Vegetable Records

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31771, 30 August 1968, Page 6

Vegetable Records

Vegetable growing can be made more interesting and instructive by keeping records.

If they are properly maintained, much can be learnt about growth response at certain times of the year. It is possible to ascertain the suitability or otherwise of particular kinds and varieties of vegetables for your garden, the effects of different weather can be noted, trials of various sorts can be conducted with fertilisers, spacings, watering and mulching to give a few examples, and it is entertaining to estimate the equivalent yields per acre obtained from a given length of row crop. r

A notebook should be used and divided up into columns. Notations should be included under such headings as “date of planting and sowing,” "planting distances and quantity sown,” “date of emergence,” “first and last harvest,” “yield” and “remarks." In conjunction with this recording it is a good idea to draw up a plan of the vegetable plot(s) and record the locations of the various crops. In this way you can ensure that a rotation programme is maintained without difficulty.

A rotation programme is always advocated whenever there is talk on vegetable growing, yet it does not seem to be widely adopted. Rotation of crops can be carried out in a number of ways, but does necessitate the division of the cropping area into a number of blocks. In this way vegetables with related requirements are kept together and grown in a different block each year. Thus it can be made possible to

utilise soil resources to their fullest advantage and reduce the incidence of certain diseases and even pests. One of the most simple rotations to follow Involves the grouping of vegetables according to their root sys-tem-tubers, such as potatoes, tap roots, such as carrots, and fibrous roots, such as leeks. Employing this system, three plots are needed and the groups are alternated each year.