A Seed Saver's Garden

[meadow]

Yes, for quite a few years I've done transplants with corn. I do them about 4 weeks before planting. I've read that corn dislikes the root disturbance that comes with transplanting but I have had excellent results with transplants. Same for the beans.

Oh! It is encouraging to hear that you've actually been 'doing the thing' for years!

What size peat pot are you using for corn? ( or do you use something else?)

 

[Zeedman]

I had to read this closely to realize you are talking about English peas, green ones. My definition of peas is Purple Hull peas, Black Eye peas, plus a host of diverse varieties, all Southern peas that love heat.

My bad... I keep forgetting that there are people here whose Goldilocks bowl is the one that is too hot.

 

[heirloomgal]

Oh! It is encouraging to hear that you've actually been 'doing the thing' for years!

What size peat pot are you using for corn? ( or do you use something else?)

I use the standard starter pot size, I think that's about 3 or 4 inches, right? I don't use peat pots generally, I haven't liked my results when I tried them with watermelons, and a few other things, years ago. I find it takes the root systems of plants too long to escape the pots! It seems to slow them down as a result. Also, I haven't liked the wicking effect of even a teeny bit of a peat pot inadvertently exposed. I would even tear off the outer edge before planting, but one way or another the wicking would start with a hard stream of water knocking soil out from around the transplant. I go with the (mostly) re-usable plastic pots for the corn.

I used to plant 2 or 3 seeds per pot, but finally stopped doing that this summer. I've found even really old corn has excellent germination, but more than that, even if I cull the two extras, they always grow back! The growing tip is too far down I guess to be damaged by my scissors cutting them at soil level. Once I had to litterally drive the scissors into the soil, in 50+ pots, to cut down there deep enough to extinguish the growing tips. Miraculously, all the surving seedlings still transplanted out just fine and gave me an abundant harvest. That has actually been my biggest learning curve with corn, not creating problems for myself by planting more than one seed. Corn is such a weedy little plant!

 

[meadow]

Ha! Well, it IS a grass (I think? 🤔).

Yeah, I tear off the bottom of peat pots before planting, if not some around the edges too (when possible) to reduce the thickness. I bought a bunch of them (smallish square ones) on sale and now I don't know what to grow in them. They are too small, imo, for squash. I think they'd be too short for corn, but idk.

 

[heirloomgal]

Peas! If you have any precious peas, I think this might be a way to start them off. I have a gardening book called the Victory Garden (which apparently was a show at one point in the US years ago though I can't find it anywhere online now) and he has those egg carton type peat pots in what look looks like sections of 12. He was in New England *I think, maybe it's rainy there? Peas would be one crop not likely to put up with being wicked dry, but if you have enough precipitation it looks like it works. But on the whole, I find that compressed peat is a force to be reckoned with! 🤣

eta: yup, a grass, so that explains it!

 

[meadow]

I have their cookbook. Best carrot cake ever!

 

[heirloomgal]

I have their cookbook. Best carrot cake ever!

Is the cookbook from the show?!

 

[baymule]

My bad... I keep forgetting that there are people here whose Goldilocks bowl is the one that is too hot.

You got that right!!

 

[meadow]

Is the cookbook from the show?!

Yasssss!! An Amazon editorial review:

Even if you're not a gardener, The Victory Garden Cookbook is a great book to have; if you are a gardener, it's a treasure. The book grew out of a public television series called The Victory Garden, which was essentially a how-to program aimed at home gardeners, with a recipe segment thrown in. As the show's popularity grew, so did viewer demand for more recipes; eventually, Victory Garden cook Marian Morash decided that a cookbook was in order, resulting in The Victory Garden Cookbook. The book is a wonderful hybrid encyclopedia of information for both gardeners who cook and cooks who like to garden; Morash's first goal was to so entice readers with the pleasures of eating home-grown vegetables that they, too, would take up gardening--or at least shop for the freshest ingredients instead of settling for canned or frozen goods. The book, first published in 1982, has been a huge success ever since.
Organized alphabetically, The Victory Garden Cookbook includes all the vegetables Morash grows in her own garden; in addition to information about planting, growing, and harvesting the fruits of your labor, Morash gives advice about storing vegetables, converts yields into measurements (i.e., a half-pound of small Brussels sprouts equals 28-30 sprouts, while a half-pound of medium sprouts equals 12-14) and offers tips to gardenless cooks for finding the best produce. Whether you're an avid gardener, a gardener wannabe, or simply a person who loves a good vegetable dish, The Victory Garden Cookbook is guaranteed to become one of your best-loved and most-used cookbooks.

 

[heirloomgal]

Wow! I did some reaserch about this cookbook & show and I found what your referencing here! Well, here's a twist: the Victory Garden book I have is from the 70's! I guesss the show goes back that far, who knew! Apparently it was first called PBS The Victory Garden in 1975, and then re-named Crockett's Victory Garden in reference to what became the very popular host of the show. The book I have is written by the fellow who took the show over when Mr. Crockett died in 1979, though I can't recall his name at the moment. But the photos are beautiful, his garden is too, and he employs all kinds of methods that eventually I adopted, including using hog wire type fencing to make cyclinders for growing tomatoes upright with zero pruning. I guess I never found ANYTHING about a Victory Garden show, even the one you've referenced here, because I always searched using only the author's name. But nothing ever came up!

Well, that is a mystery solved!