eggplant. As space permits, add broccoli, cabbage, hot pep-pers,
okra, summer squash, southern peas, and pole beans.
Cucumbers, which normally take a lot of ground space, can
be trellised.
Irish and sweet potatoes are productive for the amount of
garden space required but present a storage problem when
harvested.
Plant varieties recommended for growing in Mississippi.
Don’t continue to use old vegetable varieties when there are
new varieties available that resist disease and give higher
yields and quality. For example, fusarium wilt is still a major
disease problem on tomatoes in some Mississippi gardens
where the older varieties are planted. All recommended
tomato varieties are resistant to this disease.
The amount of sunlight the garden receives can help you
determine which vegetables to grow. Ideally, the garden site
should receive full sun all day. This is not always possible,
especially when the garden is located on a small residential
lot where shade trees block the sun for part of the day.
Where there is no full sun space, plant vegetables in var-ious
spots around the house. All vegetables grown for their
fruits or seeds, such as corn, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers,
eggplant, peppers, beans, and peas, should have the sunniest
spots.
Vegetables grown for their leaves or roots, such as beets,
cabbage, lettuce, mustard, chard, spinach, and turnips, can
grow in partial shade but do better in direct sunlight.
Decide What Size Garden You Need Choose a Great Location for Your Garden
To determine what size garden you need, consider your family size,
the amount of vegetables you need, and whether you will preserve or
The ideal garden site is close to
use the vegetables fresh.
the house but out in the open where
Most important in determining garden size are the gardener’s physi-cal
it receives full sun and is not shad-ed
by trees or buildings. Choose a
place that is near a water supply and
has loose, fertile, well-drained soil.
Few gardeners are fortunate
enough to have the ideal garden site
or soil. This does not mean growing
a successful garden is impossible. If
you select the right vegetables and
carefully manage the soil, some
vegetables can be produced in
almost any location.
Select a site free of serious weed
problems. Nutsedge, torpedograss,
bermudagrass, cocklebur, and
morningglory are just a few of the
weeds that are difficult to control in
a garden.
Fence the garden site to keep out
children, or dogs and other animals.
A two-strand, low-voltage electric
fence may be the only way to keep
small animals like rabbits and rac-coons
out of the garden.
Remove low tree limbs that hang
over the garden and give animals
access.
ability, available time and equipment, and genuine interest in gar-dening.
Even though the rewards of gardening are great, the work is
hard.
It is better to start small and build on success than to become dis-couraged
and abandon the garden because it was too large or too much
work. See the Planting Guide on page 7.

Design your garden to meet your
needs. Careful planning reduces
work and can make the garden more
productive. Planting seeds and
plants at random frequently results
in waste and disappointment.
Consider the selected method of
cultivation in designing your gar-den.
Where the work is done with a
tractor, long rows are practical; but
when cultivation is by hand, short
rows give a sense of accomplish-ment
as work on each is completed.
Consider the slope of the land;
run rows at right angles to the slope,
especially on sandy-textured soils
that tend to wash and erode. Where
the land is uneven, contour the rows.
Rows for vegetables with small
plants (carrots, onions, radishes, and
others) can be closer together for
hand cultivation than for power
equipment. Planting double rows or
a broad band on a bed can increase
the yield from a small garden plot.
Closely spaced rows and vegetable
plants help shade out weeds, but the
close spacing makes weeding diffi-cult
when plants are small.
Closely spaced plants reduce
water loss from the soil surface by
protecting the surface from drying
winds and hot sun. The reduced air
movement, however, may increase
chances for diseases.
Plant perennial vegetables like
asparagus where they won’t inter-fere
with yearly land preparation.
Plant season-long vegetables like
tomatoes, okra, peppers, and egg-plant
together where they won’t
interfere with short-term vegetables
and replanting. Plant corn, okra,
pole beans, tomatoes, and other tall
vegetables so they won’t shade or
interfere with the growth of shorter
vegetables.
Sweet corn produces fuller ears
when planted in a block of rows than
20 x 50 feet
1,000 square feet—Row 1 is located 12 inches from the edge of the garden, and all rows are 36 inches apart. Rows are 20 feet long.
Spring Planting Summer Planting Fall Planting
Row Vegetable Date Vegetable Date Vegetable Date
1 Onions (plants) Feb.-March Bush Lima Beans June-July Spinach Sept.-Oct.
2 Cabbage (plants) Feb.-March Bush Lima Beans June-July Beets/Chard Sept.-Oct.
3 English Peas Jan.-Feb. Cucumbers May-June Mustard Sept.-Oct.
4 English Peas Jan.-Feb. (leave unplanted) Cabbage Aug.-Sept.
5 Lettuce Feb.-March Summer Squash May-June Cauliflower Aug.-Sept.
6 Beets/Chard Feb.-March (leave unplanted) Turnips Sept.
7 Mustard/Turnips Feb.-March Southern Peas May-June Carrots Sept.
8 Broccoli (plants) Feb.-March Southern Peas May-June Lettuce Sept.
9 Bush Snap Beans March-April (leave unplanted) Broccoli Aug.-Sept.
10 Bush Snap Beans March-April (leave unplanted) Broccoli Aug.-Sept.
11 Bell Peppers/
in a long single row because of bet-ter
pollination. When possible,
group vegetables according to their
Sample Garden Plan
Planting Planting Planting
lime and fertilizer needs, and treat
accordingly. Southern peas, lima
beans, snap beans, and peanuts do
not require as much nitrogen fertil-izer
as some other vegetables.
Eggplant (plants) April-May
12 Tomatoes (plants) April-May
13 (leave unplanted) (leave unplanted) Cucumbers Aug.
14 Sweet Corn March-April (leave unplanted) Bush Snap Beans Aug.
15 Sweet Corn March-April (leave unplanted) Bush Snap Beans Aug.
16 Sweet Corn March-April Tomatoes (plants) July-Aug.
17 Okra April-May Collards Oct.
Garden Plan
Spring Planting
onions, cabbage,
lettuce, corn,
tomatoes,
peppers,
eggplant
Summer
Planting
lima beans,
squash,
cucumbers, peas,
okra
Fall Planting
spinach, mustard,
turnips,
cauliflower,
carrots, broccoli,
beets
Successive Planting, Long Season Can Reduce Garden Size
Gardening in Mississippi provides
the opportunity to have something in
the garden almost every month of the
year.
The long growing season com-bined
with successive plantings
(growing more than one vegetable in
the same space during the year)
enables gardeners to reduce the size
of their gardens.
As soon as one vegetable is har-vested,
clear the space and prepare to
plant another vegetable. Empty row
space produces nothing and provides
a place for weeds to grow, while a
small garden intensively planted and
managed can be very productive.
For example, follow a spring plant-ing
of English peas with a late spring
planting of cucumbers; then replant
the space with fall bush snap beans,
leafy greens, or late southern peas.
Another example is to follow early
sweet corn with winter squash and
pumpkins in early July. Spring Irish
potatoes can be followed by lima
beans or southern peas, which are fol-lowed
by fall greens.
Practice crop rotation (planting
nonrelated plants in the same location
in successive plantings) where garden
space permits. Crop rotation is a good
practice to follow when you use the
same garden site for several years
because it helps prevent the buildup
of diseases in the garden soil.
When growing only for fresh use,
make small successive plantings of
vegetables like snap beans, sweet
corn, lettuce, radishes, leafy greens,
and southern peas. Planting at 2-week
intervals provides continuous fresh
vegetables.
Plant only as much as your family
can eat before the next planting
begins to produce. If you plan to can
and freeze as well as use fresh vegeta-bles,
plant more vegetables at one
time to provide enough at harvest for
preserving.
Expected yields are given for the
different vegetables in the Planting
Guide on page 7. Keep in mind that the
yields given for some vegetables
(tomatoes, peppers, okra, pole beans,
and eggplant, for example) are for
multiple harvests over a period of time.
Vegetables with extended harvest
periods require only one planting dur-ing
the season. However, with toma-toes,
peppers, and eggplant, a second
planting made in midsummer pro-vides
good quality vegetables for har-vest
in fall.
A second planting of okra, about 6
weeks after the first planting, has
some benefit for late-season harvest,
but you can get the same benefit by
cutting the first planting back to a
height of 3 to 4 feet in late summer.
Plant your garden according to a
detailed plan on paper. A finished gar-den
plan shows these things:
• which vegetables to grow
• number of different plantings of
each vegetable
• time and location of each planting
• distance each row is to be planted
from one end of the garden.
Related Vegetable Groups
Tomato Snap Bean Cucumber Cabbage
Eggplant Lima Bean Squash Broccoli
Irish Potato Peanut Pumpkin Turnip
Pepper Southern Pea Muskmelon Mustard
Watermelon Collard
2

The ideal garden soil is deep,
loose, fertile, well-drained (inter-nally
as well as on the surface), has
plenty of organic matter, and is
free of weeds and diseases. Such
soils are difficult to find, but with
proper preparation and manage-ment,
less-than-ideal soils can be
Compost is partially decom-posed
plant material mixed with
soil. Since compost is rich in
organic matter, use it to improve
soil structure, tilth, fertility, and
water- and nutrient-holding
capacity. Compost can be mixed
directly into the garden soil or
used as a mulching material that
is mixed with the soil after the
growing season.
The biggest benefit from com-post
is its value as a soil condition-er.
Compost increases the water-holding
capacity of soil, reducing
the frequency you need to water.
Adding compost improves sandy
and clay soils. Plant growth nutri-ents
in compost include nitrogen,
phosphorus, and potassium. They
are mostly in an organic form, and
they release slowly and are less
subject to leaching.
Compost is something you nor-mally
make rather than purchase,
but composted bark and composted
manure are frequently sold as soil
conditioners.
Make compost from vegetable
and other plant materials from nor-mal
yard chores, leaves, and grass
clippings, or hauled-in materials
like sawdust, straw, or hay.
Construct a pile of alternating
layers of organic waste material
and soil. Keep the pile moist and
add a mixed fertilizer to speed the
composting process.
Build your compost pile in
some out-of-sight location. It can
be built on open ground or in a bin
made of cinder block, rough
boards, or wire fence. The sides of
the bin should not be air- or water-tight.
Spread a layer of organic
matter about 6 inches deep and add
1 cup of a mixed fertilizer, 6-8-8, to
each 10 square feet of surface.
Then add 1 inch of soil and enough
water to moisten but not soak the
pile. Repeat this process until the
pile is 4 to 5 feet high.
Make the top of the pile con-cave
to catch rainwater. Under nor-mal
conditions, turn the pile in 2 or
3 weeks and again in 5 weeks.
Heat helps decomposition, so if
the compost pile is made in the fall,
decomposition will be slow until
spring and summer. Moist, green
plant materials and fresh manure
decompose much faster than dry,
brown materials and can produce a
considerable amount of heat.
See Extension Publication
1782 Composting for the
Mississippi Gardener for more
information.
A Soil-Compost Pile
productive.
Water moves quickly through
an internally well-drained soil and
never completely shuts off air
movement. Drainage is important
because roots cannot develop, live,
and function without a constant
supply of oxygen. Clay soils dry
slowly after a rain because the
spaces in them are small and water
moves through them slowly. Sandy
soils, on the other hand, have many
spaces and dry out quickly.
Clay and sandy soils can be
partially changed to substitute for
a rich loam by adding organic mat-ter.
Increasing the organic matter
content of a clay soil improves the
tilth, makes it easier to work, and
improves the internal drainage.
Adding organic matter to a sandy
soil increases its water-holding
capacity and improves its fertility.
The garden soil affects the way
vegetable plants grow and look.
When soils are cold, wet, crusty, or
cloddy, seedlings are slow to
emerge and some may not survive.
Root rot diseases may take a heavy
toll on seedlings, especially beans.
Other soil-related plant symptoms
are short plants, slow growth, poor
color, and shallow and malformed
roots. Soil symptoms of poor
structure are crusts, hard soil lay-ers
below the surface, standing
water, and erosion.
Increase the soil’s organic mat-ter
content by adding manure,
composted leaves, sawdust, bark,
or peatmoss; or by turning under
plant residues like sweet corn
stalks after harvest, and green
manure crops (soybeans, rye,
southern pea plants, and others).
Plant residues should be free of
diseases if they are to be added to
the garden soil. Cover crops, such
as clovers and vetch, planted in the
fall prevent soil erosion and leach-ing
of plant nutrients. They also
provide organic matter and nitro-gen
when turned under in spring.
Manures vary in their content
of fertilizing nutrients. The amount
of straw, age, exposure to the ele-ments,
and degree of composting
change their composition. Be care-ful
not to over-fertilize when
applying chicken litter to garden
soil. Use no more than 200 pounds
per 1,000 square feet of garden
space. Animal manure is lower in
nutrient content than poultry
manure and can be applied at the
rate of 250 to 300 pounds per
1,000 square feet.
Overuse of manures can add so
much salt to the soil that plant
growth is harmed. Most organic
materials release some nutrients
quickly and the rest over a period
of time. (See Organic Gardening,
page 5.) Even though adding
organic matter improves soil fertil-ity,
manures and plant residues are
not balanced fertilizers, and soils
require additional fertilizer. Test
soil annually to be sure.
Garden Soil
Raised beds are planting areas where the soil is several inches higher than that of the natural
grade.
Raised Beds Help Problem Areas
Compost improves soil structure Raised beds can help where gar-dening
space is limited, the site is low
and collects water, or the soil drains
poorly. Raised beds are planting areas
where the soil is several inches higher
than that of the natural grade. This is
accomplished by adding soil to the
growing area, or by adding and mix-ing
into the native soil amendments
such as compost, sand, composted
sawdust, or bark.
Where the native soil is adequate,
raised beds can be made by removing
several inches of soil from the bed
area, filling the excavation with
organic matter like manure or old hay,
and mixing the soil with the added
organic matter. It is also possible to
pull soil from the walkways between
beds and place it on the beds, filling
the walkways with mulch materials
like pine needles.
Raised beds can be framed with
wood, bricks, or cement blocks, or
they can be left unframed. Framing
adds to the appearance, and depend-ing
on the materials used, may pro-vide
seating.
Ideally, raised beds should be no
wider than 4 feet (so you can easily
reach the center from either side) and
no longer than 25 feet unless cross-overs
are provided. Beds 4 feet wide
and 25 feet long contain 100 square
feet and make calculations for rates of
application of fertilizer and granular
materials easier. Beds accessible from
only one side should be narrower than
4 feet. All framed beds should be of the
same width so that covering materials
(shade frames, sash for cold frames) fit
all beds, making rotation easy.
Raised-bed soil that has been
improved by adding organic matter
and sand often enables excellent root
crops like carrots, onions, and
parsnips to grow, even though they
would not grow in the native soil.
Select vegetables that produce a lot
for the space they occupy. Trellis vin-ing
crops like cucumbers, pole beans,
Malabar spinach, and melons.
Support melon fruit in slings.
Raised beds require more water
than ground-level beds, but when the
alternative is no garden at all, it’s
worth the extra effort. Here are some
additional advantages of raised-bed
gardening:
• Raised beds produce more veg-etables
per unit of garden space
because space is not wasted with
walkways between every row.
• Soil in raised beds dries and
warms more quickly in spring,
which permits earlier planting of
spring vegetables.
• Soil does not compact because
soil in beds is not walked on.
• Closely spaced plants in raised
beds shade out weeds and reduce
weed problems and the need for
frequent cultivation.
Raised bed gardening, however,
does have disadvantages. Some of
these are listed below:
• Closer spacing of plants can
reduce air flow and increase dis-ease
problems.
• Yields from individual closely
spaced plants may be lower than
from widely spaced plants (total
production from the closely
spaced plants is often higher).
• Raised beds require more fre-quent
watering because of im-proved
drainage.
• Raised beds may require more
frequent fertilization because of
the leaching resulting from fre-quent
watering and excellent
drainage.
• Raised beds with permanent
sides make it difficult to relocate
the garden.
• Raised beds can be expensive to
establish.
3
Soil
Fertilizer
Organic Matter
Soil
Fertilizer
Organic Matter
Soil
Fertilizer
Organic Matter
Ground

Test Soil to Find Its pH Value
The soil reaction, or measure of acid-ity
or alkalinity, is based on a scale of 1
to 14 and is referred to as pH. A pH of 7.0
is neutral. Any values below 7.0 are acid,
and any values above 7.0 are alkaline.
The ideal pH values for vegetable
garden soils are 6.0 to 6.5. Vegetable
plants do not grow well in acid soils with
a pH of 4.5 to 5.5 or in alkaline soils with
a pH above 7.5. Soil testing is the only
way to know the pH of your garden soil.
Contact your county Extension office for
a container and instructions for taking a
soil sample. There is a $6 fee for a com-plete
analysis (pH plus nutrient analysis
with lime and fertilizer recommenda-tions)
on each sample. The lime recom-mendation
is the single most important
piece of information on a soil test report.
In areas with high rainfall like
Mississippi, soils are generally acid.
However, there are exceptions (particu-larly
in the Delta and Blackland Prairie)
that prove the need for soil testing. Of the
garden soils analyzed at Mississippi State
University’s Soil Testing Laboratory in
1999-2004, 49 percent had a pH of 5.9 or
below and needed lime. Twenty-six per-cent
were in the range of 6.0 to 7.0.
The pH of the soil tells you if the soil
needs lime. Where it is needed, limestone
is the most effective and inexpensive aid
available for soil improvement. The
soil’s calcium and magnesium levels tell
you what form of limestone—dolomitic
(magnesium and calcium) or calcitic
(calcium)—to apply. An acid soil that
tested medium low to very low in magne-sium
should be limed with dolomitic
(high magnesium) lime. An acid soil high
in magnesium can be limed with either
calcitic limestone or dolomitic limestone.
Acid soil results in poor plant growth,
partly because of poor root growth. This
means greater susceptibility to drought
stress and less efficient use of soil nutri-ents.
Plants growing in acid soil may
show deficiency symptoms of several
plant nutrients.
Apply lime well ahead of planting (2
to 3 months) to provide time for it to dis-solve
and change the soil pH.
Apply lime evenly over the entire
area and work it into the top 4 or 5 inch-es
of soil. Incomplete mixing may make
future tests show a need for more lime,
which can result in overliming and poor
plant growth. Limestone not only raises
the soil pH but improves fertility. Lime
also improves the structure of clay soils
and makes them easier to work.
Liming is not a once-in-a-lifetime
event. Since soils limed to the proper pH
return to their acid state with time, soil
test every year or two to determine if
additional lime is needed. Sandy soils
become acid again faster than clay soils.
Factors causing the soil pH to drop
are listed below:
• Using acid-forming fertilizers.
• Leaching of lime from the soil
by rain and irrigation water.
• Decomposing of organic matter and
release of organic acids.
To get a soil sample for testing: (1) Use a spade or trowel to remove a slice of soil 6 inches deep; (2) Get similar sections from
other random places in your garden; (3) Put these samples in a pail; (4) Mix soil thoroughly in the pail; (5) Remove about 1 pint of
the well-mixed soil and dry it at room temperature; (6) Place dried soil in container. Do not take samples where fertilizer has been
spilled or manure has been piled. Do not include debris such as leaves, sticks, or large stones in your sample. Deliver the soil sam-ple
to your county Extension office.
Vegetable Tolerance to Acid Soils
Discover Your Garden’s Fertilizer Needs
The amount of fertilizer to apply
depends on the natural fertility of the
soil, amount of organic matter, type of
fertilizer, and the vegetables being
grown. Get a soil test to determine
your garden’s fertilizer needs.
In addition to soil testing, you also
must measure your garden to deter-mine
the number of square feet it
occupies. Garden fertilizer recommen-dations
are based on 1,000 square feet,
and an area of 1,000 square feet could
measure 25 by 40, 20 by 50, 30 by 33,
or other dimensions according to your
plot layout.
If your area is smaller than 1,000
square feet, divide the actual area by
1,000; then multiply the decimal fig-ure
by the recommended lime and fer-tilizer
rates. For example, if your plot
measures 16 by 24, the area contains
384 square feet; 384 divided by 1,000
equals .384; multiply .384 by your rec-ommended
fertilizer rate to determine
the amount of fertilizer to apply.
Vegetable plants require many dif-ferent
nutrient elements for good
growth and production, but nitrogen
(N), phosphorus (P), and potassium
(K) are the three nutrients of concern
to most gardeners. Calcium (Ca) and
magnesium (Mg) are supplied by
limestone. The other required ele-ments
are obtained from air, water, and
soil.
Mixed fertilizers are normally sold
by grade and contain two or three
major plant nutrients. The numbers in
the grade refer to the percent nitrogen
(N), available phosphate (P2O5), and
available potash (K2O).
Fertilizer sources of the major plant
nutrients are ammonium sulfate (21
per cent nitrogen, 21-0-0), a blend of
ammonium sulfate and urea (34 per-cent
nitrogen, 34-0-0), nitrate of soda
(16 percent N, 16-0-0), calcium nitrate
(15.5 percent N, 15.5- 0-0, 19 percent
calcium), urea (46 percent N), super-phosphate
(46 percent P2O5, 0-46-0),
and muriate of potash (60 percent
K2O, 0-0-60). Because many garden
soils have been heavily fertilized for
years, soil test results often indicate
extremely high soil levels of phospho-rus
and potassium. In these cases,
nitrogen is the only fertilizer recom-mended,
since additional phosphorus
and potassium are unnecessary.
Where nitrogen is the only fertiliz-er
recommended, the usual recom-mendation
is for 3 pounds of 34-0-0 (3
pints) per 1,000 square feet of garden
space prior to planting. Fertilization
with unnecessary nutrients can “salt
out” the garden and damage plant
growth.
Vegetables differ in their fertilizer
requirements. Leafy greens like mus-tard,
turnips, collards, cabbage, and
spinach are heavy users of nitrogen.
Broccoli and sweet corn also require
more nitrogen than some other vegeta-bles.
While nitrogen is important to
the plant growth of fruit and root veg-etables,
phosphorus and potash are
important to the proper development
of roots and seeds. Peanuts, southern
peas, and beans get nitrogen from the
air and do not require heavy nitrogen
fertilization. Over-fertilizing these
vegetables with nitrogen causes
excessive growth of leaves at the
expense of the fruit.
Apply fertilizer before or at plant-ing.
Two methods of application are
“in the row” and “broadcast.” For
most gardeners, the broadcast method
is more practical.
To broadcast, spread the recom-mended
amount of fertilizer evenly
over the soil surface and then thor-oughly
mix it into the soil during soil
preparation. Heavy feeding vegetables
need additional fertilizer (side-dress-ing)
after the plants are well estab-lished.
For row application, apply the rec-ommended
fertilizer to the row. Mix it
thoroughly with the soil so that it will
not damage the seed and tender plants.
Fertilizer can be applied in a com-bination
of broadcast and row applica-tions.
Broadcast two-thirds of the rec-ommended
fertilizer over the entire
garden surface and mix it into the soil.
Apply the remaining one-third of the
fertilizer in furrows 3 inches to either
Moderately tolerant
(pH 6.8 to 5.5)
side of the row and slightly below the
level of the seeds.
Nitrogen fertilizer applied before
or at planting time usually does not
supply all the nitrogen needed during
the growing season for heavy- and
medium-feeding vegetables. Also, ir-rigation
and rain can leach
water-soluble nutrients, especially ni-trogen,
into deeper areas of the soil,
out of the reach of the roots of shal-low-
rooted vegetables.
Apply (side-dress) additional ni-trogen
fertilizer along the row 4 to 6
inches from the base of the plants
when plants are established, being
careful to keep all fertilizer off
plant leaves.
Measuring Table for
Fertilizer, Weight per Pint
Superphosphate 1 lb
Muriate of Potash 1 lb
34-0-0 1 lb
Nitrate of Soda 11⁄4 lb
Limestone 11⁄4 lb
Mixed fertilizer 6-8-8, 13-13-13 1 lb
Lima Beans
Parsley
Peppers
Pumpkins
Radishes
Rutabagas
Soybeans
Squash
Sunflowers
Tomatoes
Turnips
Irish Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Watermelons
Asparagus
Beets
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Chinese Cabbage
Lettuce
Muskmelons
New Zealand Spinach
Okra
Onions
Peanuts
Beans
Brussels Sprouts
Carrots
Collards
Corn
Cucumbers
Eggplant
English Peas
Garlic
Kale
Kohlrabi
Very tolerant
(pH 6.8 to 5.0)
Slightly tolerant
(pH 6.8 to 6.0)
Side-Dress Applications of Nitrogen
(1 pint of 34-0-0 per 100 feet of row,
31⁄3 tablespoons per 10 feet of row)
Beans ......................................................................................at 3- to 4-leaf stage
Beets, carrots..............................................................4 to 6 weeks after planting
Bell peppers, eggplant, tomatoes ..........................after first fruit set and again
at 4- to 6-week intervals
Broccoli, cabbage,
cauliflower, Brussels sprouts ....................................3 weeks after transplanting
or after danger of late freeze in spring;
Broccoli again when heads begin to show
Cucumbers, muskmelons,
watermelons, winter squash ..........................................when vines begin to run
English peas ....................................................when plants are 4 to 6 inches tall
Irish potatoes ........................................when sprouts break through soil surface
Leafy greens (mustard,
turnips, chard, collards) ........................when plants are about one-third grown
Lettuce, kohlrabi, Chinese cabbage ........................2 weeks after transplanting;
4 weeks after sowing seed
Okra ........................................................................after first pods are harvested
Onions (green and bulb)—from sets ......................when tops are 6 inches high
—from transplants ......................................when established
and actively growing
Peanuts............................................................................................................none
Radishes ........................................................................................................none
Southern peas ................................................................................................none
Summer squash ....................................................before bloom when plants are
8 to 10 inches tall and again in 4 weeks
Sweet corn ................................when 8 inches high and again when knee high
Sweet potatoes ..............................................................................................none
Turnips (roots), Rutabagas ......................................4 weeks after sowing seeds
4
Spinach
Swiss Chard

Nutrient Content of Organic Materials
Percent Nutrient
N P2O2 K2O Availability
Rock Phosphate 0 20 to 30 0 very slow
Bone Meal 1 15 0 slow medium
Compost up to 3 1 1 slow
Dried Blood 12 1.5 .5 medium rapid
Fish Emulsion 5 2 2 rapid
Cotton Seed Meal 6 3 1.5 slow medium
Cow Manure, fresh .25 .15 .25 medium
Sawdust 4 2 4 very slow
Wood Ashes 0 1 to 2 3 to 7 rapid
Try New Varieties for Advantages Over Established Varieties
Most of the varieties in this section
will not be available from seed racks
or as plants from your regular sources,
so be prepared to search for them in
catalogues or on line. Whenever a
new variety is trialed it should be
planted near the normal variety you
grow so you can compare them. Be
sure to label the plants and treat both
old and new varieties the same way so
there is a fair comparison.
Summertime is a new pinkeye pur-ple
hull southern pea with very long
pods that contain as many as 18
attractive peas. Summertime contains
two genes that promote the retention
of green color in the seed coat so the
peas don’t fade to white as quickly as
other varieties. Summertime has
aggressive vine growth, and the vines
may reach more than 8 feet in length.
Trellising is not required but may be
beneficial to keep the vine from
sprawling into adjacent rows.
Sweethaven is a cream crowder
southern pea with very large peas and
long pods. The peas have a sweet fla-vor
and cook with a clear pot liquor.
Sweethaven also has aggressive vines
and might benefit from trellising.
Celebration Swiss chard has dark-er
green leaf blades and more vibrant
petioles—in shades of red, gold, and
orange—than older varieties of col-ored
chards. These pot herbs are pret-ty
enough to grow in the flower gar-den
but can be cooked and eaten like
any other green.
Aristotle bell pepper is the 2011
Mississippi Medallion winner. This
green to red pepper makes a more
Soil Preparation
Is Important for
Successful
Gardens
Preparing the soil is one of the
most important steps in gardening.
If erosion is not a problem, plow or
spade clay soils and grassy areas in the
fall. Limestone is most effective when
applied in the fall.
On new garden sites that were
lawn areas or were heavily infested
with weeds, consider using an
approved chemical to kill existing
plants before turning the soil. Plow or
turn soil to a depth of 7 or 8 inches.
Leave fall-plowed land rough until
spring.
Many garden tillers are not ade-quate
equipment for the initial break-ing
of soil in a new garden site.
Starting in early spring, disc or rake
the soil several times at regular inter-vals
to keep down weeds and to give a
smooth, clod-free planting bed.
If you did not plow or spade the
garden site in the fall, turn the soil in
spring as soon as it is dry enough to
work. A good test to determine if the
soil can be worked is to mold a hand-ful
of soil into a ball. If the ball is not
sticky but crumbles readily when
pressed with your thumb, the soil is in
good condition.
If you did not apply recommended
lime to the garden site in the fall, apply
both lime and recommended fertilizer
in the spring. Plow or spade the soil,
spread the lime and fertilizer, and mix
it in with a disc, harrow, or rototiller.
Pulverize the soil and get a smooth,
level surface by raking as soon as pos-sible
after turning. This helps to firm
the soil, break up clods, and leave a
smooth surface for seeding. Soil left in
rough condition for several days after
turning in the spring may dry out and
form hard clods, making it much more
difficult to prepare a good seedbed.
Prepare a small garden plot for
planting by using a spade, shovel, or
spading fork to turn the soil. Use a
small tractor or garden tiller for a larg-er
garden. Completely cover all plant
material on top of the ground and
work it into the soil when the soil is
turned.
Where the soil is clay and level and
likely to stay wet, use a hoe, rake, or
tiller to pull the soil into raised rows
that are 10 to 12 inches across on the
tops. Let the sides slope gently to the
walkways to provide good surface
drainage.
Conventional row spacing is 36 to
40 inches apart, but spacing depends
on a number of factors: equipment,
garden size, and vegetables being
grown. Rows for vigorously vining
vegetables like watermelons, can-taloupes,
pumpkins, and winter squash
are usually 6 to 8 feet apart.
Raised bed gardens are relatively
easy to prepare for planting once the
beds are constructed. (See Raised
Beds on page 3.)
All ALL America Selections
WINNER
A vegetable variety
designated as an All
®
America Selection (AAS) has been
judged in a number of national trial
gardens to have some advantage or
uniqueness over a standard compari-son
variety. This may be disease
resistance, color, productivity, fla-vor,
or something else. All America
Selections must show wide adapt-ability
to climatic and soil condi-tions.
AAS is a nonprofit organiza-tion
that accepts variety entries from
breeders around the world.
Not all new varieties developed
each year are submitted for testing in
the AAS trial gardens, so there are
many excellent varieties that do not
bear the AAS designation. Many
AAS vegetables are suited for grow-ing
in Mississippi, so be sure to try
these new varieties as well as other
new varieties listed in catalogs.
The Vegetable section (pages 22-
30) includes a list of recommended
varieties. Some previously designat-ed
AAS varieties are no longer avail-able,
since the program is more than
50 years old. The year of introduc-tion
for AAS varieties listed in this
publication is given with the variety
descriptions in the Vegetable section.
AMERICA
SELECTIONS
See New Varieties, page 19
5
Organic Gardening Interest in organic gardening—
using organic and natural materials
for fertilization and disease and
insect control—is increasing.
Much of the interest is on reduc-ing
or eliminating use of chemical
pesticides for controlling insects and
diseases. There is less interest in the
use of natural and organic fertilizers.
Organic gardening in Mississippi
faces some serious problems with the
rapid loss of soil organic matter and
severe insect and disease pressures
on vegetable plants. Organic garden-ers,
to ensure the greatest chances for
success, should have the garden soil
tested for pH and nematodes.
The most beneficial input for both
organic and conventional gardeners
is to add organic matter to the soil.
This can be done by adding compost-ed
or fresh organic materials and
incorporating them into the soil.
Gardeners need to pay attention to
the amount of nitrogen in the materi-als
they are adding. Straw; fallen,
dried leaves; sawdust; wood chips;
and paper should be blended with a
high nitrogen material like grass clip-pings,
manure, or blood meal since
incorporating large amounts can
actually keep the nitrogen in the soil
from the crop plants while decom-posing.
The nitrogen becomes avail-able
again after decomposition is
through.
Soils with a low pH (acid) can be
corrected using limestone, ground
oyster shells, wood ashes, or
dolomitic limestone. Adding organic
matter benefits soils with a high pH
(alkaline).
Animal manures are the most
widely used organic fertilizers.
Unfortunately, their composition
varies with the source, age, degree of
rotting, water content, and amount
and kind of litter used.
Green manures and cover crops
can also be used to provide nutrients.
When allowed to grow over the win-ter,
hairy vetch or crimson clover can
fix up to 100 pounds of nitrogen.
Southern peas can be grown during
summer to provide nitrogen for fall
vegetables. Green manure crops
should be mown and plowed into the
soil at least four weeks prior to plant-ing
the next crop.
Most organic materials do not
contain plant nutrients in balance
with plant requirements and must be
supplemented to correct these imbal-ances.
A well-leached animal manure
has an estimated fertilizer ratio of 1-
1-1, or 20 pounds each of N, P2O5,
and K2O per ton of manure. Besides
being relatively low in nutrient con-tent,
the nutrients are available more
slowly than nutrients from inorganic
sources. This protects nutrients from
leaching, but when a rapid change in
nutrient level is needed, this can be a
problem.
Controlling diseases and insects
by natural means alone is difficult.
There are several insecticides avail-able
including Bt formulations for
caterpillar control and spinosad or
pyrethrums for other insects, but dis-ease
control is difficult. Neem oil,
bicarbonate, copper and sulfur based
fungicides provide some protection
against diseases, but the best results
for disease management come from
selecting resistant varieties and prop-er
timing and spacing during plant-ing.
For these reasons, organic gar-dening
is easier on a small scale.
To increase chances for success,
organic gardeners should follow
these practices:
• Plant disease- and nematode-resist-ant
varieties.
• Use marigolds, solarization, and
organic products like Clandosan
618 to control plant parasitic nema-todes
(see Extension Publication
483 Nematode Control in the
Home Garden).
• Plant seeds from disease-free
plants.
• Plant only healthy vegetable trans-plants.
• Place a cardboard collar around
plant stems at ground level to pre-vent
cutworm damage.
• Incorporate plant residues and ani-mal
manures early to allow suffi-cient
time for them to decompose
before planting.
• Use mulches to control weeds and
keep soil from splashing onto the
plants and fruit.
• Use aluminum foil or reflective
plastic mulches to repel aphids and
thrips that injure plants and also
transmit plant viruses.
• Plant as early in the spring as possi-ble
to avoid some insect problems.
• Keep the garden free of weeds that
may harbor diseases and insects.
• Hand-pick insects.
• Water during the day so plants are
not wet at night.
• Remove diseased plants and plant
parts from the garden.
• Control insects using biological
controls and natural products.
• Rotate garden areas.
• Encourage natural insect predators.
Trap slugs under boards and moist
burlap laid on the ground, or use
beer traps.
• Stay out of the garden when the
plants are wet to prevent spreading
diseases.
• Do not use tobacco products while
working in the garden.
• Mix different vegetables in a row to
eliminate monocultures and the
chance for a disease to spread rapidly.
Beneficial Insects
Minute pirate bug .25”
Convergent lady beetle .15” - .25”
Assassin bug .50” - .75” Tiger beetle 0.5” - 0.7”
Praying mantis 2.5” - 5”
Green lacewing 0.6” - 0.8”

