Kale is a cultural icon. From smoothies, to chips, to massaged or simply sauteed with a little bit of garlic, kale is a major force in the food industry. Being that you eat it all the time, have you ever asked yourself, “How can I grow kale from seed?” Well now you have and we’re glad you did, because growing kale is a really easy thing to do! Whether you’re working with a small container growing space or a large, sprawling backyard garden, you can grow this delicious, nutritious, and popular green at home.
Kale has become a staple in home kitchens for a reason. It’s extremely nutritious as it’s loaded with vitamin C, vitamin K, antioxidants, and more. Besides that, it’s extremely versatile. The thick, toothsome green can be massaged into an easily chewable raw salad or thrown straight into a soup or stew where it cooks down and becomes delicious and tender.
As with many popular food items, kale can be a little pricey in the grocery store or at the farmer’s market! However, this vegetable can be easily grown at home.
Kale can be started from seed in two ways. First, depending on your growing zone, kale can be direct sown outside in mid-spring or late summer. When direct seeding kale, you can grow it for its young shoots, also known as “baby kale,” which are delicious, tender, and extremely dense in nutrients. Alternatively, you can direct seed your kale and grow it to maturity where you can be harvesting leaves off its leggy stalk for months at a time.
If you want to extend your growing season, you can seed kale indoors in early spring, growing it for several weeks before it’s warm enough to be outside. This makes it so that you start harvesting greens sooner than if you were to direct seed outside. It also offers your seedlings a better chance of survival because they are stronger and more mature when introduced to the elements. Kale seed germination tends to be pretty reliable, but there are some tips to help ensure your kale seeds germinate well.
Kale is a cool season crop that can withstand some frost once it’s mature. This makes it especially great to plant in the fall so you can harvest greens longer into the winter than some other crops. The ideal soil temperature for germinating kale is about 60 to 65 degrees. This temperature is pretty easy to do in your home at any time of year but could involve some waiting for the weather to warm in the spring if you’re looking to direct seed.
Kale likes to germinate in soil rich in organic matter. Whether you’re germinating in a sterile seedling mix or outside, be sure to add plenty of nutrient-rich compost or worm castings to ensure healthy plants.
This crop also likes to be well-watered, especially in order to germinate. Keep your seeds watered consistently and evenly until germination, typically checking on them twice a day. Once the seeds germinate you can water once a day.
Kale seeds tend to germinate quickly, in about three to twelve days, depending on conditions. If seeds have not germinated within this time frame, reassess your conditions and re-seed!
These are small seeds. When direct sowing kale seeds, plant the seed ¼ inch deep. Space the seeds three inches apart and as the seeds mature, thin them to six to nine inches apart. Mature spacing is 18 to 24 inches apart.
When planting kale seeds indoors to be transplanted, seed two to three seeds per cell or pot. After germination, select the strongest one and clip the other at soil level. You most likely won’t get 100% germination, but this will ensure that all of the cells you plant (and expect to have seedlings from) will indeed produce.
Caring for kale seedlings is very similar to other types of seedling care. It is a fairly simple process, but here are some basics to keep in mind.
All seedlings need light to grow and, unless you’re starting your seeds in a greenhouse, the natural light that’s typically available in your home is likely not going to be enough. That’s why we recommend using grow lights! As a rule, keep your grow lights approximately four to six inches above your seedlings at all times, raising them as they grow taller. We recommend LED lights. They’re pricier but they last longer and use less energy.
Most seedlings need about 16 to 18 hours of light per day, so set your grow lights up with a timer to ensure they’re getting enough!
Water is of the utmost importance between seeding and germination but continues to be important throughout the life of the plant. Seeds need a lot of water to germinate and awaken them from their dormant state. Water makes the seed coat swell and softens it so that the embryo on the inside can pop out and root into the soil. Not watering enough makes it so that the embryo is unable to pop out! Water your seedlings twice a day, ensuring that they are not soaking wet, until germination. After the seeds germinate, you can water well once per day.
Kale is a cool weather crop that germinates best in soil that is 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re seeding indoors, you probably do not need to use a heat mat to ensure this. If you’re seeding in a shed or garage that is not temperature controlled, just be sure to watch for freezing nights, as this can kill tender seedlings.
Airflow is important for all seedlings! Having a window cracked in warmer weather or a fan running in the room can ensure that your seedlings don’t suffer from fungal diseases early on in life, making for stronger mature plants.
Kale seedling maintenance is super simple and can be done by even the most beginner gardeners. Don’t overthink it — your seedlings want to grow!
Kale can be transplanted outside four to six weeks before your area’s average last frost date. This can be pushed a little earlier with season extension measures such as frost cloth or low tunnels.
When transplanting kale seedlings, you’ll want to be mindful of spacing. Mature spacing is 18 to 24 inches apart. Transplant seedlings at this distance in the garden or into pots that have at least a two foot diameter.
Don’t bury the stem, but plant the seedlings so they are buried only about a half inch under soil level. This is enough to ensure temperature fluctuations don’t push the transplant out of the soil but not too much to rot the stem.
Hardening off is a process you should do with all seedlings grown indoors. Starting seeds indoors is a great idea to lengthen harvest times and make sure you’re producing strong plants, but like all coddled babies, they need to be introduced to the elements slowly to ensure they grow successfully!
The process of hardening off prepares kale seedlings for being outdoors. Start a week or two before you’re ready to transplant. Take your seedlings and set them outside for an hour. The next day, set them out for two, and so on and so forth. Slowly extend the times until they’re spending an entire day outside, continue to bring them inside as the sun goes down. This practice slowly introduces your seedlings to the elements and ensures they don’t experience transplant shock when planted outside.
Thinning is the practice of clipping seedlings at soil level in order to correct the spacing of your plants. When you seed multiple seeds per cell and clip them until there’s one, this is thinning. When you direct sow close together and clip seedlings as they grow to ensure correct spacing, this is thinning. Thinning seedlings is done for a few different reasons.
Kale plant spacing is important to ensure healthy, full-sized plants that do not need to compete with each other. Thinning seedlings helps make this happen!
There are many commercial options that can be used as a fertilizer for kale plants. Typically you’d want to look for a fertilizer high in nitrogen. Nitrogen supports the growth of luscious foliage which is perfect for all those cool weather greens. Consider fertilizing once every four weeks with a nitrogen-rich fertilizer and every other week with fish fertilizer!
When feeding kale, it always helps to start off the season strong. A few weeks before planting, amend the soil with a few inches of compost just to make sure you’re planting your kale starts into nutrient-rich soil.
Companion planting with kale can create a garden ecosystem that is beneficial to all of the plants involved! Companion planting is the practice of planting different crops near each other that help each other grow. Depending on the pairing, the league can tackle pests, nutrient requirements, pollination needs, or help maximize space!
Kale happens to be a wonderful companion for many crops. Kale’s garden companions include:
Marigolds are a well-known and loved companion plant to many allies. The pest-repelling traits of marigolds are well researched and known to repel below and above ground pests of many kinds. When intercropped with kale, marigolds have been shown to reduce aphid populations.
The scent of cilantro is widely known to repel pests on its own. However, when it sends up its lacy white flowers, beneficial insects from near and far come traveling to that bolting cilantro. Further, tucking cilantro plants or seeds under the cover of tall, wide kale plants can help delay the bolting process in the spring or slow it in the fall. The shade of the kale helps to keep the cilantro cool. This benefit goes both ways.
Consider intercropping (or crop rotating) with legumes! Legumes of all kinds fix nitrogen in the soil, revamping it for crops to come. When companion planted with kale, bush beans help make nutrients more readily available.
These strong-smelling alliums are well known for keeping pests at bay. Would you want to hang out in a room filled with onion breath? Neither do your garden pests. Their benefits depend on the time of year, too. Plant your kale into your garlic bed in spring. Looking to protect your fall crop? Leeks can stay in the ground far into the winter.
This crop can easily be planted in rows between your kale. They mature quickly, can be kept cool under the shade of the leaves, and are unlikely to compete for nutrients. This is a great intercrop pairing for when you’re working in a small space.
Don’t plant too many brassicas in one place. We gave radishes a pass above because they’re so quick and easy, but long-season heading brassicas all right next to each other will likely result in a chlorophyll bloodbath, as the cabbage loopers, aphids, and other pests will have their meals available all in one place.
Avoid planting kale next to other heavy feeders like corn and tomatoes. These crops all take a lot of nutrients to grow and will end up competing with each other, resulting in malnourished crops.
Planting kale next to or in between other tall plants like pole beans or sunflowers can result in stunted growth due to not getting enough light. Avoid planting kale next to things that will shade it out.
The watering requirements for kale are not excessive. A steady amount of water throughout the growing season will keep kale healthy and sweet. Typically kale, like most vegetables, grows best with an inch to an inch and a half of water per week. Keep your kale plants evenly moist but not overly soggy.
Keep an eye on your rain gauge. During times of drought, be sure to keep irrigating your kale plants. Mulching around your plants can help to hold moisture in and keep weed pressure down.
There are many common pests of kale to keep an eye on in the garden. With most pests, if you catch the problem early, you should be able to save your harvest!
Aphids are one of the most common pests you’ll come across in the garden. They love the same thing we love in our kale — succulent foliage. A heavy stream of water from a hose sprayer can help dislodge aphids from the plant. They have a hard time climbing back up. If the infestation is really severe you can apply neem oil or insecticidal soap bi-weekly to help keep populations low.
Cabbage loopers are the larvae of the cabbage moth — a white or brown moth that you’ll often see dancing around your cruciferous vegetables, laying their eggs. The eggs are laid on the undersides of leaves, and when they hatch, a little green worm emerges to munch on the foliage. They camouflage effectively, but their calling card are the dark green droppings left towards the crown of the plant. Finding and squishing the eggs early can keep populations at bay, but if the infestation gets out of hand you can apply Bt, which kills them in their larval stage.
There are a lot of different types of mites, but spider mites are some of the most common. They leave a web-looking substance on the stems of your kale plants. They thrive in hot, dry weather so keep an eye on your kale during droughts. They can cause yellowing leaves and sickly-looking plants. Like aphids, they’re a sucking pest. They can be treated similarly to aphids through dislodging them with a hose or neem oil applications!
Slugs love to munch a wide variety of crops and kale is not left off of the list. They tend to leave a lot of oddly shaped holes in the leaves with seemingly no pattern, and you often cannot immediately identify the source. This is because slugs tend to come out in the early evenings when temperatures are cool and go back to their homes during the day when you’re likely doing your investigations.
There are many different well known ways to treat slugs. Some popular ones include encircling your plants in diatomaceous earth or wood ash. You can also try beer traps or other popular treatments!
It can take about two months for kale to become mature enough for you to start harvesting the leaves. You’ll know when to pick kale by checking the days to maturity listed on your seed packet. Kale is biennial, so it can be grown through the entire summer, but typically heat or pests get to it before you can. When you’re growing kale for a fall crop, the frost actually makes the leaves sweeter — so harvesting into the winter is a delicious idea!
You can harvest young kale leaves to use raw in salads or on sandwiches. As the plants mature, the leaves become crisper, thicker, and stand up to being cooked very well. The older the leaves are, the tougher they become. Harvest the leaves from the bottom first as kale will keep producing at the top. Don’t harvest more than one third of the leaves at a time. When harvesting kale leaves, you want to leave enough of them so that the plant can keep producing. Snip the leaves off the base of the stem, leaving about a quarter inch of length at the main stalk. Kale leaves will keep in the fridge for about a week.
Ready to get growing? There are many types of kale to choose from. Sow True Seed offers a wide range of kale varieties that are all delicious in their own way. Planting kale seeds is a garden endeavor you will not regret, so start growing kale today! Here are some of our most popular kale varieties:
Lacinato kale is an heirloom variety and popular among Italian chefs. It’s also extremely popular with kids for its nickname: Dinosaur Kale. It’s named for its dark green, deeply savoyed leaves that conjure images of prehistoric flora. A particularly tender and delicious kale, Lacinato is a great choice for gardeners and chefs alike!
Another lovely heirloom that’s a great choice for eating raw. Red Russian kale has delicately lobed leaves that change from a lovely gray to purple as the weather cools.
Scarlet kale is a stunner with its bright purple color and heavily-curled foliage. It grows to nearly three feet in height and becomes a more vibrant color as the temperatures cool. Because of its color, Scarlet kale has more antioxidants than other varieties of kale. This amazing crop doubles as an ornamental variety as well!
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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At Sow True Seed we get germination tests performed on every seed variety no less than twice per year. While, legally, we are only required to do germination tests once a year, we do it twice to ensure that we’re providing the highest quality seeds possible. Because we have all this data, we have a pretty good idea of how long seeds last, which we’re going to define as germinating at or above legal federal germination standards.
Fun Fact: The seed variety we’ve had the same stock of for the longest period of time is our lot of Rutgers VF Tomatoes, clocking in at 13 years!
Understanding seed longevity is essential to having an efficient and productive garden. Seeds, even when not planted, are very alive little organisms! Inside that delicate seed coat is a plant using its energy sources to stay alive in order to eventually sprout when the conditions are right. Different species of seeds are going to have different levels of energy sources that will dictate how long they can last.
So, do seeds expire? Eventually, yes, they do. However, in most storage situations what you’re going to see is a gradual loss of germination over time, rather than just one day none of them grow. The shelf life of seeds typically depends on the species.
You can expect your seeds to, on average, hold onto their optimum germination rates for as long as is dictated in the above chart, so long as they’re stored in the optimum conditions. From there, you can expect a gradual decline in germination percentage.
If you’ve seen our seed packets before, you may have noticed a “Sell By” date or a “Packed for” year. These dates are a legal requirement because seeds are technically considered a food product! However, they have no bearing on how long our seeds actually last.
You can expect tomato seeds to last for four to five years on average. Alternatively, onion and chives seeds typically only last for one to two years. Notice the range? Here are some tips to extend that range as long as you possibly can.
Ensuring these conditions in your seed storage area can help to elongate the lifespan of your seeds for as long as possible.
When people ask us how to store seeds, our response is typically to keep your seeds in an airtight container in the refrigerator. This can be a good tupperware or a mason jar or any other number of containers. But, fridge room is sacred and we get this! Keeping your seeds in a storage cabinet, a temperature controlled garage, or closet can also do the trick. There are a wide range of seed storage methods, however you’re going to find that all of them include cool temperatures, limited light exposure, and dryness.
Seeds, whether in packets or not, are going to be subject to the same variables when in storage. We still recommend keeping your packets in a cool, dry, dark place. Seed packets left out in your car, on the counter, or in the garden will still lose viability over time. We love to see an organized filing cabinet for seed packet storage! Or an airtight recipe box can also do the trick.
We’ve all made the common seed storage mistake - we buy our seeds and they sit out on the counter. Or you’re drying seeds you’ve saved and leave them longer than you should - it’s okay! But preserving seed quality should be of the utmost importance to your gardening practice. Here are some don’ts for seed storage:
Sow True Seed’s high-quality vegetable seeds are meant to last for a long time. From field to packet, they are treated with the utmost care. And quality gardening begins with quality seeds. But seed viability depends on you as well!
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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Raised garden beds are great for lots of reasons! Raised beds warm up earlier in the spring, making early planting easy. They can be filled with high quality soil instead of spending years improving the soil quality of your yard. Raised beds are also a great way to avoid soil erosion. And, there are plenty of raised garden bed ideas for every budget. Make spring planting easy this year by installing some raised beds into your garden!
DIY raised garden beds can be incredibly simple or elaborate! It’s completely up to you, your time constraints, and your budget. There are plenty of raised garden bed designs available on the market or in your imagination. All that bending over hurting your back? Make your raised garden beds taller so you don't have to bend over so far! Interested in the aesthetics of your garden? Consider building them with bricks (to match your homemade pizza oven) or using them to encircle your backyard fire pit. Not to mention, if you’re working with a limited sized garden, terraced raised garden beds can help you optimize your space.
DIY raised garden bed construction doesn’t have to be precise. The more intentionally built a raised garden bed is, the longer it will last, but for short term gardens (hello, renters) or budget gardens you’re looking to save up to improve, a little simple drilling and handiwork can do the trick!
Wooden raised garden beds are the most common type we come across, especially in well-established raised bed gardens. They can be built with wood of various sizes (2x4’s are the easiest to find) but if you need it a little taller you can choose wider lumber such as 2x6” or 2x8”! You don’t want your raised beds to be less than eight inches tall.
Cedar is the best (and often pricier) option for raised beds. It’s favored because it resists rot and insects well and will last for a long time. Pine tends to be cheaper and more accessible but its lifespan isn’t quite as long, just about five years compared to ten. Never use pressure-treated lumber for a raised bed, since it can leach harmful chemicals into your garden soil.
Steel beds are a lifelong garden investment. They’re expensive but they last a lifetime (and theoretically can be moved around) and add value to a property! They come in different shapes, colors, and sizes and can be an elegant upgrade in the garden. They also retain heat well (especially if they’re black or another dark color) making winter or early spring gardening effective.
Brick or concrete beds are a great middle ground if you’re looking for something that will last a really long time but is less expensive (and also a project for you and your friends or family to take on). You can collect or purchase bricks and concrete blocks to build a retaining wall to fill with soil and grow in that! These are less mobile than some other options (though I suppose if you were really committed you could move them) but less expensive and will last a lifetime!
When you’re using recycled bricks there are a couple things to watch out for. Bricks could have been used with materials that may leach leave chemicals into the soil. Bricks used in fireplaces may be covered in creosote, which is a carcinogen, and should be avoided. Something to keep in mind about cement also is that it’s incredibly alkaline! Meaning it may leach lime into the soil. This is usually not a problem and happens very slowly but you may not want to use them with blueberries or other acid-loving plants.
Fabric is a great portable “alternative” to raised beds. You can get two-by-four-foot fabric “beds” that you can fill with soil and will allow water to drain through even though they have a bottom. When you’re ready to move them simply remove the soil and pick them up! If the two by four foot beds are too much you can get grow bags in various gallon sizes. These are super easy to move and reuse and can grow virtually any crop! (Tip: try growing potatoes in these bags - it makes hilling SUPER easy!)
And of course there are creative opportunities when it comes to raised garden beds. You can use pallets, old livestock watering troughs, used tires, and more to create the garden of your dreams! When using old pallets make sure they’re heat treated and not treated with any chemicals. These are easy to find (businesses are getting rid of them all the time) and ideally free. They can be broken apart and used to build beds. Old troughs can be found through community groups or maybe in your own backyard. Cut out or poke holes in the bottom for drainage and fill with soil to plant. The possibilities are endless!
The most classic raised bed, as we’ve said, is a wooden one, and it’s quite easy to build. These are basic instructions for the assembly of a raised garden bed.
You will need:
If there is grass in the area you are planting your bed and it has not been tarped to kill it back, consider laying landscape fabric or cardboard down underneath where your raised bed is going to be.
