Garden planning this year

[sleuth]

This is only my second garden ever, and last years garden was kind of a wash. I may have broke even, but only a few items came up.

This year, with my new raised beds, more learning, and a head start, I'm hoping for big gains.

Mother Earth News planner tells me that in Ohio, I should be starting my asparagus, onions, & chives indoors starting in February. Any tips?

 

[rhoda_bruce]

You are starting your asparagus from seeds? I did buy seeds a few years ago, but I somehow lost them and then I was too much in a hurry anyway, so I bought year old crowns and set up a bed of 30 plants.
Sounds like you have done the best you could. You are still a rookie, but you have been reading up on it and are willing to keep at it.
Lots of my knowledge came from books and magazines.
But, alas....I can't talk to you about Ohio. I"m probably about 2500 or more miles south of you....

 

[Emerald]

I've started all three before and even here in Michigan I start some stuff in February.
I fill little cups with soil-less seed starter(I used plantation mix I think that is the brand name) and soak it with warm to hot water to get it to dampen well and sprinkle the onion and chive seed rather thickly on top and then top with about 1/8 inch of the soil-less mix that has been dampened and squeezed dry and then I put a piece of plastic wrap on top and put in a warm area.. It will sprout and look like "double bladed" grass that will slowly "unkink" to become one long skinny blade of onion or chive(they both look the same so make sure you label well) I have two pots of chives that I seeded this fall and let them grow and then it got cold out on the porch and I kinda forgot them and saw them this week and brought them in and cut the dead stuff off the top and let them thaw out(they were frozen solid) and then watered and both are sprouting out very quickly and seem to be doing very well in the very cold kitchen window. I've done onions and they loved the cool kitchen window too.
Asparagus I only put about three big or four big seeds in each cup and I keep them warm and while not drippy wet, I'd say damp.. they take what seems like just forever to sprout but they do sprout and grow and I put them in the warmer area of the house under my big florescent lights as the nice south windows in my home are on the cold side of the house that we don't heat.. if I ever get the money to gut the house and re"wall" it I will put the living areas on the south side of the house so that we can enjoy the sun in the winter. Heck if I had money I'd move and build to suit what I want out of a good solar house..
But with asparagus you are going to be waiting for almost 4 to 5 years before you can get enuf out of the plants for good eating. they are a bit slow on the grow! I did plant out and now harvest from the ones I started from seed but I broke down and bought plants, and they are planted out right around last frost ( well that is when I planted my crowns).

I am going to try "Evergreen Long White Bunching" onions this year and I just bought the seed and will be seeding them in the next week or so.

Some folks say that once the onions get to be about 9 inches tall they trim them back to about 5. I don't do this and mine do okay.. and I let them be crowded in the little cups till I plant out side and I just prepare the soil and poke holes in with a chopstick and I rinse the soil less mix off the bunch of little onions and carefully separate them and drop them in the holes that i just poked with the chopstick.
Now you will have to judge your onion sizes and make the holes to the right deepness. you can rot baby onions if planted too deep past their little junction where the new leaves come up from.
On planting the chives.. I just pop them whole out of the cup and plop down in a clump as they seem to do much better that way.. if you separate them too much they just are not happy.

On planting the baby asparagus I just put it about one per square foot down the row.. sounds like too much but once they get bigger they will spread in about a foot round direction. I mulched with leaf mold too(just decomposed leaves from the pile).
hope this helps a bit.. Oh I only use fish fertilizer very weak on the baby plants, smells bad but the plants don't mind..

 

[BarredBuff]

Since we got a snow day, it will be garden planning day!

 

[sleuth]

You are starting your asparagus from seeds? I did buy seeds a few years ago, but I somehow lost them and then I was too much in a hurry anyway, so I bought year old crowns and set up a bed of 30 plants.
Sounds like you have done the best you could. You are still a rookie, but you have been reading up on it and are willing to keep at it.
Lots of my knowledge came from books and magazines.
But, alas....I can't talk to you about Ohio. I"m probably about 2500 or more miles south of you....

