Prepare for Fall

Now is the time...

to start planning for the winter season crops. If you have room at home, you should be planting your seeds of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, turnips, spinach and swiss chard into plastic pots.

You can purchase potting soil or make your own. A mixture of 5% pearlite, 20% OVF soil and 75% compost mixed together in a 5 gallon pail makes a good potting soil for your seeds to germinate. Some seeds such as kale, beets, carrots, peas, collards and radishes (all cool season crops here at OVF) should be planted directly into your plot for best results.

Fall is the time your strawberries put out “runners”(small plants that extend from the old plant on a thin vine.) Cut about an inch of the vine on each side of the plant. Look closely on the underside of the plant and you’ll notice small hairs. These are roots. Simply put the plant on damp soil and it will root itself. Do not cover the leaves with soil. Keep well watered to allow the new plants to take root. Strawberries like an acidic soil. Adding sulphur or peat moss to the soil will reduce the PH of the soil. OVF soil is alkaline and has a high PH. Water can be acidified by adding 2 teaspoons of vinegar to a gallon of water and applying to the soil. I am presently experimenting by adding coffee grounds directly to the base of the plants to put acid into the soil.