Align your four long pieces in a rectangle with the two shorter pieces connecting on the outside of the long pieces, as pictured.
Place your braces on the inside of the four corners and and drill screws on the inside of the beds to secure the braces to the walls and on the outside of the bed to secure the four pieces to each other.
When filling your raised garden bed with soil, you’ll want to consider your options carefully. Use raised bed mix or another high-quality, high-organic matter soil mix, not just “topsoil,” which contains little to no organic matter and nutrients and sometimes comes from dubious sources. Most likely you will not be able to replace your raised bed soil every year so you’ll need to care for it as if it was an in-ground garden bed.
When choosing soil for your raised bed you should look for something that is a combination of topsoil and compost. Sand, grit, or vermiculite may also be included in the mix for drainage, however, keep in mind that raised beds tend to drain better than in-ground beds anyway. There are many raised bed mixes on the market (and you can always add your own extra compost if you’d like).
Mixing your own soil? Follow this easy guide!
Getting bags of soil (typically one to two cubic feet) is great for smaller projects or if you’re just looking to fill in a little space. Your raised beds may be small enough that bags of soil stay economical. But if not, you may look into getting larger quantities of soil delivered by a nursery or hardware store. But how do you know how much you need?
This is the super easy equation for sorting out exactly how much soil to get! From here you can calculate how many bags you might need or if it might be more economical to buy in bulk.
Within the idea of longevity of your garden soil, there are some steps you can take in the beginning, that could save you some time down the road.
Beds that are over six to twelve inches tall can be partially filled with a layer of straw, leaf mulch, grass clippings, cardboard, or some mixture of them! This mixture will slowly decompose over time adding nutrients to your soil as it does.
Beds that are shorter than this can be completely filled with soil. This will allow you to plant the first year, as the soil will be deep enough without the roots of your plants needing to work their way through cardboard. For shorter beds (and taller ones year after year), organic matter like leaf mulch, straw, or grass clippings can be mixed into the top few inches of soil. For extra points, plant a fall cover crop on top of this at the end of the growing season to really keep that soil happy.
Taking care of your soil and layering with organic matter will ensure that you’re always re-upping the nutrients in your soil making sure it’s abundant and fruitful for years to come.
Planting in a raised garden bed is virtually the same as planting in an in-ground garden bed. Some things to consider when selecting crops are the depth of the bed and the size. For example, if your raised garden bed is only six inches tall you may avoid planting crops with super deep tap roots such as large carrots or burdock. If your bed is only two feet by two feet, you could only really fit one brussels sprout plant, however you could fit plenty of bush beans!
The best vegetables for a raised bed are limited only by your imagination.
Bush beans and pole beans alike will grow gloriously in your raised garden bed! Your pole beans will still need trellising but the vines and bright pods will make for a gorgeous raised garden bed. Consider growing your pole beans on an arch trellis so you can extend the season for your shade loving greens!
Underneath that trellis we talked about, you can grow a wide variety of greens including lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula, and more. Not to mention how much easier harvesting will be when you don’t have to bend over so much!
The space heading brassicas take up is the only limit to what you can plant in your raised garden beds. Crops like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts grow great in a raised garden bed, just make sure they get the space they need to stretch out.
As mentioned earlier, the limit to growing root crops is simply the depth of the bed. But if your raised garden bed is eight inches or taller, there is again, no limit! The increased drainage of raised garden beds will help root crops like beets, carrots, parsnips, radishes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic and even onions from rotting or getting bogged down by too much water in the soil.
Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants will do great in raised beds. These plants need plenty of water though so with the extra-quick drainage, just keep in mind to quench these guys’ thirst!
Squash, melons, and cucumbers are perfect for raised beds, especially if you have a vole problem and put a pest-repellent layer between the bed and the ground. With a trellis or without, these cucurbits love the well-draining soil of a raised bed.
Just like vegetables, there’s an infinite list of herbs and flowers you can grow in a raised garden bed. Many herbs and flowers are used in a technique called companion planting and these principles can be applied to raised beds as well! Try combining these herbs and flowers in your crop plan, fitting them in between your vegetable crops in your raised bed
Basil is a well-known companion to many plants. It’s been known to improve the flavor of tomatoes and pepper when intercropped with them, not to mention the height of these plants offer some shade to the basil, ensuring it doesn’t overheat and burn.
The strong smell of nasturtium attracts aphids meaning they’ll come and breed on your nasturtiums while leaving the rest of your crops alone! Great when intercropped with brassicas, greens, and more.
Marigolds are well-known to not only deter pests with their strong smell but also decrease the population of root-knot nematodes over time, particularly when you use a nematicidal variety.
Oregano repels cabbage moths when intercropped with brassicas such as cabbage, broccoli, kale, and others. Its strong smell can also deter other pests from the crops it is near.
Chamomile is known to be a great companion to onions, as it is said to improve growth and flavor.
Cilantro is great when planted near potatoes as it can protect against pesky Colorado Potato Beetles.
Calendula is also said to have root-knot nematode deterrent properties and can be helpful near winter squash and tomatoes.
Borage is said to deter the tomato hornworm, so plant this lovely edible flower nearby your tomato crop!
Raised bed garden can look many different ways. But regardless of your space, budget, or time, there is an option for you (and often multiple)! Try your hand at growing a raised bed garden this year and check out Sow True Seed’s wide range of heirloom vegetable varieties, perfect for your raised bed.
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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Embarking on the journey of growing Lemon cucumber seeds begins with understanding the right time and method to plant them. Like their conventional counterparts, Lemon cucumbers are warm-season crops that love being in full sun.
Since Lemon cucumbers thrive in warm weather, the period after the last spring frost is the ideal time to sow the seeds. The soil temperature should be around 70°F for optimal germination. Seeds can also be started inside four to six weeks before the last frost and transplanted outdoors once the danger of frost has passed.
Water newly planted seeds or seedlings thoroughly until germination, ensuring the soil remains moist but not overly soggy until they’re established. As the Lemon cucumber plants sprout and grow, maintain a consistent watering schedule, especially during dry spells, to keep the soil moist. Once established, cucumber plants need less water than seeds starting to germinate but will benefit from consistent watering.
Every step of growing Lemon cucumbers holds its own charm and learning curve. Growing Lemon cucumbers is rewarding from germination to seedling emergence, followed by vegetative growth, flowering, and fruiting. The initial excitement of seeing the first sprouts gives way to anticipation as flowers bloom, eventually culminating in the joy of harvesting.
Growing Lemon Cucumber from seed to fruit involves the following stages:
Each stage is crucial, and understanding them helps ensure a successful harvest of Lemon cucumbers.
Knowing what a healthy Lemon cucumber plant looks like is key to ensuring a bountiful harvest. Vibrant green foliage characterizes healthy growth. The emergence of yellow blossoms is a sign of maturity, eventually giving way to the distinctive round, yellow fruits that set it apart from other cucumber varieties. Look out for signs of pests and diseases so you can start treating them before they become a problem.
Proper care and attention significantly impact the growth and yield of your lemon cucumber plant. Regular watering, especially during dry spells, is crucial. A balanced fertilizer, preferably organic, can provide the necessary nutrients. Monitor the plant for common pests like aphids and cucumber beetles and diseases like powdery mildew.
Companion planting can enhance the growth environment for your Lemon cucumber plant.
Plants like beans, dill, and nasturtium are known to be good companions for cucumbers. They provide mutual benefits such as deterring pests and improving soil quality.
All of your patience and nurturing is rewarded when it's time to harvest. As you collect the fruits of your labor, the satisfaction and joy of gardening become palpable, embodying a rewarding journey from seed to table.
Harvesting at the right time ensures that Lemon cucumbers retain their sweet taste and crisp texture. They are ready for harvest when they reach the size of a tennis ball, are firm to touch, and sport a pale yellow hue.
Harvesting Lemon cucumbers is a delicate process that warrants a gentle touch to ensure the plant remains undamaged and ready for continued fruiting. To harvest, gently twist the fruit off the vine or use scissors to snip it off, ensuring it does not damage the plant. It's advisable to harvest lemon cucumbers in the morning when the temperatures are cooler, which helps to retain the crispness and freshness of the fruit. Ensure regular harvesting as Lemon cucumbers mature to encourage the plant to produce more fruit. Overripe fruits left on the vine may signal the plant to halt further production.
Gardening is a learning process; encountering issues is part of the journey. Check for adequate sunlight, water, and nutrient levels if your Lemon cucumber plant isn’t growing as expected. Pests and diseases are common culprits behind inadequate growth. Regular monitoring and early intervention can help address these issues.
Lemon cucumbers are a delightful addition to various culinary creations. Their sweet and tender flesh makes them ideal for salads, pickles, and refreshing cucumber water. Experimenting with lemon cucumbers in the kitchen is a fun way to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Here are some delicious ways to eat lemon cucumbers:
Enjoying Lemon cucumbers in different culinary applications is a gastronomic adventure and a healthful choice, as they are a good source of vitamins and minerals. So, don’t hesitate to experiment and discover new delightful ways to include Lemon cucumbers in your diet!
]]>Many plants native to areas with winter weather must experience a period of cold and wet conditions before they will germinate. This prevents seeds of many species from germinating at the wrong time of year, when environmental factors are not just right for seed survival! Cold stratification is the process of providing or creating these conditions in order to help seeds germinate effectively.
Several years ago, one of our seed growers, Kim Bailey, conducted what we refer to as “The Great Milkweed Germination Test.” We were on the hunt to find the conditions that help this notoriously low-germ plant to germinate better! The test showed with great success that cold-moist stratification could increase germination from 4% with no stratification to 80% with! And while this is the only official test that we’ve run, cold-moist stratification can increase germination for many, many plants.
Most domesticated and warm temperature vegetables do not need cold stratification. You should consider stratifying your seeds when you’re growing plants native to colder areas, such as many herbs and perennial flowers. You can also check out our collection of seeds to stratify.
There are two main ways to stratify your seeds:
You can plant your seeds outside after the first frost (but before the ground completely freezes) and let the cold wet soil do what it does on its own! These are the conditions these seeds are meant to germinate in. As is the nature of nature, this method can be imperfect. As these seeds will spend up to several months outdoors, they can rot, be eaten by animals and birds, get washed away, and leave you with fairly scattered germination. If you’re growing a natural-looking garden - this is great! But if you want something a little more exact, we recommend using the second method. Stratification can be easily done in your refrigerator.
The exact timing of stratification depends on the variety but typically we recommend six to ten weeks. So, six to ten weeks before you’re ready to plant, place seeds in a zip-lock bag with a handful of slightly dampened coco fiber or even just a paper towel. Seal and label the bag with the seed name and date and store in the refrigerator (not the freezer). Be sure to keep the coco fiber or paper towel slightly damp throughout the course of treatment. After treatment, your seed is ready to plant!
Stratification is easy and can increase your germination rates significantly, providing herbs and flowers galore for your stunning garden!
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, have been in the news for some time now, especially in discussions of health and the environment. Some say they’re necessary to feed the world, while others sound the alarm about their dangers. Sow True Seed is a signatory of the Safe Seed Pledge, which guarantees that we will never knowingly sell seeds that are genetically modified, or have been cross-contaminated with GM genetics. We’ve chosen to say no to GMOs, and here’s why.
“Genetically modified” means that foreign DNA has been introduced into an organism in a way that would not have happened in nature. This process is also known as bioengineering. The foreign DNA, known as transgenes, are typically transferred from one species to another in order to give the modified organism a trait it would not naturally have. Think corn that produces its own insecticide using bacterial DNA, or fish that glow in the dark using jellyfish genes.
The most common reasons for creating genetically modified plants are to introduce herbicide resistance or pest resistance to common commodity crops. These traits allow industrial scale growers to save money on labor or chemical inputs while increasing yields (at least in the short term - more on that later). For these reasons, GMOs are often touted as necessary to feed a growing global population. Crops can also be modified to be more nutritious than they otherwise would be, like rice that produces beta carotene which supports eye and vision health, or transgenic tomatoes that produce extra-high levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants. Some transgenes convey plant resistance to devastating viral diseases too. While it’s true that GM crops can produce some amazing results, we believe that the environmental and social implications largely outweigh the benefits.
The problems with GMO seeds and food crops range from property rights to environmental damage, to potential human health risks.
GMO crops are patented by the companies that develop them, meaning farmers who grow the seeds must enter into a licensing agreement. If a single company patents an in-demand trait, this reduces competition in the seed market and drives up prices for growers. It also means that farmers can end up in legal trouble for saving any seed from their crop, or even if genes from a GM variety are found on their land when they never intentionally planted a GM crop. This type of uncontrolled GMO cross-contamination can also be a threat to farmers who export their crops to countries where GM crops are not approved.
This practice of patenting genetics and suing farmers is a direct contradiction to what Sow True Seed is all about selling only non-patented open-pollinated seeds that gardeners and farmers can grow, save, and share as they see fit without any legal implications.
Genetically modified crops that carry genes for herbicide resistance enable the use of more of those herbicides. Roundup Ready corn, one of the earliest GMO crops to go to market, was hailed as a miracle for growers who could liberally spray their fields with the weed killer Roundup at any point in the growing season, destroying all weeds in the field but not the transgenic, resistant corn. Another type of corn has been modified to carry genes for producing the chemical Bt, an organic-approved insecticide that kills soft-bodied insects like army corn worms and aphids. This would seem to be a positive thing, as it reduces the amount of insecticide used on fields, but it comes with an unintended consequence - there is evidence that pollen from Bt corn crops itself acts as a pesticide, and can harm caterpillars of important pollinators like Monarch butterflies when it drifts onto their host plants (and corn pollen can drift for a mile or more.)
To make matters worse, these genetic traits for a particular resistance are often short-lived, as pest organisms adapt to the new chemicals, setting off a cycle of increasing chemical use in the field and/or diminishing yields for the GM crop. It’s a phenomenon similar to the overuse of antibiotics leading to the evolution of an increasing number of antibiotic-resistant diseases. In the case of Roundup Ready corn, its widespread adoption led to the rise of Roundup-resistant weeds within just a few years. This pushed growers into using more and more Roundup to kill the resistant weeds, or switching to other herbicides, some of which are even more harmful. When Roundup Ready cotton became essentially useless because of new Roundup-resistant weeds, farmers started switching to Monsanto’s dicamba-resistant cotton. Dicamba, an old herbicide that fell out of favor decades ago because of its extreme tendency to drift onto neighboring crops, came back into use in recent years, with predictable consequences. Dicamba drift onto non-GM fields has caused immense losses for some growers who chose not to plant the new GM seeds.
Though GMO foods are regulated by the FDA like other food products, many people worry that the crops are not subject to adequate testing for long-term health effects. The argument goes that GM crops have traits that are unlike anything humans have ever eaten in the past, and a few years of FDA study are not enough to fully determine their safety. Although the products are generally recognized as safe now, ultimately only time will tell if there are unknown and unintended consequences for human health in the long run.
At Sow True, we don’t think farmers should be dependent on a few multinational companies to supply them with patented seed year after year, we don’t think they should have to face cross-contamination threats from crops they didn’t plant, and we don’t think you should have to worry about being a guinea pig in a long-term food safety experiment! We believe in farmers’ and gardeners’ right to save their own seed, we believe in following the lead of nature rather than relying on harmful synthetic chemicals, and we believe in everyone’s right to decide what’s in their food. That’s why we’ll never knowingly sell any seed that is genetically engineered, or contaminated by GMO cross-pollination. The unintended consequences of these crops are just too great.
Article Written by: Leah Smith |
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About the Author: Leah Smith is the Seed Product Manager at Sow True Seed, where she focuses on adding new varieties to the catalog and ensuring the seed stock is top-notch. Her firsthand experience in farming has given her a deep understanding of cultivating crops while caring for the environment. |
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Like their cousins onions and garlic, leeks are members of the Allium family, though they are harder to find, giving them a bit of a rare and special reputation. Lucky for us gardeners, learning how to grow leeks is quite simple! Their mild, delicious sweetness and helpful vitamins and antioxidants can be yours directly from your backyard.
Leeks (Allium porrum) are essentially a bulbless onion. They are grown for their stout, fountain-shaped stalks that feature a sweet, mild, onion-like flavor. Most varieties have handsome, blue-green leaves.
Leeks are a long-season crop, generally needing 120 to 150 days to mature. Some varieties with shorter days to maturity can be harvested as early as midsummer; others are bred for resistance to freezing temperatures.
Leeks are quite easy to start from seeds! Start seeds indoors in your favorite seed starting mix about ten to twelve weeks before you’re ready to plant. In growing zone seven and warmer, leeks can be planted in the fall for a spring harvest and again in late spring for a fall harvest. In other growing zones, leeks should be seeded in very early spring for a fall harvest. Leek seeds germinate best at around 77 degrees Fahrenheit, so keep them in a warm, sunny room. Plant three seeds per cell or pot and thin to the strongest seedling when they are two inches tall.
Allium seeds have a short shelf life of about a year. Be aware of the sell-by date of the seeds you are using, and only buy seeds that are dated for the current season you are in, and plan on using or sharing your leftovers with friends within that season.
Leeks can also be purchased as starts, usually shipped to you as bare-rooted bundles in early spring. You can also start your leeks from seed and transplant them following these tips. When working with starts, you’ll want to plant when daytime temperatures have reached at least 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
Leeks are a full sun crop but may benefit from partial shade in deep Southern climates. Generally, you’ll want to pick a location that gets six or more hours of sunlight per day to ensure good stalk thickness and maturation. Overly wet locations can also cause problems with rotting stalks so consider adding lots of organic matter to your soils or growing in raised beds if moisture can be a problem in your garden.
In order to prepare your garden bed for leeks, lay a thick layer of compost onto your soil and dig it into the top three inches of soil. This provides plenty of nutrients, helps the soil hold moisture, and creates air pockets so the roots can get oxygen. Before planting, dig a four- to six- inch-deep trench for transplants to be planted in.
Plant seedlings in the bottom of the trench six inches apart. Leeks must be planted deep in the soil so that the base of the stem stays out of the sun and becomes blanched. Gradually fill in the trench as the seedlings grow to the point where the soil reaches the cleft where the leaves spread apart. Continue mounding soil around plants until midsummer. We call this soil-mounding process blanching. Blanching causes stalks to grow longer, taste more tender and mild, and turn white. Water regularly and keep the bed free of weeds for vigorous top growth.
Leeks need at least one inch of water cumulatively per week. This means keeping an eye on the precipitation each week or irrigating as it becomes necessary. Newly planted leeks will need a closer watch and should be kept evenly moist until well established. Consider mulching your plants in order to retain moisture throughout the growing season.
While leeks don’t need a ton of attention or special care to grow well, they will benefit from a monthly application of a balanced fertilizer like a 5-5-5 or 10-10-10. You may also consider simply topdressing monthly with compost.
