Selecting Vegetables

1
Selecting Vegetables

• Decisions, decisions, decisions
• What vegetables to grow?
• What cultivars to use?
• When and where to plant the vegetable?

2
Deciding What Vegetables to Grow

• You can not grow everything, so you will have to
  make choices
• Grow what you can ________ , are unavailable, or
  in poor quality in stores
• Grow plants that fit into your gardens
  succession planting and ______________
• Select vegetables that fit into the available
  space
• Select vegetables adapted to the particular
  ______________ or environmental conditions in
  your garden

3
Deciding what vegetables to grow

• What vegetables do you use?
• Are there any vegetables that you like or
  dislike?
• Are there vegetables that are easier to purchase
  at stores?
• _____________
• Melons

4
Succession Plantings

• Two types
• 1. Multiple plantings of the same crop
• Varietal succession Planting a range of
  cultivars having different ____________ dates at
  the same time.
• Temporal succession Planting the _________
  cultivar periodically over the course of the
  season.
• 2. Planting different species of vegetables, one
  after the other

5
Succession plantings with different vegetable
species

• Planting more than one species of vegetables
  during the same growing season
• The maturity (days from planting to _________) is
  important when planning a session
• The adaptation of the vegetable to environmental
  conditions at planting is also important

• Examples of different maturities
• Short
• Spinach
• ____________
• Middle
• ____________
• Sweet corn
• Long
• Onions
• ____________

6
Crop Rotation

• Can think of as succession over a number of years
• Underlying principle is never plant the same crop
  or its relative in the same place two years in a
  row.
• Reasons for ________________
• Balances nutrient demands of different crops
• Leaf crops require high N
• Fruit crops require high ___________________
• Legumes fix N from atmosphere
• Reduces pest attacks
• Aim is to break disease cycles

7
Crop Rotation
8
Vegetables Grouped by Plant Families
Squash Mustard Tomato Beet
Muskmelon Cabbage Tomato Beet
__________ Broccoli __________ Spinach
Cucumber Cauliflower Potato __________

9
Vegetables Grouped by Plant Families
Onion Legumes Carrots
Onion ___________ Carrots
Leek Peas ___________
___________ Parsnip

10
Select vegetables that fit into the available
space

• Methods to allow vegetables to fit into small
  spaces
• Bush types instead of _____________ or pole types
• Draft types
• ______________

11
Cool vs. Warm Season Vegetables

• Vegetables differ in their adaptation to growing
  season
• Relates to growth response to temperature
• _____________ season vegetables
• Can withstand light frosts
• Best growth early in spring or late fall
• Are smaller in size and shallower root system
  than warm season
• Generally eat a vegetative part (root, _________,
  leaves)
• Most are _________________

12
Biennials

• Live two growing seasons
• First growing season produce vegetative
  structures (leaves and _______ roots)
• After exposure to cold temperatures
• Produce a _________________

13
Cool versus warm season vegetables

• ______________ season vegetables
• Do not tolerate frosts
• Grow best when temperatures are warm
• Most are annuals
• Generally eat a _______________ or seed

14
Table Vegetables grouped by seasonal adaptation
Cool Season Warm Season
Lettuces ____________ Cucumbers Sweet corn
Turnips Radish Muskmelons _________________
Pea Cauliflower ____________ Tomatoes Peppers Lima beans

15
Selecting Cultivars
16
Selecting Cultivars

• Once you have decided on specific vegetables you
  need to decide on which cultivars to grow
• There are often hundreds of different cultivars
  available for each vegetable species
• _____________ and Cultivar are often used
  interchangeably
• Are different from a botanical standpoint
• Varieties are botanical subdivisions within a
  species
• Example
• _________ is the species Zea mays
• Sweet corn is a variety of corn

17
Selecting Cultivars

• Cultivars are plants within varieties that
  ____________________ have developed and that are
  distinct from each other.
• New cultivars are generally bred for commercial
  growers
• Two major categories of vegetable cultivars are
• Open pollinated
• ____________________

18
Selecting Cultivars

• Open-pollinated vegetables
• Plants are left to become pollinated on their own
• Are often older or ___________________ cultivars
• It is important that the cultivar breed true
• Offspring resemble their parents in all important
  characteristics
• The breeding system of the vegetable will
  determine if an open-pollinated vegetable breeds
  true
• Self-pollinated vegetables
• Will produce ______ or more offspring that are
  true to type
• Cross-pollinated vegetables
• To ensure the plants __________ true, you must
  carefully control the parents

19
Selecting Cultivars

• Hybrid vegetable cultivars
• Definition A cultivar resulting from a cross
  between two different true breeding (referred to
  as ______________) parents
• Most new vegetable cultivars are hybrids
• Advantages
• They are vigorous
• Hybrid ______________ a synergistic increase in
  vigor of the plant due to the combination of
  widely diverse genetic traits
• Higher yielding
• They are apparently uniform
• Often bred for _________________ resistance

20
Selecting Cultivars

• Hybrid cultivars
• Disadvantages
• Mainly bred for _________________ growers
• Mature at same time
• Can not collect seed, must purchase new seed each
  year

21
Selecting Cultivars

• There are some specialized cultivars within
  either open-pollinated or hybrid categories
• Heirloom cultivars
• Definition A cultivar that has been passed down
  generation to generation
• _________________ corn found in a Utah cave
  and is thought to be more than 800 years old
• There are a number of nonprofit organizations
  working with people who want to preserve heirloom
  plants.

22
Selecting Cultivars

• All American Selections
• Cultivars that perform ____________ in trials
  conducted throughout the country
• Problems
• Not all cultivars included
• May not do well in a specific locations
• May not have ___________________ desired by
  gardener