AgriculturalLink.com integrates agriculture and livestock websites help you find agritourism, poultry, garden, production, farmer, goat, fodder crops, horticultural crop and more.

Archive for the ‘Vegetables’ Category

Growing Vegetables in a Greenhouse

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

Fresh homegrown vegetables during the cold winter months might seem impossible, but it’s not. Set up a small greenhouse next to your garage or house and you’re halfway home to having crunchy cucumbers, tangy tomatoes and fresh lettuces for your salads.

Choose vegetables that don’t up a lot of space, taste considerably better homegrown than store bought and you like. Squash isn’t a good choice because they are space hogs. Tomatoes are a good choice because they can be tied to a support to keep them neat and tidy and store-bought tomatoes don’t taste nearly as good as homegrown. Lettuce works well because it can be harvested when only 4 inches tall.

Fill the peat pots with new potting soil. Mix in slow release fertilizer as the package directs. Water thoroughly. Place the seeds on top of the soil, two per pot and cover with 1/4 inch of soil. Press down lightly and mist the top.

Place the pots under the grow lights in the greenhouse to get them started. When they have sprouted and are about 4-inches tall thin to the strongest seedlings.

Transplant to the 1-gallon pot when the seedlings are 6-inches tall. Replace under the grow lights. Move the grow lights up as the plant grows. Outside vegetables need eight hours of sunlight. If the day is cloudy and sun isn’t reaching inside the greenhouse keep the grow lights on longer.

Check the plants for bugs. Mist them off or use a non toxic home and garden spray meant for vegetables.

Fertilize with half strength water soluble fertilizer every two weeks or every fourth watering.

Harvest lettuce or leafy greens like spinach when the leaves are 4-inches long by cutting individual leaves off with the scissors. Trim from the outside. The plant will consider to grow and produce.

Brush the flowers of vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers with a soft brush so you move the pollen from one flower to another to fertilize them. Another alternative is to use a commercial blossom set product.

Advantages of Planting Vegetables

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

Vegetable gardening is a wonderful art. Some people love to do home vegetable gardening and develop their own landscape as per the space they can manage. People engage in gardening as per their interests–like plants, flowers or vegetable gardening. Planting vegetables can be a lot of fun for some people. It gives a real satisfying feeling when you are planting vegetables in your own home vegetable garden, caring for the plants and watching them grow up.

There are a lot of vegetables that you can grow in your own garden with ease. To make the task more pleasurable, there are a variety of garden tools available on the market. These tools are easy to use and are very much affordable. As per the climate, you can choose plants best suited to the season and have a variety of vegetables growing in your own vegetable garden. A big yard always has more advantage but, vegetables can also be grown in pots. This again depends on what choice of plant you make.

Most garden vegetables grow finest on fertile, well-drained soil. With the use of proper nutrients, appropriate cultivation and proper pest controlling, you can enjoy fresh veggies. Most plants grow healthy if ample sunlight is provided. Some balance has to be maintained when exposing the plants in sunlight. One has to be aware if the potted plant is suited for sunlight or shade.

Lettuce is a vegetable crop grown during winters. Lettuce leaf should be watered often if you desire fresh leaf growth. Beetroot can be grown in pots. Other types of vegetables that can be grown in your vegetable garden are bitter gourd, egg plant, tomatoes, beans, okra, potato, and pumpkin. Growing vegetables can be a most rewarding and an enjoyable experience. Cooking your own vegetables is also extremely gratifying. To top it all off, it is free of chemicals!