Zones Determine Planting Dates
Use the map and chart in this section
to determine dates for planting vegeta-bles
in your garden. Use the map to
identify the zone (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5) in
which you garden. Some Mississippi
counties are in only one zone, while
others are in more than one.
The zones are based on weather data
for the median (most frequent) dates of
last freezes (temperature of 32 °F or
less) in spring. In some years the last
freeze occurs earlier, and in some years
later, than the median dates. The zones
are listed at the top of the chart. The
cool- and warm-season vegetables are
listed on the left, and the recommended
planting dates make up the body of
information in the chart.
Beets, for example, are recommend-ed
for planting in zone 1 from February
1 to March 1. The starting dates are 4
and 6 weeks before the last median frost
date for the zone for cool-season veg-etables,
and 2 and 4 weeks after the last
median frost date for warm-season veg-etables.
The cut-off date for planting cool-season
vegetables is to provide suffi-cient
time for the vegetables to mature
before the heat of summer. The cut-off
date for planting warm-season vegeta-bles
is to permit maturity and harvest
before disease, insect, and weather
pressures become too great and before
cold temperatures in the fall.
Most cool-season vegetables can be
planted in both spring and fall. This
gives two opportunities for successful
harvests. Most warm-season vegetables
can be planted over a period of several
weeks ranging from midspring to mid-summer.
Multiple plantings at 10-day inter-vals
of beans, corn, peas, radishes, and
leafy greens within the recommended
planting intervals provide for succes-sive
harvests.
Some of the cool-season vegetables
like broccoli, cabbage, Chinese cab-bage,
cauliflower, collards, kale,
spinach, and rutabagas produce better
when grown in the fall. These plants
mature as the weather is getting cooler,
and they are of better quality and pro-duce
over a longer period of time.
DeSoto Marshall
Tate
Tunica
Coahoma
Panola Lafayette
Quitman
Tallahatchie
Bolivar
Sunflower
Leflore
Grenada
Carroll
Holmes
Washington
Humphreys
Yazoo
Sharkey
Warren
Madison
Hinds
Issaquena
Rankin
Claiborne Copiah Simpson
Jefferson
Lawrence
Lincoln
Adams Franklin
Wilkinson Amite
Walthall
Pike
Zone 1 March 1-11
Zone 2 March 12-21
Zone 3 March 22-26
Zone 4 March 27-31
Zone 5 April 1-10
Benton
Tippah
Alcorn
Prentiss
Union
Pontotoc Lee
Tishomingo
Itawamba
Monroe
Chickasaw
Clay
Calhoun
Yalobusha
Webster
Montgomery
Choctaw
Oktibbeha
Lowndes
Noxubee
Attala Winston
Leake Neshoba
Kemper
Scott Newton Lauderdale
Smith
Jasper Clarke
Jefferson
Davis
Marion
Jones Wayne
Covington
Lamar
Forrest
Perry Greene
Pearl
River
George
Jackson
Stone
Harrison
Hancock
Median Date of Last Freeze in Spring
Planting Zones – To use the map, find your county and determine which zone it is located
in. Then find the vegetable planting dates for your zone on the chart to the right.
Spring and Summer Planting Dates
Cool-Season Vegetables
Vegetable Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4 Zone 5
Beets Feb. 1 Feb. 12 Feb. 22 Feb. 27 Mar. 3
Mar. 1 Mar. 15 Apr. 1 Apr. 1 Apr. 5
Broccoli (plants) Feb. 1 Feb. 12 Feb. 22 Feb. 27 Mar. 3
Feb. 15 Mar. 1 Mar. 10 Mar. 15 Mar. 20
Cabbage, Collards (plants) Feb. 1 Feb. 12 Feb. 22 Feb. 27 Mar. 3
Feb. 15 Mar. 1 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Apr. 1
Carrots Jan. 20 Jan. 29 Feb. 8 Feb. 13 Feb. 18
Apr. 15 Apr. 15 Apr. 15 Apr. 15 Apr. 15
Cauliflower (plants) Feb. 1 Feb. 12 Feb. 22 Feb. 27 Mar. 3
Chard, Swiss Feb. 1 Feb. 12 Feb. 22 Feb. 27 Mar. 3
Kohlrabi Jan. 20 Jan. 29 Feb. 8 Feb. 13 Feb. 18
Lettuce, head Jan. 20 Jan. 29 Feb. 8 Feb. 13 Feb. 18
Mar. 1 Mar. 1 Mar. 1 Mar. 5 Mar. 10
Lettuce, leaf Jan. 20 Jan. 29 Feb. 8 Feb. 13 Feb. 18
Mustard Feb. 1 Feb. 12 Feb. 22 Feb. 27 Mar. 3
Onions (sets or plants) Jan. 20 Jan. 29 Feb. 8 Feb. 13 Feb. 18
Mar. 1 Mar. 1 Mar. 1 Mar. 1 Mar. 15
Peas, English Jan. 20 Jan. 29 Feb. 8 Feb. 13 Feb. 18
Mar. 10 Mar. 10 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Apr. 1
Potatoes, Irish Jan. 20 Jan. 29 Feb. 8 Feb. 13 Feb. 18
Radishes Feb. 1 Feb. 12 Feb. 22 Feb. 27 Mar. 3
Spinach Jan. 20 Jan. 29 Feb. 8 Feb. 13 Feb. 18
Turnips Feb. 1 Feb. 12 Feb. 22 Feb. 27 Mar. 3
Warm-Season Vegetables
Beans, snap bush Mar. 15 Mar. 25 Apr. 4 Apr. 8 Apr. 14
Apr. 15 Apr. 20 May 1 May 1 May 10
Beans, snap pole Mar. 15 Mar. 25 Apr. 4 Apr. 9 Apr. 14
Sept. 1 Aug. 15 Aug. 15 Aug. 10 Aug. 1
Beans, lima bush Mar. 29 Apr. 8 Apr. 18 Apr. 23 Apr. 28
Aug. 15 Aug. 1 Aug. 1 July 25 July 15
Beans, lima pole Mar. 29 Apr. 8 Apr. 18 Apr. 23 Apr. 28
Aug. 5 Jul. 20 Jul. 20 Jul. 15 Jul. 5
Corn Mar. 1 Mar. 11 Mar. 21 Mar. 26 Mar. 31
Jul. 15 Jul. 15 Jul. 15 Jul. 15 Jul. 15
Cucumbers Mar. 29 Apr. 8 Apr. 18 Apr. 23 Apr. 28
Eggplant (plants) Mar. 29 Apr. 8 Apr. 18 Apr. 23 Apr. 28
Aug. 15 Aug. 10 Aug. 10 Aug. 1 July 15
Muskmelons Mar. 29 Apr. 8 Apr. 18 Apr. 23 Apr. 28
May 1 May 1 May 15 May 15 Jun. 1
Okra Mar. 29 Apr. 8 Apr. 18 Apr. 23 Apr. 28
Peanuts Mar. 15 Mar. 25 Apr. 4 Apr. 9 Apr. 14
May 1 May 1 May 1 May 15 May 15
Peas, southern Mar. 29 Apr. 8 Apr. 18 Apr. 23 Apr. 28
Aug. 10 Aug. 1 Aug. 1 Aug. 1 Jul. 20
Peppers (plants) Mar. 29 Apr. 8 Apr. 18 Apr. 23 Apr. 28
Potatoes, sweet (plants) Mar. 29 Apr. 8 Apr. 18 Apr. 23 Apr. 28
Pumpkins, Winter Squash Mar. 29 Apr. 8 Apr. 18 Apr. 23 Apr. 28
Spinach, New Zealand Mar. 15 Mar. 25 Apr. 4 Apr. 9 Apr. 14
Apr. 15 Apr. 15 Apr. 20 May 15 May 15
Squash, summer Mar. 29 Apr. 8 Apr. 18 Apr. 23 Apr. 28
Tomatoes (plants) Mar. 29 Apr. 8 Apr. 18 Apr. 23 Apr. 28
Watermelons Mar. 29 Apr. 8 Apr. 18 Apr. 23 Apr. 28
May 1 May 1 May 15 May 15 Jun. 1
* For Fall Gardening, see page 19.
6

7
Transplants Can Shorten
Planting-to-Harvest Time
Some vegetables are planted in the
garden using small plants (transplants)
rather than seeds. This is standard
practice with warm-season vegetables
like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant,
and is becoming the practice with
cucumbers, squash, cantaloupes, and
watermelons because transplants
shorten the time by several weeks
between planting and harvest.
Sweet potato plants are grown
from stored sweet potato roots and not
from true seed. In the early spring gar-den,
transplants of cabbage, broccoli,
cauliflower, head lettuce, and onions
are recommended.
Not all vegetable plants transplant
with the same degree of ease as small
seedlings or when setting them out in
the garden. But even vegetables
described as difficult to transplant can
be transplanted into the garden with
great success when they are started in
containers.
Grow vegetable transplants in a
cold frame, hot bed, greenhouse, or a
well-lighted window.
Here are some advantages to grow-ing
your own plants:
• They are often less expensive to
grow than to buy.
• They are available when you need
them. You grow the varieties you
want and are not forced to accept
substitutes.
• You avoid the danger of bringing in
diseases and insects.
You can successfully grow trans-plants
of many vegetables by follow-ing
a few simple guidelines:
Seed. Use fresh seed from a rep-utable
source. Transplants require sev-eral
weeks to grow, so get your seeds
early. Do not buy too much seed. A
small amount produces many plants. If
the seed has not been treated with a
fungicide as indicated on the package,
do so with a small amount of fungi-cide.
(See the Before-You-Plant
Practices section on seed treatment,
page 17.)
Soil. Most garden soils are not
good enough to be used for raising
transplants because they are poorly
drained and contaminated with disease
and weed seeds. Several commercial
sterile soilless mixes are available.
Prepare a soilless mix using these
ingredients:
2 quarts Sphagnum peat moss
1 quart vermiculite
1 quart perlite
1 tablespoon limestone
Container. Containers for seed
germination can be plastic egg car-tons,
half-pint milk cartons, small
trays, aluminum foil loaf pans, pie
tins, peat pots, or peat pellets. Make
sure there are drainage holes in the
bottom of the container before filling
the container nearly to the top with the
mix. Wet the mix thoroughly and let
excess water drain. Expandable peat
pellets (available at nurseries and gar-den
supply stores) eliminate the need
for a mix and a container except for
one to hold the pellets.
Place dry, flat pellets in a shallow
tray and sprinkle them several times
with warm water until they are com-pletely
expanded. Allow a little time
between sprinklings. Surround the
expanded pellets with sand or vermic-ulite
to hold them upright and slow
their drying between waterings.
Planting Seeds. Do not plant
seeds too thickly. When using trays or
pans, plant the seeds in rows and cover
with one-fourth of an inch of mix.
When using individual containers,
plant two or three seeds per container.
With the expanded pellets, make a
small depression in the top and drop in
the seeds. Plant seeds of watermelons,
squash, and cucumbers in individual
containers.
Transplants are recommended for
seedless watermelons. To aid germina-tion,
plant seedless watermelon seeds
with the rounded end facing down and
the pointed end facing up.
Use cool, white 40-watt fluorescent
tubes for a supplemental light source.
Germination. Cover containers
with a piece of plastic, or slip them
into a clear plastic bag to keep the
humidity high. The best temperature
for germination is 80 °F. As the tem-perature
drops below 80 °F, germina-tion
slows. Tomato, pepper, and egg-plant
seeds won’t germinate at tem-peratures
below 60 °F. Even at the
optimum temperature, eggplant and
pepper seeds may take 2 weeks to ger-minate.
As soon as the seedlings begin to
come through the mix surface, lower
the temperature and increase the
amount of light to prevent spindly
growth. Use cool, white 40-watt fluo-rescent
tubes placed several inches
above the seedlings for 18 hours a day
for a supplemental light source.
Tomato, pepper, and eggplant
seedlings grow best when the day tem-perature
is 70 to 75 °F and the temper-ature
at night is 60 to 65 °F.
Broccoli, cabbage, and cauli-flower
prefer cooler temperatures—
65 to 70 °F during the day and 55 to
See Transplants, page 8
Planting Guide
Distance Average Average
Depth of between Crop No. of
Seeds or Plants Planting Plants Expected Days to
Vegetable per 100 ft (inches) (inches) per 100 ft Harvest
Asparagus 1 oz 1 18 30 lb 2 years
65 plants 6-8
Beans, snap bush 1⁄2 lb 1 3-6 60 lb 50-55
Beans, snap pole 1⁄2 lb 1 4-12 80 lb 65
Beans, lima bush 1⁄2 lb 1 3-6 47 lb in shell 65
18 lb shelled
Beans, lima pole 1⁄2 lb 1 4-12 66 lb in shell 80
25 lb shelled
Beets 1 oz 1⁄2 2 75 lb 65
Broccoli 1⁄8 oz 1⁄4-1⁄2 18-24 50 lb 80-115
50-65 plants 18-24 50 lb 75
Cabbage 1⁄8 oz 1⁄4-1⁄2 12-18 150 lb 100
65-100 plants 12-18 150 lb 80
Cabbage, Chinese 1⁄8 oz 1⁄4-1⁄2 12 100 lb 80
Carrots 1⁄8 oz 1⁄4-1⁄2 2 100 lb 75
Cauliflower 1⁄8 oz 1⁄4-1⁄2 18-24 80 lb 80-115
50-65 plants 18-24 80 lb 65
Chard, Swiss 1 oz 1⁄4-1⁄2 6 75 lb 50
Collards and Kale 1⁄4 oz 1⁄4-1⁄2 8-16 150 lb 55
Corn, sweet 3-4 oz 1-2 12 10 doz 80
Cucumbers 1⁄2 oz 1 12-18 100 lb 55
Eggplant 50 plants 24 150 lb 85
Kohlrabi 1⁄8 oz 1⁄4-1⁄2 3-4 75 lb 55
Lettuce, head 1⁄4 oz 1⁄4 12 75 head 80-115
75-100 plants 12-14 75 head 80
Lettuce, leaf 1⁄4 oz 1⁄4 8-12 50 lb 50
Muskmelons 1⁄4 oz 1 36-48 100 fruit 90
Mustard 1⁄4 oz 1⁄4-1⁄2 2 100 lb 45
Okra 1 oz 1 12-18 90 lb 65
Onions, green 600 sets or plants 2 100 bunches 35
Onions, bulb 220 sets or plants 6 100 lb 110
Parsley 1⁄8 oz 1⁄4 4-6 30 lb 90
Peanuts 1⁄2 lb 1-2 3-4 45 lb green 110
15 lb dry
Peas, English 1 lb 1-2 2 30 lb in shell 65
Peas, southern 1⁄2 lb 1 4-6 40 lb in hull 65
Peppers, bell 50 plants 24 150 lb 75
Potatoes, Irish 10 lb 4 12 150 lb 100
Potatoes, sweet 75-100 12 100 lb 120
Pumpkins 1⁄2 oz 1-2 48 300 lb 90-110
Radishes 1 oz 1⁄2 1 40 lb 28
Rutabagas 1⁄2 oz 1⁄4-1⁄2 12 90 lb 90
Spinach 1⁄2 oz 1⁄2 4 70 lb 45
Squash, summer 1⁄2 oz 1 36 150 lb 55
Squash, winter 1⁄2 oz 1 48 100 lb 90
Tomatoes 35-65 plants 18-36 125 lb 70
Turnips, greens 1⁄4 oz 1⁄4-1⁄2 2-3 50-100 lb 50
Turnips, roots 1⁄4 oz 1⁄4-1⁄2 2-3 50-100 lb 60
Watermelons 1⁄2 oz 11⁄2 48-72 60 fruit 85

Planting and Thinning Tips
Plant only fresh seeds from a
reliable source. Old seeds are slow
to germinate and often produce
spotty stands and deformed plants.
When planting seeds, mark
straight rows with stakes and a cord
to make cultivating, spraying, and
harvesting easy. Rake the seed bed
clean of clods, rocks, and other
types of debris. Make shallow fur-rows
suitable for small seeds by
drawing a hoe handle along a string.
For deeper furrows, use a corner
of the hoe blade. In the spring, plant
seeds shallow to speed germination.
As the season progresses, plant
seeds deeper to ensure a good sup-ply
of moisture.
Small seeds are difficult to dis-tribute
thinly and evenly and are
easier to space if mixed with dry
sand or dry, pulverized soil before
planting. When planting small
seeds like carrots that germinate
slowly, mix in some radish seeds to
mark the row.
Seeds that are large enough to
handle easily can be planted in
groups (hills) or spaced evenly
(drilled) in the row. When planting
in hills, place several seeds in small
areas at the desired final plant spac-ing.
Sweet corn, squash, pumpkins,
melons, and okra are often planted
in this way. Once the seeds germi-nate
and the seedlings are estab-lished,
remove the excess seedlings.
Sweet corn, okra, and summer
squash are thinned to one plant per
hill, pumpkins and melons to two
plants per hill.
Seeds of beans, peas, beets,
chard, and sweet corn are frequent-ly
spaced evenly down the row
when planted. Individual seeds may
be spaced 1 or more inches apart
but at a spacing closer than the
desired final plant spacing.
After germination and seedling
establishment, remove extra
seedlings. The choice of planting
method, drill or hill, for many veg-etables
is up to the gardener.
If your seeds are 1 or more years
old, plant them thicker than you
would fresh seeds. Extra seeds at
planting time cause poor germina-tion
and seedling death from dis-ease
and insects.
After the seeds are placed, cover
them with soil. (See the Planting
Guide on page 9 for depth of plant-ing).
Days from Planting to Seedling Emergence
Firm (do not pack) soil over
the seeds with the flat blade of a
hoe. Be careful not to plant seeds
too deep. Seeds covered with too
much soil do not come up.
Removing the extra seedlings
(thinning) seems wasteful to many
gardeners, especially new garden-ers.
However, when the majority of
seeds germinate and the seedlings
survive, the plants become crowded.
Leaving the plants spaced too
closely together reduces yields,
makes the plants more susceptible
8
Plastic row tunnels and floating row covers permit early planting and provide some protection against cold. Plastic tunnels can be used
in combination with black plastic mulch. Floating row covers made of a non-woven polyester also provide early insect protection.
60 °F at night. At these tempera-tures,
broccoli, cabbage, and cauli-flower
take 5 to 7 weeks to reach the
size for transplanting to the garden.
Peppers and eggplant may need 8 to
10 weeks to reach the size for set-ting
out in the garden.
Thinning and Transplanting.
Individual containers with more than
one seedling must be thinned to one
plant. Pinch out or cut off the extra
seedlings while the first leaves are
still small.
Seedlings germinated in trays
must be transplanted to individual
containers while still small. Lift and
separate seedlings and replant them
into individual containers such as
peat pots, plastic cel-paks (saved
from previously purchased trans-plants;
be sure to wash them), peat
pellets, or other small containers.
Use a commercial soilless potting
mix or prepare your own.
Fertilizer. Some potting soils
contain a small amount of fertilizer
but not enough to grow the seedlings.
For small seeds, make a planting fur-row
with a hoe handle or rake drawn
along the cord.
For larger seeds, open a deeper plant-ing
furrow with your hoe.
When sowing small seeds, cut or tear
off a corner of the packet and scatter
seeds in the furrow while tapping gen-tly
with your index finger.
Space larger seeds evenly and drop
by hand.
SMALL MEDIUM LARGE 1⁄4 - 1⁄2 inch 1⁄2 - 1 inch 1 - 11⁄2 inch
Seed size determines depth of planting.
Homemade mixes of peat, vermicu-lite,
and perlite contain no fertilizer.
Seeds contain a small amount of
nutrients to get the seedling started,
but you must supply fertilizer such as
water soluble 20-20-20. Prepare a
fertilizer solution following instruc-tions
on the container.
Disease. Damping-off is the
major disease that attacks seedlings.
Seedlings appear pinched at the soil
line, fall over, and die. Control this
disease by thoroughly watering
(drenching) the growing mix after
planting the seeds with 1 tablespoon
of Captan (50 percent wettable pow-der)
per gallon of water.
Hardening Off. Transplants
grown in a cold frame are stockier
and better able to withstand outside
garden conditions than transplants
grown indoors or in a greenhouse.
Before setting out tender transplants,
place them in a cold frame for 1 to 2
weeks to acclimate them to colder
temperatures, brighter light, and
wind. This greatly increases their
chances of survival once set in the
garden.
Cold Frame
Cabbage, broccoli, and cauli-flower
transplants can be easily
grown in an outside cold frame.
Build a simple frame and cover it
with polyethylene. Plants grown in a
cold frame require 8 to 10 weeks to
reach the size for setting in the gar-den,
so start early. Place the cold
frame in a sunny location with the
low side facing south and the high
back facing north. Paint the inside
white to reflect light and promote
uniform growth.
Plants must grow in a cold frame for 8
to 10 weeks before setting in the garden.
Since temperatures in a cold frame
are frequently below the optimum for
seed germination, plant seeds in a
soilless mix in trays and germinate
them indoors. Once the seeds have
germinated, move the trays to the
Cut off the bottoms
of plastic containers Cutaway view
of a hotkap
Wooden shingle
used as a sunshade
Wire tomato cage
wrapped in plastic
Transplants
continued from page 7 Protect Newly Set Plants
See Transplants, page 9
See Tips, page 9
Under Good Growing Conditions
Beans 5-10
Beets 7-10
Broccoli 5-10
Cabbage 5-10
Carrots 12-18
Cauliflower 5-10
Corn 5-8
Cucumbers 6-10
Eggplant 6-10
Lettuce 6-8
Okra 7-10
Onions 7-10
Peas 6-10
Parsley 15-21
Peppers 9-14
Radishes 3-6
Spinach 7-12
Squash 4-6
Tomatoes 6-12
Turnips 4-8
Watermelons 6-8

cold frame. Open the cold frame
cover for ventilation or remove it
on clear days when the air temper-ature
is 45 degrees or higher. Thin
the seedlings to stand one-half inch
or more apart. Crowding results in
spindly, weak transplants. Fertilize
to promote growth.
Growing onion transplants
requires considerable time. Start
by planting seeds in September or
October in closely spaced rows in
a cold frame. Transplants will be
ready for setting out in January
and February. To have transplants
of cabbage, broccoli, and other
cool-season vegetables ready in
time for spring planting, you must
start very early in the year, which
may not be practical. Transplants
of these vegetables can be grown
for the fall garden.
Sweet potato transplants (slips)
are produced by planting potatoes
in beds of sawdust or sand.
Maintain the temperature in the
bed close to 80 °F. Since disease
problems can be carried on the
mother roots and transmitted to the
slips, it is better for gardeners to
purchase their sweet potato slips
or to use vine cuttings. Vine cut-tings
are made by cutting potato
slips above the surface of the bed-ding
material. The cuttings devel-op
roots rapidly when planted in
warm, moist garden soil.
Buying Transplants
When buying vegetable trans-plants,
select recommended vari-eties
when possible. Plants with
good roots that are healthy, stocky,
medium-sized, and free of disease
or insects are best. Avoid yellow,
spindly, or oversized plants and
those with spotted foliage, brown
marks on the stems, or knots on
the roots. Buy plants in containers
(fiber pots or plastic tray packs) so
that root systems are intact and
protected. Bundles of bare root
plants (cabbage, onions, broccoli,
peppers, lettuce, and tomatoes)
should be fresh, have a good green
color, and have moist and healthy
roots.
Transplanting to the
Garden
Transplants of cucumbers,
squash, and melons grown in small
containers must be set in the gar-den
while still quite young (cotyle-dons
expanded and first leaf show-ing),
about 3 weeks after planting
the seeds.
If possible, set all vegetable
transplants on a cloudy day or in
the evening. Place peat pots and
other fiber pots directly into the
planting holes. Be sure to cover
the upper edges of the pots with
soil to prevent wicking the mois-ture
out of the pots.
Plant tall transplants deeply,
burying the stem to the first set of
leaves.
Pictured are dry and expanded peat pellets.
Starter Solution. Starter solu-tion
is a dilute mix of a water solu-ble
fertilizer high in phosphorus,
such as 11-57-0. Used at the rate of
1 cup per plant, it stimulates root
growth and helps plants get off to a
fast start. Starter solution is prepared
by dissolving 2 tablespoons of the
dry fertilizer (11-57-0) per gallon of
water or 3 pounds per 50 gallons.
Protection. Protect newly set
plants from sun, cold, and wind.
Homemade shelters include boxes,
baskets, flower pots, and plastic
milk containers. Commercial
hotkaps of paper or plastic and
devices containing water protect
young, tender plants from frost. A
wooden shingle stuck in the
ground at a slant on the south side
of a plant serves as a sunshade. A
piece of newspaper or a paper gro-cery
bag pinned down over a plant
provides protection from the sun.
Wire tomato cages with the
bottom 12 to 18 inches wrapped
with clear plastic provide some
protection to transplants from
wind, cold, and blowing sand.
to disease, and generally starves the
plants for water and nutrients.
In the thinning process, try to save
the strongest seedlings and remove
excess plants with a hoe, rake, or your
fingers. Where seedlings are very close
together and pulling disturbs the roots of
the remaining plants, pinch out or cut the
excess plants. Seedlings of some vegeta-bles,
if carefully removed during thin-ning,
can be transplanted and used to fill
in empty places, to expand your plant-ing,
or be shared with other gardeners.
The temperature of the garden soil at
planting time affects the rate at which
seeds germinate or if they germinate at
all. Most cool-season vegetable seeds
germinate at a soil temperature of 60 °F,
while most warm-season vegetable seeds
germinate slowly at a soil temperature of
75 °F. The longer seeds are in the soil
without germinating, the more they are
subject to attack by diseases and insects.
Black plastic mulch is an effective
way of raising the soil temperature to
permit early planting of warm-season
vegetables. (See Mulching on page 10.)
Other materials available to home
gardeners are plastic row tunnels and
floating row covers that permit early
planting and provide some protection
against cold. Plastic tunnels can be used
in combination with black plastic mulch.
Floating row covers made of a non-woven
polyester also provide early
insect protection.
Pollination, the transfer of pollen within a
flower or between flowers, is needed for
many vegetables to produce. With vegetables
we grow for their leaves (greens, spinach,
cabbage) and roots (beets, carrots, radishes),
pollination is not important. But with vegeta-bles
we grow for their developing fruit,
ripened fruit, or seeds (melons, corn), pollina-tion
is almost always needed.
Pollen is produced in the anthers (male
parts) and must be moved to the pistil (female
part). One part of the pistil, the ovary, devel-ops
into the seed or fruit that is eaten—
squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn kernels.
Pollen is moved from the anthers to the pistil
in one of three ways.
Corn pollen is carried by the wind as it falls
from the tassel to the silks of the ears. If any-thing
prevents this wind transfer of pollen, the
result is ears with empty rows and missing ker-nels.
Corn planted in a single row loses most of
its pollen. This is why corn should be planted in
a block of adjacent rows rather than one or two
very long rows. High temperatures and
drought do not interfere with the transfer of
corn pollen but can prevent proper pollination
and fertilization, resulting in poorly developed
ears.
The pollination process in all beans, peas,
and tomatoes is called self-pollination because
the transfer of pollen takes place within the
individual flowers without the aid of insects or
wind.
Squash, pumpkins, melons, and most
cucumbers are insect-pollinated. In these veg-etables,
which have the male and female flower
parts in separate flowers (yet still on the same
plant), insects transfer pollen from male flow-ers
to female flowers while going from flower
to flower, collecting nectar and pollen. The
most common pollinating insects are honey-bees
and bumblebees.
Bees often are seen on vegetables that are
wind- and self-pollinated, where they are col-lecting
pollen and nectar. Since pollinating
insects are so important in the garden, it is
important to consider them when choosing
and applying insecticides. Choose insecti-cides
that are least toxic to bees, and apply
them late in the day when bees are not active-ly
working in the garden.
Vegetables that are self- and insect-polli-nated
often suffer from lack of pollination
and fertilization, just as wind-pollinated corn
does. High temperatures, shade, and insuffi-cient
moisture often result in pollen that does
not behave normally and causes a lack of fruit
development. Poorly shaped fruit (cucum-bers,
watermelons, tomatoes) result from
incomplete pollination.
Cross pollination between different veg-etables
is an unnecessary worry of many gar-deners.
Different varieties of the same wind-and
insect-pollinated vegetables may cross,
but there is no crossing between the different
vegetables: cucumbers, melons, and squash.
All summer squash, Halloween pumpkins,
vegetable spaghetti, acorn squash, and small
ornamental gourds are closely related and do
cross if planted close to one another. This is
of no concern to gardeners who do not save
their own seed. Jumbo pumpkins and most
winter squash can cross. If you grow several
varieties of summer and winter squash and
pumpkins in the same garden, purchase fresh
seed each year.
The different corn colors (yellow and
white) and types (normal, sugary enhanced,
supersweet, field, and pop) crosspollinate if
planted close to one another, and if they silk
and tassel at the same time. Results can vary
from a few yellow kernels on normally all-white
ears to a situation where the corn is not
fit to eat. All sweet corn must be isolated
from field and popcorn, and all supersweet
corn must be isolated from all other corn.
Pollination
Flower Parts
Anther
Ovary
Pistil
Petal
Stigma
Anther
Petals Removed
Ovary
(Small Squash)
Stem
Female Flower Male Flower
Squash Flowers
Corn pollen is carried by the wind as it falls from
the tassel to the silks of the ears.
Petals
Anthers
Pistil
Ovary
9
Transplants
continued from page 8
Tips
Place the top edge of the peat cup 2 inch-es
below the soil level.

