War Gardens: A Pocket Guide for Home Vegetable Growers

by Montague Free

A fairly fertile, loamy soil, well drained, but of a retentive nature, is most suited to peas.

First of All, thirty inches high, is a good variety of the smooth-seeded type of pea. This type does not possess such a good flavor as the wrinkled-seeded kinds, but the seeds are not likely to rot if planted in cold, wet soil. Nott’s Excelsior is an excellent dwarf variety of the wrinkled-seed type. Of the tall kinds, Alderman, five feet in height, Gradus, thirty inches, and Champion of England, five feet, are to be recommended.

Peppers require very much the same conditions as tomatoes and egg-plant, except that they may be planted somewhat closer together. The rows should be from eighteen inches to two feet apart, with the plants spaced from one to two feet apart in the rows. Bull Nose and Chinese Giant are good examples of the mild, sweet kinds, with Golden Queen to give color variation in the salad made from them. Long Red Cayenne and Red Chili should be chosen if the peppery varieties are desired.

Potato.—The largest crops of potatoes are produced in cool, moist, climates such as are found in Great Britain, parts of Europe, and, in the United States, in Maine and Michigan.

The soils best suited for potatoes are fertile, rather sandy loams which should be fairly retentive of moisture. A soil of this nature which has been heavily fertilized with barn-yard manure the preceding year may be considered ideal for potato culture. The use of barn-yard manure, particularly if it is fresh, is inadvisable if the soil contains a good proportion of humus and is in good physical condition. It is claimed that the practice of using barn-yard manure the current season causes the crop to be more susceptible to attacks of potato scab. Many of the largest growers of potatoes refrain from fertilizing directly with barn-yard manure, but rely instead on the use of commercial fertilizers. These may be applied broadcast over the field in the spring, after the soil has been plowed, and harrowed in. If only a small quantity of fertilizer is available, it is preferable to apply it by spreading it in the furrows, but thoroughly mixing it in the soil before the potatoes are planted. The fertilizer obtainable from most seedsmen under the name of “potato manure” can safely be used in the furrows at the rate of five pounds to a plot of four hundred square feet.

“Seed” potatoes should consist of medium-sized tubers, Northern grown, and free from disease. Although whole potatoes may be planted, the usual practice is to cut them into pieces, each piece containing two or three “eyes,” or buds. When cutting the potatoes for sets make each piece as “chunky” as possible so that there is a good-sized piece of potato for the “eyes” to draw upon for their food supply until they have formed a root system of their own.

There are two methods of planting potatoes—in hills and in furrows or rows. In the hill system of planting, the plants are spaced from two to three feet apart either way, the distance being dependent on the vigor of the variety. When planted in furrows the rows are spaced from two to three feet apart and the sets placed from twelve to eighteen inches apart in the rows. The early varieties may be planted about four inches deep, and the late varieties about six inches.

When the shoots appear above the ground the surface soil should be cultivated to conserve moisture and to keep down weeds. Later in the season when the tubers are being formed it is customary to hill them up with earth so as to cover the tubers and prevent “greening,” and also to assist in keeping the roots cool.

The potato is particularly susceptible to environmental conditions. A variety that may be an excellent cropper in one section may be an utter failure in another. It is thus difficult to recommend any particular variety. The best plan for those who are to attempt the cultivation of potatoes is to make inquiry in the neighborhood with a view to finding the variety that is most successful in that locality.

The following are standard varieties that are widely grown: early varieties—Irish Cobbler, Early Rose, Early Ohio; main-crop varieties—Carman No. 1, Green Mountain, and Rural New-Yorker.