What crops can be sown in February-March

Early crops, as is well known to gardeners, promote earlier harvest. Our reader from the Urals Natalia Bobkowski uses an interesting and efficient way of planting of greenery, flowers and cabbage seedlings in February-March. Natalia makes the crops in the late winter or early spring in a polycarbonate greenhouse under the snow. Crops in February-March in the greenhouse greatly improve the quality of the harvest of vegetables, flowers and seedlings. This method of growing in a greenhouse is great for cold and snowy regions. Read about the successful experiences of Natalia in this article (and, incidentally, to make early crops it's not too late if you have not melted the snow!)

I have no home to grow a large variety of seedlings: on the windowsill space is limited, to ensure that all plants needs light and temperature regime does not work. I think podokonnike-seedling of difficulty in a city apartment is familiar to many. Purchase seedlings I don't really like. If we are talking about large gardens-kitchen gardens (and at me such), and the cost of purchased seedlings in a very decent amount. Cheaper to grow your own. No seedlings in the Urals not do, because our summer is short and spring is quite late (end of April — beginning of may). How to get a large number of quality seedlings? I do in late winter (February) or early spring (in March) crops vegetables and flowers in the greenhouse under the snow.

Since then, as we have a polycarbonate greenhouse, I grow many plants in it, and for several years crops in the winter. It is not difficult, only need in the autumn to prepare the soil in the greenhouse in February or early March to come on the site for a couple of hours. Thanks to the plantings made in February and March, the plants germinate in physiologically normal conditions, the seedling does not transform and is not extended, much easier to transplant and the survival rate it much higher. About saving valuable time in the spring at planting time I not saying (Yes winter too – someone tried to calculate how much time we spend at home on the crops, picks and watering seedlings?).

Crops in February: preparing for autumn

Autumn in the greenhouse I am preparing the ground for sowing in February-March. Everyone works the land on its own and no special tricks for early winter sowing need not apply. I dug up the soil, make fertilizer and compost, mark out furrows and abundantly shed land (put in a greenhouse sprinkler system for a couple of hours). Watering at this stage is very important, because in the greenhouse in the winter snow will not, therefore, to create at least some amount of moisture is necessary.

Crops in February — early March

In the winter I choose a suitable moment somewhere in late February or early March. In the Urals snow at this time is usually as much as possible, but he was already condensed, so its easier to pour in a greenhouse than fresh loose. Perhaps in your area this time slightly move forward or backward.

I just sow the seeds into prepared beds in the greenhouse. Cabbage, radishes, flowers – rows; salad and dill – loose, where there is a place. Need to install plastic labels, so you know where everything is planted. The crops covered agricom or any garden moisture-permeable fabric material of medium density. Neither very thick nor very thin covering material is not suitable: the first misses little light and the second does not protect crops from the cold. On top of covering material I sleep crops with snow. The minimum layer of snow — 5 cm, but generally the more the better.

The whole procedure of seeding in February-March, takes a couple of hours, most of which goes to the throwing of snow to the greenhouse. This is not an easy job, so a strong assistant would be very opportunely.

Crops in February: further developmentnext time I come to the garden sometime in mid-April. Before this visit, I only sowed in the greenhouse lettuce and radishes. Now, with early sowing in February or early March, this time in the greenhouse has its first shoots. The size of the seedlings depends entirely on the amount of moisture: if the spring was early and warm, moisture may not be enough even under agricom. However, I still never dried up. I abundantly watered crops right through agril.

This same visit I sow in the greenhouse under plastic jar cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins on a specially left free space. Top banks are also close agricom. Cabbage seedlings and flowers before planting in the ground nearly a month; the light they agricom enough, but for pests, sometimes mows all the crops in the ground, they are inaccessible. This is another advantage of sowing in February under the covering material and snow.

Usually, by early may the greens and the radish is fully ready for use. By the time planting in the greenhouse seedlings of peppers and tomatoes that I grow at home, all greens, planted in February, it is collected to the table, and seedlings — planted in a permanent place.

Crops for sowing in February — early March in a greenhouse under the snow

For early sowing in the greenhouse under the snow suit virtually any hardy flowers and vegetables, with some reservations.

Early vegetables and greens. Radishes, lettuce, dill, leaf mustard, watercress, cilantro (coriander), spinach. Long rising time-consuming as growing vegetables — celery, carrots, root parsley etc. — can be sown at the edges of the greenhouse ridges, where no one will be in late spring planted main greenhouse culture.

Cabbage of all types of seedlings: early and mid-season cabbage, red, broccoli, Savoy, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, conical, kohlrabi. Sprouts cabbage prefers bright light and cool temperatures, therefore, develops in the greenhouse better than at home.

Flowers seedlings. I sow in the greenhouse annual asters, zinnias, snapdragons, of Drummond Phlox, alyssum, Kochia. The seedling flowers when sown in February in a greenhouse is a strong, sturdy and much better grown at home. Annuals intolerant for transplanting (Mac, kosmeya, escholzia), it's best grown in a greenhouse as seedlings, and sow immediately in a permanent place in the garden. Perennials that require stratification can also be sown in winter but not in the ridge, but rather in a separate deep container that dropped there, in the soil in the greenhouse(so you can move capacity to another location).published

  

Source: countrysideliving.net/