Mulching
A mulch is any material used to
cover the surface of the garden soil
to protect plant roots from heat,
cold, or drought, to keep fruit
clean, or to control weeds.
Mulches help to make more attrac-tive,
higher yielding vegetable gar-dens.
A mulch in the garden changes
the environment where the plants
are growing, resulting in better
plant growth and higher yields. If
used improperly, a mulch can lower
yields or result in plant death.
When deciding to use a mulch,
weigh the advantages against pos-sible
disadvantages, cost, and
availability of a particular
mulching material.
There are many types of mulch-ing
materials, but they can be
divided into two general cate-gories:
natural and synthetic.
Natural mulches are materials such
as straw, hay, compost, composted
bark, or pine needles. Synthetic
mulches are plastics and papers.
Natural
Mulches
Natural mulches consist of
organic plant and/or animal residue
or by-products. They are generally
spread over the ground surface
around established plants or over
the entire growing area in a layer 2
to 5 inches deep. Composted saw-dust,
bark, wood shavings, leaves,
grass clippings, rice hulls, ground
corncobs, and animal manures may
also be used. Pine needles, hay,
and straw are light and airy; there-fore,
a 4- to 5-inch deep layer is
needed for them to be effective.
Most natural mulches have
some fertilizer value and are good
soil conditioners when worked into
the soil. They improve both the
physical and chemical properties of
soil. Organic matter incorporated
into the soil improves water-hold-ing
capacity, nutrient availability,
and aeration of the soil.
Some mulching materials, such
as pine needles, peat, and oak
leaves are acid in nature and lower
the soil pH. Regular soil testing
indicates the amount of lime neces-sary
to make any soil pH adjust-ment.
Finely ground peat moss makes
a poor mulch. It is easily blown
around by wind and becomes
almost water repellent when dry.
Peat is best used to improve soil
organic matter content, moisture
holding capacity, and structure by
mixing it with the soil.
Organic mulches are summer
mulches, since most of their advan-tages
are realized in hot weather. A
summer mulch protects soil from
compacting rains, foot traffic, dry-ing
winds, and heat. It also con-trols
weeds by excluding light from
germinating seeds and seedlings.
Mulches prevent weed problems,
thereby reducing competition for
light, water, and nutrients. The
resulting fewer cultivations mean
less crop-damaging root pruning.
By reducing the loss of soil
moisture, mulches lessen the fre-quency
of necessary watering, and
garden vegetables suffer less in dry
periods. Organic mulches also
increase the water absorption rate
of soils. The reduced soil tempera-tures
under organic mulches
encourage root growth in the upper
soil layer where there is more oxy-gen
and fertilizer.
A mulch reduces soil erosion
and the splattering of soil on veg-etable
leaves and fruit during rains
or sprinkling. This can reduce loss-es
to soil-borne diseases.
Apply organic mulches to
warm-season vegetables when the
soil has warmed sufficiently for
good plant growth and when plants
are established and large enough
that they won’t be covered. The
soil should be weed-free, recently
cultivated, and contain plenty of
moisture. Mulching warm-season
vegetables early in the growing
season makes them susceptible to
frost injury by preventing soil
warming and by insulating plants
from any warmth in the soil.
Organic mulches are beneficial
when applied to cool-season veg-etables
like broccoli, cabbage, and
English peas in midspring. They
help to keep the soil from rapid
warming and drying and can extend
the growing and harvest periods.
Some organic mulches require
changes in methods of garden fer-tilization.
Sawdust, wood shavings,
and ground corncobs are low in
nitrogen. As they decompose,
nitrogen is drawn from the soil,
causing a shortage of nitrogen in
the mulched vegetables. To prevent
this, add one-fourth pound 34-0-0
or its equivalent to each bushel of
sawdust, shavings, or corncobs
before applying mulch. When it is
time to side-dress, pull the mulch
back from plants and apply fertiliz-er
to the soil surface. With sawdust,
compost, or bark, apply fertilizer to
the mulch surface and water it in.
Always remember that dry
mulch may catch fire.
Synthetic
Mulches
Plastic mulches are springtime
mulches. They help warm the soil,
permitting early planting; promote
rapid growth; provide for early har-vest;
and provide weed control.
Plastic mulches reduce loss of
soil moisture and protect vegetable
plant fruit and leaves from soil-borne
To apply a plastic mulch, bury one end of the plastic and roll the other end over the row. Bury the edges and cover the ends so there are
no exposed edges. Cut planting holes into the plastic at intervals. If you need to apply additional side-dress fertilizer or water after the
mulch is down, apply it through the planting holes and upside-down “T” slits.
diseases. Black plastic is the
most commonly used synthetic
mulch. It is widely available, rela-tively
inexpensive, and comes in
various widths and lengths. Use
plastic with a thickness of 11⁄2 mils
(.0015 inches).
Use clear plastic mulch only
when soil has been fumigated to
kill weed seeds. Clear plastic
warms soil more rapidly than black
plastic, but weed seeds germinate
under clear plastic, so it should not
be used.
Warm-season vegetables like
cucumbers, melons, squash, toma-toes,
peppers, and eggplant grow
better and produce more when
grown on black plastic mulch than
when grown on bare soil.
Transplants can be set through
plastic mulch by cutting holes with
a sharpened bulb planter. Use the
same tool to plant seeds of widely
spaced vegetables like squash and
melons.
While frequently used with
warm-season vegetables, plastic
mulch can be used with cool-sea-son
vegetables like cabbage, broc-coli,
and cauliflower to promote
early growth. Plastic mulch is not
used with vegetables that are close-ly
spaced in the rows.
Black plastic mulch can also be
used with plastic row tunnels to
promote early growth and harvest.
Applying Plastic
Prepare the soil completely
before applying a plastic mulch.
Incorporate all fertilizer and lime,
remove all weeds and debris, and
break up all large clods. Rake the
soil to prepare a smooth, level sur-face.
Make sure the soil contains a
good supply of moisture before
being covered. Plastic that is 3 to 4
feet wide is best for covering a
standard garden row. Select a time
to apply plastic mulch when there
is little or no wind. Bury one end
of the plastic and unroll it down the
row. Get the plastic as straight as
possible and in contact with the soil
surface. Cover all edges to prevent
wind problems.
If you have a small garden, use
large sheets of black plastic to
cover the whole area rather than
covering individual rows.
However, this has the disadvantage
of excluding rain and sprinkler irri-gation
from the entire soil surface.
Also, wet plastic is slippery, and
working in the garden when there is
dew on the plastic can be haz-ardous.
Soils lose less moisture from
evaporation with plastic mulches,
so you won’t need to irrigate as
often. In prolonged dry periods
and with vegetables that are in the
garden for a long time, supplemen-tal
water becomes necessary. The
easiest way to irrigate with plastic
mulch is to install a drip irrigation
system, or lay soaker hoses on the
surface of the rows before covering
them with plastic.
Because a plastic mulch protects
soil from leaching rain, the soil
needs less fertilizer. When addi-tional
fertilizer is required, apply it
through the planting holes and
upside-down “T” slits cut at inter-vals
into the plastic.
Although plastic warms the soil
in spring, it can have disadvantages
in summer. Excess heat can build
up under the plastic, and high soil
temperatures can injure plant roots
and reduce yields. Rather than
remove the plastic and lose the
advantage of weed control, cover
the plastic with pine needles, hay,
or similar material to shade it
where the crop foliage does not
provide good cover.
You can spray black plastic
mulch with a white latex paint after
the mulch is installed or after an
early crop to reduce the buildup of
excess heat under the mulch. This
will make it useful for summer and
fall vegetables. The light-colored
surface reflects much of the heat,
and the other benefits of the mulch
remain.
At the end of the season, remove
the plastic because it will not
decompose in the soil as organic
mulches do.
Newspaper
Newspaper is an organic materi-al,
but as a manufactured product it
may be thought of differently from
other organic mulches. Newspaper
makes a good mulch when you use
a thickness of several sheets. Hold
newspaper to the soil surface with
soil, sticks, or coat hanger wires.
Some gardeners use a thin layer
of pine needles to hold the newspa-per
down.Apply a newspaper
mulch after plants are established.
Like other organic mulches, news-paper
decomposes rapidly and adds
organic matter to the soil.
10

Insects – Identification and Control
The average home vegetable garden may
contain more than a dozen different types of
vegetable crops, and each of these crops may be
attacked by several different species of insects.
Being able to manage and control these insect
pests is one of the keys to successful vegetable
gardening.
Insect pests can damage vegetables in sever-al
different ways. Pests like tomato fruitworms,
cowpea curculios, stink bugs, and pickleworms
cause direct damage by feeding on the fruit.
Pests like tobacco hornworms, which feed pri-marily
on the leaves, or aphids, which suck sap
from the plant, cause indirect damage. Even
though the fruit is not damaged directly, the
plant’s ability to produce fruit can be reduced if
it loses enough leaf area or sap. Pests like thrips
and bean leaf beetles also can cause damage by
transmitting plant diseases. In addition to the
direct damage they cause, pests like corn ear-worms
and cowpea curculios also contaminate
food.
Even though there are many different species
of insect and mite pests that can occur in home
vegetable gardens, they do not usually all occur
at one time, so you probably will not have to
“spend the summer spraying bugs” in order to
have a successful garden. There are many meth-ods
besides insecticide sprays that can manage
insect populations and keep them from reaching
levels where insecticide sprays are necessary.
Many of these methods are passive, requiring
relatively little effort from the gardener, and
many are things that you will do anyway if you
want to grow a vigorous, productive crop.
Sometimes insect pest populations will reach
damaging levels and you will need to treat with
insecticides. Apply these treatments only to the
crop (or crops) being attacked. Rarely will you
need to apply a broadcast treatment of insecti-cide
to every crop in the garden. In fact, doing so
can be counter-productive, causing pest prob-lems
that you otherwise would not have had.
This is because unneeded insecticide treatments
can destroy beneficial insects, allowing the pests
that they were keeping in check to increase in
numbers.
However, there are situations when repeated
insecticide treatments may be needed to ade-quately
protect certain crops. This is especially
true when you are trying to produce a crop when
pest populations are especially high (because of
the time of year or planting location).
For example, yellow squash are very likely to
experience heavy infestations of squash bugs
and squash vine borers when grown in midsum-mer
to fall. When grown in the same location
year after year, southern peas are likely to expe-rience
heavy infestations of cowpea curculios if
you do not apply timely insecticide treatments.
Fall tomatoes normally experience heavy infes-tations
of stink bugs and tomato fruitworms.
There are many other examples, and experi-enced
gardeners quickly learn which pests are
especially troublesome in their area and when to
expect these pests.
Common Garden Insect Pests
Insects damage plants by eating the foliage,
boring in stems or roots, sucking plant juices,
and attacking the fruit. The type of damage
caused by a particular insect depends on the type
of mouthparts the insect has. Pest insects can be
classified as having one of two different types of
mouthparts: sucking or chewing.
The following two sections briefly discuss
some of the more common insect pests in these
two groups. For more detailed information on
insect management and control, see Extension
Publication 2347 Insect Pests of the Home
Vegetable Garden.
Sucking Insects
Insects that have sucking mouthparts inject
saliva into plants and remove plant juices. The
results of feeding may be on individual leaves
and stems, or the whole plant may be affected,
especially seedling plants. Sucking insects can
deform fruit like peas and beans before the pod
hardens. The following paragraphs describe
examples of garden pests with sucking mouth-parts.
Aphids or plant lice are soft-bodied insects
that may be green, pink, black, or yellow. They
remove the sap from leaves or stems, causing
curled leaves and yellowish plants on many gar-den
crops. They also can inject poisonous saliva
or disease-causing organisms during feeding.
Very large numbers of these insects can occur on
cabbage, tomatoes, mustard, and peas. These
insects secrete a sticky substance known as
“honeydew,” which supports the growth of black
sooty mold fungi. Although sooty mold fungi do
not invade the plant, heavy buildup of sooty
mold is unsightly and can interfere with photo-synthesis.
Harlequin cabbage bugs overwinter as
adults in old cabbage stalks, bunches of grass, or
other areas that give protection. They are black
with brilliant red or yellow markings. They suck
sap from cabbage, collards, mustard, and
turnips, and cause the plants to wilt and die.
Stink bugs can be either brown or green.
They give off an unpleasant odor when handled
or crushed. Stink bugs are large, shield-shaped
insects that may or may not have any distin-guishing
marks. They suck the sap from seeds in
developing bean and pea pods, scarring the
developing seed. In some cases, the punctured
seed will not develop normally. The outside of
the pod will be marked with a small, pimple-like
structure at the puncture site.
Thrips are very small insects rarely more
than one-sixteenth of an inch long. The insect is
straw-colored with a pair of fringed wings. It
damages plant leaves or flower buds by punctur-ing
plant cells with its single, ice pick-like
mouthpart and feeding on the escaping sap. The
feeding causes the leaves to curl and have a sil-very
appearance. The shoots of infested onions
take on the same silvery appearance. To check
for thrips, place a handkerchief between the
rows and slap the plants toward the handker-chief,
or pull one or two plants and shake them
over an empty box. If the insects are present, you
will see them on the white background.
Whiteflies are small white insects common-ly
found on the underside of leaves. When
infested plants are disturbed, the insects flutter
about. Both adults and immatures are damaging.
They feed by piercing the tissue and removing
plant sap. Whiteflies can occur in great numbers
on plants like eggplant and tomatoes. Early
detection and complete plant coverage are
important to control this pest.
Chewing Insects
Insects with chewing mouthparts cut holes in
leaves and fruit, and bore into stems and fruit.
The following paragraphs describe examples of
garden pests with chewing mouthparts.
Ants are attracted to the garden for many rea-sons.
Some feed on honeydew produced by
aphids, some feed on decaying fruit, and some
search for other insects. In many cases, ants are
considered only a minor nuisance pest, but fire
ants can inflict a painful sting. Control ants by
controlling aphids, keeping fruit harvested, and
using labeled fire ant baits around the perimeter
of the garden (not in the garden).
Bean leaf beetles overwinter as adults in or
near garden sites. They are ready to feed on
young beans and southern peas as they emerge
from the ground. Adult coloration and markings
can vary, but they are typically reddish to yel-lowish
with a black band around the edge of the
first pair of wings. Sometimes, but not always,
they may have three or four black spots on the
back. However, there are numerous exceptions
to this color pattern, and some specimens are
red, solid tan, and even pink. You may overlook
the beetles because they feed on the underside of
the leaves. If disturbed, they will drop to the
ground and hide. Adults eat small holes in the
leaves. When treating for bean leaf beetles, be
sure to apply insecticide to both the upper and
lower leaf surfaces.
Blister beetles are gray, black, or striped
slender beetles about three-fourths of an inch
long. The adults eat the foliage of most garden
crops, especially tomatoes.
Cabbageworms or cabbage loopers are
pale green measuring worms with light stripes
down their backs. Imported cabbageworms are
velvety green. They make ragged holes on the
undersides of leaves and bore into the heads of
cabbage, collards, and related plants.
Corn earworms are green, pinkish, or
brown with light stripes along their sides and on
their backs. These worms reach a length of near-ly
2 inches before they are ready to pupate. They
attack corn at two different growth stages. In
corn that has not tasseled, the worms will feed in
the whorl, damaging new leaves as they form.
Later, the adult moths are attracted to the new
silks for egg laying. After hatching, the young
larvae will burrow into the ear and feed on ker-nels
near the tip of the ear. Many gardeners do
not bother with trying to control this pest in corn,
preferring instead to simply discard the damaged
portion of infested ears. However, this insect
will also attack tomatoes, and heavy infestations
can cause severe injury to this crop.
For control of earworms in corn during the
whorl stage, direct sprays into the whorl when
you first note damage. To prevent damage to the
ears, apply insecticide when silks first appear.
Make spray applications 3 to 4 days apart until
the silks are dry. Treat the ear area of the stalk
thoroughly. To provide as much protection as
possible for bees, make applications in early
morning or late afternoon, and do not treat the
tassel.
Cowpea curculio adults are secretive insects
that are rarely seen. They are small and dark
gray. The larva, a white legless grub, is the most
damaging stage. It feeds on developing seeds
within the pods of beans and peas and destroys
their usefulness. To control cowpea curculios,
apply a foliar spray when small pea pods first
appear, and make a total of 3 applications at 5-
day intervals.
Cutworm adults are dull-colored moths that
are most active during the night. The worms are
dull gray, brown, or black and may be striped or
Sucking Insects
Spider mite 0.01” Aphid 0.2” Squash bug 0.7” Green stink bug 0.5” Harlequin bug 0.5”
Chewing Insects
Mexican bean beetle 0.3”
Cornfield ant 0.2” Cowpea curculio 0.25”
Striped Vegetable weevil 0.4” Bean leaf beetle 0.2” blister beetle 0.6”
Corn earworm 1.5”
Spotted cucumber beetle 0.25” Striped cucumber beetle .25”
Tomato hornworm 3” - 4”
Cabbageworm 1.0”
Squash vine borer 1.0” Pickleworm 0.75” Flea beetle 0.25” Colorado potato beetle 0.5”
Cutworm 1.25”
See Insects, page 14
11

Crop
Tomatoes
Peppers
Eggplant
Okra
Corn
Squash,
Pumpkin
Pest
tomato fruitworm
tobacco hornworm
looper
stink bug
leaffooted bug
spider mite
thrips
whitefly
leafminer
aphid
aphid
leafminer
flea beetle
European corn borer
thrips
spider mite
pepper weevil
flea beetle
Colorado potato beetle
tortoise beetle
aphid
stink bug
leaf-footed bug
corn earworm
looper
other caterpillars
cutworm
chinch bug
stink bug
corn earworm
fall armyworm
European corn borer
squash bug
squash vine borer
pickleworm
cucumber beetle
Insecticide (PHI)*
bifenthrin (1), Bt kurstaki (0), carbaryl (3), cyfluthrin
(1), cyhalothrin (5), esfenvalerate (1), malathion (1),
permethrin (1), pyrethrins (0), spinosad (1)
Bt kurstaki (0), spinosad (1)
bifenthrin (1), carbaryl (3), cyfluthrin (1), bifen-thrin
(1), cyhalothrin (5), malathion (1), perme-thrin
(1), pyrethrins (0)
insecticidal soap (1),
neem oil (NA)
bifenthrin (1), carbaryl (3), cyfluthrin (1), bifenthrin
(1), cyhalothrin (5), esfenvalerate (1), malathion (1),
azadirachtin (0), acetamiprid (7), insecticidal
soap (1), neem oil (NA), insecticidal oil (see
label)
spinosad (1)
soap (1), neem oil (NA), malathion (1),
pyrethrins (0)
pyrethrins (0)
spinosad (1)
carbaryl (0), bifenthrin (7)
cyfluthrin (7), esfenvalerate (7), permethrin (3),
spinosad (1)
malathion (3), cyfluthrin (7), esfenvalerate (7),
permethrin (3)
neem oil (NA)
malathion (3), cyfluthrin (7), permethrin (3)
carbaryl (3), malathion (3), permethrin (3), bifen-thrin
(7)
spinosad (1), carbaryl (3), permethrin (3), bifen-thrin
(7)
acetamiprid (7), azadirachtin (0), insecticidal
pyrethrins (0)
malathion (1), permethrin (1), pyrethrins (0)
permethrin (1), spinosad (1)
bifenthrin (1), carbaryl (2), cyfluthrin (1),
cyhalothrin (21), esfenvalerate (1), permethrin (1)
cyhalothrin (21), esfenvalerate (1), malathion (5),
permethrin (1)
cyhalothrin (21), esfenvalerate (1), malathion (5),
bifenthrin (3), carbaryl (3), esfenvalerate (3),
malathion (squash-1; pumpkin-3), permethrin (1),
pyrethrins (0)
bifenthrin (3), permethrin (1), esfenvalerate (3),
carbaryl (3), malathion (squash-0; pumpkin-1)
carbaryl (3), malathion (squash- 1; pumpkin-3)
12
Insecticides for Home Insecticides for the Home Vegetable Gardens
Vegetable Garden
This section provides general information
about commonly used garden insecticides.
See the Insecticides for Home Vegetable
Gardens table for specific pest/insecticide
recommendations.
Use Insecticides Safely! Before using any
insecticide, always be sure to read the label
carefully and follow all label directions
regarding personal protection equipment and
instructions for mixing and applying the prod-uct.
The label is the law, and the use directions
it specifies are designed for the safety of the
applicator, the environment, and those using
the area. Handle insecticides with the respect
they deserve. They are poisons, and excessive
exposure can result in acute and/or chronic
health problems.
Be sure the insecticide is labeled for use
on the vegetable being treated. Few insecti-cides
are labeled for use on every vegetable
crop grown in the garden. Before applying an
insecticide to a particular crop, be sure to read
the label and verify that the product is labeled
for use on that crop.
Observe and follow the pre-harvest
interval. The pre-harvest interval, or PHI, is
the amount of time that must elapse between
making an insecticide application and harvest-ing
the crop. PHIs vary greatly depending on
the insecticide being used and the particular
vegetable crop being treated. For example, the
PHI for carbaryl (Sevin) is 3 days on tomatoes,
7 days on Irish potatoes, and 14 days on
turnips. Failure to observe PHIs can result in
consumption of excessive insecticide residues.
Specific Insecticides
(* indicates insecticides that are suitable
for use in organic gardens.)
Carbaryl is most commonly sold under
the brand name Sevin. This product has been a
standard for insect control in the home veg-etable
garden for many years. It is effective
against a wide range of pests and is labeled for
use on most vegetables. It is especially useful
against many beetles. However, this product
does have a tendency to flare spider mites
when used excessively.
Malathion is another long-time standard
insecticide for home vegetable gardens. Like
carbaryl, it controls a wide range of pests and
is labeled for most vegetables. It is especially
useful for control of aphids, “bugs,” and cer-tain
beetles.
Bt kurstaki*: Bacillus thuringiensis is a
bacteria that produces compounds that are
toxic to certain insect species. There are differ-ent
species and strains of this bacteria that pro-duce
different toxins. Bt kurstaki produces a
compound that is toxic to certain caterpillars
but has no effect on other insect species.
Thuricide is one of the more common brand
names for this product. It is most effective
against leaf-feeding caterpillars like loopers
and diamondback moths.
Spinosad* is a relatively new microbial
insecticide that is very effective against a num-ber
of different caterpillar pests. Two com-monly
available brand names that are labeled
for use on many different vegetable crops are
Green Light Spinosad Lawn and Garden
Spray and Fertilome Bore, Bagworm,
Leafminer, and Tent Caterpillar Spray.
Spinosad is very effective against most cater-pillar
pests, but it is not effective against most
other types of insects. However, it is also
effective against thrips, leaf miners, and
Colorado potato beetles. It is acceptable to use
certain formulations of spinosad in organic
gardens.
Insecticidal soaps* are potassium salts of
fatty acids. They control insects that they con-tact
by disrupting cell membranes. They are
most effective against soft-bodied pests like
aphids, mites, and thrips. Thorough coverage
of the pest is necessary in order to achieve
control. Insecticidal soaps have a short pre-harvest
interval and are labeled for use on
most vegetables. Safer Insecticidal Soap is an
example of one brand name.
Neem oil* is a botanical product that is pri-marily
useful against aphids, mites, and white-flies.
It is labeled for use on most vegetables
and is sold under several brand names
(Monterey 70% Neem Oil is one example).
Thorough coverage of the pest is necessary in
order to obtain control.
Azadirachtin* is an organic product
labeled for use on all vegetables, with a 0-day
PHI. Azatrol is the brand name most often
used by home gardeners, but several other
commercial formulations are available.
Azadirachtin has activity against a wide range
of insect pests but is most useful against soft-bodied
sucking pests, such as whiteflies and
aphids. Although azadirachtin and neem oil
both come from the seed of the neem tree, they
are not the same product.
Pyrethrin* or pyrethrum is a botanical
insecticide that is used primarily by organic
gardeners. This insecticide provides rapid
knockdown of most insects, but insects often
recover. Piperonyl butoxide (PBO) often is
mixed with pyrethrin to act as a synergist. This
increases the overall effectiveness and helps
prevent pests from recovering, but piperonyl
butoxide is not acceptable for organic garden-ing.
Pyrethrin or pyrethrin + PBO is active
against a wide range of insects, is labeled for
use on most vegetables, and has a very short
pre-harvest interval. However, its efficacy is
limited by its very short residual activity.
Acetamiprid has only recently been
labeled for use in home vegetable gardens. It is
especially effective against whiteflies and
aphids and is labeled for control of many other
pests. Ortho Max Flower, Fruit, and Vegetable
Insect Killer is one common brand name. This
product is sold as a ready-to-use spray and as
a concentrate.
Pyrethroids are a group of relatively new
synthetic insecticides that are modeled after
the botanical pyrethrum molecule. These
products are effective against a wide range of
insect pests and are used at very low rates. The
following five pyrethroid insecticides are cur-rently
labeled for use in the home vegetable
garden.
1. Permethrin is the oldest and most com-mon
of the pyrethroid insecticides. It is wide-ly
available and is sold under many different
brand names (Martin’s Vegetables Plus,
Bonide Eight Vegetable, Fruit & Flower, and
Hi-Yield Garden, Pet & Livestock Insect
Control are three examples). Permethrin is
labeled for use on many different vegetable
crops and is effective against many beetle,
“bug,” and caterpillar pests.
2. Bifenthrin is an especially useful
pyrethroid on crops for which it is labeled, but
bifenthrin is not labeled for all vegetable
crops. Ortho BugBGon Max Lawn and
Garden Insect Killer is a commonly available
brand name. Bifenthrin is somewhat less like-ly
than other pyrethroids to trigger outbreaks
of spider mites and aphids.
3. Lambda cyhalothrin is one of the newer
pyrethroid insecticides (Triazicide Soil & Turf
See Insecticides, page 14

Crop
Peas
(English Peas,
Sweet Peas, Snow
Peas)
Onions
Turnips
Collards
Mustard
Spinach
Cabbage
Brocolli,
Cauliflower
Brussels sprouts
Lettuce
Pest
aphid
thrips
caterpillar
leaf miner
onion thrips
aphid
vegetable weevil
yellowmargined
leaf beetle
flea beetle
looper
diamondback moth
aphid
looper
diamondback moth
harlequin bug
stink bug
aphid
looper
diamondback moth
vegetable weevil
aphid
leafminer
looper
other caterpillars
aphid
thrips
looper
diamondback moth
cabbageworm
harlequin bug
stink bug
aphid
looper
diamondback moth
other caterpillars
harlequin bug
stink bug
aphid
looper
diamondback moth
other caterpillars
harlequin bug
stink bug
aphid
caterpillar
Insecticide (PHI)*
azadirachtin (0), malathion (3), insecticidal soap
(1), neem oil (NA)
malathion (3), spinosad (3)
spinosad (3), Bt kurstaki (0)
spinosad (3)
malathion (3), cyhalothrin (14), insecticidal soap (1)
(1), neem oil (NA)
malathion (7), carbaryl (14)
(1), neem oil (NA), acetamiprid (7)
malathion (7), insecticidal soap (1), neem oil (NA)
(1), neem oil (NA)
spinosad (1)
acetamiprid (7), malathion (7), insecticidal soap
(1), neem oil (NA)
carbaryl (3), cyhalothrin (1), malathion (7),
permethrin (7), bifenthrin (3)
acetamiprid (7), malathion (broccoli-3; cauli-flower-
7), insecticidal soap (1), neem oil (NA)
carbaryl (3), cyhalothrin (1), malathion (broccoli-
3; cauliflower-7), bifenthrin (7)
acetamiprid (7), malathion (7), insecticidal soap
(1), neem oil (NA)
Bt kurstaki (0), spinosad (1), permethrin (1),
cyhalothrin (1)
carbaryl (3), cyhalothrin (1), malathion (7),
permethrin (1)
azadirachtin (0), malathion (head lettuce-7; leaf
lettuce-14), insecticidal soap (1), neem oil (NA)
* The numbers in parentheses indicate the pre-harvest interval (PHI), or the number of days
that must elapse between treatment and harvest. Always verify PHIs on the label of the insec-ticide
being used.
13
Insecticides for Home Vegetable Gardens
Crop
Squash,
Pumpkin (cont.)
Melons
Beans
(lima beans, snap
beans, pole
beans)
Southern Peas
(cowpeas, field
peas, black-eyed
peas, crowder
peas)
Sweet potatoes
Irish potatoes
Pest
spider mite
thrips
cucumber beetle
flea beetle
leafminer
looper
pickleworm
melonworm
whitefly
spider mite
aphid
spider mite
bean leaf beetle
cucumber beetle
Mexican bean beetle
cowpea curculio
corn earworm
lima bean pod borer
other caterpillars
leaf miner
stink bug
plant bug
aphid
spider mite
bean leaf beetle
cucumber beetle
Mexican bean beetle
cowpea curculio
corn earworm
lima bean pod borer
other caterpillars
stink bug
plant bug
armyworm
looper
flea beetle
cucumber beetle
tortoise beetle
sweet potato weevil
Colorado potato beetle
blister beetle
flea beetle
potato tuberworm
leaf miner
Insecticide (PHI)*
malathion (squash-1; pumpkin-3), insecticidal
soap (1), neem oil (NA)
spinosad (3)
carbaryl (3), malathion (1)
spinosad (3)
spinosad (3), Bt kurstaki (0)
spinosad (3), carbaryl (3)
azadirachtin (0), insecticidal soap (1), neem oil (NA)
insecticidal soap (1), neem oil (NA)
(1), neem oil (NA)
neem oil (NA)
permethrin (3), bifenthrin (3), esfenvalerate (3),
carbaryl (3), malathion (3), bifenthrin (3)
esfenvalerate (3), carbaryl (3), permethrin (3),
bifenthrin (3)
permethrin (3), bifenthrin (3), esfenvalerate (3),
spinosad (3)
spinosad (3)
malathion (1), carbaryl (3), permethrin (3),
pyrethrins (0), bifenthrin (3)
(1), neem oil (NA)
insecticidal soap (1), neem oil (NA)
carbaryl (3), malathion (3), bifenthrin (3), perme-thrin
(3)
carbaryl (3), bifenthrin (3), permethrin (3)
spinosad (3), bifenthrin (3), permethrin (3)
malathion (3), carbaryl (3), pyrethrin (0), bifen-thrin
(3), permethrin (3)
spinosad (7)
carbaryl (7), permethrin (7)
carbaryl (7)
Stored sweet potatoes may be treated with phos-met
(Imidan dust) according to label.
spinosad (7), carbaryl (7), permethrin (7)
carbaryl (7), permethrin (7)
permethrin (7), spinosad (7)
spinosad (7)

