by Diane Sagers
CORRESPONDENT
Every summer it happens again. Some little pale yellow or whitish moths start flitting around the vegetable garden and soon I find hatchlings of small green caterpillars chewing holes in the leaves of many of my plants -- particularly the cole crops. They are nasty little critters that match the cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower so well that I can't find all of them to pick them off. I suppose the saying "you are what you eat" applies to them, since they take on the color of the crop they are eating.
I can spray for these loopers using BT or another insecticide, but I prefer not to spray if I don't have to. There is also the option of soaking the vegetables in salt water at harvest to get the caterpillars off, but that is not my most favorite choice either.
I have found another way to get the harvest without harvesting the pests along with the vegetables and I do like it very well: plant early.
Cole crops are among the hardy and semi-hardy vegetables that can take cold weather so getting them out in early April will work for them. By growing them early, they reach maturity before the loopers hatch out. They also taste milder if they grow in cool weather since heat makes the flavors stronger.
Another approach to better flavor is to re-plant these crops in mid-summer -- mid- to late-July -- and harvest them after the cold weather arrives this fall. They start their growth in the heat of the summer, but they mature during cold weather. If you get a frost or two before you harvest, the insects are gone and the flavor is often better than the spring-planted crops.
Getting the plants out into the ground now requires a little care. If your soil is too moist, you shouldn't till it yet because tilling wet soil creates heavy clods that remain for the entire season. You can, however, turn small sections of soil with a digging fork or shovel and break it up to a fine texture using the edge of the shovel or a garden rake. You can plant these and most other hardy vegetables until about June 15.
Although the semi-hardy vegetables can be planted as early as March 20 as a rule, they do have a soil temperature requirement to initiate sprouting. The cold nights we have had have kept soil temperatures below those minimums. The "magical" soil temperature is about 40 degrees, but if the soil gets warmer, they germinate sooner. If you do plant them too early, the seeds may decay before they start growing. Most of these will germinate when soil temperatures reach 40 degrees but warmer temperatures will help them emerge sooner.
You have the option to start the seeds indoors to plant outdoors using season extenders to warm the soil and hasten seed sprouting and growth. Place filled wall o' waters out over the ground where you want to plant your cole crops and leave them for two or three days. They will capture heat during the day and release it at night warming the ground. Plant seeds inside the wall o' waters and they will grow and mature quickly.
You can also plant these crops in wide rows and on raised beds. Raised beds drain readily and warm up a little earlier in the spring. Create them by digging a trench about 12 inches deep in the garden throwing shovels full of soil.
Consider such crops as broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower, beets, peas, radishes or spinach. You can also plant carrots, cauliflower, endive, lettuce, parsley, parsnips, potatoes and Swiss chard. As with any vegetable, some varieties are naturally better than others.
The USU Extension Service has grown plants in test plots to determine which are best adapted here. Some of the favorites are listed below.
Hardy vegetables
Broccoli: Packman Hybrid, Green Comet Hybrid Premium Crop Hybrid, Paragon Hybrid
Cabbage: Harvester Queen Hybrid, Golden Acre 84, Stonehead Hybrid Tastie Hybrid, Market Prize Hybrid, Ruby Perfection Hybrid Gourmet Hybrid, Savoy Ace Hybrid, Custodian Hybrid
Peas: Early Frosty, Lincoln, Patriot Banquet, Edible Pod: Little Sweetie, Snowflake, Oregon Sugar Pod II, Snap Pea: Sugar Ann, Early Snap, Sugar Daddy
Radish: Champion, Cherry Beauty, Easter Egg, Burpee White, Snow Belle, Icicle
Semi-hardy vegetables
Beet: Mono-Germ, Pacemaker III Hybrid, Earlisweet Hybrid, Golden Beet, Warrior I, Detroit Dark Red, Cylindra
Carrot: Lindoro Hybrid, A Hybrid, Ingot Hybrid, Pioneer Hybrid, Scarlet Nantes, Tuodo Hybrid
Cauliflower: Snow Crown Hybrid, Early Snowball, White Sails Hybrid , Starbright Y Hybrid, Ravella Hybrid, Avalanche
Lettuce: Leaf Green Ice, Oakleaf, Red Sails, Flame, Butterhead, Anuenue, Cindy, Buttercrunch, Citation; Crisp Head: Crispy, Salinas, Ithaca, Empire, Summertime; Cos or Romaine -- Cosmo, Barcarole, Signal, Valmaine
Parsley: Paramount, Extra Curled Dwarf, Banquet
Parsnip: All America, Model, Gladiator
Potato: Red Norland, Red Pontiac, LaSota
Salsify: Mammoth Sandwich Island
Swiss chard: Rhubarb, Fordhook Giant, Bright Lights