Leeks are generally ready to eat when their stems are about one inch thick. However, if you have a taste for young leeks, they can be harvested at any time. In milder climates (about zone seven and warmer), before your first hard frost in fall, mulch plants with one to six inches of straw to keep the soil from freezing. You can harvest these plants as needed throughout the winter. In areas with colder winters, you’ll want to dig your leeks in late fall and store them.
Leeks can be stored a few different ways. For use in the immediate future, store leeks in an airtight container in the fridge. They’ll stay fresh for about a week.
For a slightly more involved process, leave the roots attached after harvest and trim the top part of the leeks to about an inch long. Place the stems root-end down into a box of sand. The sand should be kept evenly moist, though not waterlogged, and kept in a cool place. These leeks will keep for about eight weeks.
Leeks keep very nicely when frozen too. Slice leeks ahead of time and blanch them in boiling water for one minute. Drain the slices, dry, and keep them in a freezer bag for storage in the freezer. These leeks will keep for about three to four months and are ready to be added to any recipe!
When growing leeks in containers you will follow largely the same steps as above. You’ll want to use a container that’s at least 18 inches deep and fill it about halfway with soil to start with. As the leek grows you’ll want to continue adding soil to the stem to create the blanching process as you would in the ground. Remember that leeks need to be 6 inches apart from each other (or any container walls) so take this into account when considering how many leeks to put in one pot.
Leeks are cold-tolerant, and you can plant as early as late winter with the aid of a floating row cover to protect your seedlings from frost.
Unblanched leeks will have short stalks with tough flesh. If your soil is heavy clay and difficult to trench without risking the leeks sitting in waterlogged soil, you can try slipping cylindrical, ceramic drain tiles or eight to ten inch sections of four inch wide PVC piping around each plant, and mound soil up. These pieces of piping essentially act as individual raised beds for each plant.
Onion maggots can tunnel into leeks, leaving visible holes and making them susceptible to disease. Cut off and destroy any infested areas; portions without tunnels are still edible. This pest thrives in wet soils, so make sure that your beds are made up of well-draining soil.
Giant Musselburgh leeks are an heirloom variety that is extremely cold hardy. They grow to be nine to fifteen inches long and two to three inches in diameter - hence “giant” in the name. 120 days to harvest.
American Flag leeks are known for their superior quality and flavor. They produce stalks that are about ten inches long and are a favorite variety of home and market growers. 135 days to harvest.
Lancelot leeks are offered as starts by Sow True Seed. They are a dependable variety that produces 12- to 14-inch-long stalks and shows good bolt resistance when overwintering. 75 days to harvest.
Leeks have two distinct parts, a top with darker greenish-blue leaves, and a lower part with white to pale green stalk. The top greens are great to save for veggie stock, but are usually too tough to eat, so we concentrate on eating the tender stalk, which stays pale by blanching. Leeks are delicious when used in soups, stir fries, or omelets. The tender stalk offers a light onion flavor that doesn’t overwhelm the other flavors in the dish.
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
Over time, after seasons of growing, nutrients are leached from the soil. Rain can wash away nitrogen, plants take up nutrients and don’t return them on their own, and through all this, you can see your crops, over the years, producing less or not as well as they once did. While we as gardeners take from the soil, it’s important for us to also give back, not only for the health of the long term soil, but for the health and production of the overall garden!
Soil amendments fall into three broad categories: fertilizers, soil conditioners, and biostimulants. Certain additives can also fall under multiple of these umbrellas. Each of these act differently on soil and crops and improve your soil in different ways.
Fertilizers provide one or more of the major plant nutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The three numbers on amendment packaging (written 0-0-0) indicate the NPK ratio, or the percentage of nitrogen, phosphate, and soluble potassium respectively.
Soil conditioners improve soil texture and nutrient, water, and oxygen holding capacity. They may also work to change the pH level in the soil. These come in handy when you have especially heavy clay soil or soil lacking organic matter.
Biostimulants include a wide range of ingredients that all help in some way to encourage healthy microbial activity. They work to stimulate natural processes of plants that benefit nutrient uptake and nutrient efficiency, and increase tolerance to stressors.
This balanced fertilizer is perfect for your vegetable garden. It’ll keep steady the transition from vibrant leafy greens to big, red tomatoes all season long. This fertilizer’s mix of fish bone meal, alfalfa meal, feather meal, langbeinite, basalt, potassium sulfate, dolomite, and kelp meal create a broad nutrient profile that’s perfect for all of your edible crops.
When applying to transplants, add one to two tablespoons per hole and mix into the soil. To feed established plants, side dress with two to four ounces depending on plant size and desired growth rate each month.
This all purpose fertilizer is a great additive to all kinds of transplants. It’s gentle, and won’t burn sensitive, young plants with too much nitrogen. Over time, it can also enhance soil fertility and microbial activity. This mix of fish bone meal, blood meal, feather meal, alfalfa meal, rock phosphate, langbeinite, humates, and kelp meal is perfect for all your vegetables, flowers, herbs, fruit trees, and more.
Apply two and a half to five pounds per 100 square feet of garden soil and thoroughly mix into the top three inches of soil. For new transplants, apply one to two tablespoons per hole.
Especially for you vegan gardeners! No animal products involved. This slow release concoction will nourish your vegetables, herbs, and flowers throughout the growing season. This mix of soybean meal, neem seed meal, alfalfa meal, rock phosphate, langbeinite, greensand, and kelp meal will gently and over time improve soil fertility and tilth in combination with high quality compost.
Apply two and a half to five pounds per 100 square feet of garden soil and thoroughly mix into the top three inches of soil. For new transplants, apply one to two tablespoons per hole.
You may recognize this amazing amendment from the other ingredient lists but as a single use amendment, it certainly works its magic. Fish bone meal is an excellent source of phosphorus and calcium which help to support healthy root, bloom, and fruit development. Calcium in particular is helpful if you have an issue with blossom end rot in your garden - this may be the solution you need!
Apply two and a half to five pounds per 100 square feet of garden soil and thoroughly mix into the top three inches of soil. For new transplants, apply one to two tablespoons per hole.
This plant-derived all purpose fertilizer increases organic matter in the soil, encourages beneficial microbes and earthworms, and works especially well for flowering plants. Alfalfa meal can also be used as a compost pile stimulant as it decomposes rapidly and creates heat which helps the rest of your compost to decompose, making more nutrients available to your plants.
Apply five to ten pounds per 100 square feet of garden soil and thoroughly mix into the top three inches of soil. For new transplants, apply one to two tablespoons per hole.
An excellent source of potash, kelp meal also feeds and stimulates the necessary microorganisms in your soil which improve the overall breakdown of organic material and improves both soil texture and quality. It’s perfect for an early spring or fall pre-planting application.
Apply one to two pounds per 100 square feet of garden soil and thoroughly mix into the top three inches of soil. For new transplants, apply one to two teaspoons per hole.
This amazing ingredient actually could fall into all three amendment categories. Worm castings are, in the simplest terms, worm poop. Yum! This odorless amendment is a product of nature and can do really amazing things for your garden. Worm castings improve the physical structure, chemical composition, and biological activity of soils making them better and healthier over time and proving itself as a great bio-stimulant.
Use our Rose and Flower Mix for all of your perennial blooms. This mix provides a great source of nitrogen and a boost of phosphorus for rigorous bud development. This mix of fish bone meal, blood meal, langbeinite, alfalfa meal, seabird guano, rock phosphate, and kelp meal is great for a monthly application for establishing perennials and an annual application for established perennials around your last frost.
Apply two and a half to five pounds per 100 square feet of garden soil and thoroughly mix into the top three inches of soil. For new transplants, apply one to two tablespoons per hole.
What do you grow that loves acidic soils? Blueberries, raspberries, rhododendron, azaleas, hydrangeas, and other evergreen plants all come to mind! Got these in your garden? This is the mix for you. This mix of cottonseed meal, fish bone meal, langbeinite, rock phosphate, and kelp meal will keep those acid loving perennials happy and healthy! The addition of cottonseed meal in this mix can lower the pH of your soil over time.
Apply two and a half to five pounds per 100 square feet of garden soil and thoroughly mix into the top three inches of soil. For new plants between one and two years old, apply a half cup into the large hole and mix with the backfill soil.
Blood meal is a readily available source of nitrogen for your heavy-feeding plants. Can be used liberally on all leafy greens and is great for corn and tomatoes, especially if your soil is depleted. Too much nitrogen can cause a plant to produce a lot of (really beautiful and healthy) foliage but you may see a lack of blooms or fruits. Apply to heavy feeders alongside balanced fertilizers when producing blooms and fruits.
Apply two to three pounds per 100 square feet of garden soil and thoroughly mix into the top three inches of soil. For new transplants, apply one teaspoon per hole.
Looking for more information on specific soil amendment ingredients? Check out our ultimate Cheat Sheet!
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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Melons are a beloved member of the Cucurbitaceae family. This means they’re related to squash and cucumbers. Melons are known for their sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. Botanically, the melon is a type of berry! Melons are known to have been grown by ancient Egyptians and were some of the first crops to be brought by colonizers to the Americas. A number of indigenous tribes around New Mexico have been known to grow their own cultivars derived from melons introduced to them by the Spanish.
For the best melons, there is a short window of time between the transcendent flavor of perfectly ripe and perfectly rotten. To catch a melon at its peak, check the patch every other day when it’s getting close, looking for tell-tale signs of cracking around the stem and full aromas. Those fruits must absolutely be harvested and eaten on the same day. For a more failsafe harvest indicator, fruit is ready when it slips easily from the vine. Beware! Deer love perfectly ripe melons too, so guard your patch well!
Melon genera is a complicated subject because they can be umbrella terms for a pretty wide variety of species. The main thing to remember is that plants of the same species can cross with each other. So the species name will have to be taken into account when thinking about seed saving. Many types of melons will fall into one of these four genera.
Citrullus melons include our common watermelon as well as some other lesser known vines. This genus is most largely distinguished by the shape of its leaves which are deeply lobed.
The genus Cucumis includes both melons and cucumbers, as they are closely related. Your typical honeydew and cantaloupe fall under this category. This includes a wide range of varieties and is probably one of the most commonly grown melon genus.
This genus is a little harder to come by in common gardens. There is only one member of this genus which is Benincasa hispida, also known as the wax gourd. Native to southeast Asia, it is eaten as a vegetable when mature.
Momordica is a slightly wider collection of melons and you may have heard of it referred to as bitter melon. Bitter melon is a staple in many Asian cuisines.
Watermelons are some of our favorite sticky sweet melons for the height of summer. They have a very high water content, similarly to cucumbers. Watermelons are grown in tropical to temperate regions worldwide. They produce large fruits that are typically a bright red or hot pink color on the inside (though can be white or yellow as well) with a beautiful green rind on the outside. Commonly eaten raw alongside hot dogs and hamburgers, watermelon can also be blended into a delicious beverage or pickled for a shockingly delicious and unique snack.
Cantaloupes are sweet and tender and tend to be a bit fleshier than watermelons. Typically, they’re known for their bright orange insides with an ordinary beige rind. They love sandy soils but can be grown in many climates. Try adding cantaloupe to your charcuterie board or slicing it up into a salad!
Honeydew melons are a close cousin of the cantaloupe - just take a look at their latin names! Honeydew is known for its green, not overly sweet flesh and performs particularly well here in the Southeast but can certainly be found growing elsewhere.
Casaba melons, yet another cousin of the honeydew and cantaloupe, is a white fleshed melon that looks more like a squash due to its textured yellow rind. Its unique flavor makes it delicious in both sweet and savory dishes and it grows best in dry, hot climates.
This famous French cantaloupe is known for its powerful, flowery and fruity perfume. Its thick rind and salmon-orange flesh has a caramelized sugar flavor to its sweetness. This variety can tolerate cooler temperatures, making it a good choice for mid-western and high elevation growing locations.
This cantaloupe is a Carolina favorite named for the hot and humid coastal conditions of South Carolina. It’s resistant to powdery and downy mildew and grows three- to five-pound fruits on vigorous vines.
The heirloom Bradford Family Watermelon is a super special, super rare variety. In its day, it was known as the sweetest, most flavorful watermelon right down to its dark green rind. It’s been grown by the Bradford family in South Carolina for over 100 years and so is particularly specialized to growing in that region. That being said, there’s been success in other locations as well.
While we categorize this as a cucumber, this fruit - also known as mouse melon or cucamelon - deserves a special shout out. This rampant vine will produce dozens of one inch green and white fruits whose resemblance to watermelons will delight anyone who comes across them. While not particularly sweet like other melons, this cucumber is delicious pickled or eaten fresh.
That’s right! A yellow watermelon! With super sweet yellow flesh and classic black seeds, this unique watermelon found popularity in the 1840s because it was well-adapted to the cooler growing region of the Northeast. These fruits grow to about 20-35 pounds and are a show stopper at any picnic.
Now, this cucumber is actually, botanically, a melon. Though, culinarily, is most often used as a cucumber. But its hallmark thin skins and cucumbery taste makes it delectable in salads or beverages alike.
Melons are satisfying to grow AND eat. Whether you’ve got a sweet tooth or prefer a milder dessert, there's a three- to thirty-pound botanical berry (melon) for you.
Article Written by: Leah Smith |
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About the Author: Leah Smith is the Seed Product Manager at Sow True Seed, where she focuses on adding new varieties to the catalog and ensuring the seed stock is top-notch. Her firsthand experience in farming has given her a deep understanding of cultivating crops while caring for the environment. |
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Cucumbers have been cultivated for at least 3,000 years, originating in India. They have become a staple in many gardens all over the world. Cucumbers are 95% water, making them a great hydrating fruit - the perfect snack to bring on a hike.
Most cucumbers grow on vines that attach to a trellis or crawl across the ground using their curly tendrils. Their hairy stems and wide leaves help to protect and shade the fruit as it is produced through the summer months.
There are so many different types of cucumbers out there - there is bound to be one that suits your growing and culinary needs.
Slicing cucumbers grow big and long, typically with smooth skin. They’re usually used for fresh eating, or “slicing” as you may have guessed. This fruit looks gorgeous sliced thinly into a pitcher of lemonade or ice water as well as on top of a tasty summer salad. Slicing cucumbers can have a vining or bush growth habit.
Pickling cucumbers are most often used for - you guessed it - pickling! While any cucumber can be pickled, pickling cucumbers are bred to grow small and uniform (so you can fit them in a pickle jar). They tend to be heavy producers and can also be bush or vining types.
Cucumbers do produce a compound known as cucurbitacin which can make cucumbers bitter and cause indigestion in some folks. Because cucurbitacin is most concentrated in the skins of the cucumber, people developed thin-skinned, burpless cucumbers.
Bush cucumbers can come in so many shapes and varieties and the best part is you don’t have to trellis them due to their bushy growing habits! This makes them great for low impact gardening or growing in small spaces. Any kind of cucumber you want - probably comes in bush form.
Vining cucumbers are just that - vining. They need to be trellised, which is great for container gardens where it would be beneficial for you to grow upwards! But they can be trellised beautifully in any in-ground garden as well. Vining cucumbers also produce more fruit than bush varieties which is great for canning or another culinary project that requires large amounts.
Heirloom cucumbers are varieties that date back to before World War 2. The seeds have been saved for so many years because they are beloved! Heirloom varieties are typically open-pollinated.
Specialty cucumbers are some of our favorites because they’re the best varieties to encourage repartee! These cucumbers can be sliced, pickled, eaten fresh, or any other preparation you can imagine - they just look a little different.
Slicing Cucumber, Muncher
This crispy, crunchy cucumber doesn’t get bitter! Six to nine inch long, green, nearly spineless fruits grow on sturdy vines that would benefit from trellising. Typically used for slicing, snacking, and pickling. This variety is Mosaic resistant.
Pickling Cucumber, Bushy
This cucumber is the perfect pickling plant for smaller spaces! These compact bushing plants take up half the space of standard vining types while producing medium, green four to five inch crispy fruits. This variety grows great in containers.
Specialty Cucumber, Mexican Sour Gherkin
The cutest little cucumbers you ever did see! Also known as Mouse Melon or Cucamelon, these rampant, yet delicate vines produce dozens of one inch green and white fruit that will delight children and adults alike. Great for pickling whole and snacking on straight from the vine.
Slicing Cucumber, Armenian
These gorgeous, thin skinned fruits look and taste like a cucumber but are actually (botanically) a melon. These fruits are best harvested when they reach 12 to 15 inches in length.
Pickling Cucumber, Arkansas Little Leaf
These tasty four inch fruits are easy to find under the little leaves, making harvesting a breeze. This compact plant grows well under a variety of conditions and will reward you with high yields of perfect pickling-sized cucumbers.
Specialty Cucumber, Lemon
These dapper lemon-yellow fruits grow on productive, semi-bush plants. They produce gorgeous, round, lemony-essenced cucumbers that are so delicious when snacked on directly off the vine.
Slicing Cucumber, Suyo Long
This is the longest cucumber we have to offer and is also considered “burpless!” This tasty Asian variety grows nicely on a trellis and produces 10 to 18 inch long fruits that are sweet and crisp and nearly seedless. This variety is powdery mildew resistant and heat tolerant.
Pickling Cucumber, Puerto Rico 39
We received our original seedstock of this variety from the USDA germplasm repository and loved how it performed in our trials. This variety is an abundant producer of light green, fairly straight cucumbers, perfect for the pickle jar - if they make it that far! Thin, smooth skins make for easy snacking straight out of the garden.
Slicing Cucumber, Marketmore 76
This is one of the best garden and market quality cucumbers available. They have a sweet flavor and tender texture that is sure to please. These dark green, eight inch long fruits grow on four to six foot vines. It’s a great slicer and salad variety. Marketmore is resistant to downy mildew, mosaic virus, and leaf spot.
Slicing Cucumber, Spacemaster 80
This variety was developed by Cornell University and is a big winner with gardeners who are short on space. These seven to eight inch long, dark green, smooth-skinned cucumbers grow on bushy vines that only reach about three feet in height. A large pot with a tomato cage or porch railing will do for these little plants.
Growing cucumbers is easy and rewarding for gardeners of all skill levels. Pick one of these varieties to try out in your garden this year!
After harvesting, cucumbers will last in your refrigerator for up to a week. After that, you should probably take some action.
Cucumbers don’t freeze or dehydrate well, so your options are basically to eat them fresh or pickle them. If you have canning equipment, you can make shelf-stable pickles that will last a year or more. Remember to always use a tested recipe when canning!
If you’d rather not go through all that trouble, it’s super easy to make refrigerator (quick) pickles that will last a few weeks in the fridge, or you can get a little more ambitious and naturally lacto-ferment your cucumbers for richly flavored pickles that will last in the fridge for several months.
No matter what kind of cucumber you’re growing, it’s bound to be a rewarding adventure. Add this delicious fruit to your garden this year!