Noninsecticidal Insect Management Methods
For every insect pest, there are many
different species of predators and para-sites
that feed on that pest and help keep
its population in check. If it were not for
these naturally occurring predators and
parasites, our gardens would be overrun
with insect pests. You, as a gardener, must
recognize the importance of this natural
control and avoid disrupting it when pos-sible
. Without question, naturally occuring
biological control is the single most
important method of controlling insect
pests.
By their very nature, insecticide treat-ments
are disruptive to biological control
because they kill beneficial insects, as
well as the pests. This is why you should
avoid unnecessary insecticide treatments.
Destroying naturally occurring beneficial
insects can actually cause pest popula-tions
to increase.
However, do not allow a fear of dis-rupting
natural control to keep you from
making insecticide applications when
they are needed. In the Southern garden,
there will be times when pest populations
escape natural control and reach damag-ing
levels. Prompt, judicious use of insec-ticides
can control pest populations and
help prevent crop damage.
When selecting insecticide treatments,
keep in mind that some insecticides are
more disruptive of natural control than
others. For example, Bt products control
Insect Killer Concentrate is the most
common brand name). It is very effective
against a number of different insect pests,
but it is labeled for use only on a very few
vegetable crops.
4. Cyfluthrin is another relatively
new pyrethroid insecticide. It is sold
under the brand name Bayer Advanced
Garden Power Force Multi-Insect Killer
Concentrate. Like cyhalothrin, it is very
effective against a number of different
insect pests, but is labeled for use only on
a very few vegetable crops.
5. Esfenvalerate is one of the older
pyrethroid insecticides. It is labeled for
use on a number of different vegetable
crops and controls a wide range of insect
pests. Two common brand names are
Monterey Bug Buster and Ortho Bug-B-Gone
Multi-Purpose Insect Killer.
Applying Insecticides in
Home Vegetable Gardens
You can choose from several differ-ent
methods of applying insecticides to
vegetables in your home garden. Liquid
sprays, dusts, and ready-to-use sprays
are three of the most common methods.
Dusts—A few insecticides are avail-able
for use as ready-to-use dust formu-lations
(5% Sevin Dust and 0.25% per-methrin
are two examples). Dusts nor-mally
are applied using a shaker can—
often the container the insecticide
comes in is modified so it can be used as
a shaker can—or a hand-powered,
pump-type duster. Dusts have the
advantage of being relatively conven-ient
to apply, but they are generally less
effective than sprays. It is also difficult
to achieve thorough, uniform coverage
with dusts, especially when using the
shaker-can method of application. Also,
many people consider dusts to be
unsightly.
Ready-to-use sprays—Several
insecticides are sold as ready-to-use, or
RTU, sprays that are labeled for use in
the home garden. Permethrin, carbaryl,
cyhalothrin, cyfluthrin, and neem oil are
examples of active ingredients that are
sold as RTUs. These products come in
hand-pump spray bottles in which the
product has already been diluted to its
final-use strength. These RTU treat-ments
are a very convenient way to
apply spot treatments to individual
plants. However, they are too costly to
use on a large scale.
Single-nozzle hand-pump
sprayers—Single nozzle hand-pump
sprayers are the most common method
of applying insecticides in the home gar-den.
They come in sizes ranging from 1
quart to 5 gallons, with 1 gallon being
the most common size. They can be used
to apply liquid concentrate, wettable
powder, or wettable granule insecticides
according to label directions. Here is an
example of the directions that might
appear on the label of a liquid concen-trate:
“Mix 1 tablespoon/gallon of water
and spray to run-off, taking care to direct
spray to undersides of leaves.”
Hand-pump sprayers are powered
by pumping air into the headspace over
the insecticide mixture. This com-pressed
air then forces the insecticide
spray through the nozzle when the
spray valve is opened. Most hand
sprayers have a nozzle that can be used
to adjust the coarseness or fineness of
the spray droplets. Be sure to thorough-ly
rinse the sprayer after each use.
To avoid disappointing crop injury, it
is strongly recommended that insecti-cides
not be applied with a sprayer that
has previously been used to apply herbi-cide.
It is best to dedicate one sprayer
specifically for herbicide use and anoth-er
for applying insecticides and fungi-cides.
Label each sprayer clearly.
Insects
spotted. Cutworms feed at night and remain hidden during the day.
They damage stands by cutting young plants at the soil line. Control
cutworms by using aluminum foil or wax paper collars to protect
young transplants. You can also use sprays containing permethrin to
control cutworms and/or prevent injury.
Fall armyworm adults are dull-colored, night-flying moths.
They usually do not appear in our area until the first part of June.
Larvae will vary in color from light tan or green to nearly black, with
yellowish lines down their sides. The larvae feed primarily on corn
but will sometimes feed on peas, tomatoes, and beans. They infest
the whorls of corn and can be found 1 to 2 inches deep in the whorl.
It is difficult to get insecticides to the target; direct sprays into the
whorls.
Flea beetles are small with enlarged hind legs. They jump vigor-ously
when disturbed. These beetles eat tiny round or irregular holes
out of leaves. The leaves often look as if they had been peppered with
very fine soot. The beetles attack cabbage, eggplant, peppers, pota-toes,
spinach, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, turnips, and related crops.
Mexican bean beetles are short, yellow to coppery-brown bee-tles
with a curved shape. When the insects are at rest, 16 black spots
are visible on their backs. Good coverage of upper and lower leaf
surfaces will help control this insect.
The pickleworm and melonworm are similar in appearance but
vary in their feeding habits. The pickleworm often enters the fruit
from the ground side, causing the inside of the fruit to sour after air
enters. It also tunnels in the vines. The melonworm rarely enters the
vine. It feeds on the foliage more than the pickleworm. When mature,
both worms are about three-fourths of an inch long and range from
whitish to green. Damaging populations are more likely to develop
on late-planted crops. Start control procedures when young caterpil-lars
are in and around blooms.
Seed maggots are small, white to dirty-white fly larvae. Seed
attacked by this insect usually fail to germinate, or plants are weak
and stunted. Infestations are usually most severe during wet, cool
springs and on ground that is high in organic matter. If these condi-tions
are present, delay planting until conditions are right for good
germination and growth.
Serpentine leaf miner adults are tiny flies. Their maggots feed
on the tissue between the upper and lower surfaces of leaves, caus-ing
slender, white, winding trails through the interiors of the leaves.
They can severely damage beans, cucumbers, peas, squash, toma-toes,
and other vegetables.
Squash vine borer adults are distinctly colored, wasp-like moths.
The front wings are covered with metallic, olive-brown scales; the
hind wings are transparent. The abdomen is ringed with red, black,
and copper. Eggs are placed on leaves and stalks. Small larvae will
bore into the plant from these locations, causing the runner to wilt
eventually. As with all borers, this insect is difficult to control once it
enters the plant because insecticides cannot reach the feeding site.
Infestations are more common on pumpkins and late-planted squash,
and weekly insecticide treatments are often required to protect these
crops. Apply in late afternoon to protect bees.
Cucumber beetles, striped or spotted, damage several garden
vegetables. Some of these are cucumbers, muskmelons, squash, and
to a lesser extent, beans and peas. The spotted cucumber beetle
(SCB) is more of a problem on these latter vegetables than is the
striped. They feed on leaves, tender stems, and in some cases, the
root system. The larvae of the SCB damage seedling corn and are
known as the southern corn rootworm. Use foliar sprays of carbaryl
or other recommended insecticides to control adults.
Tobacco hornworm adults are large moths that feed on the nec-tar
of various plants. They do not damage any portion of the plant,
but the larvae can eat large amounts of foliage quickly, and larvae
will occasionally feed on fruit. This worm is green with diagonal
white lines located along the sides and a prominent horn at the tail.
These insects are found on tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and related
plants.
Slugs are not insects. However, they can be annoying. These pests
leave a trail of thick, sticky material over plant parts that will appear
as a silver trail when dry. They feed on young foliage and low-lying
fruit like strawberries. Slugs rest in moist, shaded areas during the
day and become active at night. To control slugs, use methaldehyde
on iron phosphate baits according to label directions. Be sure not to
contaminate edible parts of plants. Trapping can be effective. Place
wet burlap bags in your garden late in the afternoon. The next morn-ing,
look under the bags for slugs and destroy any you find.
Insecticides
only caterpillar pests and are harmless to
most beneficial insects, while broad-spectrum
insecticides like permethrin are
more disruptive. Still, there are times
when you will need to use one of the
broad-spectrum treatments to obtain con-trol
of a particular pest or pest complex.
There are many cultural control
practices that can make plants more or
less vulnerable to insect attack and/or
injury. Healthy, vigorous plants are gen-erally
more resistant and more tolerant to
damage by insect pests. Consequently,
practices that promote good growth and
plant health also aid in insect manage-ment.
Because many species of insect pests
complete several generations per growing
season, with populations increasing sub-stantially
with each generation, early-planted
crops often experience lower
insect pressure than late-planted crops.
This is especially important with crops
like sweet corn, summer squash, and
tomatoes.
Many insect pests also reproduce on
alternate weed hosts and over-mature
vegetable plants that are left in the gar-den.
So good sanitation practices, includ-ing
weed control and prompt removal of
plants that have ceased to produce, will
help reduce insect populations.
Some varieties of a vegetable are less
vulnerable to insect damage than other
varieties of the same vegetable. So vari-ety
selection also can be an important
insect management consideration. These
are just a few general examples of how
cultural control practices can influence
insect populations.
“Hand-picking and foot-stomping” is
one type of mechanical control that
home gardeners can use successfully. In
small plantings, you can control insects
by physically removing individual insects
or egg masses. Physically washing aphids
from plant terminals with spray from a
garden hose is another form of mechani-cal
control.
You might also use floating row cov-ers,
which prevent insects from being
able to attack or deposit eggs on young
plants. Collars of wax paper or aluminum
foil can protect young transplants from
attack by cutworms.
Reflective mulches are another useful
mechanical control for certain pests.
These are especially effective in prevent-ing
thrips from attacking young tomato
and pepper plants and spreading virus
diseases, particularly tomato spotted wilt
virus.
Using plastic mulches instead of
organic mulches helps reduce populations
of certain pests because the plastic mulch
provides less favorable shelter for pests
like crickets and slugs. Commercially
available pheromone traps or sticky traps
also can help you control or monitor cer-tain
pest species.
Caution!
1. Be sure to read and
follow all label directions.
2. Note and observe the
pre-harvest interval (PHI).
3. Store insecticides in a
safe, secure place where
children cannot get to them.
4. If you spill any of the
insecticide on your body,
wash with soapy water
immediately. Wash all
exposed skin after dusting
or spraying.
5. Wash all food before
preparing or eating.
14

Vegetable Diseases
Garden vegetables can be attacked by a wide range of fungi,
bacteria, viruses, and nematodes. Since no single control measure
is effective against all diseases caused by these microscopic pests,
gardeners must rely on a well-balanced defense to keep diseases
in check.
One of the first steps in setting up a disease control program
is correct identification of disease problems—the earlier the bet-ter.
With quick action, you can control leaf spots, blights, and
mildews within the same season. Other disease problems may not
be treatable this season, but correct disease identification allows
you to take preventive disease control measures next year.
Many garden vegetable diseases are easy to identify. Others
may need the advice of someone more experienced, such as an
Extension county agent, home economist, or plant pathologist.
Disease is best identified on plants that are less than 50 percent
damaged. Do not use dead plants.
Common vegetable disease symptoms and recommended
control measures are provided below. If you cannot identify a dis-ease
problem from these descriptions, call, write, or visit your
county Extension staff for assistance.
To have a plant pathologist diagnose a diseased specimen,
wrap the specimen in newspaper, paper towel, or (preferably)
waxed paper. Pack it in a box or carton and ship it immediately to
Extension Plant Pathology Lab, P. O. Box 9655, Mississippi
State, MS 39762.
Additional information on diseases and nematodes that attack
garden vegetables is available at your county Extension office.
Diseases take their toll in Mississippi gardens every year, but
adequate planning and following recommended disease controls
will keep losses to a minimum.
Damping-Off (seedling dis-ease)—
Seeds of many vegetables are
susceptible to damping-off fungi when
planted in infested soils. The seeds
may fail to germinate, or seedlings
may be attacked before or after emer-gence
and turn brown, shrink, and
finally die. Control measures include
these: plant fungicide-treated seeds in
well-drained areas; do not apply
excessive amounts of nitrate forms of
nitrogen fertilizers; and rotate the loca-tion
of the vegetables.
Root Rot of Beans and Southern
Peas—Root rot is severe on green
beans, lima beans, and southern peas.
The disease first appears as reddish or
reddish-brown areas on stems and
roots. As the disease advances, discol-ored
areas spread until the entire root
and lower stem are affected. Above-ground
symptoms include stunting,
yellowing, drooping of leaves, failure
to produce normal pods, and death.
These control practices reduce
losses from root rot:
• Use high-quality seeds treated with a
fungicide like Arasan.
• In-furrow fungicides (Terraclor)
help control root rot. Apply one-fourth
of the material in the open
furrow and the remainder in the
covering soil during planting.
• During cultivation, do not throw
soil against plant stems.
• Plant in a 4- or 5-year rotation with
other vegetables.
• Plant in well-prepared soils with a
pH of about 6.5, fertilized according
to a soil test and treated for nema-todes
if recommended. Plant seeds 1
inch deep only during favorable
weather, in warm soils, and on top of
a bed to avoid “drowning.”
Early Blight of Tomatoes—Early
blight is a major disease of tomatoes in
Mississippi. Symptoms first appear on
lower, older leaves as circular, dark
brown to black spots that often contain
rings, giving a “target board” effect.
As the disease progresses, leaves turn
yellow, wither, and drop off.
Frequently, only the upper half of the
plant has green leaves, and in severe
cases, the plant becomes completely
defoliated.
Early blight also occurs on plant
stems and sometimes on fruit. On
seedlings, the disease may girdle the
stem and give the appearance of
damping-off.
Reduce losses to early blight by
providing good ventilation in plant
beds and watering when leaves have
time to dry. Seed treatment with
Thiram aids in controlling the damp-ing-
off stage. Do not set tomato plants
where early blight occurred the year
before, and remove and destroy all dis-eased
plant debris in the garden after
harvest.
Applications of chlorothalonil or
mancozeb effectively control this dis-ease.
There is no waiting period after
application until harvest for Bordeaux
mixture or chlorothalonil, but there is
a 5-day waiting period for mancozeb.
Begin applying when plants are 8
to 10 inches tall, and continue at 7-day
intervals through the growing season.
Applications of these fungicides also
control some of the other leaf, stem,
and fruit diseases of tomatoes.
Blossom-End Rot of Tomatoes—
Blossom-end rot occurs on the tomato
fruit. It may also be a problem on pep-pers,
squash, and watermelons. It is
more common on fruit that is one-third
to one-half grown and occurs on the
blossom end of the fruit. It begins as a
small, water-soaked spot that develops
into a dark brown, leathery spot that
may involve half the fruit. The surface
of the spot shrinks and becomes flat or
sunken.
Blossom-end rot is caused by a
lack of calcium in the developing fruit.
The uptake of calcium from the soil by
the tomato plant can be reduced by
fluctuations in soil moisture—either
excessively wet soil or excessively dry
soil. The disease commonly occurs
when plants are grown rapidly and
luxuriantly early in the season and are
then subjected to prolonged dry
weather. Because of drying conditions,
the disease may be more serious on the
windward side of a garden and on
staked tomatoes than on unstaked or
bushy plants.
Prevent blossom-end rot by main-taining
a soil pH around 6.5, irrigating
and mulching to maintain uniform soil
moisture, and avoiding heavy applica-tions
of nitrogen. Control blossom-end
rot by spraying with 4 tablespoons of
96 percent calcium chloride per gallon
of water at 7- to 10-day intervals for 4
applications. Begin spraying with first
appearance of symptoms. Overdosing
plants with calcium chloride may
result in leaf burn. Calcium chloride is
suggested only for tomatoes.
Spotted Wilt of Tomatoes and
Peppers—This viral disease is trans-mitted
by several species of thrips and
may kill plants or drastically reduce
fruit-set. Fruits from diseased plants
are generally small and distorted.
Tomatoes develop irregular yellowish
blotches.
Initial symptoms appear as thick-ening
of veins on younger foliage.
Younger foliage generally exhibits a
pronounced downward curling.
Internodes become shortened, and
immature fruit does not ripen. Dark
purple streaks can occur on leaves,
stems, and fruits. Other symptoms are
blighting and blackening of young
shoots. On individual leaflets, small,
dark, circular dead spots may appear.
Badly spotted leaves may turn dark
and wither.
Some varieties are now being
released with resistance. Check with
your seed source. It is not clear how
effective or long-lived these resistant
cultivars will be.
Try these control practices:
• Remove and destroy diseased plants.
• Keep weed populations down in and
around gardens to reduce movment
of virus-carrying thrips from weeds
to garden plants.
• Suppress thrips by applying
approved insecticides (Malathion
50 or Diazinon 25 EC at 2 tea-spoons
per gallon).
• Further suppress thrips with shiny
mulch materials around tomatoes
and other susceptible vegetables.
Apparently, light reflection from
the mulch surface repels thrips and
the chances of virus transmission.
Conventional black plastic may be
sprayed or hand painted with alu-minum-
colored paint. Oil-based
paints adhere to plastic surfaces and
may be easily applied. This tech-nique
gives best results when mulch
is laid down at the time of planting
and used in combination with other
recommended control procedures.
Southern Blight—Southern blight
affects most garden vegetables. The
fungus that causes southern blight
attacks plant parts (roots, stems,
leaves, or fruit) that are in contact with
or just under the soil surface.
The first visible symptoms are usu-ally
an advancing yellowing and wilt-ing
of the foliage, beginning with the
lower leaves. During warm, moist
weather, a white fungus growth may
appear on the lower stem near the soil
surface and on organic debris in the
soil. Later, light tan to dark brown
mustard seed-like bodies called sclero-tia
develop in the mold. As the disease
advances, several plants next to one
another in the row die.
Southern blight is difficult to con-trol,
but you can reduce losses with
these practices:
• Plow 6 inches deep in the fall to
bury organic debris and the scle-rotia.
• Avoid throwing soil on the plants
when cultivating.
• Where a few scattered plants are
affected, remove them from the gar-den
along with the soil 6 inches deep
and 6 inches from the stem.
• Control foliar diseases, since dead
leaves on the ground may trigger
infection. Also control weeds early
in the season for the same reason.
• Treat problem areas with PCNB
(Terraclor) as a dust, granule, or
wettable powder. Rates and methods
of application are stated on the label.
• Wrap transplant stems with a 4- by 4-
inch strip of aluminum foil and plant
so that 2 inches of wrapped stems
are below and 2 inches are above the
soil.
Stem Anthracnose of Lima
Beans—Stem anthracnose is the most
common disease of lima beans. The
first stages of infection appear on pods
as small, brick-red blotches. These
blotches may spread over the entire
surface of the pods. Later, the diseased
areas become brownish to grayish and
may have many tiny black specks
which are fruiting bodies of the fun-gus.
Occasionally, diseased pods fall
from the plant.
A brick-red streaking may occur
along the veins on the under side of
leaves and on young stems.
Reddish spots occur on the lower
leaf surface and enlarge and become
noticeable on the upper leaf surface.
Occasionally, leaves are killed and fall
from the plant. Severely diseased
plants are yellow and stunted.
Reduce damage from stem an-thracnose
by following these prac-tices:
• Because stem anthracnose can be
carried over on seed to the next
season, use only certified disease-free,
western-grown seed.
• Never plant lima beans in the same
location more than once in 3 years.
• Avoid fall planting of lima beans in
an area of the garden where stem
anthracnose was a problem the pre-vious
spring.
• Apply Bordeaux mixture or another
copper-based fungicide on a 7-day
schedule, beginning at full bloom.
Mosaic—This virus disease com-monly
infects beans, sweet corn,
Early Blight – Tomato
Blossom-End Rot – Tomato
Spotted Wilt
Southern Stem Blight
Stem Anthracnose – Lima Bean
Specific Diseases and Control Measures
Continued on next page
15

squash, melons, cucumbers, peas, pep-pers,
and tomatoes. Symptoms include
the following:
• Misshapen leaves with light and
dark green areas.
• Fruit with green specks, yellow and
green mottling, or bumps.
• Distorted fruit.
• Overall stunted plants. Control of
virus diseases is difficult. Reduce
chances of mosaic in these ways:
• Plant resistant varieties when
available.
• Control insects.
• Eliminate weeds.
• Remove diseased plants as they
appear.
• Purchase certified transplants or
buy western-grown seed.
• Do not use tobacco products when
handling plants.
Phenoxy herbicide damage (such
as 2,4-D) resembles symptoms of
mosaic disease. Leaves and stems are
typically twisted, deformed, curled,
leathery, and excessively long and nar-row.
Apply herbicides carefully and
correctly in and around the garden.
Powdery Mildew—Powdery
mildew is caused by a fungus that
commonly occurs as a white, powdery
growth on leaves of cucumbers,
squash, melons, beans, and English
peas. Benomyl and chlorothalonil
effectively control powdery mildew
on vine crops, and sulfur provides con-trol
on beans and peas.
Fusarium Wilt—This fungal dis-ease
often infects watermelons, cab-bage,
tomatoes, sweet potatoes, beans,
and peas. Lower leaves often turn yel-low
on one side of the plant only. Two
brownish streaks that originate from
the roots are exposed when the stems
are split lengthwise. Infected plants
are usually stunted and wilted. The
best way to control fusarium wilt is
using resistant varieties.
Fruit Rot—Bacteria and fungi
often infect fruit, resulting in soft,
slimy fruit with an offensive odor. You
can reduce the occurrence of fruit rot
by staking, mulching, avoiding
mechanical injury to fruits, controlling
insects, following a regular fungicide
program, and removing mature fruit
from the garden.
Rust—This fungus disease occurs
commonly on beans and sweet corn as
reddish-brown spots on leaves that rub
off when touched. Apply fungicides
like chlorothalonil or sprayable sulfur
at the first sign of disease and at week-ly
intervals thereafter until the disease
is under control.
Nematode Diseases—Nematodes
are slender, tiny, worm-like animals
that feed on plant roots, stems, and
leaves. Nematodes cannot ordinarily
be seen with the naked eye and go
unnoticed until plants become
unthrifty and stunted. They seldom kill
plants; however, they can reduce qual-ity
and yields of many vegetables,
such as beans, beets, carrots, cucum-bers,
lima beans, okra, peas, squash,
tomatoes, and watermelons.
Nematode injury to roots reduces
uptake of water and nutrients from the
soil. Typical above-ground symptoms
are general stunting, yellowing, loss of
vigor, and overall decline. The most
common underground symptom in
gardens is root-knot galling.
Nematodes other than the root-knot
nematode also can cause severe
plant damage. Some of the less obvi-ous
symptoms are stubby roots, tiny
lesions, excessively branched roots, or
complete loss of secondary roots.
The best time to determine if you
have a nematode problem is during the
fall when nematodes are most active.
To detect root-knot nematodes in the
growing season, observe the galled
roots. Have your soil tested for nema-todes
by sending a soil sample to the
Extension Plant Pathology Lab, P. O.
Box 9655, Mississippi State, MS
39762.
Once you know nematodes are
present, you can use certain cultural
practices to help reduce nematode
populations. These include setting
nematode-free transplants, rotating
crops, fallowing, practicing good sani-tation,
controlling weeds, and planting
resistant varieties. Vegetable varieties
having resistance or tolerance to root-knot
nematodes are marked in the list
of recommended varieties. In addition,
you can plant marigolds in gardens to
help reduce nematode populations.
As an alternative to chemical treat-ment,
solarization can reduce parasitic
nematode populations. Solarization is
the use of heat from the sun for killing
nematodes in the soil prior to planting.
To use solarization, place clear plastic
(1 to 1.5 ml thick) on moist, tilled soil,
and seal the edges with soil, bricks, or
other materials. Apply the plastic in
May or June. Leave it in place for at
least 8 weeks. Remove the plastic in
August in time to establish a fall gar-den,
if desired. If not, remove it before
cold weather begins.
Leaf Spots—Leaf spots, caused by
fungi or bacteria, commonly occur on
many vegetables. They appear on
leaves and sometimes stems as dis-tinct,
dark-colored or tan spots one-sixteenth
to 1 inch in diameter. The
regular application of a fungicide gen-erally
provides acceptable control of
fungal leaf spots. Applying copper
fungicides helps control bacterial as
well as fungal leaf spots.
Bacterial Wilt of Cucumbers—
This destructive disease is caused by a
bacterium that overwinters in the bod-ies
of adult striped and spotted cucum-ber
beetles. As these beetles feed on
young plants in the spring, bacteria are
introduced into the vascular system.
Here they are able to multiply rapidly
and produce a sticky material that
stops movement of moisture through
the plant. As a result, leaves on an
infected runner wilt rapidly, and with-in
a short time all runners become per-manently
wilted. Plants can die within
a week or two after initial symptoms
appear. Yellowing is not normally
associated with this disease.
A symptom of bacterial wilt is a
thick, white, sticky substance that
oozes from the cut stem of a wilted
vine. If you press your finger tip
against the cut surface several minutes
after cutting and then slowly remove
it, the bacterial ooze frequently
remains attached and strings out in
thin threads.
Since bacterial wilt resistant
cucumber varieties are not commonly
available, the best control is to keep
cucumber beetle populations in check.
A rigid spray schedule with recom-mended
insecticides (refer to the
Insect Control section) should reduce
the incidence of bacterial wilt.
Black Rot of Cabbage—This dis-ease
attacks cabbage and other cru-cifer
crops like collards, mustard, cau-liflower,
Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi,
rutabagas, kale, and rape. Black rot
may affect plants at any stage of
growth but usually is most prominent
close to maturity. On older plants, yel-low
wedge-shaped areas appear at leaf
margins and expand toward the center.
Blackened veins are apparent in affect-ed
areas. Vascular tissue within the
stem also may become discolored.
Black rot causes head dwarfing,
and soft rot frequently develops on
affected heads.
Practices important for controlling
black rot include these:
• Use disease-free seeds that have been
hot-water treated. This is the most
effective treatment for ridding seeds
of the causal bacteria.
• Purchase transplants that have been
certified as disease-free.
• Rotate in the field so that at least 2
years, and preferably 3, elapse
between cruciferous crops.
Yeast Spot of Lima Beans—
Gray-brown sunken lesions on young
or nearly mature seeds is a good indi-cation
of this disease. Yeast spot is
more a problem in seasons when
southern green stink bug populations
are high because the yeast fungus
enters seeds through pod punctures
this insect makes. The spots, or
lesions, develop within 2 to 3 days of
inoculation. Bright, sunny days allow
the stink bug to move from one plant
to another, spreading the disease.
Yeast spot is best controlled by fol-lowing
a good insect control program
to discourage build-up of stink bugs.
Powdery Mildew
Fusarum Wilt – Tomato
Fruit Rot – Squash
Root-Knot Nematodes
Leaf Spots – Turnips
Precaution: Because of possi-ble
changes in pesticide rec-ommendations,
you must fol-low
all label instructions.
Fungicides for Disease Control
Chlorothalonil
Copper
Sulfur
PCNB
Mancozeb
or Maneb
Vegetable
Beans, Lima At planting
Beans, Snap 7 At planting
Beets
Broccoli 0 See label See label
Brussels Sprouts 0 See label See label
Cabbage 0 See label See label
Carrots 0
Cauliflower 0 See label See label
Collards
Corn, Sweet 14 7
Cucumbers 0 See label
Eggplant See label
Endive See label
Lettuce See label
Melons 0 See label
Mustard Greens
Okra
Onions 14 See label
Peas, Southern
Peppers
Potatoes, Irish 0 See label 0
Potatoes, Sweet
Pumpkins 0 See label
Radishes
Spinach
Squash 0 See label
Tomatoes 0 See label 5
Turnips 0
Cleared for use on most vegetables; no time limitations.
Cleared for use on most vegetables; no time limitations.
Check label to determine that the fungicide is cleared for use on the intended crop.
Numbers indicate the number of days that must pass from last application to harvest.
Blank spaces indicate the fungicide is not cleared for use on that crop.
Mosiac – Southern Pea
16

Watering
Vegetable gardens usually need
about 1 inch of water (630 gallons per
1,000 square feet) per week in the form
of rain or irrigation during the growing
season. Gardens in sandy soil may
need as much as 2 inches of water per
week in midsummer. Where a water
source is located close to the garden,
there are few excuses (a local ban on
watering during a shortage) for letting
the garden suffer in dry weather.
Mulches that slow soil surface
evaporation can reduce the amount of
water needed. Soaker hoses and drip
or trickle irrigation systems wet only
the soil in the root zone and can cut in
half the amount of water used.
Adequate soil moisture is impor-tant
for seed germination, uniform
growth, and productivity. The most
critical periods for adequate mois-ture
are during seed germination,
early growth, flower and fruit devel-opment,
and root enlargement of
root crops, and immediately follow-ing
transplanting.
Where a water source is not close
to the garden, it is possible to water
some plants with a little work.
Partially bury 1-gallon plastic milk
jugs between tomato, pepper, egg-plant,
squash, and other widely spaced
plants. Punch a few small holes near
the bottoms of the jugs before placing
them in the soil. Fill the jugs periodi-cally
with water hauled to the garden.
The water will slowly seep into the
soil, providing moisture to the root
zone. Periodically place 1 to 2 table-spoons
of fertilizer in the jugs to stim-ulate
plant growth.
Sprinklers
There are several choices of garden
sprinklers, ranging from the simple
garden hose with a spray nozzle to
semi-automatic equipment. Many
portable lawn sprinklers are adequate
for the garden. Adjust the rate of water
application so that it is not faster than
it can enter the soil. Water applied too
rapidly runs off, resulting in erosion or
puddles, and causing soil compaction.
Place the sprinkler so plants do not
interfere with the pattern of applica-tion.
This often means mounting the
sprinkler above the tops of the plants
where wind may affect the distribution
pattern. Small cans placed throughout
the garden can be used to measure the
amount of water applied and show the
overlap necessary to approach an even
application of water.
Since overhead sprinklers wet
plant leaves, water early enough in the
day to allow time for leaves to dry
before night. This helps keep leaf dis-eases
from developing and spreading.
Each watering should wet the top 3 to
5 inches of soil. Frequent light water-ings
result in shallow rooting, suscep-tibility
to damage by drought, and
plants that are easily blown over.
Drip and Trickle
Soaker or perforated plastic hoses
are excellent for watering the garden.
Place the hose with holes up along one
side of the plants or underneath an
organic or plastic mulch.
A number of different drip and
trickle irrigation systems are available
through mail order catalogs, magazine
ads, and local distributors. These sys-tems
usually consist of a supply line
that connects to a garden hose and
delivery tubes that are placed next to
the plants. A 150-mesh filter is recom-mended
to prevent clogging small
pores and emitters. The systems oper-ate
at low pressure and deliver small
amounts of water very slowly through
pores in the delivery tubes or emitters
punched into the delivery tubes.
An irrigation system makes it pos-sible
to water a large garden all at the
same time. You also are able to har-vest,
cultivate, spray, and do other gar-den
chores while watering. The largest
disadvantage of a drip system is the
initial cost.
Advantages include these:
• Reduces water use by one-half or
more.
• Water is placed where it is needed: at
the base of plants and not in walk-ways.
• Permits working in the garden while
watering.
• Keeps plant leaves dry.
A drip irrigation system makes it possible to water a large garden all at the same time. It
also allows you to harvest, cultivate, spray, and do other garden chores while watering.
The major disadvantage of a drip system is the initial cost.
Correct use of a drip irrigation sys-tem
should keep vegetable plants
actively growing in dry periods yet
cause no problem when rain occurs
following irrigation. The system,
when properly operated, keeps soil at
the base of the plant (root zone area)
moist. This may require operating the
system for short periods three or four
times a week during dry weather.
Never allow the soil to dry complete-ly.
Drip irrigation, when used correct-ly,
prevents drought stress but is not
designed to correct drought stress like
sprinkler irrigation, which wets all the
soil. Single drip lines will not adequate-ly
water wide-row or raised-bed gar-dens,
but several spray heads are avail-able
that do a good job in these special
types of gardens when fitted to the
drip irrigation delivery tube.
17
Vegetable seeds and transplants
are available from many sources. See
pages 22-30 for suitable varieties.
After selecting the varieties to plant,
check local sources to see if the vari-eties
are available.
It is important to locate seeds
early, especially if you are going to
grow some of your own transplants
for the spring garden. You can order
new varieties that are not available
locally from mail order seed catalogs.
Check the Planting Guide on page 7
for amounts of seed to buy. It is
important to a garden’s success that
the seed is fresh and packaged for the
current year. Home-saved vegetable
seeds and those carried over from the
previous year may give disappointing
results. Since most of the new vari-eties
are hybrids, do not attempt to
save seed from one year’s crop to
plant the next year. Also, because
some diseases are carried on seeds,
home-saved seeds may continue to
cause a disease problem in your gar-den.
The only vegetable seeds that
gardeners should save are those of
varieties that have been in the family
for many years and have become
heirloom varieties.
Once the garden is completely
planned on paper, the land prepared,
and the seed on hand, the job of plant-ing
begins.
Planting is not a “one shot” opera-tion.
There are different times for
planting different vegetables.
Vegetables may be grouped in the
garden plan and planted according to
their hardiness and temperature
requirements. Lettuce and English
peas are cool-season vegetables and
grow best in cool weather. Okra and
southern peas are warm-weather veg-etables
and need warm temperatures
for best growth.
Cool-season vegetables differ
from warm-season vegetables in that
they are hardy or frost tolerant, seeds
germinate at cool soil temperatures,
and root systems are shallow and
require frequent irrigation. Cool-sea-son
plants are smaller, respond more
to nitrogen fertilizer, and are general-ly
more tolerant of shade than warm-season
vegetable plants.
Before-You-Plant
Practices
Site Selection. To reduce chances
of damping-off, root rot, and other
problems associated with wet soils,
choose a well-drained site. If such a
site is not available, plant on raised
beds to promote drainage and faster
warming of the soil. Keep surface
water from flowing across the garden
to help prevent disease-causing
organisms from coming into the gar-den
from outside areas.
Sanitation. Since many disease-causing
organisms live through the
winter in old plants, plow under crop
debris at least 6 inches deep as soon
as possible.
Tobacco mosaic virus, a common
problem on tomatoes and peppers,
can be transmitted through tobacco
products. Wash your hands with soap
and water before working in the gar-den
if you use tobacco.
Disease-free seed.Weather condi-tions
in Mississippi favor the devel-opment
of many seed-borne diseases.
Therefore, buy certified seeds pro-duced
in the western United States
where the climate is dry and the seeds
are relatively free of disease-causing
microorganisms.
Seed treatment. Most seeds are
treated with a fungicide, as indicated
by their red, blue, purple, or green
color. If they have not been treated
with a fungicide, treat them yourself.
Treat large seeds in a jar. To treat
small seeds, tear off one corner of the
seed packet. Lift out as much of the
seed treatment fungicide (Thiram or
Captan) as is held on the tip of the
blade of a penknife, and insert the
dust through the hole in the seed
packet. Fold down the corner of the
packet and shake thoroughly.
DO NOT eat treated seed or
feed it to livestock.
Healthy transplants. Select
healthy, vigorous plants for trans-planting.
Buy them from a reputable
dealer or grow your own.
Crop rotation. An easy and eco-nomical
way to reduce soil-borne dis-eases
is to rotate vegetables. Corn and
members of the cabbage family can
be alternated with other vegetables
from one year to the next. If space
permits, move the garden to a new
location every 3 to 4 years, preferably
to a site that was in grass.
Resistant varieties. Make every
effort to buy disease-resistant vari-eties.
Consult the list of recommend-ed
varieties, seed catalog variety
descriptions, or your county
Extension office for help in selecting
varieties that are disease resistant.
Fertilization. Use fertilizer
according to recommendations based
on a soil test. Fertilizers do not pre-vent
diseases, but a healthy, well-fer-tilized
plant is less susceptible to dis-ease
than one growing in soil lacking
required nutrients.
Plant spacing. Crowding plants
allows moisture from dew or rain to
remain on leaf surfaces. You should
avoid this because it promotes disease
development.
After-Planting Controls
Spraying. Control diseases like
rust, mildew, anthracnose, and leaf
spot with a foliar fungicide. Sprayers
and dusters are available for this pur-pose.
A spray is generally more effec-tive
than a dust.
Successful disease control with
fungicides depends on these factors:
• Apply early to prevent early-season
infection and rapid spread of disease.
• Select the proper fungicide because
not all fungicides control the same
disease.
• Cover all foliage thoroughly.
• Repeat application.
Suggested fungicides include
chlorothalonil and other products list-ed
in the Fungicides for Disease
Control table on page 16. These fungi-cides
are usually applied at rates rang-ing
from 1 to 2 tablespoons per gallon
of water. Refer to labels for recom-mended
rates for specific vegetables
and diseases controlled on those crops.
Some gardeners prefer to prepare
their own fungicide. Bordeaux is an
example of a fungicide that can be eas-ily
prepared by combining copper sul-fate
(blue stone), lime, and water.
Directions for making Bordeaux mix-ture
are available at your county
Extension office. Ask for Plant
Disease Dispatch Sheet M-707 The
Preparation of Bordeaux Mixture.
Weed control. Weeds can harbor
disease-causing organisms. A weedy
garden also reduces air movement and
sunlight, which creates conditions
favorable to disease development.
Insect control. Insects feeding and
laying eggs cause wounds on roots,
Planting Vegetables
See Planting, page 30

