6
in other words
september25
2012
Diggin in the Dirt: Vegetable Topics
By Chip Bubl
Oregon State University
Extension Service
The OSU Food Preservation
Hotline will be available Monday, Tues-
day, Thursday, and Friday from 9am un-
til 4pm at 1-800- 354-7319 until October
12, 2012. In addition, you can call our
local OSU Extension office at 503 397-
3462 with food preservation questions
and to get your pressure canner tested.
Outstanding garden weather has
continued since my last column. Even
Vernonia is having a bumper crop of
corn, winter squash, and tomatoes. Ap-
ple quality is generally excellent. Grapes
are maturing nicely. Most of the calls I
have gotten concern trees and shrubs that
are either dead or looking very weak.
At this point, there is almost no mois-
ture in the soil profile. Deep-rooted trees
can still grab some. But more recently
planted trees and shrubs will struggle
with their smaller root systems. It makes
sense to give some of your newer woody
plants a good soaking once a week until
normal fall weather returns. There are
several disorders of apples that are due,
in part, to water-short conditions. These
include water-core (that glassy and very
sweet center we get in some apples) and
bitter pit (which despite its name is cre-
ates brown dimples just under the skin
and a little into the flesh). Apples with
either of these disorders will not store
well, so eat them first.
Good potato crops raise the
question as to how best to store them for
later use. The first rule is that they should
be kept totally dark. Light stimulates
greening and sprouting, both of which
are concerns. The biggest challenge is to
get the right balance of moisture (to keep
them from shriveling) and cold. Many
gardeners store them in slightly moist
sawdust in a solid color bin to keep them
dark. The bin should have holes drilled
to allow air exchange. Others put them
into bins without the sawdust. There are
variations on all of these themes. But
when I talk to gardeners, most say that
their spuds generally don’t keep past
December in really good condition. My
advice is to eat a lot of potatoes in the
fall and focus on other starches as the
winter progresses. It is worth noting that
commercial (non-organic) potatoes are
treated with a sprout inhibitor prior to
storage. It is also worth noting that some
potatoes (some of the fingerling types
and others) have better storage qualities.
If you like garlic, get out there
and plant some late this month or in Oc-
tober. Find a sunny,
well-drained space,
lime it with about
10#s per 100 square
feet, add some com-
post and/or fertil-
izer and you are
ready to plant. Go
to a Farmer’s Mar-
ket soon (they are about to end) and buy
several varieties of garlic. Get the names
and label them in bags. Separate out
the cloves from the bulbs and plant the
biggest cloves from each variety. Mark
your rows so you know what did well.
Eat the cloves you didn’t plant. Space
the rows about 12” apart and the garlic
about 3” apart within the row and the
cloves about 2” below the soil surface.
Cover with one inch or so of compost or
some other organic matter to keep rain
from crusting the soil. Sit back and wait.
You may not see tops until January but
rest assured that the plants are doing just
fine. Weed often. Harvest in July. That’s
it.
Winter gardens should be cov-
ered, either with mulch or a cover crop.
Both add organic matter and improve
soil tilth. Cover crop roots can break up
soil “plow pans”. The roots and leaves
trap and hold nutrients and legumes in
the mix fix nitrogen. Cover crops can
grow very lush over the winter and often
are 3-4’ tall by the mid-spring. You may
have to wait for a dry spell before you
can till the cover in and start gardening.
Mulches can also add organic
matter, though they can’t trap nutrients
and fix nitrogen. Worms are stimulated
by a mulch blanket and do great work in
aerating the soil profile under the mulch.
The biggest advantage
to mulches is that they
can be pulled back in
the spring and trans-
plants put in with a
minimum of fuss. The
disadvantage is that
you don’t get the nutri-
ent release with work-
ing a legume cover crop and mulches
may stimulate more moles and voles.
If you work your garden area
at all in the fall, add some lime. A good
application rate is 100-150#s per 1000
square feet of vegetable garden. Lime
takes about six months to fully react
with the soil so the benefits will be ready
when you start spring gardening. Gar-
dens only need to be limed once every
FOR TOWING EMERGENCIES
IN AND AROUND THE
VERNONIA AREA
three years.
It is not too late to plant a lawn,
but get right on it. Most grass seed mix-
tures are sown at the rate of 5#s per 1000
square feet. Add one pound of seed for
each week past September 15th to en-
sure a solid stand. Don’t plant after Oc-
tober 15th. This would also be an excel-
lent time to fertilize your lawn. Use lawn
products with a mix of slow and quick
release nitrogen.
Share your extra fruit and vegetables
to the Food Bank. What you can offer is
really important.
The Extension Service offers its pro-
grams and materials equally to all peo-
ple.
Free newsletter
The Oregon State University Extension
office in Columbia County publishes a
monthly newsletter on gardening and
farming topics (called County Liv-
ing) written/edited by yours truly. All
you need to do is ask for it and it will
be mailed to you. Call 503 397-3462 to
be put on the list. Alternatively, you can
find it on the web at
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/colum-
bia/ and click on newsletters.
Contact information for the Extension
office
Oregon State University Extension Ser-
vice – Columbia County
505 N. Columbia River Highway (across
from the Legacy clinic)
St. Helens, OR 97051
503 397-3462
Email: chip.bubl@oregonstate.edu
Vernonia
Veterinary Clinic
Small and Large Animals
Polife and County personnel are required
to use a rotation of available provfiders,
UNLESS YOU SPECIFICALLY ASK
for a servife by name.
REQUEST TOWING SERVICE FROM
Now Open
Mon, Wed & Saturday
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Call for Appointments
(503) 429-1612
Shop Hours: Mon - Fri 9:00 - 6:00
Or 24 hr. Emergency Number (503) 397-6470
700 Weed Ave. Vernonia, OR