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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It seems a garden without kale is incomplete. With so many varieties, colors, textures and flavors, there is surely one to suit any taste. Some of them are so colorful and beautiful that they can even be used as an ornamental! Extremely nutritious, kale can be eaten fresh, in salads, or cooked in any number of ways limited only by one’s imagination.
Though it’s been trending in the culinary world for the past ten years or so, kale has actually been cultivated for over 2,000 years, originating in the eastern Mediterranean. This nutritional powerhouse is a must-have in the garden.
With all the kales to choose from it may be hard to decide! But fear not. Read on for a helpful explanation on all of the different types.
Curly kales are by far the most common types of kale. This is likely what you’d find bunched or bagged in your local grocery store. It’s called curly because it is, well, curly! Its tightly-packed, wavy leaves offer good crunch and texture to any salad, and its thick composition holds up well in soups.
Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch - These heavily crinkled leaves make fine kale chips and hold up well after harvest. The 12- to 14-inch-high plants with a wide plume of leaves are slow to bolt, cold-hardy, and overwinter well.
Italian kale, better known as lacinato or dinosaur kale, is a staple in traditional Italian foodscapes. Unlike other types of kale, Italian is especially tender, making it ideal for raw eating or roughly chopping for an omelet or sandwich.
Lacinato - The Italian darling of gourmands the world over! Also popular with kids for its nickname, dinosaur kale. These dark, green, textured leaves conjure images of prehistoric flora. This variety has unparalleled flavor and texture, especially after a frost.
Russian kale is also referred to as flat leaf kale and is some of the most cold-tolerant of the kale types. They’re used late in the season for overwintering, surviving temperatures down to -10 degrees Fahrenheit, and offer a forgiving texture for raw eating.
Red Russian - This heirloom is from Russia by way of Canada and has reddish purple petioles and veins. The delicately lobed leaves change from green to purple as the weather cools. This variety is extremely tender raw or cooked either as baby leaves or matured.
Red Ursa - This award winning child of Red Russian and Siberian kale (another cold-hardy variety) has the thick, slightly frilled leaves of Siberian with the hallmark reddish purple veins of Red Russian.
While there are a few varieties of purple kale, this type’s trademark is its bright, gorgeous color. Not only is purple kale delicious and gorgeous in a meal, it makes a beautiful addition to an ornamental flower garden!
Scarlet - These large leaves are a shocking deep purple color and grow almost three feet in height. The leaves become even more vibrant as the frosts start coming. Because of its color, this variety has more antioxidants than other kales.
Baby kale is just that: baby. The young leaves are harvested due to their especially tender quality. Baby kale is generally considered best for raw eating but is also delicious sautéed like spinach. You can grow any of these incredible varieties for a young harvest to enjoy this tender type!
Kale is beautiful. We could leave it at that. But some of our more stunning Scarlet or Dazzling Blue varieties really do add an edible beauty to any landscape. Whether it’s height you’re looking for (Scarlet Kale gets up to three feet tall) or less height and more texture (Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch measures in at 12 inches or so), there’s a variety to mix into your ornamental garden.
There are also varieties of ornamental kale that are bred for show and not flavor. These make stunning landscape plants as well as cut foliage for autumn bouquets. But really, any of these varieties could be used as such.
Kale has certainly earned its reputation as a superfood. It is widely considered one of the most nutrient-dense vegetables out there. It offers plenty of dietary fiber and is high in vitamins A, C, and E. It also packs a punch of calcium, potassium, and iron.
There are about as many ways to cook kale as there are varieties to choose from - perhaps even more. Some of our favorites include a massaged kale salad with rice vinegar and sesame seeds. Or tossed into an omelet with bacon and goat cheese! You can even throw a handful of roughly chopped curly kale into your next batch of chicken noodle soup to add plenty of vitamins and minerals.
No matter which kale you grow or how you choose to eat it, this easy green is sure to please in the garden and at the kitchen table.
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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If you’ve had brussels sprouts since you were a kid, you probably love them now. If you haven’t, you’re missing out on one of the best, most underrated vegetables out there. We recommend you give them a try.
Brussels sprouts were named for Brussels, Belgium, which is where they were first grown as far back as the 16th century. Brussels sprouts are in the Brassica family which means they’re the same species as other garden favorites including cabbage, broccoli, kale, and cauliflower.
This delicious vegetable, while easy and rewarding to cook, can be a little finicky to grow due mainly to their long growing season which is between 80 and 100 days depending on the variety. But don’t lose hope yet! With a little guidance and patience, you too can grow this rewarding crop.
Catskill Brussels Sprouts - This highly productive dwarf heirloom was introduced in 1941 by Arthur White of Arkport, NY. It has become a prized favorite for its large, two-inch diameter, super-flavorful sprouts produced on compact, sturdy plants. For Southern growers, Catskill brussels sprouts do best when started indoors in mid-to-late summer, then transplanted out as temperatures cool off in early fall. Northern growers can also start them in early spring. Sprouts begin maturing about 80 days after transplanting.
Long Island Improved Brussels Sprouts - This reliable, heavy-yielding heirloom has been a favorite since its introduction in the late 1800s. Compact, 20-inch tall plants produce 50 to 100 large, tightly headed, dark green sprouts per stalk. For Southern gardeners, Long Island Improved brussels sprouts will do best when started indoors in mid-to-late summer, then transplanted out as temperatures cool off in early fall. Northern growers can also start them in early spring. Sprouts begin maturing about 80 days after transplanting.
The best way to grow brussels sprouts depends somewhat on where you live. These plants need a long growing season and mature best in cool temperatures. In most climates you’ll want to sow the seed in spring, planning for a fall harvest. In areas with long, cool summers, you can sow your seeds in early spring or midsummer for fall! The key with brussels sprouts is letting them end the season and mature under cool temperatures.
Because of this crop's long growing season it is recommended in most – if not all – cases to start your seeds indoors. This can give these finicky crops a head start and a chance to mature before facing the trials and tribulations of the garden for the long season ahead.
Brussels sprouts will germinate well in cool temperatures as low as 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Providing seedlings with even moisture and plenty of light will help them mature healthily and avoid legginess.
Brussels sprouts should be started from seed about four to eight weeks before the last frost in spring and transplanted out in early summer, about 60-80 days before the first fall frost. In warmer growing zones (8 and up), plants started in late summer can be put out into the garden in the fall and grown as a winter to spring crop. The brussels sprouts themselves get sweeter with a few light frosts in the fall so letting them mature throughout the cooler temperatures can provide you with an even better crop at harvest time.
Your planting site should get at least eight hours of direct sunlight per day. Soil should be extremely rich in nutrients and well draining. In the weeks leading up to planting, it’s worthwhile to spend time amending your soil with compost, organic matter, greensand if clay is an issue and more. Soil quality can be the defining factor for success with brussels sprouts.
When starting seeds indoors, sow three seeds per pot or cell about a quarter inch deep and water well. When seedlings have four leaves, thin to one plant per pot and keep your grow lights close to the top of your plants, moving them up as the plants grow.
Begin hardening off your seedlings four weeks before you’re ready to plant them out. This long, slow process is beneficial for their long term health. Start with just an hour or two on the first day, bringing them in at night. Slowly extend this time until they’re spending eight to ten hours outside.
In your chosen planting area, spread two to three inches of compost and fork your soil to aerate it. Plant your seedlings out at 18 to 24 inches apart. Covering plants with floating row cover will greatly help with deterring insects during your plants' vulnerable, young stage.
Now that your brussels sprouts are planted out into the garden, it’s time to keep a close eye on them and give them everything they need to grow big and strong!
Mulching around your newly transplanted brussels sprouts can help with weed pressure as well as keep soil temperatures on the cooler side throughout the growing season. Further, even and consistent waterings are crucial for sprout development. They’ll need about an inch to an inch and a half of water per week and mulch will keep the soil evenly moist. Brussels sprouts benefit greatly from a regular application of a nitrogen-rich fertilizer every three to four weeks. When weeding, take care not to disturb the roots as they tend to be shallow and sensitive.
Depending on the variety, brussels sprouts will take between 80 and 100 days to mature. Taller varieties may require some staking as they grow. Take care to remove yellowing leaves at the bottom of the plant to allow for more sunlight on the stalk, resulting in more energy being focused on the sprouts.
Brussels sprouts are susceptible to the same issues as our other Brassica family plants including the cabbage moth and looper, aphids, downy mildew, and more. Preventative use of row cover as the plants are getting established and into their mature stages can really make all the difference in ensuring their survival to harvest time.
Brussels sprouts usually don’t start producing until very late in the season – usually as they reach full height. They will begin maturing from the bottom of the stalk upward. Begin harvesting the lower sprouts as they reach an inch in width by twisting or snipping them off the stalk.
Sprouts can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for about five days. Do not wash your sprouts until you are ready to use them.
Brussels sprouts will flower and produce seed in their second year. Most people will grow them as annuals, but if you’re looking to save your brussels sprout seed you’ll have to take some extra steps. They will go to seed in the spring after overwintering (which can be done in many growing zones using mulch and row cover). Brussels sprouts should be isolated from other Brassica oleracea varieties which includes most cabbages, collards, kales, and broccolis. Ensure that other plants of the same species are not flowering at the same time as the brussels sprouts within a half mile of the plants. Harvest the entire seed stalk when most of the pods have started to turn brown. Pods will shatter and drop their seed soon after they ripen, so watch carefully. Finish the drying process by hanging flower stalks indoors over a tarp (to catch the seeds as the pods shatter). Make sure your seeds are completely dry before storing them in an airtight container in a dark, cool location.
This member of the Brassica family is truly such a rewarding crop, and with some extra care and attention, you too can grow your own brussels sprouts!
Article Written by: Leah Smith |
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About the Author: Leah Smith is the Seed Product Manager at Sow True Seed, where she focuses on adding new varieties to the catalog and ensuring the seed stock is top-notch. Her firsthand experience in farming has given her a deep understanding of cultivating crops while caring for the environment. |
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Beans, beans, they're good for your heart! The more you eat, the more you… want to grow because there are just so many amazing varieties to try! These Fabaceae (legume family) crops are chock full of protein and nutrients and should be a staple part of your diet. Whether dried and shelled for soups or stews or fresh off the vine as snap beans - these legumes need a place in your garden.
All common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) originated in the Americas and were probably first domesticated in what is now central Mexico, along with corn and squash. Beans have been a staple of indigenous diets throughout much of North and South America for millenia, before early European colonizers brought them back to their countries in the 16th century, and the common bean subsequently spread across the entire globe.
Vigna unguiculata
Asparagus beans, also known as yardlong beans, are technically not beans at all, but are actually the same species as Southern peas (cowpeas). Like Southern peas, they perform exceptionally well in hot, humid climates like the American Southeast and Midwest. The climbing vines produce flowers that are great for pollinators, and loads of long, slender pods that can be used much like any green bean. Though still a bit of a novelty here in the states, asparagus beans are a major vegetable in many Southeast Asian cuisines, where they are a prized ingredient in a number of different stir-fries, curries, and soups.
Yard Long Red Seeded - These slender, green pods grow up to two feet long (though harvest is recommended at about one foot).
Red Podded - With a bright, vibrant red color that stays when cooked, this bean is quicker to mature than the Yard Long variety.
Phaseolus vulgaris
Bush beans are a great option for a quick, easy snap bean harvest in a limited space. Most varieties grow to about two feet tall and don’t require any trellising. The tradeoff is that usually bush beans produce just one or two flushes of beans, whereas pole beans will often keep producing over a longer season. Many gardeners grow both types of beans - bush varieties for early harvests and/or canning and pole types for heavier yields. Most bush bean varieties are grown for fresh eating but there are bush varieties for drying beans as well.
Blue Lake 274 - This well-loved heirloom bush bean produces a heavy yield all at once, making it perfect for canning. That being said, these tender beans are a favorite for fresh eating as well.
Royal Burgundy - Delicious and tender 5-inch long, deep purple pods grow on highly productive, sturdy plants. They don’t keep their color when cooked but they are absolutely stunning in the harvest basket!
Phaseolus vulgaris
All beans can be dried for winter storage and soups, but some beans hold better flavor and mature to the drying stage quicker. These are what we refer to as drying beans! They can grow in pole and bush form, making for lots of options for the grower. The trick for snap beans is to continue harvesting so that the plant continues to produce pods. Drying beans are the opposite! They can be planted and just about left alone (besides what we all know and love as weeding and watering) for one major harvest at the end of the season once the pods are yellowed and dried out. You can check for this by listening for a rattle when you shake the pods. Then comes the shelling and storage of these wonderful beans for future use in soups, stews, chili and more all winter long.
Arikara Yellow - This prolific and bushy heirloom produces beautiful yellow-tan seeds that are great for baking. This variety has good drought tolerance and were originally grown by the Arikara tribe of North Dakota.
Black Turtle - This classic black bean is used widely all over the Americas, most famously in black bean soup. This variety grows and dries easily, and while the plants do sprawl somewhat, they shouldn’t need trellising.
Vicia faba
This pole type legume is actually a cool weather crop, unlike its more well-known bean cousins, and can be planted in early spring or again in fall in cooler climates. They produce large, waxy pods containing wide flat beans that you typically shell, discarding the pods. The beans can then be eaten fresh or dried and stored for later! Fava beans have a unique nutty and sweet flavor and are used in lots of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes. Please note that a small percentage of people have a severe allergic reaction to fava beans, known as favism.
Aquadulce - This heirloom is high in protein with a rich flavor and a satisfying texture. They’ll benefit from some trellising but should only get about three feet tall.
Sweet Lorane - These favas are peel free! Which will save you a step in the kitchen. Bring on the delicious favas just a little bit faster and easier!
Phaseolus lunatus
Also known as butter beans, lima beans have become infamous as an undesirable food (anxiety dreams about lima beans, anyone?), right there next to brussels sprouts. But as we’ve learned from brussels sprouts and other vegetables, any vegetable is delicious if prepared well. Lima beans can be found in both pole and bush types, giving growers options regardless of their garden size or capacity. They grow best in warm climates and should not be grown where temperatures may dip below sixty degrees fahrenheit.
Henderson Bush - This old heirloom has been around and beloved since the 1880s. The Henderson Bush type lima bean is a reliable producer under a variety of soil and weather conditions.
Colored Willowleaf Butterbean - So beautiful! That is the calling card of this variety. The mottled pink, purple, and white beans are simply stunning and the plant can grow eight to ten feet high.
Phaseolus vulgaris
Pole beans require some form of support whether it’s a trellis, a fence, or a corn stalk. They can vary in height from six to 20 feet depending on the variety. Pole beans will mature over time as they continue to grow and set flowers and pods. Pole beans are preferred for green beans to stagger the fresh harvest over time.
Fatman - Fatman is a very heavy producer of 5” pods on vines that get up to seven feet tall. There’s a lot of documentation of this bean being grown in both Virginia and West Virginia for over one hundred years.
Rattlesnake - Gorgeous pods with purple streaks encase striped beige and brown beans. Stringless pods will grow on vines reaching ten feet tall.
Glycine max
Edamame (the delicious side we order at Japanese restaurants) is the young soybean, still green, and meant to be removed from the pod and popped into your mouth. The matured soybeans are what can be made into tofu, soybean paste, and much more!
Chiba Green - Early and heavy harvests are the hallmark of this soy bean. Enjoy your bumper crop of flavorful pods up to 10 days earlier than other varieties!
Midori Giant - Midori’s long harvest window means a bowl of edamame to snack on every single night.
Phaseolus coccineus
These vining plants produce gorgeous scarlet-colored flowers and large, fuzzy, 12” pods. When the pods are smaller they can be eaten whole as snap beans, but they can also be left to mature and dry producing a gorgeous dried bean for soups and stews. They grow similarly and can be cared for similarly to pole beans.
Scarlet Emperor - These vining plants with their gorgeous scarlet flowers produce tasty, meaty beans which dry to a beautiful lavender and black mottled seed. Give them a trellis in a part of your garden where you can enjoy this beautiful plant!
Which bean do you want to try? Whether for canning, fresh eating, or drying, there’s a bean out there for you. And more than likely, there’s more than one. Learn to grow beans this year and browse all of the bean seeds that Sow True Seed has to offer!
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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There are three different types of strawberries that all offer special considerations depending on their purpose in your garden. Understanding the differences between these types is going to be the key in making all of your strawberry dreams come true.
Some of the most popular varieties of strawberries out there hold the title of June-bearing. They are certainly an impressive bunch and are easy to come by.
Typically, they produce strawberries over a period of two to three weeks. Most of the time this period is in or around the month of June - hence the name. This is really great for folks who are interested in making a large batch of jam or pie filling all at once.
Ever-bearing varieties (unlike June-bearing) are not honestly true to their name. They don’t actually bear fruit throughout the entire season but produce usually two major harvests per growing season. Both of these harvests are typically smaller than a whopping June-bearing yield. That being said, you also don’t then have to handle who knows how many buckets of strawberries all at once!
Ever-bearing strawberries put out fewer runners than June-bearing strawberries which may make them great for gardens of a smaller size or lower effort.
Day-neutral strawberries are a special bunch. They typically produce a decently sized yield the first year they are planted, whereas other types can take a year or more to produce. Their fruit does tend to be smaller than other types but they’ll produce a moderate yield about three times a season.
This June-bearing strawberry is an excellent performer, doing well over a wide range of growing conditions. This variety is recommended for commercial growers and home gardeners alike because of its sweet and uniform fruits. These large berries have amazing quality and flavor.
This June-bearing heirloom is thought by many to be the best strawberry for jam and freezing. You’ll be rewarded with a nice crop of flavorful, high quality strawberries year after year if you manage your bed and don’t allow it to become too cramped. It’s a great beginner variety as well.
The Ozark Beauty was developed in Arkansas and is well suited for cooler regions of the North and higher elevations in the South. Ozark Beauty strawberries are considered to be one of the best ever-bearing varieties. They are vigorous and extremely prolific producers. They produce fairly large berries that are deep red and honey sweet.
This ever-bearing variety was developed at the University of California and produces a high yield of firm, large, flavorful berries. These well-shaped berries have a superb flavor and bear fruit over a long season. They’re one of the most productive and disease resistant varieties out there! Their shallow roots make them ideal for containers.
Albion Strawberries
This day neutral variety is very disease resistant and produces fairly large, firm fruit. Its heat tolerance has been show stopping and makes them great for gardeners with very hot summers. Compared to other Day Neutral varieties, this one does send out a decent number of runners and will spread well if allowed to.
Elsanta Strawberries
This vigorous strawberry has deep green foliage and large flowers and berries. The berries are so easy to harvest which makes them great for new or young gardeners. Their flavor is truly rewarding as well. A dutch variety that has risen in popularity has a long shelf life and firmness that lasts.
As you can see, there are many amazing types of strawberries to choose from and grow successfully. And, if we’re being honest, you really can't go wrong. Try a couple or try them all, have a taste testing contest, choose YOUR favorite. And then let us know what you think.