Weed Control
Weeds (plants growing out of
place) are a serious garden problem.
They rob vegetable plants of sunlight,
water, and nutrients. They also provide
hiding places for insects and serve as a
source of vegetable diseases.
Weeds can kill a gardener’s enthu-siasm,
which can cause them to aban-don
the garden in midsummer. It is
important to control weeds while they
are small and before they get out of
control.
Since any plant growing out of
place can be considered a weed, a
sweet corn plant (from a carelessly
dropped seed) growing in a row of
bush snap beans is technically a weed;
but the most common garden weeds
are crabgrass, yellow and purple
nutsedge, morningglories, bermuda-grass,
and pigweed.
Most weeds can be controlled and
kept from becoming serious problems
in the garden. Methods of control
include hand-pulling, cultivation,
mulching, and use of chemicals.
Hand-Pulling
Hand-pulling is not an effective
way to control weeds in a large gar-den,
but it can be effective under cer-tain
circumstances. Hand-pull weeds
that appear in the row with vegetable
plants, as well as those that grow in the
planting holes of a plastic mulch.
Weeds that grow between closely
spaced rows of vegetables in wide
rows, raised beds, or small gardens
also may require hand-pulling. Weeds
growing in containers used for vegeta-bles
should be hand-pulled. Extremely
small weeds are difficult to pull by
hand, but do not wait until the weeds
get so large that pulling them destroys
adjacent vegetable plants. Thinning
seedlings spaced too closely together
and hand-weeding frequently can be
done at the same time.
Cultivation
Cultivation is the most widely used
method of garden weed control. It is
not a one-time chore, for with each
rain, irrigation, and stirring of the soil,
weed seedlings emerge.
A variety of hand and power equip-ment
is used for cultivation, but the
most commonly used tools are the hoe
and garden tiller.
A sharpened hoe blade is an excel-lent
tool for cutting the roots of weeds.
The severed plants dry in the sun and
die.
A garden tiller and other soil-dis-turbing
tools, the hoe included, are
used to disturb the soil around the
weed plant’s roots. On a hot day, the
weeds die when their roots dry and the
plants are unable to get water. Small
weeds die more quickly than large
weeds, so cultivation should be fre-quent
enough to prevent weed
seedlings from becoming established.
Cultivation should also be shallow so
you do not disturb or injure vegetable
plant roots.
Deep cultivation, in addition to
destroying weeds, injures vegetable
plant roots and brings more weed
seeds to the surface, where they ger-minate.
“Hoe blight,” the wilting and
death of vegetable plants after cultiva-tion,
often results from careless culti-vation.
Take a perennial weed, such as
bermudagrass, out of the garden fol-lowing
cultivation because pieces of
the plant that have no roots can form
roots and make the bermudagrass
problem worse.
Mulching
Mulching is an effective way to
control garden weeds. Natural and
plastic mulches properly applied to
weed-free garden soil prevent most
weeds from becoming established in
the mulched area. Bermudagrass and
nutsedge are difficult to control com-pletely
with mulches. Weeds that
appear in the planting holes of plastic
mulch should be pulled by hand.
Herbicides
Commercial vegetable growers
have a fairly wide choice of chemical
weed killers (herbicides) to prevent or
control weed problems. Gardeners,
however, have a much smaller choice
of herbicides.
Don’t expect to control all weeds
in a garden of mixed vegetables with
one herbicide. First, no single herbi-cide
controls all weeds. Secondly,
some vegetables are also sensitive to
the herbicide, and if the wrong herbi-cide
is used, the vegetable is injured
along with the weeds.
Herbicides applied to the soil
before vegetables are planted and
before weeds have emerged are called
preemergence herbicides. Some pre-emergence
herbicides can be applied
immediately after the vegetable seeds
or plants are planted but before the
weed seeds germinate. Postemergence
herbicides are applied after weeds
have emerged.
Herbicides used in the garden may
be in the form of granules, wettable
powders, or liquids. The equipment
needed for application depends on the
formulation used. Use a pump-up
pressure sprayer for applying liquids
and wettable powders. Since most gar-den
sprayers are equipped with a
cone-type nozzle, use a 50-mesh
screen and a 8003 E or equivalent fan
nozzle attached to the sprayer for
applying herbicides.
Chemical herbicides used in the
vegetable garden can be washed from
the sprayer, but some of those used on
the lawn cannot. Therefore, a wise
Nozzle Parts
Spray Nozzle Nozzle Body Strainer Cap Spray Tip
gardener will keep two sprayers: one
for lawn herbicides and the other for
garden herbicides. When spraying her-bicides
approved for application over
the tops of vegetable plants, do not use
a sprayer that has been used with lawn
herbicides.
Before using a herbicide in your
garden, read the product label for a
listing of vegetables it can be used on,
the recommended rate of application,
and the method of application. Never
use a product that is not labeled, and
do not exceed the recommended rate.
Dacthal—Several brand names
are available. Dacthal can be used on a
wide variety of vegetable plants.
Applied correctly, Dacthal gives good
control of most grasses and a few
broadleaf weeds. This herbicide con-trols
weeds as their seeds germinate.
Therefore, before applying Dacthal,
remove existing weed plants.
Trifluralin—Several brand names
are available. Trifluralin is a preemer-gence
herbicide used to control grass
problems in the garden. Some plan-ning
of the garden to group trifluralin-labeled
vegetables in one area is help-ful
when you use this herbicide. To
obtain good weed control, mix triflu-ralin
with garden soil. Cultivate soil to
eliminate clods. Broadcast the recom-mended
amount of either the granules
or the liquid formulation. Granules are
easier for most gardeners to use. After
application, mix the herbicide in the
top 2 inches of the soil. Two very shal-low
cultivations provide good mixing
with the soil. Trifluralin is labeled for
use before planting seeds of several
vegetables and before setting trans-plants
of others. Read the package
label for a list of approved vegetables.
Poast is a postemergence herbicide
that selectively controls grass weeds in
several vegetables. Apply Poast to
most grasses before plants reach 8
inches high. One application controls
most annual grasses, but several appli-cations
may be required to control
perennial grasses like bermudagrass.
Mix a crop oil concentrate in the spray
solution before application. Read the
Poast label for specific instructions
and approved vegetable crops.
Glyphosate—Formulations of this
popular nonselective, postemergence
herbicide are approved for limited use
in the vegetable garden site. Most
applications are for eliminating exist-ing
weed problems before vegetable
seedling emergence and before veg-etable
plants are in the garden. Read
the label for specific application
instructions and limitations.
Herb Gardening
Herbs are a special group of plants used for
flavoring and scents. Many herbs used in flavor-ing
foods and teas (culinary herbs) can be grown
in Mississippi gardens. Most herbs should be
grown in full sun, but a few tolerate light shade.
They prefer a well-drained soil of medium fer-tility
with a pH of 6.0 to 7.0. An organic mulch
in summer benefits the plants.
Herbs that can be grown in Mississippi are
annuals that are planted every year, biennials
that are planted in the fall and flower the follow-ing
year, hardy perennials that come back year
after year, and tender perennials that may sur-vive
a mild winter but often need to be treated as
annuals or protected from freezing temperatures.
You can start most popular herbs from seeds.
Many of the perennial herbs are propagated by
stem cutting, layering, or crown divisions.
Annual, and some perennial, herb plants are sold
at nursery and garden centers, and seeds and
plants are offered by many mail order catalog
companies.
Because herbs are used in very small
amounts, just a few plants of each type may be
enough. If you want a large quantity of a partic-ular
herb, such as sweet basil for making pesto,
plant the herb in the vegetable garden.
Otherwise, prepare a small area especially for
herbs so that they can be enjoyed for their
appearance as well as fragrance.
Herbs have few pests, which is good because
there are few if any pesticides approved for use
on these plants. When planting herbs in the veg-etable
garden, protect them from pesticides used
on vegetables.
Grow herbs started from containers so they
can be set in the garden without disturbing the
roots. Borage and dill are two herbs that do not
transplant well if bare-root. Either scatter seeds
in the garden where these herbs are to grow, or
start plants in containers.
The flavors and scents of herbs are caused by
oils in the plant tissue. High fertilization, excess
moisture, and shade result in low oil content and
weak flavor. The oil content in many herbs is at
its highest just before the plants begin to flower.
Herbs and Their
Characteristics
Anise—annual grown for its licorice-fla-vored
leaves and seeds; slow growing; difficult
to transplant bare-root.
Basil—annual grown for its leaves; available
in several different flavors and plant types; easi-ly
gown from seed; purple leaf types make
attractive vinegar.
Sweet Bay—tender perennial, evergreen
shrub; source of bay leaf; requires cool green-house
protection in winter; frequently grown as
a container plant; start with a nursery-grown
plant.
Bergamont—perennial, also known as bee
balm; grown for minty leaves; attractive flowers
attract bees and hummingbirds; start from crown
division or seeds.
Borage—annual grown for cucumber-fla-vored
leaves and attractive small blue flowers;
attracts bees; makes a large, unruly plant; diffi-cult
to transplant bare-root.
Salad Burnet—perennial grown for cucum-ber-
flavored leaves; grow from seed or crown
division.
Catnip—perennial grown for leaves; a mint;
grow from seed, cuttings, or division.
Chamomile—perennial grown as annual;
flowers used for tea; grow from seed.
Garlic Chives—grown for leaves with light
garlic flavor and scent; grow from seed or divi-sion;
attractive white flowers sew many seed;
self-seeds prolifically.
Onion Chives—perennial grown for onion-flavored
leaves; attractive purple flowers; grow
from seed or division.
Coriander—annual; grow from seed; fresh
green leaves known as cilantro and Chinese
parsley; also grown for seeds.
Costmary—perennial; known as bible leaf;
grown for minty scented leaves; grow from seed
or division.
Dill—annual grown for seed heads and
leaves; prefers cool weather; grow in spring and
fall; doesn’t transplant well bare-root; scatter
seeds where plants are to grow or use container-grown
plants.
Garlic—perennial grown for dry bulb; plant
garlic cloves in October and harvest bulbs in
May and June.
Scented Geraniums—tender perennials;
available in many different scents: rose, pepper-mint,
lemon, lime, orange, strawberry, apple,
almond, mint; variety of foliage forms available;
See Herbs, page 19
18

Median Date of First Freeze in Fall
Approximate Number of Plants to Expect
per Ounce of Seed
Broccoli.....................................5,000
Cabbage ....................................5,000
Cauliflower ..................................5,000
Eggplant.....................................2,500
Peppers......................................1,500
Tomatoes ....................................4,000
excellent pot plant; propagate by cuttings.
Ginger—tender perennial grown for pungent root;
treat as annual (plant in spring and harvest in fall);
propagate by root cuttings; prefers moist, rich soil.
Anise Hyssop—perennial grown for licorice fla-vored
leaves for teas; attractive purple flowers attract
bees; a mint; propagate by seed or division.
Lemon Balm—perennial mint grown for lemon-scented
leaves; grow from seed, division, or cuttings.
Lemongrass—tender perennial grown for lemon-flavored
leaves used in oriental cooking; attractive as
ornamental grass with blue-green color; leaves have
sharp edges.
Lemon Thyme—perennial; low-growing attrac-tive
plant for sunny area; leaves have strong lemon fra-grance.
Marjoram—perennial grown as annual; grown for
leaves; grow from seed, cuttings, or by layering.
Mint—perennial; many different flavors and leaf
and plant types; spreads rapidly; prefers moist soil, tol-erates
shade; keep cut for tender growth.
Oregano—perennial grown for leaves; grow from
seed, cuttings, or division.
Parsley—biennial grown as annual; grown for
leaves; grow from seed; prefers moist soil.
Rosemary—perennial, evergreen shrub but reli-ably
hardy; grown for leaves; available in different
plant types, upright and creeping; adapted to pot cul-ture;
prefers moist, well-drained soil.
Sage—perennial grown as annual, not reliably
hardy; available as common, golden, and variegated;
grown for leaves; grow from seed, cuttings, or layer-ing;
prefers well-drained soil.
Pineapple Sage—tender perennial; pineapple-scented
leaves; large plant; attractive red flowers grow
from cuttings.
Summer Savory—annual grown for leaves; grow
from seed; unruly plant.
Winter Savory—perennial grown for leaves; grow
by layering; a neater plant with better flavor than sum-mer
savory.
Tarragon—perennial grown for licorice-flavored
leaves; French Tarragon the only type to grow and
only grows from stem and root cuttings; suffers with
summer heat.
Winter Tarragon—tender perennial, not reliably
hardy; also known as mint marigold; licorice-flavored
leaves; propagate by cuttings and division; small sin-gle,
orange, marigold-type flower in fall.
Thyme—perennial, but not reliably hardy; variety
of flavors and plant types; grown for leaves; propagate
by seed, cuttings, or divisions; prefers well-drained
soil.L
emon Verbena—tender perennial, shrubby,
grown for leaves; propagate by cuttings; grow in con-tainer
and provide winter protection.
Fall Gardening
Fall gardening is the way to
have fresh vegetables right into
winter. Many fall gardens are car-ried
over from summer gardens.
Tomato plants, okra, peppers, and
eggplant, if cared for during the
summer, continue to produce until
cold slows them down and frost
kills them.
To keep these vegetables pro-ducing,
control insects and dis-eases,
keep the plants watered and
fertilized, and don’t let the garden
grow up in grass and weeds. A good
fall garden, however, is not just
keeping the summer garden alive. It
means planting new vegetables to
produce in fall and early winter.
Plan the fall garden at the same
time you plan the spring and sum-mer
garden. Include your seed
needs for fall when ordering seeds
for the spring and summer garden.
It helps to have the seeds on hand
so you can plant them at the appro-priate
time.
Many cool-weather vegetables
normally planted in spring grow
and produce better in the fall, since
they mature as the weather cools.
When wet weather causes a delay
in planting early spring vegetables
(past a time when they can be
expected to mature before hot
weather destroys them), a fall gar-den
provides a second opportunity.
Chinese cabbage (very sensitive to
heat) and rutabagas (require a long
period of cool weather) are two
cool-weather vegetables recom-mended
for planting only in the
fall.
Warm-season vegetables planted
in midsummer for fall harvest
require additional time to mature as
the weather cools in September and
October. Choose planting dates in
midsummer that allow these veg-etables
to mature before frost.
The map at right provides the
median dates of the first freezes
(temperatures equal to or lower
than 32 ºF) in the fall.
Young Plants
The hot, dry weather in July,
August, and September is hard on
germinating seeds and young
seedlings. Germination and
seedling survival is improved if one
of these methods is used:
• Water a day or two before plant-ing
so seeds are planted in moist
soil. Watering after planting can
cause the soil surface to pack and
crust.
• Plant seeds in moist soil and
cover with moistened, non-crust-ing
materials: a mix of peat moss
and vermiculite or composted
sawdust and sand. Keep the sur-face
moist during germination
and seedling establishment.
Plant three to five seeds of the
small-seeded vegetables like broc-coli
and cabbage at the recom-mended
final plant spacing in the
garden row. Once the seedlings are
established, thin the seedlings to
one plant at each location.
Transplants
Start vegetable transplants for
the fall garden in individual con-tainers,
such as peat pots, small
clay or plastic pots, or peat pellets.
Setting out plants without disturb-ing
the root systems reduces trans-plant
shock.
Protect young plants from the
sun for a few days. You can use
bare-root transplants from thinning
the seedling row, but be prepared to
provide water and shade until they
become established.
A fall garden is open to attack
by insects and diseases just as the
summer garden. In some cases, the
insect problems are worse. Worms
(cabbage loopers and imported cab-bage
moths) are serious problems
on fall cabbage, cauliflower, broc-coli,
and collards. Control these
leaf-eating worms with one of the
biological sprays. Squash bugs are
troublesome on fall squash and
pumpkins.
Fall vegetables need fertilizer
just as much as spring and summer
vegetables. Don’t count on the fer-tilizer
applied in spring to supply
fertilizer needs of vegetables plant-ed
in late summer and fall. Fertilize
before planting and side-dress as
needed.
As the danger of frost approach-es,
pay close attention to weather
predictions. Tender plants often can
be protected from an early frost and
continue to produce for several
weeks. When a killing frost is
inevitable, harvest tender vegeta-bles.
Green tomatoes that are turning
white just before turning pink will
ripen if stored in a cool place. Pick
these tomatoes, wrap them in paper,
and use them as they ripen.
Don’t abandon the garden when
freezing temperatures kill the
plants. Clean up the debris, store
stakes and poles, take a soil test,
and row up part of the garden to be
ready for planting early spring Irish
potatoes and English peas.
Vegetables Typically Planted in a Fall Garden
Bush Snap Beans
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Chard
Chinese Cabbage
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mustard
Onions
Radishes
Rutabagas
Spinach
Turnips
October 27 - November 2
November 3 - 7
November 8 - 12
November 13 - December 2
Herbs
19
compact plant than many others and
makes jumbo four-lobed peppers. Orange
Blaze bell pepper is the 2011 All
American Selection. This green to orange
pepper is very quick to color in only 65
days and makes slender, 4-inch-long pep-pers
on a compact plant. Gardeners having
trouble with tomato spotted wilt virus may
want to try Milena green to orange bell
pepper.
Avatar is for fans of huge cantaloupes.
The fruit are somewhat elongated and can
grow to 10 pounds. This is a full-sized
cantaloupe plant requiring at least 25
square feet per plant in the garden.
Sprite melon is now available to home
gardeners. This crisp-fleshed, very sweet
Oriental melon makes several 1-pound
white- to yellow-rinded melons per plant.
The variety was restricted to only a few
commercial growers in North Carolina
until a few years ago. Grow the plants as
you would cantaloupe and see what all the
excitement was about.
Rocky Top is a new tomato spotted
wilt virus-resistant tomato that has per-formed
well in tunnel culture in
Mississippi. It produces large, somewhat
flattened tomatoes with good eye appeal
and good yields. This determinate variety
grows well with short stakes and does not
require aggressive suckering.
New Varieties

Staking and Training Tomatoes
The main reason for staking and supporting
tomato plants is to keep plants and fruit off the
ground. This reduces losses from fruit rots when
fruit touch the soil and from sunburn when fruit
are not shaded by foliage.
Supported plants are easier to spray or dust
for insect and disease control and easier to har-vest
than those sprawling on the ground. Three
popular methods of supporting tomato plants
are staking, caging, and trellising. Supported
tomato plants are pruned (suckered) to reduce
the number of branches, thereby making plants
more suitable for the selected method of sup-port.
Plant type also determines the amount of
pruning.
Tomato varieties are divided into two gener-al
groups based on their pattern of growth.
Determinate, or self-topping, varieties have
short- to medium-length vines. Plants are heav-ily
branched and do not make continuous
growth. Rather than having continuous produc-tion
of leaves and flower clusters, every branch
ends with a flower cluster. Determinate varieties
often are early and have a short but concentrat-ed
production season. These plants are staked or
caged but are not adapted to trellising. Some
determinate varieties are Celebrity, Mountain
Pride, and Rutgers. Determinate varieties are
not heavily pruned, regardless of the support
system, because most of the fruit is produced on
the branches.
Indeterminate varieties continue to grow
and produce leaves and flower clusters until dis-ease,
insects, cold, or lack of water and fertiliz-er
kills the plants. Indeterminate varieties are
Better Boy, Floradel, and Big Beef.
Indeterminate varieties are heavily pruned when
trellised, moderately pruned when staked, and
lightly pruned when caged.
Pruning removes small shoots where each
leaf joins the stem. Properly pruned plants pro-duce
larger and earlier fruit than non-pruned
plants of the same variety. Remove shoots when
they are less than 4 inches long to avoid injuring
the plant. The larger the sucker before removal,
the larger the resulting wound, and the more
wasted plant energy that went into the sucker.
Remove a sucker by grasping it between your
thumb and second finger and bending it to the
side until it breaks. This is best done early in the
day when plants are crisp and not wilted from
the day’s sun and heat. Do not cut suckers with
a knife because this is one way to spread virus
diseases.
Decide on the method of support before set-ting
tomato plants in the garden. Plants for trel-lising
are set closer together than plants to be
staked or caged. Plants for caging are set farther
apart than plants for staking.
Staking
Staking requires wooden or metal stakes 5 to
6 feet long for indeterminate varieties and 3 to 4
feet long for determinate varieties. Wooden
stakes should be at least 1 inch square. Metal
stakes can be of smaller diameter and have the
advantage of lasting many years. Do not use
chemically treated wood. Sections of concrete
reinforcing rods (rebar) make excellent tomato
stakes.
Space plants 18 to 24 inches apart in the row
and drive a stake next to every plant or every
other plant. Place the stake 3 to 4 inches from
the base of the plant on the side away from the
first bloom cluster to prevent trapping the fruit
between the plant and the stake.
Support Tomato Plants
There are many ways to prune and tie toma-to
plants. Limit staked indeterminate plants to
two or three fruit-producing branches. A popular
method is to select the main stem, the sucker
that develops immediately below the first bloom
cluster (a very strong sucker), and one other
sucker below that. Remove all other suckers and
as you tie the plants, periodically remove addi-tional
suckers that develop on selected branch-es.
Tie individual branches to the stake with soft
cord by first tying twine to the stake and then
looping it loosely around the plant. Never tie a
plant immediately below a fruit cluster because
the weight of the fruit may cause the plant to sag
and strip the cluster from the plant. Continue to
prune and tie the plant as it grows.
The Florida weave is an alternative system to
support staked tomato plants in a row. Using
polypropylene cord (it doesn’t stretch), tie the
cord to the first stake about 6 to 10 inches above
the ground. Run the cord to the second stake and
wrap it around the stake once at the same level.
Be sure to keep the cord tight. Repeat this
process, going on to the third, fourth, and
remaining stakes until you reach the end of the
row. Come back with the cord on the opposite
side of the stakes, wrapping it around each
stake. Plants are held in the space between the
cords on opposite sides of the stakes. Repeat this
process as plants grow so the branches are
always held between the cord. Three to five runs
down the row should be enough for the season.
Remember to keep pruning plants as they grow
to reduce the amount of plant material that must
be supported.
When staking determinate varieties, prune
only once to remove the first suckers.
Caging
Tomato plants supported by cages made
from concrete reinforcing wire require consider-ably
less work than either staked or trellised
tomatoes because there is no tying and only lim-ited
pruning. A 5-foot length of 10-guage rein-forcing
wire with 6-inch openings makes a cage
of about an 18-inch diameter. Make cages at
least 5 feet high for indeterminate varieties.
Shorter cages are best for determinate varieties.
Using heavy bolt cutters, remove the sections of
the bottom horizontal wire, leaving wire legs to
stick into the ground.
Set your tomato plants 3 feet apart in the row
and place a cage over each plant. Push legs into
the ground for anchoring the cage. Protect early
plants from cold and wind by wrapping the bot-tom
18 inches of each cage with clear plastic.
Black plastic mulch, in combination with caging
and a clear plastic wrap, promotes early bloom-ing.
Caged plants generally are pruned to four or
five main fruiting branches. As plants grow,
keep turning ends of the branches back into the
cages. Caged plants may not produce ripe toma-toes
as early as staked or trellised plants, but
they produce more tomatoes that are less likely
to crack or sunburn.
Trellising
Trellising is only for indeterminate varieties.
Set plants about 1 foot apart in the row and
prune to just the main stem, or occasionally to
the main stem and one strong sucker (the suck-er
originating just below the first bloom cluster).
Remove all other suckers as they develop.
Build a trellis by setting support posts in the
ground about 20 feet apart. The tops of the posts
should be about 6 feet above the soil surface.
Stretch a heavy wire or a piece of barbed wire
between the tops of the posts and attach a length
of heavy twine to the wire above each plant.
Barbed wire prevents twine from slipping as the
top wire sags with the weight of the plants. Tie
twine to the base of each plant or to a bottom
wire if one is used. As plants grow, wrap them
around the twine for support, or use the plastic
clips that greenhouse tomato growers use. When
trellising two stems per plant, use a separate
cord for each stem.
Trellising produces ripe fruit earlier than
other methods of support. Each plant produces
fewer but larger tomatoes that are more subject
to sunburn because of the small amount of pro-tective
foliage.
Tomato plants loaded with fruit are heavy.
Anchor the posts to keep them from collapsing.
Other Wire Supports
Some determinate plants are not suited for
standard trellising and staking because of their
limited vine growth. These plants, as well as
indeterminate plants, can be held off the ground
by a wire trellis. Support a 2- to 3-foot width of
hog wire 8 to 10 inches above the ground with
“H” supports. Center the wire over the row and
pull the plants through an opening as they grow.
Pruning and tying are not necessary. Space
plants about 2 feet apart and the “H” supports 8
to 10 feet apart. A wire stapled to the top of the
“H” on each side provides additional support to
plants. Tightly stretch and fasten the hog wire at
both ends.
Wire
8- to 10-inch clearance
between wire and ground
Remove
sucker
Concrete reinforcing or hogwire
20

Harvesting
Gardening itself is a lot of fun, but harvest
is what gardeners work toward. Harvesting at
the right time is essential to obtain quality. If
you pick vegetables too soon, they can be
tough or too tender, lacking substance and
flavor. If you pick them too late, they may be
tough, fibrous, or too soft.
The number of days from planting to
maturity is generally listed in catalog descrip-tions.
For vegetables commonly started with
transplants, such as tomatoes and peppers, the
number of days given is from setting plants in
the garden to harvest. For vegetables that are
typically direct-seeded in the garden, such as
peas and sweet corn, the number represents
the days from planting the seed.
The number of days given represents an
average and varies with weather and variety.
Cool-season vegetables mature more rapidly
as weather warms in late spring; warm-sea-son
vegetables mature more slowly as weath-er
cools in fall. Early varieties mature more
rapidly than mid- and late-season varieties.
Use the number of days as a guide, but also
consider the weather, the variety description
of early, midseason, or late, and the appear-ance
of the vegetables.
Asparagus—cut or snap spears when they
are 6 to 8 inches tall and before leaf bracts at
the tips begin to open. Harvest spears of large
and small diameter, but leave 20 to 50 percent
of the spears to grow to provide energy for
next year’s crop.
Beans, snap—best when pods are crisp
and snap easily but when tips are still pliable,
50 days for bush, 65 days for pole.
Beans, lima—pick when pods are well-filled
but still bright green and fresh. End of
the pod should feel spongy when squeezed,
65 days for bush, 80 days for pole.
Beans, shell—harvest when beans are
very evident in the pods but before pods
begin to dry, very much like lima beans and
southern peas, 70 days.
Beans, dried—harvest when pods are dry
but before they shatter. Plants may be turning
yellow. Cut entire plant and dry or pick the
pods. When the beans are completely dry,
shell them and store in the freezer, 90 days.
Beets—pull when medium-sized (11⁄4 to 2
inches in diameter), 60 to 70 days; leafy tops
are an excellent cooked green.
Broccoli—heads should be compact with
tight buds. Individual bud and head size
determined by variety, 65 to 75 days from
transplants yet within the same time period
from direct seeding in the fall. Yellow flowers
indicate overmaturity.
Brussels sprouts—cut sprouts from the
stalk when they are 1 to 2 inches in diameter
and firm, 90 days from transplants. Lower
sprouts develop first. Remove the leaf when
cutting the sprout.
Cabbage—cut when head is firm and
before splitting, 80 days from transplants.
Carrots—harvest according to desired
size and weather. Sugar content is higher in
mature roots, but younger ones are more ten-der,
75 days.
Cauliflower—cut when head is firm and
smooth, should not be coming apart or ricey
in appearance, 65 days from transplants. Pure
white color depends on blanching. Creamy
color is fine.
Chinese cabbage—cut entire plant at the
ground line when the head is fairly compact
or the plant has reached the desired size, 80
days.
Collards—as soon as leaves are large
enough to pick. Large, old leaves are tough
and fibrous, 55 days.
Sweet corn—17 to 21 days after silking.
Harvest when silks turn dark and begin to
shrivel. Kernels should be bright, plump, and
milky, except super sweets, which may
appear watery. Small, soft kernels and large,
hard, starchy kernels are tasteless, 70 to 85
days.
Cucumbers, pickling—pick when 2 inch-es
or less in length for pickles and 4 to 6 inch-es
for dills. Use large cucumbers for relish.
Harvest before cucumbers become dull,
puffy, or yellow. Frequent harvest is neces-sary,
55 days.
Cucumbers, slicing—harvest when 6 to 8
inches long and before the ends become soft
or begin to turn yellow, 62 days.
Cucumbers, burpless and European
types—harvest when 8 to 10 inches long and
1 to 11⁄2 inches in diameter.
Eggplant—ready when fruit is half
grown, before color dulls, 65 to 85 days from
transplants.
Endive, escarole—cut plants at ground
level when large enough to eat, 85 days.
Gourds, small decorative—cut from the
vine with stem attached when the rind is hard,
before frost.
Gourds, dipper and birdhouse—cut
from the vine with stem attached when they
begin to dry. Mature gourds are not injured
by frost.
Gourds, luffa—cut from the vine when
skin turns yellow or after the gourd has dried.
For eating, harvest when small (4 inches or
less in length) and tender.
Horseradish—dig roots in late fall after
frost. Where soil doesn’t freeze and is well
drained, roots can be left in the ground until
needed.
Jerusalem artichoke—dig tubers all win-ter
after the tops are killed by cold.
Kale—cut entire plant or larger leaves
while still tender. Old kale is tough and
stringy. Cold weather improves flavor, 55
days.
Kohlrabi—pull when swollen stem is the
size of a baseball. Large, old kohlrabi is
woody and tasteless, 55 days.
Lettuce, leaf—when leaves are large
enough to harvest, 40 to 50 days.
Lettuce, head—harvest for leaves as
needed before heads form or as soon as heads
are firm, 80 days.
Melons, muskmelons—ready when blos-som
end of fruit gives to pressure from finger
and melon separates (slips) easily from stem.
Netting should be coarse and prominent
according to variety and with no green lines
showing, 42 to 46 days from pollination, 90
days from seed.
Melons, honeydew—when the greenish
rind takes on a golden cast, melon does not
slip from the vine, 110 days from planting.
Melons, watermelons—ready when
undersurface (ground spot) turns from white
to cream-yellow, 42 to 45 days from pollina-tion,
90 days from planting.
Mustard—as soon as large enough to har-vest,
old leaves are tough, 45 days.
Okra—pick when pods are 2 to 4 inch-es
long, 4 to 6 days from pollination, 60
days from planting.
Onions, green—when one-fourth to
one-half inch in diameter and tops are 12 to
16 inches tall.
Onions, bulb—dig when tops have yel-lowed
and fallen over.
Parsley—when leaves are large enough
to pick, 90 days.
Peanuts—dig when tops are yellowing
and inner hulls are brown. All pods do not
mature at the same time, but dig the entire
plant, 110 days.
Peas, English—best when pods are
bright green and fairly well filled. Raw
peas should be sweet, 65 days.
Peas, snap—best when pods are green,
crisp, and peas have filled pods, 65 days.
Peas, southern—pick purple hull vari-eties
when pod is up to 50 percent purple.
Pick tan pod types when pods show a hint
of yellow. Peas should be green when
shelled, 65 days.
Peppers—pick green bell peppers
when shiny green and firm, 75 days from
transplants. Colored peppers are harvested
when fully colored, yellow, red, etc.
Pimiento should be fully red. Sweet banana
and hot Hungarian Wax are harvested when
fully yellow, turning red, or fully red.
Harvest hot pepper when green or fully
colored.
Potatoes, Irish—as soon as large enough
for early potatoes. Harvest main crop after
vines have yellowed. Greenish or sunburned
potatoes are not good. Skin should be firmly
attached to tuber, 100 days.
Potatoes, sweet—when roots have
reached a usable size. Before frost or ground
cools below 50 °F, 120 days.
Pumpkins—when fully colored, hard
rind, and heavy, 110 days.
Radishes—pull as soon as large enough,
28 days.
Radishes, winter—harvest before ground
freezes, 50 days.
Rhubarb—pull leaf stalks from plants
when leaves are fully grown. Discard leaf
blade and eat the stalk only.
Rutabagas—dig any time large enough.
Becomes dry and woody if soil moisture is
insufficient, 90 days.
Spinach—use before leaves get old and
tough, 45 days.
Spinach, New Zealand—pick terminal 3
to 4 inches of shoots when plants get large
enough.
Squash, summer—when medium in size,
color good, and rind easily dented with fin-gernail;
zucchini when 6 to 10 inches long
and shiny, 55 days from planting; yellow
summer 5 to 7 days from pollination, zucchi-ni
3 to 4 days from pollination.
Squash, winter (storage)—color should
be good for the variety and the rind very hard,
90 days; acorn 60 days from pollination, but-ternut
65 days from pollination, hubbard 85
days from pollination.
Swiss chard—as soon as large enough to
pick off leaves, from about 12 inches up. Old
leaves are tough and fibrous, 50 days.
Tomatoes—when color is good all over.
Size is no indication of maturity. Will ripen
off the plant, but quality is better when
ripened on the plant. Reduce bird damage by
Average Bushel
Weights of Vegetables
Weight in
Vegetable Pounds
Beans, lima (unshelled) 32
Beans, snap 30
Cabbage (sack) 50
Cucumbers 47-55
Eggplant 33
Greens 23-24
Okra 30
Peanuts (green) 35-45
Peas, English 28-30
Peas, southern 25
Peppers, bell 25
Potatoes, Irish 60
Potatoes, sweet 55
Spinach 20-25
Squash, summer 42
picking before fully colored, 70 days from
transplants; 45 days from pollination.
Turnips, greens—when large enough to
pick. Tough, fibrous, and bitter when old.
Turnips, roots—best when of medium
size and firm. Large turnips tough and strong-ly
flavored, 60 days.
Watermelons—see Melons.
Keep these points in mind when harvest-ing
vegetables:
• Harvest at the proper stage of maturity, not
before. You can harvest most vegetables
several times if you harvest only the part
that is ready.
• Harvest on time. Harvest okra every 1 or 2
days. This also applies to summer squash,
beans, and cucumbers.
• Harvest when the foliage is dry. Tramping
through wet foliage spreads diseases.
• Don’t damage foliage by stepping on vines
or breaking stems. This creates wounds and
entrances for diseases.
• Don’t harvest when plants are wilted.
Wounds made by harvesting permit water
loss, which increases water stress inside the
plant.
• Immediately move freshly harvested veg-etables
into the shade and keep them cool.
• Use freshly harvested vegetables as soon
after harvest as possible.
• Don’t injure the plant during harvest.
Gently remove the part to be harvested from
the plant. Cut eggplants and watermelons
with a knife. Cut okra that won’t snap off.
21

