Short Season Vegetable Garden

Short Description
Pacific Northwest gardeners may find the growing season where they live too short to grow certain vegetables. Air and soil temperatures may be lower than optimal for plant growth. Untimely frosts or snow, combined with low humidity and excessive wind, make it necessary for the home gardener to use special practices to get the best production. The techniques outlined in this publication will be essential to grow most vegetable crops.

Website: info.ag.uidaho.edu | Filesize: 253kb
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Content
To successfully grow vegetables in short season areas, you will need to become a weather watcher. Information is available on weather radios, cable TV stations, and local newspapers. These should be monitored to anticipate adverse weather conditions such as local frosts. Equip your garden with an accurate high and low temperature recording thermometer to chart daily extremes. Obtain a number of high quality, dial type soil thermometers. Place the thermometer probes in your garden soil at rooting depth. The temperature of your soil will indicate what seeds and plants can be planted, and how much heat is available under plastic mulches and plant covers.
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Choosing the best garden site is critical for success in vegetable gardening in areas with short seasons and cool climates. Even a small change in temperature can make a difference during spring and fall frosts. Garden site selection affects wind exposure, temperature, and humidity. Wind removes heat radiating from the soil, dries out plants, and causes plants to close their stomates (tiny leaf openings) to conserve water, thus reducing growth potential. Humidity can raise the temperature slightly by acting as a heat sink around plants.
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