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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Strawberries are truly the jewels of summer - and they’re perfect for beginning gardeners! If you’ve never had a strawberry picked fresh, you’re in for a treat.
There are two main types of strawberries, June-bearing and ever-bearing. June-bearing types tend to produce a large, concentrated crop over a short period of time. Typically, yes, in June but the harvest can extend until July. This is great for gardeners who love to can their harvests to enjoy strawberries through the winter. Ever-bearing strawberries produce fruit throughout the growing season but have two larger, concentrated yields in early summer and again in fall. You can certainly preserve these varieties as well but they’re also great for a regular midsummer treat and tend to produce smaller amounts overall.
This ever-bearing variety was developed at the University of California and produces a high yield of firm, large, flavorful berries. These well-shaped berries have a superb flavor and bear fruit over a long season. They’re one of the most productive and disease resistant varieties out there! Their shallow roots make them ideal for containers.
This June-bearing strawberry is an excellent performer, doing well over a wide range of growing conditions. This variety is recommended for commercial growers and home gardeners alike because of its sweet and uniform fruits. These large berries have amazing quality and flavor.
The Ozark Beauty was developed in Arkansas and is well suited for cooler regions of the North and higher elevations in the South. Ozark Beauty strawberries are considered to be one of the best ever-bearing varieties. They are vigorous and extremely prolific producers. They produce fairly large berries that are deep red and honey sweet.
This June-bearing heirloom is thought by many to be the best strawberry for jam and freezing. You’ll be rewarded with a nice crop of flavorful, high quality strawberries year after year if you manage your bed and don’t allow it to become too cramped. It’s a great beginner variety as well.
Strawberry plants spread… a lot. They produce runners that root and grow into new plants! Typically, strawberries will be planted 18 inches apart in rows that are 3 feet apart. This leaves plenty of room for runners. You’ll want to loosely calculate how many plants you’ll need based on your growing space but the great part is if you don’t order enough, they’ll fill in the bed in no time!
Planting strawberries is easy, fun, and will save you a few bucks at the grocery store. While anyone can do it with success, there are just a few things you may want to take into consideration.
Strawberries require full sun - this means six to ten hours per day. So you’ll want to choose your planting site (or container location) with that in mind. Well-draining soil helps to keep the crowns from rotting, so a raised bed is a great location for drainage as well as to keep the strawberries from taking over your garden. Well-composted soil will work great too, as long as your in-ground bed goes pretty deep - about twelve inches.
Strawberries are planted early in the season, as soon as the ground is workable in the spring. This is typically six to eight weeks before your last frost.
The bare root strawberries you order from us are dormant plants. This just means that you’ll have to take the extra step of waking them up! We do this by soaking the bare roots in a bowl or bucket of water, only soaking the roots and keeping the crowns from being submerged. Soaking your plants for about 20 minutes before planting helps to bring the strawberries out of dormancy.
Dig your planting holes as deep as the roots are long and twice as wide. Gently spread out the roots in the hole and fill in with soil around the roots, keeping the crown of the plant at soil level. It is especially important not to bury the crown because this is where the plant will grow from. Burying it will take a toll on the fruit and runner production. Space the plants 18 inches apart in rows that are 3 feet apart.
Water well after planting and lay a two-inch layer of mulch around each plant to conserve moisture. Throughout the season, make sure strawberries get one to two inches of water per week. Bare root plants should begin leafing out in early summer. Take care to keep the bed weeded without overly disturbing the crown of the plant.
Strawberries are a perennial crop in many growing zones. They can produce for years on end if well cared for and maintained.
Strawberries can produce fruit in the first year (though not at their fullest potential). That being said, to create a long standing and reliable perennial crop you may have to sacrifice some of that first season's harvest.
Right after planting, pinch off any flower buds that appear in the first few weeks. This will help the plant produce leaves and roots so that when the flowers are pollinated and begin to produce fruit, there is enough energy and strength in the plant to develop the gorgeous fruit you’re expecting. If you’re growing strawberries as a perennial we recommend pinching off most, if not all, of the flowers in the first year. This will help to get the plants well and established and encourage it to put its energy towards producing runners so that next year’s crop will be truly abundant.
Your original strawberry plants will produce up to four or five years, though yield can reduce dramatically after about three. But the beauty of this is that as your plants produce runners, you’re getting brand new plants every year! In order to maintain this production, and keep your plants healthy, pull out your oldest plants every two to three years.
While strawberries are very low maintenance, there are some steps you can take to get the most out of your beautiful plants! Consider an annual application of a balanced fertilizer (a 5-5-5 or 10-10-10 will do just fine) as you begin to see leaf growth each year.
Keeping your strawberry beds weeded is integral to the long term health of your plants. Having a constant two-inch layer of mulch can significantly help reduce the amount of labor you have to do weeding your beds. Weeding can also disturb or damage roots and crowns so mulch helps avoid that as well.
During the growing season, ensure that your plants get at least an inch of water per week between rain or your garden hose.
If you have an issue with slugs in your garden, consider using a plastic mulch rather than organic. Organic mulches can often encourage slugs in the garden and in terms of strawberries, it can quickly become a losing battle.
During the summer there are several fungal diseases that can cause dark spots to form on the leaves. While this can become a yearly issue, unless severe, it usually doesn’t harm the fruits. Keeping your strawberries bed thinned can help significantly with stopping the spread of fungal diseases. Ground level watering (rather than overhead) can also help by keeping the foliage dry.
Birds are by far the worst pests of strawberries. They find the fruit as delicious as we do! If you find this is a problem year after year, use some lightweight bird netting to deter them as the fruits are ripening.
Strawberries will be sweeter when grown in compost and nutrient dense, well-draining soils. Too much water can also water down the flavor of the fruit, similarly to watermelons.
The best way to grow large strawberries is to limit the number of strawberries you ask your plant to produce. However many flowers bloom, pinch off half of them. This will force that energy to be divided amongst the to-be fruits that will remain. Removing runners can also help increase the size of your berries.
Strawberry plants will be ready to harvest four to six weeks after flowering. Harvest only the reddest, ripest berries and be sure to check back every two to three days - to take advantage as they continue to ripen and produce. Use pruners to snip off the stem above the fruit. Pulling the fruit can cause damage to the plant.
Strawberries can be stored fresh and unwashed in the refrigerator for three to five days. Wet berries can spoil quickly and they should only be washed right before eating. They can also be stored whole and frozen quite easily.
Canning cooked strawberries (try a jam or pie filling) can also be a great way to enjoy these sweet jewels of summer all year long!
Strawberries are an easy, doable, and rewarding crop for gardeners of any size and experience level.
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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This abundant, warm weather crop should be a staple in your garden. Its bright, sweet flesh brings the sunshine of summer to your winter soups, stews, and roasts, and it’s great fun to grow.
Sweet potatoes are not even remotely related to the standard nightshade potato. In fact, sweet potatoes are in the morning glory family and a worthwhile addition to the list of tropical crops we love to grow in the summertime.
This traditionally southern crop needs a fairly long growing season (at least four months), but once established, is heat and drought tolerant.
If you want to grow some sweet potatoes and pre-order them from us, you may be a little surprised by what we send you. Sweet potatoes are grown from what we call slips. This is a sprout that comes off the sweet potato and is replanted in the ground. So we’re actually sending you live plants!
From the moment the slips are plucked from the field, it is a race to get them into your garden. At Sow True, this means everyone drops what they're doing and heads to the warehouse to count slips and roll them into a damp and nutrient rich soil mixture. From here, we send them out as quickly as we can! You’ll want to open the box containing your sweet potato slips as soon as it arrives, and get those slips in the ground as soon as possible.
Sweet potatoes are also surprisingly resilient. Chris Smith, of the Utopian Seed Project, once did a test on some slips that had lost all their leaves (the ones we don't sell). He planted some in a pot with damp soil and within a couple of weeks, they were sprouting new leaves and looking healthy and green! We like to joke that sweet potatoes are a dramatic bunch, feigning death when they're really full of life. Once you've planted them in your garden, it's almost guaranteed they'll droop and try to convince you they're dead or dying. Don't panic - keep them well watered and they'll perk up in a week or so!
This delicious and classic variety is your quintessential sweet potato. Beautiful red skin and bright orange flesh makes this crop a stunner on the dinner table. This variety is super easy to grow and produces reliably - it’s perfect for beginners! If you’re looking to try your hand at growing sweet potatoes, this is the one for you!
This popular Japanese sweet potato has the characteristic white flesh and purple skin found in many Japanese varieties. This type has good yields and evenly shaped tubers. Japanese types tend to have a drier consistency than orange sweet potatoes, making their texture more akin to a standard potato when cooked.
This is for the growers who love a story. An heirloom variety so beloved a parade was once held in its honor. The Nancy Hall boasts a rich yellow coloring with a nice, firm texture.
She’s a looker! This new-to-us variety has gorgeous burgundy skin with deep, red to orange flesh. Bakes nicely with a texture on the firmer side.
One of the most popular varieties to plant in North Carolina, for sure. This one has gorgeous rose colored skin and moist orange flesh.
Last, but certainly not least is this perfect white potato, though it still packs the sweetness. With heavy yields and creamy flesh, this is not a variety you’ll want to skip this year.
Not sure which one to pick? Try our sweet potato sampler! We’ll send you a few slips of three different varieties (it’s a surprise) and you get to decide which one you like best after a good old fashioned taste test.
Slips are essentially the sprouts of sweet potatoes that, once planted in the ground, will vine out and produce a cluster of sweet potatoes around the original slip!
Sweet potatoes can tolerate moist soils, they aren’t a picky bunch. The most important thing to consider is how much sun your plot is getting. Sweet potatoes, being tropical, require full sun. This means 8 to 10 hours a day of sunlight.
If you have very heavy clay and water logged soils, you may consider amending with plenty of compost and perhaps some sand as deep as 8-10 inches. Sweet potatoes draw the line at heavy, wet soils as that can stunt tuber development and cause rot.
Growing your sweet potatoes in a raised bed can help you avoid these problems! Raised beds can be easily amended and water tends to drain faster.
Sweet potatoes should be planted three to four weeks after your last frost, well into summer. If you live in a colder growing zone and your growing season doesn’t allow for that much time, plant your slips around your frost date and keep a close eye on temperatures. Consider utilizing row cover (or plastic milk jugs) to cover your slips when temperatures drop below 55 degrees.
Plant your slips 3 to 4 inches deep - up to the leaves and bury most of the stem. Keep your slips 12 to 18 inches apart (they spread out - a lot) with 3 to 4 feet between rows!
Once planted, give your slips a good soaking. Water every day for about a week and then every few days until they get established.
They can be slow starters and they don’t like to compete with weeds so until the vines fill in the space, gently cultivate the top layer of soil around the slips to avoid letting competition get a foothold.
Occasionally you may lift the long vines to prevent advantageous rooting at their nodes (this will take energy away from tuber development and result in a lower yield). Some folks even cut back the vines which encourages the plant to work harder at developing tubers.
Fertilizing sweet potatoes tends to produce more foliage than tubers so don’t bother! Once established, sweet potatoes are drought tolerant but they will produce more if well watered during the bulk of the growing period.
Wireworms and root-knot nematodes are the biggest problems for sweet potatoes in home gardens. Avoid many diseases by choosing disease resistant varieties, using certified disease free slips (like ours!), and rotating their location from year to year. Mice and voles can also be a problem - so be on the lookout!
Different varieties will have slightly different days to maturity, so be sure to check your variety’s specifics! If you can keep track of the day you planted them, you’ll know when they should be ready. The roots will continue to grow until a hard frost kills the vines. Just be sure to harvest the tubers before then.
Be sure to dig carefully. Any damage to the skin can invite rot, making them hard to store. Push a shovel in about 10 inches away from the stem of the vine and lift. You’ll probably find a variety of sizes per plant. Lay them in the sun to dry out and gently brush off any excess soil. Any injured roots (it happens) should be eaten first! Don’t store injured roots, as it invites rot.
Once dug, cure them for two weeks in a high humidity and high heat location for four to ten days. An attic or barn works nicely for this, just choose a location with good ventilation. Flavor and storage quality improves with curing by converting the starches to sugars! Once cured, they should be stored in a cool, dry place like a basement with low humidity. This way they will last several months.
Sweet potatoes are an amazing and nutritious crop. They’re great for beginners and offer a high reward with minimal effort! If you haven’t tried them yet, consider including them in your crop plan this year.
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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Many gardeners have found them to be an invaluable part of their decorative and culinary plans. For our purposes, the term “perennial” means that you don’t have to replant them each year because the original plant either survives the winter or is self-multiplying. Perennial onions are delightful for many reasons but especially because they are prolific and allow you to bring fresh onion flavor to your cooking year-round.
There are several different types of perennial onions, some that are more bulbous and others that can be used more like green scallions or leeks. Different types bring different flavors, textures, and users, all work well in either your annual vegetable beds or as part of a perennial vegetable bed, flower border, or in containers, cold frames, or greenhouses.
Egyptian Walking Onions are perhaps the most well-known of all the perennial onions. They get their name from the way they “walk” across the garden. They have a bulb about the size of a shallot in the ground with a tall green stalk coming out. At the top of the stalk a cluster of smaller bulbs form. Eventually, these bulbs become heavy and bend the stalk to the ground where they plant themselves a foot or two away from the original bulb. Though their history is a bit murky, Egyptian Walking Onions are thought to have originated in India or Pakistan and traveled to Egypt from there.
All parts of the Egyptian Walking Onion are edible. For the most onion-like experience pull up a clump of the larger bulbs from the ground, leaving a few in place, and use them like you would any other onion. The stalk or leaves can be used just like a scallion. You can also harvest the small top bulbs for an intense onion flavor burst in your cooking. These are particularly delicious roasted whole. They are delicious in soups and stews and are perfect for veggie soup broth which can be frozen and used for winter cooking.
Egyptian Walking Onions can be used to help protect fruit trees from root damage by voles who like to chew on the sweet roots of apple and pear trees. Voles are repelled by the smell of onions. You can harvest some of the larger onions and replant the remaining ones to give them more room to develop. Egyptian Walking Onions are one of the first things to come back in the spring and when they put up their top cluster of bulbs the shapes can be delightful. For full details on growing Egyptian Walking Onions check out our Growing Guide.
Potato Onions are another type of perennial onion similar to Egyptian Walking Onions in their growth habit and use. They are not related to potatoes in any way. They were named for the fact that, like potatoes, growers will eat the larger ones and save the small ones to replant as “seeds”. Unlike Egyptian Walking Onions, they don’t grow the top bulb cluster and their bulbs tend to be larger and multiply faster. Their flavor is mild, similar to a sweet onion with some garlic tones to them. Being part of the allium family they have all the same uses and benefits as garlic, leeks, and regular bulbing onions. Some growers choose to harvest all of their Potato Onions in the fall and replant the smallest ones in the spring rather than leaving them in the ground year-round. For the Asheville area, either technique will work. Potato Onions store well in a cool, low-humidity setting. They should not be kept in the refrigerator. Potato Onions are a lower maintenance replacement for growing larger bulb onions as they multiply prolifically and can be left in the ground year-round. Growing Guide
Shallots are also considered perennial onions because they are self-multiplying, allowing growers to separate and replant some of them after harvesting. Most people are familiar with shallots and their more delicate taste from grocery store offerings but if you’d like to learn how to grow them for yourself check out our Growing Guide. Like Egyptian Walking Onions they do not store well and it’s best to use them immediately after harvesting.
Ramps are a spring ephemeral wild onion. They have grown in popularity over the last decade but they have been part of Appalachian culture for a long, long time. Ramps are a native plant that inhabits woodlands all over the eastern United States and parts of Canada. In the early spring, they put forth two small leaves attached to a delicate and pungent bulb. They grow in large clusters or patches, absorbing the early spring sunlight before the tree leaves fill in the canopy above them.
Ramps are a part of many native groups' traditional diets and were sustainably harvested for hundreds or even thousands of years before white settlers arrived. They have been part of Applachian cuisine for as long as people have lived here. Recently, their mystique has grown and they have become a delicacy served in high-end restaurants. This, plus their growing popularity with home cooks and habitat destruction has put a strain on wild ramp populations.
Growing ramps can be a little bit tricky since they need a shady woodland location and don’t like to compete with other ground covers. Their seeds can also take a while to germinate and it’s important to follow planting directions carefully. Check out our Growing Guide for more details.
When cooking with ramps keep in mind that they can have a strong taste, somewhere between garlic and onions. Ramps are delicious in an egg scramble, soup, stir fry, meat dishes and so much more. Anywhere you would use garlic or onions ramps can bring a depth of flavor rarely found in cultivated onions.
Article Written by: Leah Smith |
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About the Author: Leah Smith is the Seed Product Manager at Sow True Seed, where she focuses on adding new varieties to the catalog and ensuring the seed stock is top-notch. Her firsthand experience in farming has given her a deep understanding of cultivating crops while caring for the environment. |
Sometimes the slow progress towards a fall frost is a comforting thought. It's a relief to watch the weeds in your garden die back and fade and to experience the gentle settling of a cozier part of the year.
But why not enjoy the coziness of winter while also enjoying a fruitful harvest of vegetables long after the frost has done its work? Using a method called Season Extension - you can do just that. Enjoy soup season even more deeply with vegetables fresh from the winter garden.
When we discuss season extension, we’re talking about increasing the growing season at either end, meaning, growing later into the winter or starting earlier in the spring. The primary goals of season extension are protecting your crops from damage from extreme weather (hot or cold).
The sun’s rays are energy, and as temperatures cool down, season extension is mainly a matter of harnessing this energy to serve you and your garden longer into the year. For you, this may mean utilizing a small greenhouse or hoop house. For others, it may be as simple as building a cold frame or installing floating row covers. These tools are designed to assist in capturing that energy.
The ground is a massive reservoir of heat. This heat is what protects crops at night when they’re covered, radiating from the ground and getting trapped under row cover or plastic. As the ground gets cooler and loses heat in the fall and winter, it radiates less and less. Different soils hold heat differently. Wet soils tend to radiate more heat than dry soils. Lighter sandy soils dry out and warm up faster in the spring while darker soils with a lot of organic matter tend to absorb more heat and hold it for longer.
This can also mean that it’s easier to enact season extending practices in the fall. The ground is holding more heat after a hot summer than it is in the spring, after a cold winter. The degrees of protection are higher under cover because the ground is radiating more heat, therefore more heat is being trapped. Understanding these principles can help you make the best decisions regarding methods and timing when it comes to season extension.
Depending on how long you’ve been gardening in your current location, you’ve likely already realized that different parts of your garden may be getting different amounts of sunlight. Believe it or not, your garden can also have a variety of frost dates that occur in different sections. Have you noticed these? There may be a spot that never seems to get much frost except for the deepest days of winter. There may be spots that always tend to get hit with a frost earlier than you expect it to. As the lighter frosts begin to settle in - take note of which sections may need more protection. Notes clarify and aid in the planning process year round.