Storing Vegetables
In addition to canning, freezing,
and drying fresh vegetables, you can
store many to use later. The length of
successful storage depends on the
vegetable and the storage conditions.
Loss of moisture is the major fac-tor
that reduces quality during stor-age.
Reducing the temperature slows
this loss and delays growth of bacteria
and fungi that cause vegetables to
spoil.
Some vegetables, such as winter
squash, onions, Irish potatoes, and
pumpkins, lose moisture slowly;
while others, such as leafy greens,
lose moisture rapidly. Place vegeta-bles
in a plastic bag or container
before refrigerating to prevent rapid
loss of water. This applies to lettuce,
mustard greens, spinach, collards,
turnip greens, Chinese cabbage, beets,
carrots, radishes, snap beans, shelled
limas, cucumbers, broccoli, cauli-flower,
kohlrabi, and green onions.
Turnip roots not only lose moisture
rapidly but have a strong odor, so be
sure to bag them.
For short-term refrigerated stor-age,
wash vegetables to remove
insects, soil, and spray residue before
refrigerating.
Some vegetables can be stored for
several weeks or longer without
refrigeration under proper conditions.
Beets, carrots, turnips, rutaba-gas—
When you grow these root
crops in the fall, you can sometimes
leave them in the garden until you
need them if the garden site is well
drained and the vegetables are pro-tected
from freezing. Pull soil up over
roots or cover them with straw. Store
harvested roots in plastic bags in your
refrigerator or in moist sand in a cool
location.
Cabbage—Protect fall-grown
cabbage from freezing. Pull mature
heads and wrap leaves over the head.
Set the heads, roots up, in a well-drained,
cool place, and cover with
soil or straw. You can pull mature
heads with roots attached and place
them in a cold frame.
Onions—After bulbs are harvest-ed
and dried, trim tops, leaving about
one-half inch. Most southern onions
do not store well, but for best storage,
keep dry bulbs in a cool, well-venti-lated
place. If the temperature is too
warm, tops will sprout. If humidity is
too high, the roots begin to swell and
develop.
Irish potatoes—Spring-grown Irish
potatoes are difficult to store. Cure
potatoes for several days in a warm
place to heal cuts and bruises. Do not
wash potatoes unless they are very
dirty from harvesting in wet soil.
Store dry potatoes in boxes in a closet
in an air-conditioned home. If the
house is on a conventional founda-tion,
store potatoes under the house.
Be sure to shut out all light to prevent
greening of the stored potatoes.
There are sprays or treatments that
prevent spring-grown Irish potatoes
from sprouting. Natural dormancy
prevents sprouting for about 100
days, but refrigeration or cold storage
is the only way to hold these potatoes
for several months.
Irish potatoes grown in the fall are
easier to store than spring-grown
potatoes. Harvest when the soil is dry,
and don’t expose potatoes to the sun.
Cure in a warm, moist place for about
a week to heal cuts and bruises; then
place potatoes in a cool, dark place.
Just make sure they don’t freeze. Fall-grown
potatoes can be successfully
stored for several months.
Sweet potatoes—Sweet potatoes
are very sensitive to cold soils and
cold storage. Potatoes that are chilled
in the soil or in storage will not keep
very long. Dig potatoes before soil
temperatures drop to 55 ºF. Cure pota-toes
for 7 to 10 days in a warm, moist
place—80 to 85 ºF and 90 percent rel-ative
humidity. Curing helps heal all
cuts and bruises that occurred during
harvest. Store cured potatoes at 55 ºF
and high humidity to prevent shrink-age.
Storage at warmer temperatures
encourages sprouting.
Pumpkins, winter squash—
Harvest these vegetables as they
mature because they do not store well
in the garden. If planted in April or
May, they are ready to harvest in July
and August. If left exposed to the sun
and wet weather, they rot. Store in a
cool, fairly dry place. Small quantities
can be stored in an air-conditioned
home. Do not stack these vegetables
in storage, and do not expose them to
temperatures below 50 ºF. If the
humidity is too high, molds and rots
develop.
Tomatoes—Ripe tomatoes store
best at a temperature around 60 ºF. At
refrigerator temperatures, the quality
rapidly deteriorates. Mature green
tomatoes (those that have reached full
size and are turning white before col-oring)
will ripen if picked before frost
injures them. Wrap tomatoes in paper
and store in a cool place. Check them
regularly to remove any ripening or
spoiled tomatoes. You can have gar-den
tomatoes for Christmas and even
later if you strip the vines of fruit
before a freeze and handle them as
described.
Dried beans and peas—The
greatest danger in storing dried beans
and peas is infestation by insects. Pick
dry pods and thoroughly dry them in a
warm, well-ventillated place before
shelling. Kill insects by heating dry,
shelled beans and peas in a 180 ºF
oven for 15 minutes. Store these treat-ed
beans and peas in plastic bags in
containers with tight-fitting lids. If
freezer space is available, you can
store dried peas and beans in the
freezer without prior heating.
Seed Storage:
Cool and Dry
Moisture and high temperatures
cause rapid loss in the ability of veg-etable
seeds to germinate. Therefore,
discard vegetable seeds held in stor-age
buildings, vehicles, and other
places with widely fluctuating tem-peratures
and humidities.
The longer seeds are stored, the
more important it is to control mois-ture
and temperature conditions. Low
moisture content in the seeds means
longer life, especially if seeds must be
kept at warm temperatures.
Seeds can be stored over, but not
touching, calcium chloride, dried sili-ca
gel, or freshly opened powdered
milk by sealing them in air-tight con-tainers.
Bean and okra seeds can be over-dried,
resulting in hard seed coats and
reduced germination. Seeds can be
stored successfully at temperatures
above 32 ºF. Between 40 and 50 ºF is
satisfactory when moisture content of
the seed is not too high.
For long-term storage (several
months) seeds can be stored in the
freezer. Seeds are not harmed if prop-erly
dried before storing, but be sure
to let them come to room temperature
before handling.
Do not store chemically treated
seeds with vegetables or other food
items that are to be eaten.
Approximate Years of Storage Life
of Seeds Under Cool, Dry Conditions
Asparagus – 3 Cucumbers – 5 Pumpkins – 4
Beans – 3 Eggplant – 5 Radishes – 5
Beets – 4 Kale – 5 Rutabagas – 5
Broccoli – 5 Kohlrabi – 5 Southern peas – 3
Brussels sprouts – 5 Lettuce – 5 Spinach – 5
Cabbage – 5 Muskmelons – 5 Squash – 5
Carrots – 3 Mustard – 4 Tomatoes – 4
Chard, Swiss – 4 Okra – 2 Turnips – 5
Collards – 5 Peas, English – 3 Watermelons – 5
Corn – 1-2 Peppers – 4
Vegetables
Asparagus
Asparagus is a perennial plant that
can be grown successfully in many
parts of Mississippi. Performance in
south Mississippi gardens, however,
is likely to be disappointing. In the
southern part of the state, asparagus
may not become completely dormant
in winter and may continue producing
a few weak spears.
Asparagus grows on a variety of
soils but prefers well-drained soils
high in organic matter. Plants lose
vigor, are more susceptible to root rot,
and may die when planted in poorly
drained soils.
Since asparagus is a perennial
plant that grows in the same location
for several years, there is only one
chance to prepare the soil before
planting, so do it right. Start preparing
soil about a year before planting by
mixing in large quantities of organic
matter, such as composted manure,
compost, and green manure crops.
Mix 2 to 3 pounds of 13-13-13 fertil-izer
per 100 square feet into the soil
and lime to a pH of 6.0 to 6.5.
Asparagus does poorly at a soil pH
below 6.0.
Mary Washington is the most
widely available garden variety.
Plants and seeds of newer varieties,
such as UC-157, Purple Passion, and
Jersey Giant, are of more limited
availability to home gardeners.
In early spring, plant 1-year-old
crowns 4 inches deep in clay soils and
6 inches deep in sandy-textured soils.
Do not use older crowns or pieces of
old crowns dug from an existing bed.
Dig a trench 12 to 18 inches wide to
the desired planting depth in the pre-pared
planting area. Space crowns 12
to 15 inches apart on the bottom of the
trench. Spread roots, being sure the
crown is right side up. Cover crowns
with 2 inches of soil, and during the
first season as plants grow, gradual-ly
fill in the trench with soil. If you
plant more than one row, space rows
4 to 5 feet apart.
Keep bed free of weeds at all
times. Remove all brown, frost-killed
stalks in winter, and, if available,
cover bed with 2 to 3 inches of com-posted
manure. Each spring before
growth begins, broadcast 2 to 3
pounds per 100 square feet or 25 feet
of row of 6-8-8 fertilizer and work it
lightly into the surface. Repeat fertil-ization
after harvest.
Harvest can begin the third year.
Harvesting earlier than the third
year reportedly weakens the plants.
Harvest all spears, large and small,
when 6 to 8 inches long, and before
leaf bracts at the tip begin to open.
Cut spears 1 to 3 inches below the
surface, trying not to injure spears
developing below the surface, or
you can snap spears at ground
level. When the diameter of most
of the spears drops to the size of a
pencil, stop harvest for the year. On
young beds, harvest for only 2 to 3
weeks. Harvest established beds
for up to 8 weeks.
Do not allow grass to take over
the bed during summer months
after harvest. Fertilize and keep the
bed clean and watered. Asparagus
fern can reach 4 to 7 feet in height.
Do not cut until after frost kills it in
late fall.
Control insects attacking spears
during harvest with malathion and
carbaryl.
You can grow asparagus plants
from seed instead of starting with 1-
year-old crowns. To grow plants from
seed, soak seeds in aerated water for 3
days. Use a small electric aquarium
air pump with a bubbler stone to aer-ate
the soaking seeds. Plant individual
seeds about 1 inch deep in small pots
or containers. Plants should be large
enough to set in the garden in 12 to 14
weeks. Treat seedlings the same as 1-
year-old crowns, using the same
planting depth and spacing. During
the first season’s growth, gradually
fill in the trench.
Asparagus has both male and
female plants. Male plants produce
spears of larger diameter than
female plants. New all-male vari-eties
are now available. Female
plants produce red berries in late
summer. Volunteer seedlings origi-nating
from these berries may
spread asparagus to other garden
areas.
Plant crowns 4 inches deep in
12- to 18-inch wide beds. Cover
with 2 inches of soil and gradu-ally
fill in this trench during the
first season.
22

Variety
Mary Washington—leading home
garden variety; some resistance to rust.
Jersey Giant—hybrid; 100 percent
male; producer of larger, uniform
spears; excellent vigor; tolerant to
fusarium wilt.
Beans
All garden beans are sensitive to
cold soil and cold air temperatures.
Seeds planted in cold, wet soils rot,
but colored bean seeds are more tol-erant
to cold soils than white bean
seeds.
Soil type is important to bean seed
germination. In germination, the two
large seed halves (cotyledons) must
come through the soil surface. Clay or
compacted soils hold the cotyledons,
and germination is poor. Cover seeds
with a non-crusting material, or add
sand, peat moss, vermiculite, or per-lite
to the soil. If a crust forms, care-fully
break it or sprinkle it lightly with
water several times to soften it and aid
germination. All beans are nitrogen
fixing plants, so be careful to avoid
heavy nitrogen fertilization and nitro-gen-
rich soils.
Major problems with beans are
blossoms and pods shedding, dis-eases,
and insects. Both too much and
too little moisture cause blooms and
small pods to shed. This also occurs
when summer temperatures are
extremely high. Control most diseases
by buying western-grown seeds,
selecting disease-resistant varieties,
using treated seed, rotating land, and
not working or harvesting beans when
leaves are wet. Major insect pests are
bean leaf beetle (round holes in
leaves) and Mexican bean beetle
(lace-like leaves).
Bush snap beans can be green or
yellow (wax) and round or flat. They
are sensitive to hot, dry weather;
therefore, do not plant them to mature
in midsummer. Late-planted bush
beans do not set a big crop, and the
pods that develop are of poor quality.
Bush beans should be planted in a
broad band of several closely spaced
rows.
Harvest beans at the tender snap
stage, but any snap bean variety can
be allowed to grow to the green shell
stage and be used much like lima
beans and southern peas. Most bush
snap bean varieties require 50 to 60
days from planting to harvest.
Varieties
Atlantic—mottled seed; medium
green; slim; round-oval; long pod;
mosaic resistant.
Blue Lake—white seed; dark
green; round pod; slow to develop
fiber; good flavor; processing type.
Contender—old variety; colored
seed; pale green; oval pod; frequently
curved; early; fresh-use type that
develops fiber rapidly.
Derby—white seed; round; long,
slim, straight pods; slow seed devel-opment;
resistant to common bean
mosaic virus; AAS 1990.
Magnum—long, flat pod; light-medium
green color; 6.9 inches long;
tan seed; 51 days from planting.
Gator Green—white seed; round;
long, straight pods; mosaic tolerant;
fresh market type.
Greencrop—white seed; long, flat
pole bean type pod; fresh use and pro-cessing;
no disease resistance; AAS
1957.
Provider—purple seed; round;
medium-length pods; white seeded
type also available.
Topcrop—medium green; round;
medium-length pod; slightly curved;
mosaic resistant; brown seed; AAS
1950.
Green-shell beans are grown like
bush snap beans. These are special
varieties:
French’s Horticultural—pods and
beans cream colored, splashed with
scarlet; a semi-runner type; 68 days.
King Horticultural—similar to
French’s Horticultural; 75 days.
Taylor’s Horticultural—non-run-ning
plant; pods and beans similar to
French’s Horticultural; 75 days.
Pole snap beans extend the har-vest
of snap beans through the sum-mer.
They are more tolerant of hot
temperatures than bush beans.
Support vines with cane poles,
strings, or a trellis, allowing for 6 to 8
feet of growth. Bean vines are heavy,
so construct a strong trellis. Barbed
wire as the top wire prevents poles
and strings from slipping. Support
posts to prevent trellis collapse in wet
weather. When exposed to very hot
summer temperatures and dry soils,
beans drop their blooms and small
pods. Harvest all beans to keep vines
producing. Pole beans yield more
than bush beans because they produce
over a longer period of time.
Nitrogen-rich soils result in excessive
vine growth and no beans. Most pole
snap bean varieties require 65 to 70
days from planting to first harvest.
Varieties
Alabama No. 1—black seed; nem-atode
resistant.
Blue Lake—white seed; fresh and
processing type; pods long; round-oval;
smooth; meaty.
Cornfield (Striped Creaseback) —
colored seed; pod flat; light green
turning purple brown; stringy.
Dade—white seed; fresh use type;
similar to McCaslan; tolerant to sev-eral
diseases; early.
Kentucky Blue—pods 6 to 7 inch-es
long, round, straight; good flavor;
mature in 58 to 65 days; vines resist-ant
to strains of bean rust and com-mon
bean mosaic virus; AAS 1991.
Kentucky Wonder—colored seed;
fresh use; pod long, flat; meaty, brit-tle;
low fiber; good flavor; popular
old variety.
Kentucky Wonder 191—white
seed; similar to Kentucky Wonder.
Louisiana Purple—purple pods
that turn green when cooked.
McCaslan—white seed; fresh use;
light green pod; flatter and smoother
than Kentucky Wonder; very produc-tive
. Asparagus (yardlong) beans are
pole beans with pods that reach 3 feet
in length. At this stage they are past
their prime and should be used like
southern peas. Harvest when pods
are 10 to 12 inches long for use as a
snap bean.
Variety
Red Seed—long, dark green pods.
Bush lima beans (butter beans)
are more sensitive to cold than snap
beans, so delay planting until the soil
temperature is at least 65 degrees.
Both small- and large-seed types are
used as green-shell beans. The small-seed
limas produce better than the
large-seed types. Most varieties
require about 65 days from planting to
harvest. Use treated, fresh seeds. Do
not use last year’s dry garden beans
for this year’s seeds because of dis-ease
carryover problems. The major
disease is stem anthracnose. Control
this disease by using western-grown
seeds and planting rotation in the gar-den.
Do not plant lima beans in the
same garden location where they were
grown last year.
Varieties
Dixie Butterpea—white seed; 3 to
4 small, plump beans per pod; sets
pods under high temperatures; large
and vigorous plants; late maturing.
Early Thorogreen—small, flat,
rich-green baby lima; heavily produc-tive;
sets throughout the plant; very
adaptable and vigorous; green-seeded
Henderson Bush.
Henderson Bush—creamy white
seed; 3 to 4 small, flat beans per pod;
most popular older variety; small
plant; productive; processing type.
Jackson Wonder—speckled butter
bean; seed buff with purple markings;
beans small, greenish-white with pur-ple
markings at green shell stage;
medium-sized plant.
Nemagreen—seeds greenish-white;
3 to 4 small, flat beans per pod;
plants small; productive; resembles
Henderson Bush; resistant to root-knot
nematodes.
Pole lima beans are grown like
pole snap beans.
Varieties
Carolina (Sieva)—white seed; 3 to
4 beans per pod; pole type Henderson;
popular old variety; widely grown; 80
days.
Florida Speckled Butter Bean—
seed buff, splashed with maroon; 3 to
4 small beans per pod; greenish with
purple at green shell stage; bears well
in hot weather; 78 days.
Willowleaf—dull white seed; sim-ilar
to Carolina, except dark green
leaves are narrow; 90 days.
Beets
Beets require cool temperatures
and a loose, moist soil for best pro-duction.
An adequate supply of potash
in the soil is necessary for roots to
form. Test soil before planting. Beets
do not tolerate acid soils. Beets are
shallow-rooted, so never let the soil
dry completely. Because beets require
cool temperatures, you can grow them
in spring and fall.
Most beet seeds produce a small
cluster of seedlings when they germi-nate.
Even with individually placed
seeds, thinning is necessary for cor-rect
plant spacing. Thin seedlings to
stand 2 inches apart. Beet seeds are
slow to germinate, so mix in some
radish seeds to mark the row. Poor
stands of seedlings can often be traced
to planting too deep or crusting soils
after rain or irrigation.
Black spots in beets may indicate a
shortage of boron in sandy soil.
Dissolve 1 level tablespoon of house-hold
borax in 3 gallons of water and
apply it to 100 feet of garden row as a
corrective measure. Reduce the
amount of borax for shorter rows
because too much boron can be toxic
to plants.
Do not discard beet leaves; they
are an excellent leafy green. You can
also use the thinnings of young beets
as greens. Beets require 60 to 70 days
from planting to harvest. Harvested
beets can be stored in the refrigerator
in a plastic bag for several weeks. A
variety with golden roots is available.
Varieties
Burpee’s Red Ball—uniform;
smooth-skinned; globe-shaped; 3-
inch dark red roots; tops erect; medi-um
tall; red and green.
Cylindra—long, cylindrical root
that gives uniform slices; dark red; 6
inches long; leaves excellent as
greens.
Detroit Dark Red—an old stan-dard
variety; globe shaped; smooth;
uniform; deep red color.
Golden Beet—yellow interior;
orange skin.
Ruby Queen—uniform; smooth;
round with fine taproot; superior qual-ity;
fine for canning; small crown;
AAS 1957.
Broccoli
Broccoli is one of the most nutri-tious
of all vegetables. The edible
parts are the compact clusters of
unopened flower buds and the
attached stems. Each plant produces
one large central head and often sev-eral
smaller side heads following har-vest
of the main head. This cool-sea-son
vegetable grows in all parts of
Mississippi in spring and fall, but fall
production often is more successful.
For spring broccoli, start plants in
a cold frame 6 to 8 weeks before time
for setting plants in the garden. This
means starting in what seems mid-winter.
Grow seedlings at cool tem-peratures
and spaced at least one-half
inch apart in rows 4 to 6 inches apart
so they are hardy and able to with-stand
cold temperatures when trans-planted.
Seedlings can be grown in individ-ual
cups or cells in plastic trays.
Seedlings exposed to temperatures
below 45 ºF for 2 weeks or more in
plant beds may form small flower
heads and be unproductive. Seedlings
grown indoors, in a hot bed, or in a
greenhouse often are killed by the
first cold night after transplanting to
the garden in early spring. Harden
these seedlings for 1 to 2 weeks in a
cold frame before setting them out.
Use 1 cup of starter solution (page 9)
for each plant when transplanting to
the garden.
Side-dress broccoli plants with a
nitrogen fertilizer as soon as they
begin active growth after transplanti-ng.
A second side-dressing just before
heading will help increase the size of
the center heads.
For fall broccoli, plant seeds
directly in the garden where they are
to grow. Keep the seed bed moist to
prevent crusting and to aid germina-tion.
Do not delay planting past rec-ommended
dates waiting for moisture
or for temperatures to cool. If water is
not available to keep the seed bed and
seedlings moist, do not direct seed.
Fall broccoli is better in quality
than spring broccoli because it
matures as the weather is getting cool-er
rather than warmer, but fall broc-coli
has more insect problems than the
spring crop. Control the major worm
problems by spraying or dusting with
a biological control containing
Bacillus thuringiensis.
Harvest broccoli while the cluster
of flower buds is still tight. Open yel-low
flowers indicate overmaturity. A
hollow stalk may indicate a shortage
of boron in the garden soil. Dissolve 1
tablespoon of household borax in 3
gallons of water and apply it to 100
feet of garden row. Use less borax for
shorter row lengths. Using more than
is recommended can be toxic to
plants.
Varieties
Green Comet—hybrid; extra
early; medium-sized, 6- to 7-inch uni-form
heads; large side shoots; 61 to 75
days; AAS 1969.
Packman—hybrid; very early;
compact plant with large, flattened
head; 62 days.
Premium Crop—hybrid; midsea-
23

son; medium large, 7- to 8-inch head;
minimum of side shoots; 75 to 89
days; AAS 1975.
Brussels Sprouts
This cold-hardy, slow-growing,
long-season vegetable is not frequent-ly
grown in Mississippi gardens. The
cool weather of neither spring nor fall
is long enough for maximum yields.
When attempting a spring crop, set
plants early and side-dress as soon as
active plant growth begins and again
when sprouts form. For a fall crop,
start plants in midsummer. Set plants
24 inches apart and keep them
watered. Sprouts develop where
leaves join the main stem. As sprouts
develop, do not remove leaves. Lower
sprouts mature first, and you can cut
leaves when you harvest sprouts. Heat
causes soft sprouts. Aphids often
infest developing sprouts, making
them inedible.
Varieties
Jade Cross—hybrid; vigorous
plant; uniform sprouts closely spaced;
11⁄2 inches in diameter; 90 days; AAS
1959.
Long Island—sprouts 11⁄2 inches in
diameter; firm; plants 32 to 34 inches
tall; 90 days.
Cabbage
Cabbage can be green or red,
smooth or curly (savoy), and have flat
or pointed heads.
Cabbage is grown exactly as
described for broccoli in both spring
and fall. When purchasing cabbage
plants in spring, beware of large
plants or those with stems as large as
a pencil. Bundled, bare-root trans-plants
with large, woody stems may
flower without forming a head.
When growing transplants, select
varieties that mature over several
weeks to extend the harvest season
from a single planting. Also, pur-chased
transplants of a non-hybrid
(open-pollinated) variety mature over
several weeks. Use starter solution
(page 9) when setting transplants in
the garden.
As cabbage matures, head-split-ting
results from the pressure of
water taken up by the plants after the
heads are solid. Soft heads indicate
lack of maturity.
Serious insect problems for cab-bage
are aphids and cabbage worms.
The major diseases, black leg and
black rot, are seed-borne and difficult
to control except by purchasing dis-ease-
free seeds and plants.
Varieties
Red Head—hybrid; main season;
red; 85 days; AAS 1971.
Rio Verde—hybrid; heads slightly
flattened; strong blue-green; main
season late; 85 days.
Round Dutch—open-pollinated;
old, popular garden variety; most
commonly sold as transplants; main
season; round, green head; tolerant to
cold weather; resistant to bolting; 75
days.
Ruby Ball—hybrid; very deep red;
solid, round head; 5 to 6 inches
across; 70 days; AAS 1972.
Savoy Ace—hybrid; savoy heads
of deep green; round; 78 days; AAS
1977.
Chinese Cabbage
Several different vegetables are
commonly called Chinese cabbage.
There are both heading and nonhead-ing
types. Michihli types form tall,
cylindrical heads. A second type,
Napa, forms heads similar to loose
heads of savoy cabbage. A third type,
Pak Choi or Bok Choi, often called
celery cabbage, resembles swiss
chard and is nonheading. All types
rapidly go to seed in warm weather,
which makes them better suited for
fall rather than spring gardens. Sow
seeds in early fall and thin seedlings
to stand 8 to 12 inches apart. It is
important that the plant growth not be
interrupted.
Varieties
China Express—hybrid; early,
slow-bolting Napa type; for spring
planting; disease resistant.
China Pride—hybrid; rugged
Napa type; best for fall; broad, large
heads; good, dark green color; disease
tolerant.
Monument—hybrid; Michihili
type; 18 inches tall; dense head with
deep green outer color and white inte-rior;
80 days.
What-A Joy—Pac Choi hybrid;
Joy Choi is white-stalked.
Carrots
Mississippi’s
high clay content, poorly
drained soils are not suited for
developing long, straight carrots, so
select varieties that are only 6 to 8
inches long. Carrots are sensitive to
acid soils. Raised beds filled with
improved soil allow you to grow car-rots
where they wouldn’t grow in
native soil.
Carrot seeds are slow to germi-nate,
and germination may not be uni-form.
Hard, packing rains following
planting and before germination result
in a poor stand or no stand at all. Mix
some radish seeds with carrot seeds to
mark the row. Carrot seeds germinate
best in a warm, moist soil. Cover the
planted row with clear plastic or a
floating row cover to help get a good
stand. Remove the plastic immediate-ly
after germination, but you can
leave the polyester row cover over the
seedlings until they make some
growth. To aid emergence, cover the
seeds with a noncrusting material like
sawdust, sand, or vermiculite, and
keep the newly seeded row moist.
Thin seedlings to stand about 2 inches
apart.
Green shoulders on carrots result
from sunburn. Pull a little soil to the
row when cultivating to keep carrots
covered. Misshapen, twisted, and
forked carrots result from clay soils,
sticks, roots, stones, or root knot
nematodes.
Varieties
Danvers 126—fresh use and pro-cessing
type; tolerates high tempera-tures;
moderately tapered; stump root
6 to 8 inches long; broad shoulder;
open pollinated; 75 days.
Red Cored Chantenay—process-ing
type; choice for heavy soils;
tapered; short, thick stump root; 4 to 6
inches long; heavy shoulder; 68 days.
Cauliflower
Cauliflower is grown much like
broccoli and cabbage, but plants are
less tolerant of heat and cold. Start
from transplants in spring. Direct seed
or use transplants in fall. Select early
maturing varieties to avoid late spring
heat and late fall cold. Cauliflower
plants are more sensitive to spring
freezes than broccoli or cabbage.
Cauliflower plants must be kept
growing vigorously from germination
through harvest. Any interruption in
growth caused by drought, heat, or
cold can cause the edible head to fail
to develop (button). Use a starter solu-tion
(page 9) when setting plants in
the garden.
Some of the new cauliflower
hybrids are self-blanching (leaves
fold over developing head), eliminat-ing
the need for tying outer leaves to
ensure a white head. With nonself-blanching
types, tie the large outer
leaves loosely together over the center
of the plant when the small head is 2
to 3 inches in diameter. The head
should be ready to harvest 7 to 12
days after tying the leaves. Cut the
head before it develops a coarse, ricey
appearance. Cauliflower plants make
only a single head. Downy mildew
can be a serious disease problem.
Aphids, cabbage loopers, and import-ed
cabbage moths are major insect
pests.
Varieties
Majestic—hybrid; earlier than
Snow Crown; heads 7 inches across;
66 days.
Snow Crown—hybrid; early
Snowball type; white heads up to 8
inches across; 68 days; AAS 1975.
Snow King—hybrid; extra early;
withstands heat; ideal for fall; 60
days; AAS 1969.
Swiss Chard
Swiss chard is a
close relative of the
garden beet that
does not develop
an edible root.
Grow chard just
like beets, but
space the plants 4
to 6 inches apart in the row.
Harvest chard by cutting the entire
plant or by removing the large outer
leaves, leaving the smaller leaves to
develop for future harvests. If wa-tered,
spring-planted chard may sur-vive
the summer to produce leaves for
fall harvest. The green portion of the
leaf can be stripped off, leaving the
broad mid-rib, which can be steamed
and eaten like asparagus.
There are several varieties of
chard; the biggest difference among
them is that some varieties have
brightly colored stems. The red-stemmed
varieties may be mistaken
for rhubarb but cannot be used as a
rhubarb substitute.
Because of its upright growth and
large, attractive leaves, chard can be
used as an ornamental in borders and
display beds.
Varieties
Bright Lights—red, yellow, pur-ple,
and green petioles.
Lucullus—early; leaves crumpled;
dark green; broad, pale-green petiole.
Rhubarb—crimson stalks; leaves
dark green; heavily crumpled.
Collards
This leafy green seems to be in
gardens year-round but is at its best in
spring and fall during cool weather.
Early spring plantings produce edible
leaves right through summer if
watered and fertilized, and if insects
are controlled.
Some gardeners prefer to harvest
the large, mature lower leaves, leav-ing
young leaves and the growing bud
to produce more leaves for later har-vests.
Other gardeners harvest leaves
from young plants by cutting them
from the plants, leaving the growing
buds to produce leaves for later har-vests.
Collard seeds are sometimes
planted in May, June, or July for sum-mer
transplants and fall harvest.
Collards are relatively heavy feed-ing
plants and require side-dressing
with a nitrogen fertilizer. The most
popular old varieties, Georgia LS
(long standing) and Vates, are both
relatively slow to go to seed. Vates is
the preferred variety for overwinter-ing.
Major insect problems are aphids
and leaf-eating worms. Larvae of cab-bage
loopers and imported cabbage
moths are serious pests in late spring,
summer, and early fall.
Varieties
Vates—standard older variety for
overwintering; good resistance to
bolting; low-growing, compact.
Georgia LS—spring and summer
planting not recommended for over-wintering.
Blue Max—hybrid; slightly
savoyed, large leaves that extend
down the petioles; blue-green color;
mild taste; upright, vigorous, compact
plant.
Champion—Vates type with
longer standing ability.
Sweet Corn
Seed companies have offered an
explosion of new sweet corn hybrids
in recent years. Sweet corn varieties
can be divided into three broad
groups: normal sweets, sugary
enhanced sweets, and super sweets.
Within the sugary enhanced group
there are two types: those with 100
percent of the kernels being sugary
and those with about 25 percent of the
kernels being sugary. Both the normal
sweets and the sugary enhanced are
excellent types for gardens because
seeds are normal in size and germi-nate
well.
Super sweet seeds are small, and
conditions must be ideal for good ger-mination.
Super sweet seedlings are
slower to establish than the normal
and sugary enhanced types. The super
sweets have a sugar content that is
two to three times higher than that of
normal sweet corn and a slow conver-sion
rate of sugar to starch. Therefore,
super sweets hold up well on plants
and in the refrigerator.
Both the normal sweet and the sug-ary
enhanced sweet corns have fairly
rapid rates of conversion of sugar to
starch, but these sweet corns also have
a creamy texture, while super sweets
are more crisp and watery.
24

