Ely Community

Garden

Why should you have your soil tested?

Soil testing:* takes the guesswork out of fertilizer recommendations

* makes good economic sense* ensures fertile soil without excess fertilizer application or pollution of the environment

How to Sample:Farm/Commercial Horticultural Fields

Divide the field into uniform areasOne sample should not represent

more than 20 acres on level, uniform landscapes, or 5 acres on hilly or

rolling land

Sample each area

• Collect 15 – 30 subsamples

• Sample to a depth of 6-8 inches (plow layer) for cultivated crops

• Avoid low lying areas, old fence lines, any manure holding areas

• Make sure samples are dry and well mixed

Tests Offered

• Regular Series (phosphorus, potassium, pH and lime requirement

, percent organic matter and estimated texture category) • Micronutrient Series (zinc, copper, iron, manganese) • Nitrate Nitrogen • Calcium and Magnesium • Sulfur • Boron • Soluble Salts • Organic Matter • Nutrient Management Phosphorus

Soil Test Form

http://soiltest.cfans.umn.edu/Scans/Cropssoil.pdf

One can extend the vegetable growing season by sheltering

plants from cold weather and by capturing solar heat in both the air

and soil, both in early spring and during the fall.

Season Extending Methods

• Cold frames• Hot beds• Cloches• Hotcaps• Plastic soil mulches• (Shading)

• Tunnels• Row covers• Greenhouses

Cold frames (sun boxes)

• Rely on the sun for their source of heat

• Have no outside energy requirements

• Relatively inexpensive structures

• Used for cool season crops during spring and fall

Cold Frame

Hot bed

• Cold frame with an added heat source– Sash to capture solar

heat– Strawy manure buried

beneath the root zone– Steam carrying pipes– Electric heating cables– Light bulb

Cloche (pronounced klosh)

• Cloches are set out over individual plants or made into tunnels

• Protect plants from cold air and drying winds

• Trap solar energy and soil moisture (Hot caps)

Examples of Cloches

• Bell glass jars• Boards for wind and

shade protection• Milk jugs• Wall-of-water

Hot Caps (Cloches)

• Capture solar energy to warm air inside

• One gallon milk jugs• Waxed paper hotcaps• Wall-of-water, water

filled plastic tubes– Plastic tubes had highest

internal air and retained heat the longest at night

Plastic Soil Mulches

• Clear plastic• Black plastic• Colored plastic– All increase soil

temperature and hold heat during night periods

– Black 5 – 10 degrees– Clear 10 – 20 degrees

Floating Row Covers

• Row covers mean earlier harvests– Used for leafy vegetables– Root Crops– Starting fruiting crops

• Greater yields• Extended fall harvests

Clear Plastic Covers

• Used to warm soil prior to planting

• Increase soil temperature 10 to 20 degrees F.

• Temperatures above 85 degrees F. can damage plants

Spunbonded polyesters

• Provide 4 – 5 degrees of frost protection to 28 degrees F.

• Opened when internal air temperatures reach 85 degrees

• Problem with low light transmission of 75 to 80 %

• Weed Growth

Supported Row Covers

• Also Called Low Tunnels• Can use PVC pipe, heavy

wire• More labor needed• Support needed for crops

such as tomato, pepper and summer squash

• Weed control needed between rows

Low Tunnels

Low Tunnels

• Miniature greenhouse with reduced air volume

• Often one or two layer (insulating value) of plastic

• Used for cool season leafy crops: lettuce, spinach, endive

Suns Path Summer/Winter

Growing Smart

• Be innovative• Be COST effective for net gain• Use some of each systems described• Experiment to see what will work for how

many months

Vegetable Varieties for N. Minnesota

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1425.html#contents

Tomato Varieties for Northern MN

http://www.extension.umn.edu/info-u/plants/BG474.html

Planning Techniques Plan to use all the space in your garden. Through planting techniques like vertical

cropping, succession planting and intercropping, you can make maximum use of the space you have.

Vertical Cropping• Train veggies like pole beans, peas, cucumbers, squash and gourds to some type of

support to save space in the garden. Existing fences, poles, wire cages, trellises can be used for support.

Succession Planting• This technique involves growing a crop like lettuce in the spring and replacing it when

the warm weather hits with a crop like beans. In the late summer, you can reverse the process and replace the beans with a cool season crop like lettuce or radishes.

Intercropping• Intercropping is the growing technique of planting fast growing vegetables among slow

growing vegetables. An example of this technique would be planting radishes, lettuce or green onions among caged tomato plants.

Vertical Gardening~maximize your space ~

Choose vine crops:

• Cucumbers• Melons• Tomatoes• Squash• Beans• Peas

Weed Control

Mulching

• Compost• Leaves• Pine Needles• Lawn Clippings• Newspaper/Shredded Paper• Landscape Fabric• Hay/Straw (inspect for seeds)• Wood Chips (course to avoid Oxygen depletion)

May need to add Nitrogen as mulch breaks down!

Hand Weeding

“The Mantis”

The best friend a gardener could ever

hope for!

Space rows according to tiller width

Perennials, Fruit, Others…

Asparagus

• Buy one-year old roots, if possible• Dig a trench 8 inches deep and wide enough

to accommodate the outspread roots (about 10 inches), then space the asparagus 18 inches apart

• Don't cut any spears until the third year after planting

Blueberries• Blueberries present a challenge for most gardeners because they

require acidic, well-drained soils. The pH should be between 4.0 and 5.0

• The University of Minnesota fruit breeding program has released several blueberry cultivars suitable for growing here. They include:

– Northblue – Northcountry – Northsky – Northland – St. Cloud – Chippewa – Polaris.

Raspberries

Raspberries grow well in most areas of Minnesota, although they prefer sites

protected from both wind and late spring frosts.

Of the three main types of raspberries for Minnesota home gardens - red, black, and

purple - red raspberries are the most popular and successful in our climate.

Strawberries

Three types of strawberries are readily available to the home gardener. June-bearing strawberries

produce a large, concentrated crop in late spring. So-called everbearing types produce two smaller crops,

one in late spring and the second in early fall. The newer day-neutral plants are capable of producing

fruit throughout most of the growing season. Of the three types, June-bearing strawberries

normally produce the largest yield per season.