We’ve mentioned some tools for season extension above but we’ll get more into them here.
Tool |
Usage |
Benefit |
Black Plastic |
Laid out over the soil, plants are planted into it. |
This tool can keep soil temperatures up to five degrees warmer than uncovered soils. |
Clear Plastic |
Laid out over the soil, plants are planted into it. |
This tool can keep soil temperatures eight to fourteen degrees higher, but weeds can become a big problem. |
Used like a blanket for plants! They are more useful when paired with hoops to create a low tunnel. |
Can offer two to four degrees of warmth within the tunnel. Depending on the thickness, cover should maybe be removed during the day to not inhibit light accessibility. |
|
Hoop Houses/High Tunnels |
A permanent or semi-permanent building. |
These are by far the most effective season extension tool, but are not always super accessible to home growers. |
Cold Frame |
Often built cheaply at home and placed over garden beds or utilized to start seedlings earlier in the year. |
Cost effective and helpful season extension tool. |
All in all, season extension is a great way to harvest your veggies all winter long. Try experimenting with a season extension tool this year!
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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Perennial onions prefer well-draining soil high in organic matter in an area with full sun. Heavy clay soils may be best suited for raised bed gardening. Nitrogen should not be applied during bulb development (when the green shoots pop up), but the soil can always be amended with rock phosphate (for phosphorus and calcium) or greensand (a soil conditioner that improves aeration and adds helpful trace minerals).
These onions are traditionally planted in the fall and are overwintered to give the roots a head start before spring. This will result in better bulb development and larger yields. Plant your potato onions 3 to 4 weeks before the first frost, around the same time as garlic. If you tend to have particularly harsh winters, consider mulching to protect your bulbs from dying.
Space larger bulbs 6 to 8 inches apart and smaller bulbs 4 to 6 inches apart and ½ to 1 inch deep. The rows should be 12 inches apart from each other.
After you have planted the onions, water and cover with about 2 inches of mulch. If you experience a dry winter, be sure to keep the soil consistently moist. If the soil dries out, it will affect the bulbs’ development and the yield.
It’s time to harvest when the onion tops fall over. After this happens, remove the mulch and stop watering for two weeks. Then, lift the onions out of the ground gently, with a garden fork. These perennial onions are dormant in summer and weeds will cause problems if they’re left in the ground to get overtaken. It’s better to harvest and replant in autumn.
Dry them in a shady place in your garden or in a dry place - garages work great! Pick the more favorable onions to save for next year’s seed. These should be the largest onions without any blemishes and well formed skins. They will keep well in a cool, dry place.
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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The major categories of corn are sweet corn, popcorn, and field corn, a group that includes dent, flint, and flour varieties.
Sweet corn varieties are meant to be eaten as a fresh summer treat. They are harvested at “milk stage,” when the young kernels are juicy and at their sweetest. (You can tell sweet corn is ready if you press your fingernail into a kernel and white juice comes out. If the juice is clear, it’s too early, and if it’s not juicy, you’ve waited too long.) If you have a space at least 6 by 6 feet, you can grow your own sweet summer treats! Just remember to always plant at least 10-12 plants in a block, close together - a long single row of corn won’t get pollinated properly and won’t produce. And, don’t plant any popcorn or field corn near your sweet corn patch - sweet corn pollinated by other types of corn won’t be as sweet.
This old-timey sweet corn is just a little more laid back than its relatives with straight, tidy rows - the kernels grow all at random (often called a “shoepeg” pattern.) The flavor is a standout too - not quite as sweet as many modern varieties, but with plenty of depth.
Red stalks, red leaves, red husks, and red kernels! This beautiful sweet corn is unlike any other. Developed by Dr. Alan Kapuler of Peace Seeds.
This wonderful OP variety from the University of Hawaii carries the sh2 “supersweet” gene most commonly found in hybrids. Plus, it thrives in heat and humidity, making it an ideal option for gardeners in the Southeast.
Technically, popcorn is a type of flint corn, meaning the kernels have a thick shell of hard starch around a small amount of softer starch in the center. But, these flint corn varieties have a special talent of popping into a delicious crunchy treat when heated rapidly. (Truth be told, many different flint corns will pop, but popcorn varieties have been selected for the easiest popping and the best texture for eating that way.) Similar to sweet corn, if you have at least a 6 by 6 foot space available in your garden, you have room for some homegrown movie-time snacks!
Japanese Hulless will pop up light and crunchy with almost no hard hull bits to get stuck in your teeth.
White Rice is a rare heirloom popcorn with the tiniest, most adorable kernels. This mini popcorn is delicious and delicately textured too.
The name says it all - so richly flavored you hardly need to butter it (not that butter ever hurts, let's be real).
“Field” corn can refer to any of the starchy types that are usually processed into meal, grits, flour, hominy, or animal feed. Most growers prefer to dedicate more space to field corn than they would to sweet or popcorn, to make all the time spent husking, shelling, drying, and grinding worthwhile. Heirloom field corns tend to yield somewhere in the range of 40 to 100 bushels per acre. (And if that means nothing to you, it works out to about 25 to 65 pounds from a 500 square-foot plot.)
Dent corn is the most common type of field corn and the most versatile. Many varieties are good for multiple uses from flour to coarse grits, hominy, and even “roasting ears” when the corn is harvested at milk stage like sweet corn (it won’t be as sweet, but some people like the flavor.) Dent corn gets its name from the shape of its kernels. The dent in the end of each kernel forms during the drying process, when the soft starch in the center shrinks more than a layer of hard starch around the sides. Since dent corn and other field corns take some processing to eat, most folks who grow them want to plant a larger amount than for sweet corn or popcorn.
An old landrace variety recently received from the USDA seed bank. “Landrace” means a variety was selected mainly to produce well in a particular place (the Blue Ridge mountains, in this case), and not for uniformity. Expect a lot of variation, but some really huge cobs, sometimes 20 rows or more!
This heirloom was once the most commonly grown corn in the Southeast, until it went nearly completely extinct in the era of hybrids and GM corn. Then Sow True manager Angie Lavezzo discovered a farmer in South Carolina was still growing it, because his father had grown it and thought it was the best. We were thrilled to reintroduce this.
Keeping with the theme of nearly-lost heirloom dent corns, Jimmy Red is a once-common variety that has only been revived within the past few years. It has a beautiful color, and higher sugar content than most dents - which made it particularly sought after by distillers in its heyday, but also makes for some incredible grits.
Flint corn is characterized by its thick layer of hard starch around the outside of the kernel, which causes the kernels to hold their shape when dried. The “Indian Corn” you’ve probably seen used as holiday decorations is typically flint. This is the oldest and most diverse group of the corn types, with many indigenous American varieties that are as delicious and nutrition-dense as they are beautiful. These varieties are traditionally used for grits, masa, and hominy.
These jewel-toned ears are works of art! Developed by plant breeder Carl Barnes from multiple Native American flint corn varieties. Typically grown for its decorative quality, but can be popped as well.
This amazing heirloom was almost lost, but has been resurrected in recent years by food historians and growers. It came to the Southeast United States from Cuba, then traveled to Africa, where it was further developed to bear more ears per stalk (sometimes up to eight!) and this improved version came back to the US in the 19th century. It has long been prized for its heat tolerance, productivity, and deep flavor.
Flour corn varieties are similar to flint in kernel structure, but contain more soft starch and only a thin layer of hard starch, making them better suited for finely ground flour or meal. Many of these varieties originated in what is now the Southwestern United States.
This brand new introduction from seedkeeper and corn breeder Stephen Smith walks the line between flint and flour corn, as is common among many indigenous corn varieties, but we’ve found it leans toward the floury side. Strongly expresses its ancient ancestry with lots of tillers (side stalks), vigorous brace roots and heavy nitrogen-fixing gel production. Its speckled color pattern means it carries a high amount of genetic variation, and it will produce some reddish-orange kerneled variants in addition to the primary purple-speckled type.
So what do you think, will a corn patch be part of your garden this year? Shop our full collection of corn seeds, and learn more about how to grow corn on our blog. If you already know your corn growing basics, you might like our article on the weird and amazing botany of how corn pollination works.
Article Written by: Leah Smith |
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About the Author: Leah Smith is the Seed Product Manager at Sow True Seed, where she focuses on adding new varieties to the catalog and ensuring the seed stock is top-notch. Her firsthand experience in farming has given her a deep understanding of cultivating crops while caring for the environment. |
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When you order shallots from Sow True Seed you’ll receive a bag of just that - shallots! Just like you would see in the grocery store. Except these shallots are not treated with chemicals like many grocery store shallots and are tested for disease.
Shallots prefer well-draining soil high in organic matter in an area with full sun. Heavy clay soils may be best suited for raised bed gardening. If a soil test shows a phosphorus deficiency, amend with bone meal to promote healthy roots and large bulbs.
Shallots are traditionally planted in the fall and are overwintered to give the roots a head start before spring. Shallots benefit from vernalization, which is an exposure to freezing temperatures. This will result in better bulb development. Plant your shallots 3-4 weeks before the first frost, around the same time as garlic. Space the cloves 6-8 inches apart in rows 10-12 inches apart. Plant the shallots 2-3 inches deep with the root end down and pointy end up. You want to have the soft top sticking out of the ground just a little bit.
After you have planted the shallots, water and cover with about 2” of mulch to protect them from the cold. Water over the winter if your area is in a drought, but don’t over water as it may cause rot and disease.
Shallots are harvested in the summer when the green tops turn brown and dry up. Lift your shallots out of the ground gently, with a garden fork. Avoid bruising them as damaged bulbs won’t keep. Dry them in a shady place in your garden or in a dry place - garages work great! If any of the shallots' skin isn’t completely developed, eat them immediately as they will not store well. Pick the more favorable shallots to save for next year’s seed. These should be the largest shallots without any blemishes and well formed skins. They will keep well in a cool, dry place.
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
Corn is monoecious, meaning it produces separate male and female flowers on the same plant. (Like squash, but with a completely different flower type.) Male corn flowers are the tassels at the top of each plant, which produce pollen, and the female flowers are the ears along the stalk, which contain ovaries. Silks will emerge from the female flowers right around the time when the tassels begin releasing pollen from the top of the plant. From that point, pollination usually occurs over the next six days or so as the pollen drifts through the air and falls onto the silks. This reproductive strategy is known as wind pollination.
Image: Mikrolit', FAL, via Wikimedia Commons
Each individual silk on an ear of corn is connected to a kernel - or rather, a female reproductive cell called an ovule that will become a kernel if it is fertilized. At least one pollen grain must fall on every single one of those silks and fertilize each of those ovules in order for a full ear of corn to develop. Many novice corn growers have husked their first ear of homegrown corn only to find a sad smattering of misshapen kernels on a mostly empty ear. That happens because of poor pollination. An ear of corn with hardly any kernels means that many of the silks did not receive a pollen grain. This is why it's important to plant your corn close together in blocks, not spread out in long rows - you want to give the ears the maximum chance of having plenty of pollen fall on them. If you don’t have very many corn plants and want to be sure to get the maximum yield, you can hand-pollinate by cutting off tassels and shaking them directly over the silks.
Image: Rasbak, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons
Once in a blue moon, you do everything right and still end up with poor corn pollination. What could have gone wrong? One cause for pollination failure is extreme heat. Sustained temperatures over 95 degrees F can prevent pollen formation, so if your area experiences a heat wave around the time your corn starts to tassel, your crop could be in trouble. Another cause of bad pollination is mistiming of pollen release and silk emergence, often caused by drought. Fun fact: the period of time when pollen release coincides with silk emergence is called “nick” in the corn growing industry. A crop that was poorly pollinated because of timing problems between tassels and silks is said to have suffered from “poor nick” or “missing the nick.”
For most vegetables, which varieties you plant next to each other only matters if you intend to save seeds, but corn is a different story. Planting a paste tomato right next to a cherry tomato won’t have any effect on the fruits of those plants. A paste tomato pollinated by a cherry tomato will still grow a paste tomato (though if you save that plant’s seeds, the next generation will give you some surprises!) In this case, the fruit that we eat has only the genetics of the “mother” plant, and the mix of genes that ends up inside the seeds themselves doesn’t make any difference in the fruit we get this season. With corn on the other hand, the "fruit" we’re eating is the seeds themselves, and because of a quirk in how corn pollination works on the cellular level, the quality and texture of the kernels is significantly affected by the pollen that fertilizes them.
Remember your high school biology lesson on how a human embryo forms? Sperm meets egg, they join together, and the nucleus of the sperm cell (the part that contains DNA) fuses with the nucleus of the egg cell, giving the embryo two sets of genes, one set from mom, one set from dad. Pretty simple. You’d think plant reproduction would be even simpler. You’d be wrong. Each corn pollen grain contains not one, not two, but three nuclei, each containing a set of genetic information for a different purpose. When a pollen grain lands on a silk, it begins to grow a tube, which penetrates into the silk and elongates downward until it reaches all the way to the ovule the silk is connected to. The first nucleus in the pollen just directs the tube formation process, and doesn’t fertilize the ovule. The other two nuclei travel down the pollen tube to the ovule, where two female nuclei are waiting, one in the germ (the embryo that will sprout when the seed is planted), and one in the endosperm (the starchy or sweet part of the kernel that will feed the embryo as germination begins.) The two pollen nuclei fuse with the two female nuclei in a process known as double fertilization. The genes in the pollen nucleus that fertilizes the endosperm actually influence the structure and starch content of the endosperm, which is the key fact here, because the structure and starch content of the endosperm is what determines the texture and sweetness of a corn kernel. To go back to the tomato comparison - the main part of a tomato fruit only contains the genes of the "mother" plant, whereas the main part of a corn kernel has the genes of both parents.
Image via NMSU: https://pubs.nmsu.edu/_h/H232/index.html
So, what happens when your sweet corn gets pollinated by your neighbor’s dent corn? Sweet corn carries genes for low conversion of sugar into starch in the endosperm, whereas dent corn converts nearly all its sugar into starch. If dent corn pollen fertilizes sweet corn, the dent corn genes will be doing half the directing of endosperm formation in the kernels, leading to much higher sugar-to-starch conversion than if all the genes were from sweet corn. You won’t end up with dent corn exactly, but your sweet corn won’t be very sweet either, and the texture might be chewier. It’s a similar scenario vice-versa - if your dent corn gets pollinated by sweet corn, it won’t convert sugars into starch as efficiently as it’s meant to, leaving you with less filled-out kernels with higher sugar content that might not be what you were hoping for in cornmeal. Even different varieties of sweet corn can create crosses that are less than satisfying, particularly if a supersweet variety is crossed with an older, less-sweet heirloom.
For most gardeners, it’s fairly easy to ensure that your corn doesn’t get ruined by cross-pollination. Just a barrier like a tall building, or a stand of trees in between one corn patch and another cuts down pollen drift a great deal. If your garden is right next to your neighbor’s, you might try coordinating to grow the same variety, or timing your plantings so that different varieties will not be in flower at the same time. For example, if you plant an early maturing sweet corn two weeks or so before a longer-maturing dent corn, you can be fairly sure the sweet corn will be done pollinating by the time the dent corn tassels. If you’re worried about lingering pollen from the earlier crop, you can remove the tassels from the sweet corn before the dent corn begins silking.
Now, if you're getting deeper into the heirloom corn game and you want to save your own perfectly pure seed, there are further steps you can take. You can bag tassels and shoots (developing ears) to collect pollen and individually pollinate the ears you want to save. We carry specially made tassel bags and shoot bags that make that job easier. This method is helpful when you want to be totally sure there has been no cross-pollination by another variety, even if multiple varieties are growing in close proximity. It can also allow you to make intentional crosses. (And boom! You're an amateur corn breeder.)
Whew! That's all the nerdy corn botany we have to throw at you for now. To get back to basics, check out our article on how to grow corn at home, or if you're ready to get planting, shop our full collection of corn seeds in our online store.
Article Written by: Leah Smith |
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About the Author: Leah Smith is the Seed Product Manager at Sow True Seed, where she focuses on adding new varieties to the catalog and ensuring the seed stock is top-notch. Her firsthand experience in farming has given her a deep understanding of cultivating crops while caring for the environment. |
Sources: Univ. of Missouri, "Corn Pollination: The Good the Bad, and the Ugly" https://ipm.missouri.edu/cropPest/2012/7/Corn-Pollination-the-Good-the-Bad-and-the-Ugly-Pt-3/
Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln, "How Extended High Heat Disrupts Corn Pollination" https://cropwatch.unl.edu/2019/how-extended-high-heat-disrupts-corn-pollination#:~:text=Heat%20over%2095%C2%B0F,pollen%20from%20leaving%20anther%20sacs.
]]>Corn is a warm season crop that is highly susceptible to frost, so wait to plant until all danger of frost has passed and the soil has warmed up. A soil temperature of at least 60 to 65 degrees F is necessary for good corn germination. Usually this means waiting at least two weeks after your average last frost. Starting corn indoors and transplanting outside isn’t generally recommended, since the seedlings’ roots are delicate and sensitive to transplant shock. Some growers in northern climates with short growing seasons do it though. It just requires a great deal of care when handling the young plants. Check the days to maturity on whatever corn you’re thinking of growing, and make sure you have at least that many frost-free days in your growing zone.
Choose a spot with full sun and well-draining soil. Work in a couple inches of good quality compost or aged manure before planting to ensure your corn has the nutrients it needs. Plant seeds 1-2 inches deep and 2-4 inches apart in rows 12 inches apart. Plant short rows close together in a block, not one or two long rows, to ensure full pollination. (Poor pollination results in ears with few kernels on them.) Water deeply at the time of planting. Once the plants are about four inches tall, thin them to 8 to 12 inches apart.
Another great way to plant corn is the Three Sisters method traditionally used by Native Americans for millennia. The “three sisters” are corn, beans, and squash, three crops that work together to make each other more productive. The corn provides a trellis for the beans, while the squash vines ramble along the ground shading out weeds, and the beans fix nitrogen, providing fertility for all three crops. The traditional Haudenosaunee way to plant using this method is to mound up the soil into round hills about 4 to 5 feet across and 4 inches high. Then, plant a circle of several corn seeds at the center of each mound. Once the corn plants reach about a foot tall, seed pole beans around them. Once the beans are up, seed the squash around the outside of the circle. You could also interplant beans and/or squash in between more widely spaced straight rows of corn, but planting around clumps of corn ensures that the corn is close enough together for good pollination, and to hold each other up in a strong wind.
Another important corn planting tip: Don’t plant two different varieties of corn within about 250 feet of one another if they will be tasseling (producing pollen) at the same time. Unlike for most vegetables, cross pollination can ruin a corn crop. Read our deep dive into corn pollination if you want to know the science behind that!