In addition to differences in sugar
content, sweet corn also comes in dif-ferent
colors: yellow, white, and
bicolor (yellow and white kernels on
the same ear).
Sweet corns also are divided into
varieties that mature early (65 to 70
days), midseason (70 to 80 days), and
late (80 or more days). Most early
varieties are better adapted to the
northern states and do not make satis-factory
growth or ear size in the south.
For an ear of corn to develop prop-erly,
corn pollen from the tassel at the
top of the plant must fall to the silks of
the ear located about halfway up the
stalk. Plant several short rows, rather
than one or two long rows, for better
pollination. Better pollination means
fuller ears. Hot, dry conditions during
pollination result in missing kernels,
small ears, and poor development of
ear tips. A water shortage, signaled by
visible wilting (rolling of the leaves),
at the time of silk emergence results in
reduced yields and quality.
When different varieties of sweet
corn planted close together silk and
tassel at the same time, crosspolli-nation
can occur by wind-blown
pollen. This may result in something
as simple as yellow kernels scat-tered
in the ears of white corn; but
more important is the reduction in
quality when super sweet corns are
pollinated by any other type of
sweet corn. Therefore, isolate the
super sweets from other sweet corns
by time of planting so that they silk
and tassel at different times; or iso-late
them by a distance greater than
the pollen is carried by the wind. If
popcorn and field corn pollinate any
type of sweet corn, they will destroy
its eating quality.
Soil fertility problems frequently
cause low yields in sweet corn. If soils
are cold and wet during early plant-ing,
deficiencies of nitrogen and phos-phorus
will occur. Small ears at har-vest
indicate low fertility, and poorly
filled ear tips indicate low nitrogen,
phosphorus, or potassium.
Corn earworms are the most seri-ous
sweet corn pests, although chinch
bugs, flea beetles, blister beetles, and
armyworms also cause serious dam-age.
As soon as silks appear, spray or
dust to control earworms. Continue to
apply insecticide on a 3- to 4-day
schedule until silks are brown and dry.
Sweet corn is ready to harvest
about 20 days after the first silks
appear. The ear should feel full, the
kernels should be plump, and the juice
should be milky in the normal and
sugary enhanced types.
Birds are a problem at planting
time and at harvest time. They pull
seedlings from the soil to feed on the
kernels and also feed on the ears as
they approach maturity. Problems
with animals, such as raccoons and
squirrels, feeding on sweet corn as it
matures are difficult to prevent. You
can prevent some damage by using a
2-strand electric fence around the
garden. Place one wire about 4 inch-es
aboveground and the other at
about 12 inches. The electric fence
should be in operation well before
corn approaches maturity.
Varieties
Normal type
Jubilee—yellow; large ear; white
silk; late.
Merit—yellow; tolerant to high
temperatures and drought; large,
heavy ears; smut resistant; sometimes
called silkless because silks come off
ears easily; midseason to late.
Silver Queen—white; exceptional
quality; late.
Sweet G-90—bicolor; very tender
and sweet; 75 days.
Sugary Enhanced (se)
Bodacious—homozygous se; yel-low;
early (75 days); medium-sized
ear; excellent eating.
Calico Belle—bicolor; homozy-gous
se; midseason; medium-sized
ear; excellent eating; good yields.
Incredible—yellow; an improved
Miracle; good husk protection and tip
fill; 100 percent se; late.
Miracle—yellow; excellent flavor;
tender kernels; large ears; midseason.
Platinum Lady—white; excellent
flavor; purple color in stalks and
husks; early to midseason.
Snowbelle—white; creamy tex-ture;
1 week earlier than Silver
Queen.
Tendertreat–yellow; excellent fla-vor
and tender; purple color in stalks
and husks; tall plants; late.
Super Sweet (sh2)
How Sweet It Is—white; 8-inch
ears; late; requires isolation; 88 days;
AAS 1986.
Summer Sweet 7210—yellow; 8-
inch ears; midseason; requires isola-tion;
78 days.
Cucumbers
Cucumbers are divided into two
broad groups, pickling and slicing, on
the basis of shape and color.
Pickling types are short and
blocky and have white or black spines
on the cucumber (spines are small and
easily overlooked). Fruit are generally
dark green at stem end and may be
almost white at blossom end. Fruit
with white spines turn light yellow or
white when overmature. Black-spined
types turn orange.
Slicing cucumbers have long fruit,
are generally dark green from stem to
tip, and have white spines. Grow slic-ing
cucumbers on a trellis for straight,
uniformly colored fruit.
Fruit types may actually be used
interchangeably (except in veg-etable
shows), and the two types
crosspollinate.
The normal type of cucumber
plants have separate male (short stem
and pollen) and female (little cucum-ber
and pollen-receiving organ) flow-ers
on the same plant. This condition
is called monoecious. Some of the
newer hybrids are described as being
predominantly female, or gynoecious.
These plants produce few if any male
flowers. Seed packets of gynoecious
hybrids generally have about 15 per-cent
seeds of a pollinator (normal
plants with male flowers) mixed in.
Until recently, all garden cucum-bers
required pollination for fruit to
develop, and the cucumbers had seeds
in them. Plant breeders are now devel-oping
seedless (parthenocarpic) vari-eties
that develop without pollination
and seeds.
All cucumbers must be harvested
before blossom ends soften or fruits
begin to yellow. Smaller sizes are
more desirable for pickling than the
larger fruit, which can be used for rel-ish
or mock spiced apple slices.
Harvest slicing cucumbers before
seed coats on the seeds begin to hard-en.
Remove all overmature, large, and
poorly shaped fruit from the vines to
keep plants producing.
Poor fruit shape (crooks, nubs, and
balls) is caused by low soil fertility,
drought, or poor pollination. A
cucumber is almost 95 percent water,
so lack of water affects fruit develop-ment
and quality.
Bitter cucumbers result from poor
growing conditions (low soil fertility,
high temperatures, and drought).
Varieties are now available that do not
become bitter, but this is no excuse for
neglecting the plants.
Cucumbers do not crosspollinate
with melons, squash, or pumpkins,
but they do cross with other varieties
of cucumbers. This has no impact on
the fruit being harvested and should
be of concern only if you save seeds.
Since most modern varieties are
hybrids, saving seeds is not recom-mended.
Cucumber seedlings that are not
grown in small pots or containers do
not transplant easily, so plant seeds
where they are to grow; or start
seedlings in peat pots, pellets, or cups,
and set them in the garden before the
first true leaf enlarges.
Most new cucumber hybrids are
resistant to major diseases. Problem-causing
insects are cucumber beetles,
squash bugs, and pickleworms.
Varieties
Pickling type
Calypso—gynoecious hybrid;
multiple disease resistance; uniform
dark green; blocky; white spine; 56
days.
Carolina—gynoecious hybrid;
multiple disease resistance; medium-length
vine; medium dark green;
blocky fruit; white spine; 55 days.
Slicing type
Ashley—straight, slightly tapered
fruit; 7 to 8 inches long; 66 days.
Cherokee—gynoecious hybrid; 7
to 71⁄2 inches long; 63 days.
Gemini—gynoecious hybrid; mul-tiple
disease resistance; 8 to 81⁄2 inches
long; 61 days.
General Lee—tolerates cucumber
mosaic virus.
Poinsett 76—open-pollinated;
monoecious; 7 to 8 inches long; mul-tiple
disease resistance.
Salad Bush—monoecious hybrid
with short (24-inch) vines; multiple
disease tolerance; dark green fruit;
adapted to containers, hanging bas-kets,
and small gardens; AAS 1988.
Slicemaster—early gynoecious
hybrid with multiple disease toler-ance;
8 to 9 inches long; dark green
color; 61 days.
Straight 8—white spine; AAS
1938 and still productive!
Sweet Success—greenhouse type;
seedless; 12 to 14 inches long; best
grown on trellis; some disease toler-ance;
AAS 1983.
Sweet Slice—hybrid; multiple dis-ease
tolerance; mild burpless; nonbit-ter;
10 to 12 inches long; 63 days.
Thunder—very early; strong dis-ease
package.
Eggplant
Eggplant is an extremely cold-sen-sitive
vegetable, and early planting
results in stunted plants. Direct seed-ing
in the garden is not recommended.
Start with transplants, either home
grown or purchased. Use a starter
solution (page 9) when setting out
transplants.
You have a broad choice of vari-eties
when ordering seeds from a cat-alog,
but there is often little or no
choice of varieties when purchasing
plants. Most plant producers grow
only Black Beauty, the old standard,
late-maturing variety. New varieties
and hybrids offer high yields, earli-ness,
and a choice of size, shape, and
color.
Eggplant is in the garden from
spring planting until frost, so mulch
plants to reduce summer’s heat and
drought stress. Side-dress eggplant
when plants are half grown and again
after first harvest.
Several diseases and insects attack
eggplant. The most serious disease is
Phomopsis fruit rot. The most serious
insect pest is the flea beetle. This
small, black insect eats many tiny
holes in the leaves and may defoliate
and kill plants.
Varieties
Black Beauty—old standard; low-spreading,
bushy plant; fruit round to
globe and dark purple; 80 days.
Florida Market—prolific over a
long season; plants tall and upright;
fruit long, cylindrical, glossy dark
purple; Phomopsis resistant; 85 days.
Dusky—hybrid; extra early; free
setting heavy yielder; fruit deep oval,
glossy black; tolerant to tobacco
mosaic virus; 63 days.
Millionaire—Oriental type with
purple-calyxed, black fruit.
Endive and Escarole
These two strong-flavored leafy
greens are commonly used in salads.
Both are cool-season vegetables like
lettuce and are best grown like head
lettuce; transplants in spring and
direct seeding in fall.
Endive has curly, finely cut leaves,
while escarole has broad, flat leaves.
Both have a somewhat coarse texture
and a strong flavor that some interpret
as bitter.
Varieties
Florida Deep Heart—broad, dark
green leaves, creamy white heart;
escarole type; 85 days.
Green Curled—finely cut, curled
leaves; endive type; 95 days.
Gourds
Gourds are divided into several
groups based on use and flower color.
The small, hard-shelled ornamental
gourds used for decoration have yel-low
flowers. Varieties within this
group are Apple, Bell, Egg, and Crown
of Thorns. Ornamental gourds belong
to the same botanical group as summer
squash, and they do crosspollinate.
The ultility gourds, dipper and
birdhouse, have white flowers. The
dishrag gourd (luffa) is a utility gourd
with yellow flowers. This gourd can
be eaten when young and is also
known as running okra. The fruit can
reach 2 feet in length and have promi-nent
ribs, or it can be smooth.
Gourds are grown the same way as
muskmelons, cucumbers, squash, and
pumpkins. Vines are vigorous and
spreading and will readily climb a
support or trellis. Trellising results in
better shaped gourds and keeps them
off the ground, reducing rotting and
soil staining.
Plant seeds about 1 inch deep
when soil is warm and danger of frost
is over. Space plants about 2 feet apart
when not trellising. Utility and luffa
gourds have large, vigorous vines and
require a long growing season.
Although mature gourds are not hurt
by frost, vines of all types are sensi-tive
to frost.
Fertilize as for squash and water-melons.
Side-dress when the vines
begin to run.
Harvest ornamental gourds in
August or September when fruits
25

become hard. Harvest dipper gourds
when they turn tan or brown and luffa
gourds when skin is yellow and can
be easily removed. Harvest using
clippers to avoid twisting or breaking
the stems. Handle carefully to avoid
cuts and bruises.
Following harvest, wash the orna-mental,
dipper, and birdhouse gourds
in a non-bleaching disinfectant and
place them in a dry location with good
air circulation until thoroughly dry.
Cure dipper and birdhouse gourds for
several weeks in a warm, dry place.
Gourds are very hard, and the seeds
rattle when completely dry.
With luffa gourds, remove the yel-low
skin and seeds from the fresh
gourds. Remaining fibers can be
washed and dried in the sun. Luffa
gourds dried with the skin on must be
soaked in water for several days to
soften the skin to ease its removal.
Remove seeds, wash fiber mass, and
dry in the sun.
After drying, colorful ornamental
gourds can be waxed or dipped in
shellac and hung by their stems to dry.
Major insect pests of gourds are
cucumber beetles, squash bugs,
squash vine borers, and pickleworms.
Horseradish
Horseradish is a hardy perennial
plant that is normally grown as an
annual. This cool-season root crop is
not well adapted to Mississippi’s cli-mate
and soils.
Start in early spring with root cut-tings
(sets) that are 8 to 14 inches
long. Plant them 18 to 24 inches apart
and 4 to 5 inches deep in a trench.
Water and mulch to keep soil cool.
Horseradish does best in deep, loose,
fertile soil. Use a fertilizer high in
potash to promote good root develop-ment.
Keep side shoots removed to
force development of one large root.
This requires digging around the
crown to cut off the side shoots.
Harvest in the fall after frost.
Side roots not removed during
growth can be removed at harvest,
stored, and used to start another crop.
Jerusalem Artichokes
(Sunchokes)
This relative of the sunflower pro-duces
fleshy tubers you can boil, fry,
or eat raw.
In the spring, plant small tubers 2
to 3 inches deep and 18 to 24 inches
apart. Stalks reach several feet in
height and produce masses of attrac-tive
yellow flowers before frost in the
fall. Tubers can be harvested all winter
and are best left in the ground until
needed. Keep harvested tubers in a
plastic bag in the refrigerator to pre-vent
shrinkage.
Beware of this plant. It quickly
becomes a weed from small tubers
left in the ground at harvest.
Kale
This close relative of cabbage and
collards is best grown in the fall gar-den.
Light frost improves the flavor,
and in some years, kale plants sur-vive
the winter to produce an early
spring crop of leaves.
Sow seeds directly in the garden
in late summer, and thin plants to
stand 8 to 12 inches apart. Harvest
the lower leaves, or cut the entire
plant. Aphids and leaf-eating worms,
such as cabbage loopers and import-ed
cabbage moths, are the most seri-ous
pests.
Kale is available in two different
types—a curly-leafed type that is
normally used for eating and an orna-mental
type used for garnish. Be sure
to grow the correct variety for eating.
Varieties
Dwarf Siberian—hardy; vigor-ous;
large, coarse leaves; deep
bluish-green color.
Vates—low, spreading; hardy;
slow bolting; leaves curled.
Winterbor—very curly leaves;
cold tolerant.
Kohlrabi
Known as stem turnip, kohlrabi is
a rapid-maturing, cool-season veg-etable
that can be grown in both the
spring and fall garden. This vegetable
is not widely grown by Southern gar-deners
even though the hybrid variety,
Grand Duke, was named an All
America Selection in 1979.
Kohlrabi grows very well in
Mississippi and is becoming popular as
an alternative to chips for snack food.
Thinly sliced raw roots are used with
dips. Thin seedlings to stand about 4
inches apart. Keep plants watered and
fertilized so they won’t become
woody. The swollen stem can reach
several inches in diameter but should
be harvested at the 2-inch size.
Varieties
Grand Duke—hybrid; early; vig-orous;
50 days; AAS 1979.
Purple Vienna—leaves and stem
purple; stem flesh white; 55 days.
White Vienna—standard variety;
light green; 55 days.
Lettuce
Both leaf and head lettuce grow
well in Mississippi gardens in spring
and fall. Leaf lettuce is more cold
hardy, faster maturing, more shade
tolerant, and a few varieties are more
heat tolerant than head lettuce.
Start plants in a cold frame in late
winter or early spring for transplant-ing
to the garden, or sow seeds direct-ly
in the garden. Head lettuce seeds
sown directly in the garden in very
early spring make a good crop if May
is a relatively cool month. Remember,
garden head lettuce doesn’t have to
form a solid head before being har-vested
and used.
Lettuce transplants easily, and
plants with plenty of growing space
develop more quickly than those in
the crowded seed row. Thin leaf let-tuce
to at least 4 inches apart, butter-head
bibb types to 6 inches apart, and
crisp head types to 10 to 12 inches
apart.
All types of lettuce are relatively
heavy feeders and need high nitrogen
fertility. Because the root system is
small and shallow, keep soil moist to
promote rapid, constant growth.
Lettuce does not grow well in hot
weather without plenty of moisture,
and even then it may become tough
and bitter and go to seed.
Varieties
Crisp head types
Great Lakes—medium-sized;
solid head; large, dark green wrapper
leaves; slow bolting; frost resistant;
resistant to tip burn; AAS 1944.
Leaf types
Black Seeded Simpson—old vari-ety;
large, upright plant; light green
leaves; heavily frilled.
Grand Rapids—old popular home
garden variety; large, erect, compact
leaves; light green; wavy.
Prize Head—early; curled and
frilly; outer leaves reddish-brown,
inner leaves medium green.
Red Sails—deep bronzy-red ruf-fled
leaves; attractive; slow to bolt;
AAS 1952.
Salad Bowl—slow to bolt; large,
upright leaves; light green; deeply
notched; AAS 1952.
SloBolt—long-standing Grand
Rapids type.
Butterhead types
Butternut Crunch—long standing
bibb type; dark green outside leaves;
AAS 1963.
Muskmelons (Cantaloupes)
Muskmelons are popular with gar-deners
who have plenty of space to
accommodate their spreading vines.
Muskmelons do not tolerate cool
temperatures or transplanting very
well, so wait until the soil is warm
before planting seeds. To warm the
soil, use black plastic mulch, floating
row covers, or plastic tunnels. Start
transplants in individual containers
like peat pots, and move them to the
garden shortly after the seeds germi-nate
and the soil is warm.
Muskmelons can be grown on a
trellis, but the fruit must be supported
with a sling. Control the vigorous
vines by pinching out the growing ter-minals
once the melon crop has set.
Bees are necessary for pollination.
Muskmelons do not crosspollinate
with cucumbers, squash, or watermel-ons,
so off-flavor and poor quality are
attributed to growing conditions
(excess water while ripening, low soil
fertility, and hot, cloudy weather).
Many newer hybrid varieties are
resistant to major diseases.
Varieties
Ambrosia—hybrid; excellent fla-vor;
4-pound melons; light orange
flesh; resistant to downy and powdery
mildews.
Dixie Jumbo—hybrid; replace-ment
for Hales Best Jumbo; salmon
flesh; 4-pound melons; resistant to
downy and powdery mildews.
Hales Best 36—round; well-net-ted;
small seed cavity; salmon flesh;
87 days.
Magnum 45—hybrid; early; 3-
pound melons; deep orange flesh;
resistant to powdery mildew.
Mission—hybrid; western shipper
type with no sutures; deep salmon
flesh; 3- to 4-pound melons; resistant
to powdery mildew.
Mustard Greens
Mustard greens are quick and
easy to grow in spring and fall.
Mustard does not tolerate heat and
bolts (runs to seed) when weather
warms in late spring. Plant seeds 4 to
6 weeks before the last frost in spring
and 6 to 8 weeks before the first frost
in fall. Several plantings, a couple of
weeks apart, provide a continuous
supply of mustard. Harvest by cut-ting
entire plants, breaking off only
the large leaves, or cutting plants to
within an inch or so of the crowns,
permitting regrowth for a second har-vest.
Curly leaved varieties trap a lot
of sand that is difficult to wash off.
Varieties
Florida Broad Leaf—broad, flat
leaf; sawtooth edge; the most popular
garden variety.
Green Wave—very curly leaf;
AAS 1957.
Southern Giant Curled—very
curly leaf.
Tendergreen (Mustard
Spinach)—strap-shaped leaf;
smooth.
Okra
Okra is a hot-weather vegetable.
Most varieties make large plants that
require a fair amount of garden space.
When two rows are planted side by
side, leave extra space between the
rows and on both sides to allow for
easy harvesting.
Okra seeds are hard. Soak them in
water overnight before planting to
speed germination.
Space the seed about 4 inches
apart in the row and thin seedlings to
the recommended spacing, or plant
groups of two or three seeds at the
recommended final spacing and thin
seedling groups to one plant. Planting
through black plastic mulch is recom-mended
to promote earliness. Okra
seedlings are sensitive to cool, wet
soils and cool air temperatures. Acid
soils result in poor pod development.
A second planting of okra seeds
about 6 weeks after the first planting
ensures plenty of tender pods in late
summer and fall when production on
the early planting is declining.
Cut back tall okra plants to a
height of 3 to 4 feet to promote
branching, to make harvesting easier,
and to renew the plants. Side-dress
with a nitrogen fertilizer at the same
time. Harvest okra pods by snapping or
cutting frequently. Even the spineless
varieties cause some skin irritation, so
wear long sleeves when harvesting.
Disease problems are generally
minimal, but okra is sensitive to root
knot nematodes. Insect pests are corn
earworms, stink bugs, and ants.
Varieties
Annie Oakley—hybrid; Clemson
Spineless type; spineless pods slightly
ribbed.
Burgundy—burgundy-colored
pods; dwarf plants grow to only 4
feet; plant has ornamental appeal with
red in stems and leaves; AAS 1988.
26

Cajun Delight—five-sided; dark
green pods.
Clemson Spineless—leading
home garden variety; straight pods
tapered, ridged, spineless; less foliage
than Perkins Spineless; 65 days; AAS
1939.
Onions
Onions are grown for green-topped
salad onions and dry bulb
onions. Select a loose, fertile soil and
start with transplants, small dry bulbs
(sets), or seeds. Set out transplants in
late winter and early spring, depend-ing
on location, and use for both salad
and bulb onions. Onion sets planted in
early spring also produce salad onions
and bulbs. Fall-planted sets produce
fall salad onions and when overwin-tered,
produce spring salad onions
and bulbs.
Onion seeds are normally planted
in fall (September to October) for the
production of transplants, but few gar-deners
go to the trouble of raising
their own onion plants.
Separate onion sets into two
sizes—smaller than a dime and larger
than a dime—before planting. The
small sets planted in spring make bulb
onions, and planted in fall, may sur-vive
the winter to make bulb onions.
Large sets planted in spring or fall
generally flower and should be used
for green salad onions since onion
plants that flower do not mature into
good dry bulbs.
Space sets and transplants for bulb
onions 4 to 6 inches apart in the gar-den
row. Onion plants have shallow
roots and are subject to injury from
dry soils. Side-dress with a nitrogen
fertilizer once or twice to encourage
strong and vigorous growth.
As onion bulbs begin to mature,
the tops yellow and fall over. Lifting
the bulbs gently with a turning fork
to break some of the roots hastens
maturity. Do not bend over the tops
to hasten maturity. This practice
reduces bulb size and opens the
onions to neck rot.
The onion varieties grown for
bulbs in the South do not make
strong-flavored, hard-storage type
bulbs. The soft, sweet Southern
onions keep for several weeks, but
plan to use them rapidly.
Varieties
Crystal Wax—white skin and
flesh; standard variety; flat, medium-sized
bulb; soft, mild flesh; also used
for green salad onions.
Granex 33—Vidalia type onion;
hybrid; thick, flat globe shape; yellow
skin; fair storage quality; mild, sweet
flavor; susceptible to pink root.
Granex 429—yellow skin; deeper
shape than Granex 33 and several days
later maturing; mild, sweet flavor.
Texas Grano-1015 Y—yellow
skin; globe shape; sweet and mild;
resistant to pink root.
Southern Peas
Field pea, cowpea, and protepea
all are names used for the southern
pea. There are numerous types and
varieties with many old family
favorites in the seed trade. Gardeners
classify peas several different ways:
seed color, pea size and shape, and
pod color. Small-sized pea and pod
types are referred to as lady peas.
Other common types are crowders,
creams, blackeyes, pinkeyes, purple
hulls, and silver skins.
Do not plant this warm-weather
vegetable early in cool soil. Peas grow
in all soil types but are sensitive to
high levels of nitrogen fertilizer and
respond by making all vine and few
pods. Older varieties have a tendency
to make a vine; newer varieties are
semi-vining to bush type.
Seed quality and variety are
important to success when growing
peas. Varieties such as Mississippi
Silver, Mississippi Purple, Magnolia
Blackeye, Mississippi Cream, and
Mississippi Pinkeye have multiple
disease resistance (fusarium, root
knot nematode, and several strains of
virus) and perform better than vari-eties
that possess no disease resist-ance,
such as California Blackeye,
Knuckle Purple Hull, and Bunch
Pinkeye.
Major disease problems are fusari-um
wilt, several viruses, root knot
nematodes, and pod rots. The most
serious insect problems are cowpea
curculios, aphids, and stink bugs.
Varieties
Louisiana Quickpick—bears pink-eyed,
purple-hulled pods above the
foliage.
Magnolia Blackeye—green pea is
light green to cream with black eye;
mature green pod is light green to
cream; mature pods are tan; plant is
small, and pods are not held up well;
plants have multiple disease resist-ance.
Mississippi Purple—brown crow-der
type; green pea is large, turning to
brown seed; mature pod light green to
purple turning brown when dry; semi-vining
type plant with multiple dis-ease
resistance.
Mississippi Silver—brown crow-der
type; green pea is large turning to
brown seed; mature pod is green turn-ing
silvery and then yellow; large,
semi-vining plant with multiple dis-ease
resistance.
Pinkeye Purple Hull-BVR—a typ-ical
pinkeye type but with resistance
to blackeye cowpea mosaic virus.
Peas
(English, Snap, Snow)
English peas require early spring
planting in order to mature before
warm weather destroys them. Prepare
the planting site in fall by adding all
fertilizer except nitrogen. Prepare a
high bed so that planting is possible
when the rest of the garden may be
too wet.
Some varieties of English peas
have smooth seeds and others have
wrinkled seeds. Smooth-seeded peas
have a starchy flavor, even when
young, and are used mostly for can-ning.
Wrinkled-seeded peas are sweet
when young and are slower to lose
quality.
Soil temperatures at planting
should be at least 45 °F for good ger-mination.
Plant seeds 1 inch deep and
1 inch apart. Allow 8 to 10 inches
between double rows. Some form of
support makes harvesting easier and
keeps vines off the ground, reducing
losses to pod rot. Tall varieties must
be supported. Double rows of short
vine types support themselves. Mulch
to keep soil around roots cool and
moist.
Grow sugar peas (snow peas) the
same way as English peas. Harvest
edible pods while still young and ten-der,
and before peas enlarge. Edible-podded
peas are also grown like
English peas. Plants and pods resem-ble
English peas, but the pods as well
as the enlarged peas are eaten togeth-er
without shelling. Sugar Snap, a
1979 AAS Gold Medal winner, has
tall vines that require support. More
recently developed varieties have
short vines.
Varieties
English peas
Alaska—smooth seed; canning
type; early; 28-inch vines; 52 days.
Green Arrow—midseason; wrin-kled
seed; 24- to 28-inch vine; 41⁄2-
inch pods; 9 to 11 peas per pod; resist-ant
to downy mildew and fusarium
wilt; 68 days.
Little Marvel—old variety; wrin-kled
seed; 15-inch vines; early; 3-inch
pod; 6 to 8 peas per pod; dark green
pea; 62 days.
Thomas Laxton—early; wrinkled
seed; 28- to 34-inch vine; 31⁄2-inch
pod; 6 to 8 peas per pod; large pea;
excellent quality; 61 days.
Wando—midseason to late; small
pod; 24- to 30-inch vine; tolerates
some heat; 3-inch pod; 6 to 8 peas per
pod; 70 days.
Snap peas
Snappy—large pods; 8 to 9 peas;
vines 6 feet; mildew resistant; 63 days.
Sugar Ann—bush-type plant; 18
to 24 inches tall; AAS 1984.
Sugar Bon—2- to 3-inch pods;
weather tolerant; vines 18 to 24 inch-es;
powdery mildew resistant; 56 days.
Sugar Daddy—stringless; easy to
pick; 74 days.
Sugar Snap—4- to 6-foot vine;
thick-walled, edible pod; 21⁄2- to 31⁄2-
inch pods; wilt resistant; 68 days;
AAS 1979.
Snow peas
Dwarf Gray Sugar—early; 3-inch,
light green pods; vines 2 feet tall.
Mammoth Melting Sugar—4-inch
pods; 4-foot wilt-resistant vines.
Oregon Sugar Pod II—4-inch
pods; 28-inch disease resistant vines.
Peanuts
Peanuts are divided into four gen-eral
categories according to plant and
nut types: Virginia, Runner, Spanish,
and Valencia. Virginia and Runner
types are mostly low-growing plants
with two large seeds per pod and are
the best garden types. Spanish and
Valencia types are mostly erect plants,
small-seeded, with the Spanish hav-ing
two to three seeds, and the
Valencia three to four seeds per pod.
Peanuts grow best on coarse-tex-tured,
sandy loam soils. On fine-tex-tured
soils, the Virginia and Runner
types are difficult to harvest, and
many pods may be left in the ground.
Peanuts are good users of residual
fertilizer in the soil and may not need
additional fertilizer. Soils of low fer-tility
require about 10 pounds of 0-24-
24 or equivalent per 1,000 square feet.
Soils of medium fertility require
about 7 pounds per 1,000 square feet.
Peanuts are very sensitive to low soil
pH and low levels of soil calcium.
Remove seeds that are still in the
pods, being careful not to damage the
seed coat or split the seed. Use one-half
pound of seed per 100 feet of
row. Virginia and Runner types
require 3 feet between rows, with
plants 3 to 4 inches apart in the row.
Plant Spanish types closer together (in
rows 2 feet apart with 2 to 3 inches
between plants). Plant on a wide,
slightly raised bed. Cover seeds with
11⁄2 to 2 inches of coarse-textured soil.
On fine-textured soils, 1 inch is deep
enough.
Inoculate the peanut seed where a
well nodulated peanut or southern pea
crop was not grown on the garden site
the preceding year. Buy a fresh com-mercial
peanut inoculant and apply it to
the seed immediately before planting.
To prevent poorly developed pods,
sprinkle about 21⁄2 pounds of gypsum
or basic slag per 100 feet of garden
row over the plants when they begin
to flower.
Because peanut plants are low-growing,
close cultivation is difficult.
Keep weeds under control and soil
free from crusts that interfere with the
pegs (young undeveloped peanuts)
entering the ground. Do not throw or
pull soil to the plants while cultivating
because this kills leaves, interferes
with flowering, and increases the
chance for disease.
Once pods are developing in the
soil, cultivation causes injury and
weeding close to the plants must be
done by hand.
Peanuts are relatively tolerant to
dry soils when compared to some
other garden vegetables. However,
they need plenty of water when flow-ering
vigorously and when pegs are
entering the soil. A water shortage at
this time greatly reduces yields. Water
is also important as harvest approach-es.
Do not water peanuts as they begin
to mature. The Virginia and Runner
types have good seed dormancy, but
Spanish types may sprout if watered.
As peanuts mature, leaves turn
yellow. Since plants flower over a
period of weeks, all pods do not
mature at the same time. False matu-rity
(plants yellowing) caused by dis-ease
reduces yields. From 120 to 150
days are required from planting to
maturity.
Dig when about 75 percent of the
inner hulls of Spanish types and 65
percent of the inner hulls of Runner
types are brown.
Dig the whole plant with a turning
fork, being careful to break off as few
pods as possible. Freshly dug green
peanuts are excellent for boiling.
After several days of exposure to
good drying conditions, the moisture
content of the peanuts drops from 50
percent to about 20 percent. Move
plants to a warm, airy place for 2 to 3
weeks to complete curing before
pulling the nuts from the plants.
Yields vary with planting date, soil
pH, growing conditions, and type
grown. Virginia and Runner types
yield about 1 bushel (green-35 to 45
pounds; dry-15 pounds) of peanuts
per 100 feet of row.
Major diseases attacking garden
peanuts are leafspot, stem and pod rot,
and nematodes. Control these dis-eases
by changing the location of
peanuts in the garden every year.
Also, remove all dead plants and
leaves from the garden site or turn
them under in the fall to allow time
for decomposition.
Control most leafspot diseases by
regularly applying fungicides contain-ing
chlorothalonil or maneb.
Sanitation is the best way to control
stem and pod rot caused by southern
blight.
Control velvet bean caterpillars,
corn earworms, fall armyworms, and
thrips with carbaryl (Sevin). Control
aphids with malathion.
Peppers
Garden peppers, both hot and
sweet, are generally purchased as
transplants from a local distributor at
27