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to start with. I need to put in my orders now. Trying to start up as inexpensive as possible so seeds are the preferred route.

 

[sleuth]

I've started all three before and even here in Michigan I start some stuff in February.
I fill little cups with soil-less seed starter(I used plantation mix I think that is the brand name) and soak it with warm to hot water to get it to dampen well and sprinkle the onion and chive seed rather thickly on top and then top with about 1/8 inch of the soil-less mix that has been dampened and squeezed dry and then I put a piece of plastic wrap on top and put in a warm area.. It will sprout and look like "double bladed" grass that will slowly "unkink" to become one long skinny blade of onion or chive(they both look the same so make sure you label well) I have two pots of chives that I seeded this fall and let them grow and then it got cold out on the porch and I kinda forgot them and saw them this week and brought them in and cut the dead stuff off the top and let them thaw out(they were frozen solid) and then watered and both are sprouting out very quickly and seem to be doing very well in the very cold kitchen window. I've done onions and they loved the cool kitchen window too.
Asparagus I only put about three big or four big seeds in each cup and I keep them warm and while not drippy wet, I'd say damp.. they take what seems like just forever to sprout but they do sprout and grow and I put them in the warmer area of the house under my big florescent lights as the nice south windows in my home are on the cold side of the house that we don't heat.. if I ever get the money to gut the house and re"wall" it I will put the living areas on the south side of the house so that we can enjoy the sun in the winter. Heck if I had money I'd move and build to suit what I want out of a good solar house..
But with asparagus you are going to be waiting for almost 4 to 5 years before you can get enuf out of the plants for good eating. they are a bit slow on the grow! I did plant out and now harvest from the ones I started from seed but I broke down and bought plants, and they are planted out right around last frost ( well that is when I planted my crowns).

I am going to try "Evergreen Long White Bunching" onions this year and I just bought the seed and will be seeding them in the next week or so.

Some folks say that once the onions get to be about 9 inches tall they trim them back to about 5. I don't do this and mine do okay.. and I let them be crowded in the little cups till I plant out side and I just prepare the soil and poke holes in with a chopstick and I rinse the soil less mix off the bunch of little onions and carefully separate them and drop them in the holes that i just poked with the chopstick.
Now you will have to judge your onion sizes and make the holes to the right deepness. you can rot baby onions if planted too deep past their little junction where the new leaves come up from.
On planting the chives.. I just pop them whole out of the cup and plop down in a clump as they seem to do much better that way.. if you separate them too much they just are not happy.

On planting the baby asparagus I just put it about one per square foot down the row.. sounds like too much but once they get bigger they will spread in about a foot round direction. I mulched with leaf mold too(just decomposed leaves from the pile).
hope this helps a bit.. Oh I only use fish fertilizer very weak on the baby plants, smells bad but the plants don't mind..

That helps a lot. More information than I anticipated.
I'd heard that you shouldn't harvest the asparagus until the 2nd year. You're saying 5. I currently had planned to put them in a raised waist-high bed (which is made from untreated lumber). Sounds like given the time it takes to mature, I should put these in a bed on the ground.

 

[Wannabefree]

Don't forget beets, radishes, lettuces, almost any greens, spinach, some varieties of peas, potatoes, and carrots. You can start all of those about the same time as onions and asparagus. I'm in zone 7, so I can't give much advice, but I can tell you what plants get planted early. I have radishes, carrots, spinach, and onions started, oh and tomatoes, but my tomatoes are super early even for my area, but it's because of the variety I got and that i will be utilizing the greenhouse for a few weeks before transplanting them. I need to get some seed potatoes planted this week as well. SO GOOD to be talking gardening!!!

 

[mrscoyote]

WBF, where do you get your seed potatoes? I would like to plant some but want non gmo type.
Nancy

 

[Wannabefree]

Truthfully I don't worry much about those and just get them from my local feed store when they get them in I don't see them in the seed catalogs..I would assume there are places online to order seed potatoes(?) but I have never checked. I don't think they are so bad about gmo as other crops like corn. I am very picky about where I buy corn seed!

 

[mrscoyote]

Thanks, I'll check our feed store.