Corn is generally a low-maintenance crop. It does take quite a bit of water, but doesn’t like to sit in soggy soil either, so pay attention to soil moisture, particularly around the time the tassels and silks begin to emerge. Corn that goes through drought stress around the time of pollination might not get pollinated properly.
Even if your soil has been amended with compost early in the season, it’s a good idea to give your corn a boost with a high-nitrogen fertilizer when it reaches about 2 feet tall. Blood meal or fish fertilizer are good organic options. A little extra fertility will help your corn develop the best possible ears.
A number of pests can affect corn, and as with any garden crop, the best defense is crop rotation and garden diversity. Attracting beneficial insects to your yard with flowers and native plants can cut down insect pests substantially. One of the most destructive (and grossest) insect pests is the corn earworm. Rubbing vegetable or mineral oil on the tips of developing ears can discourage them from chewing into the husks. Some pests are a little larger, and furrier. Corn is unfortunately a favorite of marauding deer and racoons. Electric fencing can stop them in their tracks, but if that wouldn’t go over well in your neighborhood, spreading blood meal or human-scented items like hair clippings around your plot can help deter them too.
Harvesting corn is as simple as snapping the ears off the stalk with your hand (a quick, downward twisting motion works best), but knowing when to harvest can be a little tricky depending on which type of corn you’re growing.
Sweet corn is typically ready to harvest about three weeks after the silks first emerge. A ripe ear will have brown silks and a filled-out ear tip. Give the end of the ear a gentle squeeze, and you should feel the firm kernels right under the husk. If you have brown silks and filled-out ears, your corn is probably just about ready, but to be totally sure, test the kernels. Peel back the husk to expose some kernels about an inch back from the tip and puncture a kernel with your thumbnail. If the juice comes out milky and translucent, the ear is perfect. If the juice is clear, it’s too early, and if no juice comes out, you’ve waited too long. Once you test a few ears, you’ll get a feel for when your sweet corn is ready just by looking at it. The ideal harvest window for sweet corn, called “milk stage” only lasts 2-3 days, so keep a close eye on your corn patch when the ears are getting close to ready! Once you’ve harvested, eat your sweet corn as soon as possible. The sugars will continue to convert to starch even after the ears are picked.
Unlike sweet corn, popcorn and field corn (including dent, flint, and flour types) are harvested at full maturity, after the starches have developed and the kernels have dried out. Wait to harvest until the husks have completely turned brown. Usually this takes 100 to 120 days from planting. In dry climates, the ears can be left on the stalks even longer, until they are completely dry, but in rainier climates it’s a good idea to bring them indoors to finish drying. Many people hang the ears by their peeled-back husks for drying, or completely husk the ears and stack them on wire racks. Once the kernels are totally dry, you can shell them off the cobs with a hand-sheller. For popcorn, it’s especially important that the kernels are completely dry before you try to pop them. The most common reason why homegrown popcorn doesn’t pop properly is because of too much moisture left in the kernels. Drying your popcorn in a dehumidified indoor space, or utilizing silica gel packs to take out the last of the moisture can help if you live in a humid place.
Ready to get started growing corn in your garden? Shop our full collection of corn seeds, learn more about the different types of corn you could grow, or learn about the botany of corn pollination on our blog.
Article Written by: Leah Smith |
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About the Author: Leah Smith is the Seed Product Manager at Sow True Seed, where she focuses on adding new varieties to the catalog and ensuring the seed stock is top-notch. Her firsthand experience in farming has given her a deep understanding of cultivating crops while caring for the environment. |
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All cabbages are members of the Brassica family that have been selected by plant breeders to produce large heads of tightly-packed leaves. They are the “cousins” of other Brassicas like broccoli and cauliflower (selected for large edible flower stalks), brussels sprouts (selected for cabbage-like side shoots), and kale (selected for loose leaves to harvest over time). Most cabbages can fit into four main subcategories: green, red, savoy, and Chinese (or Napa).
Green cabbage varieties have round or pointed heads and are the classic kinds for making coleslaw and sauerkraut. They originated in Europe along with red and savoy cabbages, all of which are of the species Brassica oleracea and the varietal capitata (latin for “headed.”) The last part of their botanical name, alba, means white, referring to these cabbages’ pale color. Green cabbage is sometimes also called white cabbage for this reason.
Green cabbages' Northern origins mean they are frost hardy, and many are good for storing into the winter. Early Jersey Wakefield is a quick producer of 2-pound, conical-shaped heads, great for spring or fall planting. Charleston Wakefield forms a similar type of head, but is particularly heat tolerant, a little larger, and a better keeper. It’s ideal for Southern gardens, and late summer planting for fall harvest.
Red cabbages have all the characteristics of green cabbage plus they are packed with anthocyanin pigments, which means they are both beautifully colored and loaded with healthy antioxidants. Red Acre is an early-maturing variety with 2- to 4-pound round heads and gorgeous reddish-purple leaves. Its compact plants are ideal for home gardeners with not a lot of space.
Savoy cabbage is named for the Savoy region of France and prized for its distinctive frilly and crinkled leaves. The term “savoyed” has come to mean crinkled leaves on any vegetable, and is often applied to certain varieties of spinach.
Savoy cabbages are also known for particularly strong frost tolerance (down to 15 degrees Fahrenheit!), especially sweet and mild flavor, and tender leaves. They are the best of the European cabbages for eating raw in salads or as wraps. Perfection Savoy is a variety that is tolerant of both heat and frost, making it a great choice for a fall garden. Its large, 6- to 8-pound round, green heads are good for winter storage as well.
Chinese cabbage, also known as Napa cabbage, is the odd one out of the four main types, since it’s actually a different species - Brassica rapa. Whereas other cabbages are most closely related to broccoli and kale, Chinese cabbage is more closely related to mustard greens and bok choy (which is also sometimes referred to as Chinese cabbage, though it forms a much looser head).
Though Napa cabbage grows a sizable, tightly-formed head like the European cabbages, its shared lineage with mustard and Asian greens means it has a slight peppery flavor and a more juicy, crunchy texture. It’s particularly great when lightly cooked in stir-fries, or made into traditional kimchi. Long-term fresh storage, on the other hand, is not its strong suit, nor is weathering hard freezes, though it can withstand a light frost. Michihili is a popular Chinese cabbage variety that grows green, cylindrical heads about 14 inches tall and 6 inches in diameter.
There are a few other leafy greens that are sometimes referred to as cabbage, not because they form heads, but because of the cabbage-like texture of their leaves.
Jersey cabbage, also known as walking stick cabbage, or cow cabbage, is a rare variety from the Channel Islands known for growing to extreme heights (so tall you really can make a walking stick out of the stalk!) Traditionally, the lower leaves were fed to livestock, while people harvested the top cluster of new leaves to use like cabbage when the stalk reached full height.
Tronchuda cabbage, also known as Portuguese kale, is another example of a non-heading “cabbage,” whose hearty texture makes it great to use in soups similarly to other cabbages.
And, Morris Heading collards are sometimes known as Carolina Cabbage collards, for their cabbage-like texture and tendency to form a very loose head. These loose-leafed “cabbages” often begin producing harvest-able leaves earlier than traditional cabbage, and may be somewhat less susceptible to pest pressure than heading types, so if you’re not growing for winter storage or cabbage-specific uses like sauerkraut or coleslaw, they might be good options to try.
Hopefully that helps you decide what kinds of cabbage to plant in your garden! Shop our whole collection of cabbage seeds, or check out our article on how to grow cabbage for pointers on growing a successful cabbage crop.
Article Written by: Leah Smith |
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About the Author: Leah Smith is the Seed Product Manager at Sow True Seed, where she focuses on adding new varieties to the catalog and ensuring the seed stock is top-notch. Her firsthand experience in farming has given her a deep understanding of cultivating crops while caring for the environment. |
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Garlic cannot be reliably grown from true seed that is produced by the flowers of the plants, but it can reliably be grown from the cloves of the garlic bulbs! While a bulb is the entire head of garlic you’d buy at the grocery store, the clove is the individual slice from that head. Meaning one head of garlic can grow anywhere from five to fifteen new heads of garlic depending on the type and variety!
There are two main types of garlic that you can grow and those are hardneck and softneck. While specific varieties will have nuances of flavor and character, there are certain traits that you can reliably expect (or not expect) from the two main types.
Hardneck garlic has a smaller amount of cloves per head overall but these cloves tend to be larger. Hardneck garlic is well known for producing a late-spring edible “scape” which is the flower stalk of a garlic plant. These scapes should be harvested in order to concentrate the plant's energy back on bulb production. But, we love hardneck garlic because we get two crops for the price of one!
Hardneck garlic is highly cold tolerant and is most often grown in Northern regions. The protective outer bulb wrapper of the hardneck garlic is not particularly thick, meaning that hardneck garlic tends to not store for as long as softneck garlic.
Softneck garlic has more cloves per head than hardneck but the cloves are smaller. This type of garlic does not produce a scape though there are other valuable perks to it. With its papery skin, Softneck garlic stores for longer than hardneck and is the traditional braiding garlic. Further, it is the only type of garlic that can be grown in warmer climates, zone eight or above.
Elephant garlic is actually not a true garlic, but rather a form of bulbing leek. The bulbs can get very large and retains a milder garlic flavor that is great for roasting. Plant the cloves as you would for garlic but with increased spacing of eight to twelve inches. Sometimes the plants make a flower stalk. Snap these off if they appear and treat it like a scape or leek flower. Harvest the bulbs when the edges of the leaves begin to brown but are still quite green. Cure and store as you would garlic.
You’ll want to prep your garlic bed a few weeks before planting. Hoe or till the bed to kill any weeds and add a hefty layer of compost and organic matter. If your soil is heavy or your region is prone to a rainy spring, create hills or raised beds for planting. This allows for better drainage. Hoe again at planting time.
Garlic can bruise easily, so be very gentle when handling the bulbs during planting, harvest, and storage. Store your garlic in a cool, dry place until you are ready to plant.
For most parts of the US, you should plant your seed garlic in October. If you are very far north, you may need to plant in mid-September. If you are very far South, it may be December or January. You should check with your local Agricultural Extension Office for information about the best planting time for your region.
When you receive your seed garlic it will either be as loose cloves or whole bulbs, or some combination of the two. If it is in whole bulbs, you’ll want to “pop” the cloves. This means removing the outer paper and separating the individual cloves. There’s no need to fully unwrap individual cloves (as you would for cooking), but if the skin comes off, it’s still fine to plant.
Lightly squeeze the bulb to check for damage or softness. If you do find some, those cloves should not be planted - though they can be eaten! With any garlic bulb there are always one to three naturally occurring very small cloves. Only plant the big ones for bulbs and save the smallest for eating. You could also plant those tiny ones close together and harvest them early as garlic scallions!
Plant your garlic cloves pointy-end up and root-end down, about two inches deep. The cloves should be spaced six to eight inches apart.
You have the option of mulching heavily for winter. This is encouraged in colder areas but regardless of your location, helps to prevent weeds and keeps the soil nice and moist for the long nine months ahead.
Garlic takes nine months to reach maturity and thus goes through many stages of temperature and weather. Caring through garlic throughout this time is quite simple.
Because garlic is planted in the fall, it’s important to prep your young plants for the cold winter ahead. While their little green leaves won’t be popping out of the ground yet - rest assured that there’s tons of action happening under the soil’s surface that you want to protect.
Garlic remains dormant in the winter but this process actually helps them ultimately germinate come spring time! When growing garlic in colder areas, gardeners should mulch the beds heavily with straw or leaves over the winter and remove this mulch come spring time.
As the birds are chirping in early spring, your garlic starts to pop out of the ground! At this point it’s a good idea to fertilize with a high nitrogen fertilizer to ensure adequate growth.
Early summer is the most important time for making sure your garlic will bulb up to that glorious size. This means continuing to fertilize as well as keeping everything well-watered. A dry spring can result in small bulbs. Water well every three to five days, tapering off towards the middle or end of June. Tapering off watering at this point is in preparation for the coming harvest so that your bulbs will be ready to be cured.
Garlic benefits from being planted in good quality soil, high in organic matter. Most root establishment happens before winter arrives, but will continue slowly throughout winter. As mentioned, spring is when our top growth starts to pop out. This is an excellent time to begin fertilizing your garlic monthly until harvest time. Top or side dress your garlic with a nitrogen heavy fertilizer, such as blood meal, to encourage top and bulb development.
Harvest the scape (flower stalk) in spring by snapping off the tendril at the point where it comes out of the plant stalk. Do not let the plant flower or it will reduce the bulb size. These garlic scapes can be eaten and used similarly to how garlic or green onions would be used in the kitchen! Pull the bulbs when there are only five or six green leaves left on the plant. Don’t wait too long or the bulb will begin to split!
Softneck garlic does not produce a scape in the summer so there’s no extra labor! Simply wait until there are five remaining green leaves on the stalk and harvest. Softneck garlic can also split so be sure not to wait too long before harvesting.
When your garlic is pulled, take care not to wash the garlic. Simply brush off whatever soil is stuck to the bulb as well as you can. Leave the above ground stalk intact but trim the roots to the base.
Garlic needs to be cured in order to store well (though it can also be eaten fresh). Cure your garlic in a cool, dry place with good airflow. Your garlic can be laid out flat on the floor or be hung up in small bundles of four to six bulbs. A spare room with a ceiling fan works great. Airflow is super important in this stage to prevent mold from forming.
After about six weeks, when the plants are thoroughly dry, clip the stalk down to the bulb and brush off any remaining dirt. This garlic can now be stored in a cool, dark, dry place such as a cabinet. Avoid humid areas or overly cold areas like the refrigerator.
Garlic confit is garlic roasted in olive oil. It makes a delectable addition to toast, pastas, salad dressing, and more. Besides the creamy spreadable garlic clove you also get a whole lot of garlic flavored olive to cook with. Fresh confit should always be stored in the refrigerator and should be consumed within two weeks. The concoction can also be spread into ice cube trays, frozen, and stored for two to three months.
Garlic powder can be made by peeling the skin off of and drying garlic cloves. The subsequent flavor is a mild allium flavor rather than the sharp and spicy flavor of fresh garlic. This process is easiest with a dehydrator but can also be done in your oven on a low temperature. The plus side of garlic powder is that it doesn’t really go bad, though it can lose its flavor over time. Typically you’d want to use your garlic powder within six to eight months.
Because garlic is a low acid food, canning or storage in oil can result in what we know as botulism. While this won’t happen if the right steps are taken, garlic vinegar is a great way to avoid that potential issue altogether. By storing fresh cloves in oil, you’re providing a highly acidic environment where bacteria cannot grow. White vinegar or apple cider vinegar will make a delicious mixture that’s great when added to salad dressings or sauces.
Garlic can also be kept in the freezer! We recommend pureeing your garlic with a touch of oil and freezing in zip top bags. These large chunks of garlic can be cut into squares, making it easy to throw into any dish to cook with! This can be stored for up to six months.
Working in a small growing space or on your deck or balcony? Garlic can be grown in containers! Containers tend to cool down, heat up, and dry out faster than in ground beds. This means, when container gardening, you may need to keep a closer eye on your plants in the coldest winter months and as temperatures heat up, making sure that your soil is staying evenly moist.
But short of that, growing garlic in containers is about the same as far as planting date, days to maturity, and harvest time goes. You’ll want to select a pot that’s ten to twelve inches deep at least and not overcrowd the pot, allowing for the six inch planting distance not only between the cloves but also between the edge of the pot.
After harvesting and curing your garlic, keep the largest unbruised bulbs for seed stock. Avoid any bulbs that are soft or discolored. These bulbs can be stored in a cool, dry and dark place until the fall when you can break the cloves apart for planting - it’s that easy!
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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Throughout the summer, the soil collects and holds heat. This means that in the fall, crops tend to mature more quickly than they would in the spring. Even as the weather cools down (great for the gardener), the soil continues to keep the plants warm. This means more and quicker veggie harvests in the fall. Not only that, but fall gardening can provide so many gifts for future you! With a little planning and preparation you can be harvesting from your garden well into winter.
When we talk about what to plant in the fall, we’re focusing on cool weather crops. This refers to crops that have some level of frost tolerance, which, lucky for you, includes lots of delicious vegetables!
It’s finally time again! I mean we’re not the only ones who have been waiting since May for the crisp, cool crunch of fresh lettuce, are we? Of course not. Greens love the cool weather and in some growing zones will keep producing through the whole winter. Lettuce, kale, mustard, arugula, spinach, mache, and creasy greens are all fabulous autumn crops that freshen up any meal.
Greens germinate quickly in autumn because the soil temperature is so warm. It’s a good idea to plant successions of lettuce, spinach, and arugula so you never run out. Greens can be started from seed with your larger fall starts for an early harvest or direct seeded as the weather cools down. Our recommendation? Do both! Greens all season! To learn more about growing greens, check out our blog about different kinds of salad greens and how to grow them, or learn about the difference between kale and collards (both fabulous cool weather crops).
There are three kinds of peas that we grow, all of which are cool weather crops. Snap peas, snow peas, and shelling peas are all worth growing not only for their pods but also for their deliciously sweet and snappy greens. This great crop is easy to grow. They need to be direct seeded into the soil and kept well watered until they germinate. Then, with just a little bit of trellising - you’ll have more peas than you could have asked for! Learn more about the different types of peas and how to grow them.
Brassicas make up a large portion of what we refer to as “cool weather crops.” Brassica refers to the plant family which encompasses broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, and cabbage. These plants are moderately to extremely frost tolerant and the greens actually become sweeter with light frosts. These plants also take longer to mature than other cool weather crops. Typically, these are the seeds you plant in July for transplanting in late summer or fall. Check out our other blog posts for details on how to grow cabbage, broccoli, and brussels sprouts.
Sweet underground surprises that can’t be beet! Autumn root crops are a glorious addition to any garden whether they’re beets, turnips, carrots, parsnips, radishes, or rutabagas. Cultivating cool season root crops for fall harvest starts in late summer to early fall. The seeds will germinate at 45 to 85 degrees fahrenheit, but the plants need to mature as temperatures cool down. High temperatures (70 degrees and up) during maturation can make roots inedible and cause plants to bolt and die. Cold temperatures also aid in the process of converting starches into sugar, sweetening the flavor. Fall gardening is all about timing. Check out our other blog posts for details on how to grow carrots, beets, and radishes!
Allium is the name of the family that encompasses garlic, leeks, and onions. These cold-hardy vegetables are great to start in the fall and overwinter. Leeks and onions need to be started from seed in early- to mid-summer in order to be strong enough to overwinter by the time frost comes. Garlic, on the other hand, is typically planted in mid-autumn. Onions can sometimes be a little tricky for the beginner gardener. Start by learning about short day versus long day onions. Leeks can be harvested all winter long and into the spring to flavor those cold weather soups and stews. Learn how to grow leeks. And the crown jewel of the allium family - at least in our opinion - garlic! Learn how to grow garlic.