planting time. Peppers grow well on
black plastic mulch. Use a starter
solution when setting plants in the
garden. Growing transplants from
seeds takes 10 to 12 weeks. Direct
seeding in the garden is not recom-mended.
All peppers are sensitive to exces-sive
nitrogen fertilization. Too much
fertilization will cause blossoms and
small pods to drop off. Hot daytime
temperatures and cool nighttime tem-peratures
also cause blossom drop.
Problems with peppers other than
blossom drop are blossom end rot
(resulting from drought and acid
soils), southern stem blight, sunburn,
leaf diseases, anthracnose, viruses,
and aphids.
Varieties
Sweet peppers
Bell Boy—hybrid; medium long;
blocky; mostly 4-lobed fruit; tolerant
to tobacco mosaic virus; heavy set;
AAS 1967.
Big Bertha—hybrid; elongated
bell type; resistant to tobacco mosaic
virus.
California Wonder—thick walled;
blocky fruit; 3 to 4 lobes.
Emerald Giant—large, 4-lobed
blocky fruit; tolerant to tobacco mosa-ic
virus.
Jupiter—early; large and blocky;
mostly 4-lobed; medium-dark green
turning red at maturity; tolerant to
tobacco mosaic virus.
Keystone Resistant Giant—large
pendant, blocky fruit; resistant to
tobacco mosaic virus.
Sweet Banana—Sweet Hungarian
type; 6 inches long; tapered; light yel-low
turning red.
Hot peppers
Cayenne—dark green turning red;
6 inches long; processing type for
drying and sauce; concentrated fruit-ing
habit; strong 24-inch plants.
Habanero—the hottest of the hot
peppers; a Caribbean favorite; gold-en-
orange lantern-shaped fruit. Be
careful.
Hungarian Wax—canary yellow
fruit; 6 to 8 inches long; turns red
when ripe.
Jalapeno—very hot; thick-walled;
tapered green fruit turning red; 3 inch-es
long.
Super Chili—hybrid; thin-walled,
tapered fruit; 21⁄2 inches long; fruit
held upright on small plants; orna-mental
value; AAS 1988.
TAM Mild Jalapeno—mildly hot
jalapeno type; dark green; thick wall;
productive.
Irish Potatoes
Most garden Irish potatoes are
grown in the spring, since good seed
potatoes are impossible to find for fall
planting. This is one of the few veg-etables
recommended for growing in
mildly acid soil. A soil pH below 6.0
is acceptablebecause it retards devel-opment
of potato scab disease.
Prepare garden rows in fall by
building a high bed that will permit
early spring planting. Small whole
potatoes or cut pieces of large pota-toes
are referred to as seeds. Use cer-tified
seed potatoes that are not shriv-eled
or black on the inside when cut.
Do not use potatoes left over from last
year’s garden because they may be
diseased and result in low yields. Do
not use potatoes from the grocery
store, since the variety may be
unadapted and the potatoes may have
been treated to prevent sprouting.
Cut seed potatoes into pieces
weighing 11⁄2 to 2 ounces with at least
one eye per piece. Small seed pieces
produce weak plants; large pieces are
a waste of seeds. Cut seed potatoes
several days before planting and hold
them at room temperature spread in a
single layer to allow the cut surfaces
to dry and heal. This reduces seed
piece rot following planting. You need
1 pound of seed potatoes to plant
about 10 feet of row; 10 pounds
should plant 100 feet of row. Space
seed pieces 10 to 12 inches apart and
cover with 3 to 4 inches of soil.
Spring-planted potatoes normally
bloom, and some of the flowers
develop into fruit that look like small
green tomatoes. These fruits, the
green areas on the skin of potatoes
that have been exposed to light, and
sprouted potato eyes contain a poison-ous
substance that may cause illness if
eaten. Prevent greening of potatoes by
keeping them covered with soil as
they grow, and keeping them in the
dark after harvest.
Some gardeners prefer to grow
potatoes in straw mulch. Potatoes
grown in such a manner are clean and
easy to harvest. Cover seed pieces
with 1 inch of soil. When green
sprouts appear, place 4 to 5 inches of
straw around the plants. Keep the
layer of straw deep and moist. When
potato vines die, harvest potatoes by
carefully removing the straw.
Problems with Irish potatoes are
seed piece rot resulting from planting
in clay, wet soils; enlarged lenticels
(warts) and tuber rot from excessive
soil moisture near harvest; early
blight; Colorado potato beetles; and
aphids.
Most varieties have white flesh
and light brown or red skin. Some
specialty varieties have yellow or
dark flesh.
Varieties
Atlantic—light brown.
LaChipper—light brown.
Norland—early; red; oblong-shaped;
shallow eyes.
Red LaSoda—midseason; red;
oblong-shaped; deep eyes.
Red Pontiac—midseason; red;
oblong-shaped; deep eyes.
Superior—midseason; light
brown.
Norchip—early; light brown;
round to oblong; shallow eyes.
Sweet Potatoes
This tropical root crop is started
from small plants called slips or vine
cuttings. Slips are produced by
sprouting sweet potato roots in moist
sand or sawdust. Cover roots in a box
or bed with 3 to 4 inches of sand or
sawdust, water, and keep warm (80
°F). In a few weeks when sprouts are
several inches long, pull them from
the roots. Additional slips develop and
can be used for later planting.
Before planting sweet potato slips
(homegrown or purchased), cut
about 1 inch from the base of the
stem to reduce disease problems. Use
starter solution when setting slips in
the garden.
Vine cuttings are slips cut at the
bed surface with no roots or cuttings
taken from the ends of slips set in the
garden earlier. They have the advan-tage
over slips of further reducing dis-ease
and insect problems. Vine cut-tings
several inches long can be made
until July 1. These cuttings root rapid-ly
when set in warm, moist soil.
Sweet potatoes need warm soils
and about 90 to 110 days from setting
the plants until harvest. Even good
roots will produce poor yields if the
soil is clay, wet, or overfertilized with
nitrogen. A good sweet potato fertiliz-er
has a ratio of 1-2-4. Select a loose,
well-drained soil that allows for root
growth and easy digging. Side-dress 3
to 4 weeks after transplanting with a
low nitrogen, high potash fertilizer.
Many sweet potato varieties flower in
late summer. Sweet potato flowers are
similar to morningglory.
Dig sweet potatoes when the soil
is fairly dry and the air is warm. Early
harvest results in many small roots.
Late harvest results in jumbo roots
and possible cold injury. Do not let
freshly dug potatoes sit in the sun;
they scald easily. If exposed to tem-peratures
below 50 °F, potatoes may
develop hard spots in the roots, a con-dition
known as hardcore, or be
chilled and begin to break down.
Problems in growing sweet pota-toes
are sweet potato weevil in the
southern half of the state, larvae of
various insects that burrow into the
roots, and the diseases scurf (soil
stain) and soil rot. Clip the base of the
slips before planting or use vine cut-tings
to reduce scurf infection. Acid
soils help to control soil rot. Cracks in
the roots indicate nematode damage
or interrupted growth caused by peri-ods
of drought.
Varieties
Beauregard—light rose skin; mod-erately
deep orange flesh; high yield-ing;
some disease resistance but not
resistant to nematodes.
Centennial—variably tapered to
cylindrical root shape; medium to
large size; orange skin; deep orange
flesh; vines thick and vigorous.
Jewel—blocky shape; smooth cop-per
skin with rose blush; orange flesh.
Unit I Porto Rico—old variety; no
field disease resistance; root shape
variable; copper skin; yellow-orange
flesh.
Nancy Hall—popular old variety
with no disease resistance; light
orange flesh.
Pumpkins
Most garden pumpkins are planted
for Halloween. Pumpkins planted in
spring, when summer squash, cucum-bers,
and melons are planted, mature
in midsummer, long before
Halloween. If left in the garden, they
rot. Therefore, they must be harvested
and used or stored in a cool, dry place.
Pumpkins for Halloween are best
planted in late June and early July.
They require 90 to 110 days from
planting to harvest.
Most pumpkin varieties produce
strong, running vines that require
plenty of garden space. Some vari-eties
are described as having short
vines and are adapted to limited
space.
Pumpkins crosspollinate with
summer squash, acorn squash, veg-etable
spaghetti, and small ornamen-tal
gourds if they are growing nearby.
This is of no concern unless you plan
to save seed for another year.
Jumbo pumpkins belong to a dif-ferent
squash group from Halloween
pumpkins, and they crosspollinate
with many types of winter squash.
The tan pumpkins Kentucky Field
and Dickinson Field belong to a third
group and crosspollinate with butter-nut
squash.
All of this crossing results in some
strange looking volunteer squash-pumpkins
in the garden or compost
pile the next year.
Pumpkin seeds saved from har-vested
pumpkins make a nice snack
food when roasted. Some pumpkin
varieties have seeds with no hulls.
Never eat seeds that were purchased
for planting because of insecticides
and fungicides used as seed treat-ments.
Problems in growing pumpkins
are cucumber beetles, squash bugs,
pickleworms, squash vine borers, and
powdery and downy mildews.
Varieties
Autumn Gold—hybrid; early; 7 to
10 pounds; fruit begin turning gold at
an immature stage; AAS 1987.
Big Max—50 to 100 pounds; fair-ly
round; pinkish orange; rough.
Connecticut Field—20 pounds or
more; fairly round; deep yellow-orange;
thin, hard shell; thick, coarse
flesh.
Cushaw—12 pounds; skin cream-white
mottled with irregular green
stripes; bulbous blossom end with
medium-long curving neck; thick,
sweet flesh.
Howden—Connecticut Field type;
more uniform in shape.
Jack Be Little—miniature pump-kin;
3 inches across, 2 inches high;
not edible; for decoration only; small
pumpkins last several months.
Jack O’Lantern—10 pounds;
medium orange; smooth, shallow
ribs.
Prizewinner—hybrid; traditional
color and shape; up to twice as big as
Big Max.
Spirit—hybrid; 12-inch diameter;
10 to 15 pounds; deep oval; bright
orange; semi-bush; AAS 1977.
Spookie—small; average 6
pounds; dark orange; thick, fine-tex-tured,
sweet flesh.
Triple Treat—6 to 8 pounds;
round; thick flesh; seed with no hulls.
Radishes
Radishes are quick maturing cool-season
vegetables for spring and fall
gardens. They are ready to harvest
within 4 weeks of planting and rapid-ly
pass into a pithy, unusable condi-tion.
Radishes that produce only tops
result from being planted too thick
(late thinning), too much shade, or hot
temperatures. Black spots in radishes
may indicate boron deficiency.
Dissolve 1 level tablespoon of house-hold
borax in 3 gallons of water and
apply to 100 feet of garden row. Use
proportionately smaller amounts for
shorter rows.
Some large-root types designated
as winter radishes are recommended
for the fall garden. They remain crisp
longer than small types, are more pun-gent,
and are best grown like fall
turnips.
Varieties
Champion—scarlet; deep oval;
large root and top; 28 days; AAS
1957.
Cherry Belle—round globe; cher-ry
red skin; crisp, solid flesh; short
top; 21 days; AAS 1949.
China Rose—winter type; deep
rose skin; white flesh; pungent; long;
52 days.
Round Black Spanish—winter
type; large globe shape; 31⁄2- to 4-inch
diameter; black skin; pungent white
flesh; 55 days.
Scarlet Globe—bright scarlet
globe; crisp; white; mild flesh; 24
days.
Snowbelle—hybrid; white; round
28

root; crisp; mild; 30 days.
White Chinese (Winter Cel-estial)—
winter type; 6 to 8 inches
long; 3-inch diameter; crisp; white;
mild flesh; 60 days.
White Icicle—long; white; crisp;
tapered to a point; 28 days.
Rhubarb
This cool-season perennial veg-etable
is not adapted to Mississippi’s
hot summers, wet winters, and clay
soils. The plant may survive but will
not thrive. Rhubarb grows best where
summer temperatures do not exceed
75 degrees. Plants are subject to
attack by a number of fungi, resulting
in crown rot.
If you want to grow rhubarb,
select a well-drained soil in a lightly
shaded area. The shade reduces sum-mer
temperatures. Raised beds pro-vide
additional drainage, which may
help reduce disease problems.
Set the large, fleshy crown in
early spring so the bud is about 1
inch below the soil surface. Each
plant needs 4 to 6 square feet of
growing space.
Normally, harvest should not
begin until the second or third year to
allow establishment, but the plants
might not live that long in
Mississippi. Harvest by pulling the
large outer stalks and leaving the
small inner stalks to enlarge. Do not
eat the leaf blade because it is poi-sonous.
Following harvest, apply a
small amount of nitrogen fertilizer
around each plant. Mulch plants in
late fall and again in early spring.
Before growth starts in spring, apply
a small amount of mixed fertilizer,
such as 13-13-13, around each plant.
If plants develop a flower stalk in
summer, remove it at first appear-ance.
Spinach,
New Zealand Spinach,
and Malabar Spinach
Fresh spinach is a popular salad
vegetable. A cool-weather green,
spinach is adapted to growing in
spring, fall, and winter gardens.
Spinach grows best on a well-drained
soil rich in organic matter with a pH
approaching 7.0. It grows poorly on
soils with a pH below 6.0. Spinach
plants are shallow-rooted and require
adequate soil moisture. Plant spinach
seeds 4 to 6 weeks before the last frost
in spring and 6 to 8 weeks before the
first frost in fall. Soak seeds in water
overnight to soften seed coats and
hasten germination. With ideal grow-ing
conditions, spinach is ready to
harvest in 45 to 50 days from plant-ing.
Harvest entire plants, individual
large outer leaves, or clip plants, leav-ing
about an inch for regrowth.
New Zealand spinach is a hot-weather
leafy green. It is not a true
spinach, but the tender young shoot
tips are used in similar ways. It grows
rapidly, has many branches, and
prefers a well-drained loamy soil, rich
in organic matter. Being a hot-weath-er
plant, the seeds of New Zealand
spinach should not be planted until
the soil is warm. Soak seed in water
overnight before planting to aid ger-mination.
Space plants 12 to 18 inch-es
apart in the garden row. Side-dress
plants with a little nitrogen fertilizer
every 4 to 6 weeks.
Malabar spinach is a tropical, vin-ing
plant that does best in hot, humid
weather. Easily grown from seed, the
plant makes an attractive vine that
should be trellised to keep it off the
ground. There are two leaf types, red
and green. Individual leaves or the
tender young shoot tips can be used as
a hot-weather spinach substitute.
Varieties
Chesapeake—hybrid; semi-savoy;
bolts rapidly; large, upright plant;
overwinters; recommended for fall
planting.
Dixie Market—compact, upright
plant; savoyed; recommended for fall,
winter, and spring planting.
Long Standing Bloomsdale—
large; savoy leaf; semi-upright plant;
recommended for spring planting.
Melody—hybrid; semi-savoy;
upright plant; recommended for early
spring and fall planting; AAS 1977.
Skookum—hybrid; early; dark
green; semi-savoy leaf; upright;
resistant to downy mildew.
Summer Squash
All summer squash (straight
neck, crookneck, bush scallop, and
zucchini) are actually true pumpkins.
They crosspollinate with each other
as well as Halloween type pumpkins,
spaghetti squash, and small orna-mental
gourds. All this crossing does
not affect the quality of the current
season’s production.
Summer squash have a tender
skin and are harvested at an imma-ture
stage, generally within 4 to 6
days after bloom. The plants are bush
type rather than vining and are suited
for small gardens. Most new vari-eties
are hybrids.
Summer squash have separate
male (attached to the plant by a thin
stem) and female flowers (small
squash behind the yellow blossom) on
the same plant and depend on bees for
pollination. Hybrids may produce a
few female flowers before male flow-ers
appear, and without pollination,
these fail to develop into squash.
Plant summer squash seeds in hills
about 3 feet apart, with 3 to 4 seeds
per hill or in a row with single seeds
spaced about 1 foot apart. Space sin-gle
plants about 3 feet apart.
Crowding leads to low production and
disease.
Squash do well on black plastic
mulch in spring, especially when
planted early. They benefit from
warm soil and lack of weed compe-tition.
Fall squash can be grown by
planting seeds in August, but mosa-ic
virus has been a serious problem
in recent years.
Side-dress plants with a nitrogen
fertilizer when they have several
leaves but before they start to bloom.
Proper harvesting is important for
continuous production. Remove all
large and overmature squash. This
problem is more serious with zucchi-ni
than with other types of summer
squash.
Several serious insect pests attack
squash plants: spotted and striped
cucumber beetles, squash bugs, stem
borers, and pickleworms. A regular
spray program with carbaryl (Sevin)
helps reduce damage from these
insects.
Disease problems are mainly fruit
rot on crowded, shaded plants and
mosaic virus.
Varieties
Aristocrat—hybrid zucchini; cylin-drical
fruit; smooth; uniform; dark
green; 53 days; AAS 1973.
Bush Scallop—scalloped white to
pale green fruit; 55 days.
Butterbar—hybrid yellow straight-neck;
long, cylindrical; butter yellow;
small seed cavity; 49 days.
Medallion—hybrid; crookneck;
lemon yellow.
Early Prolific Straightneck—pop-ular
old variety; creamy yellow;
straight; slightly tapered; 52 days;
AAS 1938.
Early Summer Crookneck—popu-lar
old variety; yellow; small, curved
neck with bulbous blossom end; 55
days.
Senator—hybrid zucchini; 6 to 7
inches long; medium green.
Sunburst—hybrid scallop; bright
yellow with green at blossom and
stem ends; AAS 1985.
Winter Squash
These hard-shelled squash are
grown for harvest in fall and storage
through early winter months. Acorn
and Butternut are the two most popu-lar
types, but the group includes many
others, such as buttercup, spaghetti,
hubbard, banana, marrow, and turban.
Some of the pumpkins, such as
cushaw and Kentucky Field, are treat-ed
as winter or storage squash. An odd
assortment of local squash called
“aboveground sweet potatoes” fall
into this group.
Most of these squash have strong
vining plants. The fruit range in size
from the small acorn and hybrid Early
Butternut to the large banana and hub-bards.
Winter squash planted in spring
along with summer squash mature in
midsummer. These fruit lack the eat-ing
quality of those produced on
plants from seeds planted in late June
or early July along with Halloween
pumpkins.
Delay harvest until the fruit rind is
very hard and vines begin to die.
Immature fruit of most varieties are
tasteless. Yellow acorn varieties are
edible at all stages of maturity. All
winter squash are pollinated by bees
and require 60 to 70 days from polli-nation
to maturity.
Varieties
Early Butternut Hybrid—mature
fruit are tan; excellent flavor and tex-ture;
stores well; viney but not overly
vigorous; AAS 1979.
Sweet Mama—hybrid; dark green;
2 to 3 pounds; flattened; round;
Buttercup type fruit; orange flesh;
stores well; vigorous vines; AAS
1979.
Table Queen—acorn type; small
fruit; dark green; deeply ridged;
smooth and hard; yellow flesh; bush
type plant.
Vegetable Spaghetti—fruit 8 to 10
inches long, 3 pounds; yellow when
mature; cooked flesh is greenish-white,
spaghetti-like strands; flavor is
bland; prolific vine; 90 days; orange-fleshed
type also available.
Waltham Butternut—large, tan
fruit; 3 pounds; uniform shape;
orange flesh; stores well; vigorous
vine; AAS 1970.
Tomatoes
The tomato is the most popular
garden vegetable. Tomatoes come in
many shapes, sizes, and colors, but
the most popular is the medium-sized
(6 to 8 ounces) red globe.
Tomato plants require full sun,
moderate amounts of fertilizer, stak-ing
or caging, and an insect and dis-ease
control program. Determinate
(short, self-topping) varieties like
Celebrity, Mountain Pride, and
Mountain Spring are gaining in popu-larity,
but the indeterminate varieties
like Better Boy are used more widely.
Most tomatoes are set out as trans-plants,
since it takes several weeks
longer to harvest from tomatoes plant-ed
as seeds. Do not set out transplants
too early in the spring. Cool soils as
well as cool air temperatures chill
plants, resulting in delayed harvest.
Use a starter solution when setting the
transplants. If transplants have small
fruit at planting time, remove fruit to
prevent stunting the plants.
Plants set out in spring are some-times
maintained through the summer
in hopes of a fall crop. With
mulching, irrigation, fertilization, and
a good pest control program, this is
possible, but the fall fruit that develop
are frequently small. This results from
failure to maintain a season-long
pruning program. A second planting
of tomatoes for a fall crop provides
large, attractive fruit. Start seedlings
in June and set plants out in July or
early August. You can use rooted cut-tings
(suckers) that were removed in
pruning to start a second planting.
Set tomato transplants deeper than
they were growing in the plant bed,
peat cup, or plastic tray; the deeper
the better.
All garden tomato plants, indeter-minate
as well as determinate, must
be supported off the ground in some
manner to prevent loss of fruit to rots
and sunburn. Wooden stakes, placed
at planting time or shortly after, are
the most common type of support.
Wire cages at least 18 inches in
diameter made from concrete rein-forcing
wire are also popular. Cages
wrapped with clear plastic to a height
of 18 inches provide some protection
from cold winds and wind-blown
sand. Black plastic mulch laid before
planting, in combination with plastic-wrapped
cages, is beneficial to early
plants.
Staked plants in a row do not have
to be tied directly to the stakes. They
can be supported by nylon cord that
runs from stake to stake, down the
row on both sides of the stakes, and at
several levels (Florida weave).
Tomato plants form many branch-es
(suckers) as they grow. It is a com-mon
practice to break the suckers out
of the plants to encourage larger and
earlier fruit and to make the plant eas-ier
to tie and spray. Determinate types
are not pruned as heavily as indeter-minate
types, and in no instance are
all the suckers removed.
Products advertised to promote
fruit development by spraying on the
flower clusters are useful at times but
should not be counted on for all the
fruit set. When conditions are not ideal
(shade; cool, wet weather; high tem-peratures)
for natural pollination, these
sprays are useful. Fruit that develop
entirely from these sprays, with no nat-ural
pollination, do not have seeds and
are not the best quality.
Tomatoes are attacked by a num-ber
of diseases and insects. The most
serious diseases are early blight (no
resistant varieties), spotted wilt virus
(BHN 444 and Amelia are resistant
varieties), fusarium wilt, blossom end
rot, and root knot nematodes. Regular
use of fungicides containing maneb or
chlorothalonil controls early blight
and several other leaf and fruit dis-
29

eases. Plant disease-resistant varieties
to reduce disease problems. Disease
resistance is indicated in the variety
descriptions below by a series of let-ters,
V, F, N, and T. The V indicates
resistance to verticillium wilt, F for
fusarium wilt, N for root knot nema-todes,
and T for tobacco mosaic virus.
Major insect problems are aphids,
thrips, stink bugs, blister beetles, fruit
worms, horn worms, leaf miners, and
white flies.
Problems are blossom end rot (low
soil calcium, lack of water), fruit
cracking (excess water and high tem-peratures),
sudden wilting (root dam-age
from cultivation or drowning),
blossom drop (low or high tempera-tures,
poor nutrition), and sunscald
(excessive pruning, no plant support,
or loss of leaves to disease).
Varieties
I--indeterminate
D--determinate
Amelia—large-fruited with toma-to
spotted wilt virus resistance; D.
Better Boy—VFN hybrid; 8- to
12-ounce red fruit; 72 days; I.
Big Beef—large-fruited beef stake
with good disease resistance; I; AAS
1994 .
Celebrity—VFNT hybrid; 7- to 8-
ounce red globe; firm, flavorful fruit;
D; 72 days; AAS 1984.
Cherry Grande—VF hybrid; large
cluster of 11⁄2-inch firm, round, red
fruit; D; 60 days.
Floramerica—VF hybrid; 8- to 12-
ounce red fruit; 76 days; D; AAS
1978.
Floradel—F; 8-ounce red fruit; 75
to 85 days; I; old variety; open-polli-nated.
Marion—F; 6-ounce red fruit; 79
days; I; old; open-pollinated.
Mini Charm—miniature cherry
tomato with indeterminate growth and
abundant production.
Mountain Spring—VF hybrid;
early; resistance to cracking; D.
Park’s Whopper—VFNT hybrid;
large fruit; I; 70 days.
Super Fantastic—VF hybrid; 8-
ounce red fruit; 70 days; I.
Sweet 100—hybrid; large clusters
of 1-inch, round, red fruit; I; 65 days.
Turnips and Rutabagas
Turnips are grown for both leaves
(greens) and roots in the spring and
fall garden. For greens, it is not neces-sary
to thin seedlings, and there are
varieties just for greens. For roots,
thin seedlings to 2 to 4 inches apart.
Rutabagas are a fall crop with
planting recommended in August or
early September. Roots require 4 to 6
weeks longer to mature than turnip
roots. Thin rutabaga seedlings to at
least 6 inches apart (12 inches pre-ferred)
in the row. Rutabaga leaves
can be eaten.
Hot weather causes turnips to be
strong-flavored or bitter and pithy.
Black spots inside the roots indicate a
need for boron. Dissolve 1 level table-spoon
of household borax in 3 gallons
of water and apply to 100 feet of row.
Use less for shorter rows.
Major problems are aphids, leaf-eating
worms, and leaf spots.
Varieties
All Top—hybrid; broadleaf turnip
for tops only; dark green; 50 days.
American Purple Top—rutabaga; 4-
to 5-inch diameter; spherical; purple-red
crown; pale yellow flesh; 90 days.
Just Right—hybrid; root and top
type; white root; broad, serrated leaf;
60 days; AAS 1960.
Purple Top—old standard; root
and top type; white globe root with
purple crown; 57 days.
Seven Top—leaf type; cut leaf;
dark green; 45 days.
Tokyo Cross—hybrid; root and
top type; semi-globe; white root;
early; 35 days; AAS 1969.
Watermelons
Most watermelon plants require a
lot of space and quickly take over a
small garden. Some varieties are
described as having short vines.
Those described as having bush-type
plants may be disappointing.
Varieties are available that produce
large or small, round or oblong, solid
or striped fruit with red or yellow
flesh, with seeds or seedless.
Plant when the soil is warm and all
danger of frost has passed.
Watermelon transplants in peat cups
or plastic trays can be used, but they
must be small (not yet vining) to
avoid plant injury. Use transplants
with seedless melons because the seed
is small, expensive, and slow to ger-minate.
For seedless melon trans-plants,
plant the seeds with the round-ed
end down and the pointed end up.
Hot kaps, black plastic mulch,
floating row covers, and plastic tun-nels
are ways to obtain earliness.
Black plastic also controls weeds. You
can use transplants or seeds in combi-nation
with black plastic mulch. With
normal vining melons, plant several
seeds in groups spaced about 6 feet
apart. Thin seedlings to two plants in
each group. With seedless melons, it
is necessary to plant some standard
melons close by to provide pollina-tion.
All watermelons are pollinated
by bees and require about 45 days
from pollination to maturity.
Disease problems are anthracnose,
fusarium wilt, gummy stem blight,
and bacterial wilt. Insect problems are
striped and spotted cucumber beetles.
Varieties
Bush Charleston Gray—bush-type
plant; 10- to 13-pound melons;
red flesh.
Bush Jubilee—bush-type plant;
10- to 13-pound oblong fruit; red
flesh.
Charleston Gray—30 pounds;
oblong; light green; bright red flesh
and dark seeds; some disease resist-ance.
Crimson Sweet—23 to 30 pounds;
semi-round; distinct striping; thick,
hard rind; sweet, red flesh; some dis-ease
resistance.
Jubilee—25 to 40 pounds; long;
light green with dark stripes; red flesh
with black seeds; some disease resist-ance.
Jubilee II—22 to 30 pounds;
oblong; light green with dark green
stripes; open-pollinated; firm, red
flesh; sweet; some disease resistance.
Royal Jubilee—hybrid Jubilee
type; elongated; 25 to 30 pounds;
bright red flesh; resistant to fusarium
and anthracnose.
Royal Sweet—20 to 25 pounds;
hybrid; oblong; medium-green
stripes; bright red flesh and small dark
seeds; some disease resistance.
30
Planting
stems, and fruits. These wounds let
fungi and bacteria enter and cause
diseases. Some insects also transmit
viruses, bacteria, and fungi that
cause diseases. Controlling insects in
the garden is an important method of
disease control.
Staking and mulching. Control
diseases like cucumber belly rot and
tomato soil rot by growing plants on
mulch and trellising or staking to
keep fruit off the ground.
Watering. Water plants in late
morning or early evening. Watering
late in the evening leaves foliage
wet longer, which helps diseases
develop.
Harvesting and working in the
garden. Do not harvest vegetables
or work in the garden when plant
leaves are wet.

The information given here is for educational purposes only. References to commercial products, trade names, or suppliers are made with the understanding that no endorsement is implied and that
no discrimination is intended against other products or suppliers.
Originally prepared by Milo Burnham, Ph.D., former Extension Horticulturist. Revised and distributed by David Nagel, PhD, Extension Horticulturist; Blake Layton, PhD, Extension Entomologist;
Alan Henn, PhD, and David Ingram, PhD, Extension Plant Pathologists.
Discrimination based upon race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or veteran’s status is a violation of federal and state law and MSU policy and will not be tolerated. Discrimination
based upon sexual orientation or group affiliation is a violation of MSU policy and will not be tolerated.
Publication 1091
Extension Service of Mississippi State University, cooperating with U.S. Department of Agriculture. Published in furtherance of Acts of Congress, May 8 and June 30, 1914. GARY B. JACKSON,
Director
(rev-20000-11-11)
Adams—75A Carthage Point Rd., Natchez 39120 (601-445-8201)
Alcorn—2200 Levee Rd., Corinth 38834 (662-286-7755)
Amite––185 Irene St., Liberty 39645 (601-657-8937)
Attala––715 Fairground Rd., Kosciusko 39090 (662-289-5431)
Benton—382 Ripley Ave., Ashland 38603 (662-224-6330)
Bolivar—406 N. Martin Luther King Dr., Cleveland 38732 (662-843-8361)
Calhoun—121 Parker St., Pittsboro 38951 (662-412-3177)
Carrol—105 B E. Washington St., Carrollton 38917 (662-237-6926)
Chickasaw—415 Lee Horn Dr., Suite 4, Houston 38851 (662-456-4269)
Choctaw—Harmon Cir. Courthouse Annex, Ackerman 39735 (662-285-6337)
Claiborne—510 Market St., Port Gibson 39150 (601-437-5011)
Clarke—101 Westwood Ave., Quitman 39355 (601-776-3951)
Clay—218 W. Broad St., Suite D, West Point 39773 (662-494-5371)
Coahoma—503 E. Second St., Clarksdale 38614 (662-624-3070)
Copiah—2040 W Gallman Rd., Crystal Springs 39059 (601-892-1809)
Covington—68 Industrial Park Dr., Collins 39428 (601-765-8252)
DeSoto—3260 Hwy 51 S., Ag Office Bldg., Hernando 38632 (662-429-1343)
Forrest—952 Sullivan Dr., Hattiesburg 39401 (601-545-6083)
Franklin—20 Walnut St., Meadville 39653 (601-384-2349)
George—7128 Hwy. 198 E., Lucedale 39452 (601-947-4223)
Greene—#2 Oak St., Leakesville 39451 (601-394-2702)
Grenada—1240 Fairground Road, Suite E, Grenada 38901 (662-226-2061)
Hancock—3064 Longfellow Dr., Bldg 24, Bay St. Louis 39520 (228-467-5456)
Harrison—2315 17th St., Gulfport 39501 (228-865-4227)
Hinds—1735 Wilson Blvd., Jackson 39204 (601-372-1424)
Holmes—113 W. China - Jail Annex, Lexington 39095 (662-834-2795)
Humphreys—103 Castleman St., Belzoni 39038 (662-247-2915)
Issaquena—129 Court St., Mayersville 39113 (662-873-2322)
Itawamba—304 C Wiygul, Fulton 38843 (662-862-3201)
Jackson—4111 Amonett St., Suite E, Pascagoula 39567 (228-769-3047)
Jasper—37 B W. 8th Ave., Bay Springs 39422 (601-764-2314)
Jefferson ––1257 S. Main St., Fayette 39069 (601-786-3131)
Jefferson Davis ––2304 Pearl Ave., Prentiss 39474 (601-792-5121)
Jones—515 N. 5th Ave., Laurel 39440 (601-428-5201)
Kemper—Rt 4, Box 332 587 Old Scooba Road, DeKalb 39328 (601-743-2837)
Lafayette—101 Veterans Dr., Oxford 38655 (662-234-4451)
Lamar—216 Shelby St., Suite B, Purvis 39475 (601-794-3910)
Lauderdale—410 Constitution Ave. 5th Floor, Meridian 39301 (601- 482-9764)
Lawrence—Courthouse Square 0435 Brinson St., Apt. B, Monticello 39654 (601-587-2271)
Leake—729 E. Main St., Carthage 39051 (601-267-8036)
Lee—5338 Cliff Gookin Blvd., Tupelo 38801 (662-841-9000)
Leflore—309 W. Market, Greenwood38930 (662-453-6803)
Lincoln—301 S. First St., Room 201, Brookhaven 39601 (601-835-3460)
Lowndes—512 Third Ave. N., Columbus 39703 (662-328-2111)
Madison—152 Watford Parkway, Canton 39046 (601-859-3842)
Marion—1060 Hwy 13, South, Columbia 39429 (601-736-8251)
Marshall—810 Hwy. 178 E., Holly Springs 38635 (662-252-3541)
Monroe—517 Hwy. 145 N, Suite 1, Aberdeen 39730 (662-369-4951)
Montgomery—618 Summit St., Winona 38967 (662-283-4133)
Neshoba—12000 Hwy. 15 N., Suite 2, Philadelphia 39350 (601-656-4011)
Newton—65 Seventh St., Decatur 39327 (601-635-2267)
Noxubee––107 E. Adams St., Macon 39341 (662-726-5723)
Oktibbeha—106 Felix Long Dr., Starkville 39759 (662-323-5916)
Panola—245-C Eureka St., Batesville 38606 (662-563-6260)
Pearl River—417 Hwy 11 N., Poplarville 39470 (601-403-2280)
Perry—103-B 2nd St. West, New Augusta 39462 (601-964-3668)
Pike—1140 N. Clark Ave., Magnolia 39652 (601-783-5321)
Pontotoc—402 C.J. Hardin Jr. Dr., Pontotoc 38863 (662-489-3910)
Prentiss—2301 N. Second St., Booneville 38829 (662-728-5631)
Quitman—Courthouse Annex, 225 Peach St., Marks 38646 (662-326-8939)
Rankin—601 Marquette Road, Brandon 39042 (601-825-1462)
Scott—230 S. Davis St., Forest 39074 (601-469-4241)
Sharkey—120 Locust Suite 3, Rolling Fork 39159 (662-873-4246)
Simpson—2785 Simpson Hwy. 49, Mendenhall 39114 (601-847-1335)
Smith—212 Sylvarena Ave., Smith County Office Bldg., Raleigh 39153 (601-782-4454)
Stone—214 N. Critz St., Suite A, Wiggins 39577 (601-928-5286)
Sunflower—200 Main St., Courthouse, Indianola 38751 (662-887-4601)
Tallahatchie—100 S. Market St., Charleston 38921 (662-647-8746)
Tate—#1 French's Alley, Senatobia 38668 (662-562-4274)
Tippah—10791B Hwy 15 S., Fairgrounds, Ripley 38663 (662-837-8184)
Tishomingo—1008 Battleground Dr., Room 106, Iuka 38852 (662-423-7016)
Tunica—1221 Kenny Hill Ave., Suite 3, Tunica 38676 (662-363-2911)
Union—112 Fairground Cir., New Albany 38652 (662-534-1917)
Walthall—250 Ball Ave., Tylertown 39667 (601-876-4021)
Warren—1100-C Grove St., Vicksburg 39180 (601-636-5391)
Washington—148 N. Edison St., Greenville 38701 (662-334-2670)
Wayne—810-A Chickasawhay St., Waynesboro 39367 (601-735-2243)
Webster—16 E. Fox Ave., Eupora 39744 (662-258-3971)
Wilkinson—982 Second South St., Woodville 39669 (601-888-3211)
Winston ––460 Vance St., Louisville, 39339 (662-773-3091)
Yalobusha—18025 Hwy. 7, Coffeeville 38922 (662-675-2730)
Yazoo—212 E. Broadway St., 3rd Floor, Yazoo City 39194 (662-746-2453)
County Offices

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE
MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY
MISSISSIPPI STATE, MISSISSIPPI 39762-5446
P. O. BOX 5446
OFFICIAL BUSINESS
PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE, $300
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
G A R D E N T • A • B • L • O • I • D
MI S S I S S I P P I S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y E X T E N S I O N S E RV I C E
Contents
Grow Your Own Vegetables ................................................................................................1
Garden Plan ..........................................................................................................................2
Garden Soil ............................................................................................................................3
Organic Gardening................................................................................................................5
Pollination ..............................................................................................................................9
Mulching ..............................................................................................................................10
Insects - Identification and Control ..................................................................................11
Vegetable Diseases ..............................................................................................................15
Watering ..............................................................................................................................17
Planting Vegetables..............................................................................................................17
Weed Control ......................................................................................................................18
Herb Gardening ..................................................................................................................18
Fall Gardening ....................................................................................................................19
Staking and Training Tomatoes ........................................................................................20
Harvesting ............................................................................................................................21
Storing Vegetables ..............................................................................................................22
Vegetables ............................................................................................................................22

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