Cover crops are an important part of any garden ecosystem. And after a long season of producing big, beautiful fruits, your soil might be a little tired and need a pick-me-up. (And maybe the gardener just needs a break!) This is where cover crops come in. Learn more about cover crops and how to use them on our blog!
What do we plant? COOL WEATHER CROPS. When do we plant them? NOW.
Well, “now” is relative, but usually sooner than you think. Largely it depends on your growing zone and your first frost date. This is the first day that the temperature drops below 32 ℉. Cool weather plants can typically survive light frosts and some of them even harder ones, but you want these plants to be established before the frost comes. For many varieties, this will involve transplanting your started seeds into your garden 8-12 weeks before your frost date.
Another way to calculate your planting time is to consider the “Days to Harvest'' number (found on all of our seed packets). For example, of the brassicas, brussels sprouts have the longest time to maturity at 90-110 days or roughly 12 weeks. Of course you also have to factor in the time it takes for the seeds to germinate, which for brussels sprouts is between 5-15 days. So, late July-early August is a great time to start brussels sprout seeds for harvest in late October-early November. Other brassicas, such as kale, have shorter maturation times (50-60 days) and can be started from seed in September and still produce a great fall harvest.
When starting fall crops from seed for transplants it is best to get started in mid to late July. Yes, we hear you, it seems so early - but - it will pay off we promise. Not to mention, germinating seeds in the middle of the summer is a breeze. It’s helpful to have the heat and the long hours of daylight to lend a hand. Though, keep in mind that it’s important to keep an eye on the temperature. Soils that are too warm during early development can negatively affect flavor or even trigger plants to bolt (ie. flower) and die. Soils that are 50 to 85 degrees fahrenheit are ideal.
Keeping starts inside during the hottest parts of the day can help protect them, but the benefits of starting seeds during the summer can still be taken advantage of during the morning and late afternoon. Once the starts are a bit more mature and stronger (3-4 true leaves), they can be moved outside and/or transplanted.
Start your large brassicas (kale, cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.) in trays with your favorite seed starting mix. Need more details? Check out our blog post all about starting seeds. If you don’t have the conditions or space to start seeds indoors, you can also direct sow (or start in trays) in an area of your garden that gets shade during the heat of the day. Plus, some quick-growing crops like radishes, arugula, and baby lettuce can be direct-seeded in the garden after temperatures have cooled down and still have plenty of time to mature before a freeze.
Fall gardening can involve a lot of pests. As we come down from the long, hot summer, the bugs have had a feast chewing leaves and there’s no sign of stopping. This makes small vegetable transplants susceptible to death and disease or simply getting totally devoured.
While in spring, you may have put your transplants out and they matured before the pests could attack, it is not the same in the fall. Row cover is a great way to protect young transplants by creating a barrier between them and the hungry, hungry caterpillars. For severe infestations consider using organic pesticides like neem oil or BT, depending on the pest. Learn more about common pests on our blog!
This is probably the biggest issue that backyard gardeners run into. They’ve spent all summer filling in every nook and cranny with tomatoes, beans, and squash and there’s no room for fall crops while these guys are still producing! If this is you, tuck transplants between these summer crops even if they’re still producing. They’ll be finished soon enough and can be cut down to the ground, making way for your cool weather transplants to fill in the space.
Even as soils stay warm into the cold weather, cold air can damage and eventually kill many of your crops. Row cover, cold frames, or hoop houses can extend your harvest beyond early light frosts.
Summer crops can take a lot out of your soils. A lot of them are notoriously heavy feeders (meaning they require a lot of nutrients). In order to have a successful fall garden, it is important to amend your soils before or during planting. If you’re starting with fresh, empty beds, be sure to remove all debris from your summer crops to avoid spreading disease and add a heavy layer of compost to your beds. Lightly rake in the compost.
If you’re still trying to wait for those last few tomatoes or cucumbers to ripen up you can interplant with your fall crops! Consider companion planting with your summer crops. If you do decide to interplant, just add some worm castings into each hole your plant starts go in. This will help give them a nutrient boost in depleted soils. Compost can be added later once your summer crops have died back and been removed.
To further protect your soils from depletion (and your crops from disease), remember to rotate crops in your garden! Try not to plant your brassicas in the same bed they were planted in last spring. Switch it up and put some peas (a nitrogen fixing legume) in your old brussels sprout bed to spruce up the nutrient availability for next year!
Frost protection will eventually become a component of your fall gardening routine. Even as soils stay warm into the cold weather, the frost air can damage and eventually kill many of your crops. Certain measures such as row cover, cold frames, or hoop houses can be put to use to extend the season and the harvest beyond just the early lighter frosts.
So what do you think? Want to give it a try? More veggies for more of the year is never time or space wasted. Check out our collection of seeds for fall!
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
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Green onions are a hardy, low-maintenance crop that mainly needs plenty of sun, and rich, well-draining soil. Make sure to amend your garden bed with an inch or two of compost before planting, or use a high-quality potting mix if you’re growing in a container.
You can plant green onions indoors 8-10 weeks before your last frost to get a jump on the season, or direct-seed them outdoors throughout the summer and into early fall. They’ll do best in cool temperatures, but a little afternoon shade can help them take some summer heat. Most varieties are frost-tolerant, but none will tolerate long periods of below-freezing temperatures, so some type of season extension, such as row cover or a cold frame, is a must for most gardeners who want to harvest green onions into winter.
Onions have tiny, threadlike, delicate sprouts that can be easily knocked over, so whether you’re starting them in trays indoors, or directly in the garden, a good trick is to plant them in small clumps rather than spread out in a row. That way, the seedlings support each other as they grow. To plant using this technique, make each planting hole about 1/4 inch deep, and drop about 6-8 seeds in. Space your clumps about 6 inches apart. If you’re starting your seeds indoors in a plug tray, plant several seeds per plug, and transplant the whole clump together once the seedlings have filled up the space. You can transplant green onions outside about 2-4 weeks before your last frost. If you’re direct-seeding, make sure temperatures are at least in the 50s F, to ensure good germination.
Overall, green onions are a low-maintenance crop! Some people like to hill up the soil around their scallions as they grow to get more white stem and less greens, but that’s just a matter of preference. Soil moisture is an important consideration though, since green onions have shallow root systems. Pay close attention and make sure to water as soon as the top half-inch or so of soil is dry. But, be careful not to leave the soil waterlogged for too long. It should be consistently moist, not soggy. Applying a liquid fertilizer like fish emulsion occasionally can give your green onions a boost. Green onions tend not to be bothered by too many pests, and a three-year crop rotation is good prevention for most of the diseases and insects that affect them. Snails and slugs can do a number on young plants however, so try to water in the morning and avoid leaving the soil surface wet overnight. Beer traps are a great non-toxic way to reduce slug and snail numbers if they are a problem in your garden.
Green onions can really be harvested at just about any stage (some people even grow them as microgreens!) Most gardeners begin harvesting their scallions when the stalks reach pencil thickness or more. If you’re growing your onions in clumps, pull up just one or two onions from each group at a time, to allow the others more space to grow. Many green onion varieties will get quite large if left in the ground long enough, up to 18 inches tall and a couple inches in diameter! If you only want the greens on the other hand, just clip them off about an inch or two above the soil line, and leave the roots in the ground. They’ll re-sprout more greens! If you see your plants putting up a central stalk with a bud on the end, that means they’re beginning to bolt (flower), and you should harvest them right away. (And eat the flower stalk, or “scape” too - they’re tasty, just like garlic scapes!) Green onions won’t taste very good after flowering, and will die soon after. Consistent watering and a little shade in the heat of summer will hold off bolting for as long as possible.
Green onions are great for growing in a container, since their roots don’t grow very deep, and the plants can be harvested at any size. Make sure your pot or grow bag is at least six inches deep, and has good drainage. Choose a quality soil mix that is high in organic matter. And, if you’re container gardening indoors, make sure you either have a south-facing window with plenty of sunlight, or a good grow lamp.
One good way to store your green onions is upright in a glass of water in the fridge. They may even keep growing a tiny bit! Just cover the roots with water, don’t submerge them past the white stem part. Green onions also keep well chopped up and refrigerated in an airtight container. No matter how you choose to store them, the rule of thumb is to make sure leaves are not soggy from washing when they go in the fridge. Stored properly, green onions will last in the refrigerator for about a week.
This popular scallion variety grows to 12-15” in height and is prized for its long tender white stems. A good all-purpose choice, as it can be grown in spring or fall or overwintered, and is great for cut-and-come-again production.
This Japanese green onion is particularly cold-hardy and great for overwintering.
Some bunching onions have beautiful red stems! Crimson Forest is a popular variety known for its vibrant color and mild flavor.
If you’re ready to try growing your own scallions at home, look for “Bunching Onion” seeds in our collection of onion varieties. Or, explore the different types of onions you can grow in your garden by reading up on perennial onions, and learning about short day versus long day bulbing onions on our blog!
Article Written by: Leah Smith |
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About the Author: Leah Smith is the Seed Product Manager at Sow True Seed, where she focuses on adding new varieties to the catalog and ensuring the seed stock is top-notch. Her firsthand experience in farming has given her a deep understanding of cultivating crops while caring for the environment. |
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Spinach is a cool-season crop that needs a location in full sun or partial shade, and nitrogen-rich soil.
Spinach is very cold-hardy, but not very heat-tolerant. It needs soil temperatures of at least 40 degrees to germinate, and at least six weeks of cool weather to mature. The best times to seed spinach are as soon as the soil becomes workable in early spring, and in late summer or early fall when the soil temperature is no higher than 70 degrees. You can seed in successions two weeks apart throughout early spring and fall to extend your harvest. A bit of shade can keep plants cooler and help extend your spinach season a little longer into the summer, but no variety will tolerate midsummer heat, so avoid seeding in late spring or early summer.
Generally, spinach is ready to harvest 45 to 50 days after seeding. Expect a bit slower growth if temperatures are particularly cold, or if you’re growing in a location with less than full sun.
Spinach is usually direct-seeded, since the seedlings are delicate and can be difficult to transplant. Plant your seeds one half-inch deep, and about two inches apart. Once the seedlings get their first true leaves, thin them to about four to six inches apart.
A spray of fish emulsion or compost tea can help give your seedlings a boost as they get established, but if you have good nitrogen-rich soil already, this isn’t necessary. Make sure your soil has been amended with compost before planting.
Regular watering is important, since spinach has shallow roots that can dry out quickly. Try to water in the morning, to make sure the leaves dry off quickly, which prevents fungal disease.
Spinach’s shallow root system also means it’s important to be very careful when weeding. The plants’ roots are easily disturbed by cultivation or pulling out weeds around them. It’s a good idea to prevent weeds from the start by mulching around your spinach plants.
Spinach can fall prey to many insects and diseases, but by far the most common problems are aphids and downy mildew. Keep a close eye out for aphids, which look like tiny green or yellow dots on the leaves. They leave behind sticky yellow frass (that’s the fancy term for insect poop), and can cause leaves to grow in misshapen forms. To get rid of them, spray them off with the garden hose, or spritz the leaves with a little soapy water. Keeping your spinach under row cover can also keep aphids and many other insect pests away.
Downy mildew is a fungal disease that thrives in moist conditions. It causes yellow spots on the tops of the leaves, with telltale fuzzy white growth underneath. The best defense is proper plant spacing to allow airflow around the leaves, and carefully timed watering, to prevent the leaves from staying wet for too long. Crop rotation can also help, but downy mildew spores are windblown and can travel vast distances, so many places, particularly in the Southeast, will experience pressure from this disease every year, even if the spores didn’t overwinter in your local soil. If you have a lot of trouble with downy mildew where you're growing, very early or late season crops are more likely to be successful, since the disease usually arrives with warm weather.
Spinach can be harvested at baby leaf size for salads in as little as 30 days, or at full maturity for use in cooking. You can choose whether to harvest the whole plants at once, or pick a few of the largest leaves from around the edges of each plant and allow the plants to keep growing. Once you see any signs of bolting (flowering), harvest the whole plants immediately. Spinach will begin to grow a central flower stalk and the whole plant will start to get taller when it’s ready to flower. Heat is the main trigger for bolting, so you can slow down the process a bit by keeping your plants cool by watering regularly and providing a little shade.
Spinach leaves are fairly delicate and will only store a few days in the fridge. It’s best to store them unwashed, and only wash them when you’re ready to use them. Excess moisture is the enemy, and wet leaves will begin to rot much sooner. Freezing is the best way to store spinach for the longer term. To freeze your spinach harvest, just blanch the leaves in boiling water for two minutes, then drain them and immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water. Once the spinach has cooled, squeeze out the excess water, put it in freezer containers, and pop it in the freezer.
This reliable, classic variety is one of the most popular varieties of spinach for gardeners everywhere. Very productive, with deep green, crinkled leaves. “Long Standing” refers to its relatively good heat tolerance, making it slower to bolt in warm weather than many other varieties.
As the name suggests, this variety is known for being especially cold-hardy. This is the ideal spinach for planting in late fall for winter harvest.
Noble Giant is known for staying very tender even at fully-grown size, making an ideal choice if you prefer your spinach in salads.
This more heat- and drought-tolerant variety is ideal for spring planting, and good for fresh use in salads, or cooked.
If you’ve spent some time looking at seed catalogs, you’ve probably seen some varieties called “summer spinach.” These are not true spinach, they’re different species of greens that can be used similarly to spinach, but perform well in the heat of midsummer. Types include Malabar Spinach, New Zealand Spinach, and Nigerian Spinach (Sokoyokoto). If you want to harvest nutritious, fresh greens even in the dog days of summer, explore these alternative options!
Ready to plant your own spinach? Shop our full collection of spinach seeds here. Missed the cool season window, but still hungry for fresh greens? Get some inspiration for summer greens to grow on our blog, or expand your salad greens palate with our guide to 10 Types of Salad Greens and How to Grow Them.
Article Written by: Leah Smith |
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About the Author: Leah Smith is the Seed Product Manager at Sow True Seed, where she focuses on adding new varieties to the catalog and ensuring the seed stock is top-notch. Her firsthand experience in farming has given her a deep understanding of cultivating crops while caring for the environment. |
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We were so excited to discover these home soil test kits! The idea that you can test for nutrient deficiencies and pH levels in your very own home without having to wait for or mail in your soil sample to the extension agency? ALLURING. But, like all of our products, it’s important that we’re able to back them up and test them and see if they actually perform. So, on this fine August day I took it upon myself to test these out on my own garden soil.
The way the product is designed makes it feel like a fun science experiment (which it is) but it’s extremely straightforward and easy to use. The color-coordinated test containers and capsules are easy to understand. Once you get everything open and all over the table, you’re not going to lose track of what’s what. The directions explain how to take a soil sample (which is similar to how you’d take a soil sample for the extension agency) and detailed instructions on how to go about using the kit correctly.
The kit comes with four containers (a container each for testing pH, Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus) that are each split into two chambers. One is the test chamber and one is the reference chamber. Each container then has a set of 10 color coordinated capsules (only one capsule needed per test - that’s a lot of tests) that contains a developer that is added to the test chamber along with your soil sample. The combination of your soil, the developer, and some water (the kit comes with a handy dropper tool) takes only a short time to turn the appropriate color which you then compare to the associated color chart, determining your results.
The pH test took all of five minutes to complete while the nutrient tests take more time as you have to mix your soil sample with water and allow the water to settle. Certain types of soils settle faster than others but the directions recommend 30 minutes to 24 hours. I let this sample sit for 24 hours just in case. And so the next day I completed the experiment, following the directions, mixing the developer into our soil water in the “test chamber” and waited just 10 minutes for the colors to develop!
Test results (clockwise from top left) for pH, Potassium, Phosphorus, and Nitrogen
The results were generally as expected. The soil pH was neutral and it had sufficient levels of phosphorus and potassium. This makes sense because I’ve been fertilizing heavily with these nutrients as my fruit crops like tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers have been developing. The nitrogen levels on the other hand were quite low. I’ve purposefully not fertilized with nitrogen to promote fruit development (and tomatoes are notoriously heavy feeders) but it was a good reminder that I’ll have to amend our soil before we plant our fall crops in order to get those beautiful leafy greens in autumn.
Beyond just the test, the instructions also include a plant pH preference list (so you can know if your soils are doing what certain plants need them to do) that includes ornamentals, vegetables, and fruit shrubs. It’s a surprisingly long and useful list, actually. There are also instructions on exactly how to adjust your soil pH or nutrient availability with specifics on what to fertilize with and how much. So really it’s set up for even the most beginner gardener turned soil scientist!
This is a useful and quick way to answer some nutrient availability problems on the spot rather than waiting weeks to get your soil tested by the lab, leaving a huge chunk of time with less than stellar results in the garden. I’d still recommend getting your garden soil lab tested every few years, as these can give you more detailed results and useful input that the home soil test doesn’t begin to cover. Even so, its usefulness cannot be ignored. In the future, I’ll definitely be adding this home soil test kit to my arsenal of garden problem solving tools and I hope you will too!
Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons |
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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has nearly a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all. |
If you’ve read some of our garden blog posts, or talked with our customer service reps, you’ve probably heard the advice “contact your local extension agent.” But what exactly is an extension agency? Cooperative extensions got started in 1914, when the USDA partnered with a network of state universities to provide support to farmers and gardeners across the country. Whichever public university in your state is considered the “ag” or technical school probably runs your state’s extension program (it’s an “extension” of the university, to bring vital agricultural expertise to the public.) Most states have a central extension office at a university, along with county offices, where you can connect with agents who can give advice on a wide range of gardening and farming questions, from "what are these yellow spots on my bean plants?" to "what kind of lawn grass grows best here?" Many extension offices also offer soil testing, run local Master Gardener and 4-H programs, and hold events and classes about farming and gardening. The best part? Getting advice from an extension agent is usually free!
An extension agent is a great resource for gardening questions that are very local in nature, or just plain difficult to find an answer for. We often refer folks to them for diagnosis of plant diseases or an unusual pest problem. Depending on your region and what type of agriculture is practiced there, you might find the local extension agency to be more or less focused on regenerative or organic agriculture, but whether or not you agree with all their methods, they’re likely to have their finger on the pulse of whatever pest problems are cropping up in your area, and the particular challenges of growing in your climate more than any online source. When you’re dealing with a tough gardening problem, getting a real live local expert can be a huge help!
Here are links to cooperative extension offices in all 50 states, Washington DC, and US Territories:
(Broken link? Let us know by emailing info@sowtrue.com! We’ll try to keep the list up-to-date.)
US Territories:
Article Written by: Leah Smith |
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About the Author: Leah Smith is the Seed Product Manager at Sow True Seed, where she focuses on adding new varieties to the catalog and ensuring the seed stock is top-notch. Her firsthand experience in farming has given her a deep understanding of cultivating crops while caring for the environment. |
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