SALAD CROPS.
Salad crops are close kin to pot-herbs. But a salad is eaten uncooked,
while pot-herbs are boiled. Some plants are used both ways, but they
are then classed according to their most general use. Salad crops need
a cool, moist soil and quick continuous growth. As has been frequently
said before, (but not too frequently,) this can only be obtained
by having the soil in good condition and plenty of plant food in a
shape that the crop can eat. Salad crops need plenty of water, clean,
thorough culture, and a good deal of prompt attention, but they mature
so rapidly, that the demands are not really excessive. Having supplied
their needs, you must, thereafter, depend upon the weather to help you
perfect your crop. If you get dry, tough, wilted salad crops, you need
not take the trouble to harvest them, for nobody wants that sort; and
that is the only kind you can raise if you neglect them.
There is no pleasure like the ever-new exultation and joy of seeing
the things we ourselves have planted come up; and these lovely colored
shoots, springing from the brown earth, serve to renew our faith in the
bounty of Nature and the loving order of the world—as well as to fill
our pockets.
LETTUCE.
The most popular salad crop is lettuce, a hardy, short-season,
companion- or succession-crop requiring moist, rich, mellow soil, and
plant food in quickly available form. It is easy of culture and is
chiefly grown in the open, though the demand for it has increased to
such an extent that it is started in hot-beds or forcing houses that
it may be earlier on the market. You can get it in about five weeks.
Coolness and continuous growth are necessary to prevent toughness and
bitterness. It is little grown in the summer, though the Cos variety
can stand the hot weather very well, if the soil is moist and cool.
Lettuce does better if transplanted and for that reason it is usually
sown in seed-beds; in transplanting, it is usual to cut off the top
third of the leaves, unless the seedlings are very stocky; but the
mid-season and later crops may be sown where the plants are to stand.
Fall lettuce should be sown in late August or early September, and, as
it is easier to control soil conditions and to get quick sprouting in
a seed-bed than in the field at that dry time of year, it is better
to use the seed-bed. At any time lettuce does best in a soil that is
loose and “warm,” that is known to gardeners as “quick.” Heavy, clayey
soils are not adapted to lettuce, so see that your soil is pulverized
and well fertilized before the seeds are sown. It has been found to pay
well to treat the soil with nitrate of soda after the plants are set,
because of the more rapid growth. The soda is applied dry, at the rate
of two or three hundred pounds to the acre, and then raked or tilled
in. Lettuce seed is sown thickly and the plants thinned, as they become
edible, to about a foot apart. The thinnings make excellent “greens.”
The rows are usually 8 to 12 inches apart.
When grown as a succession-crop, lettuce may be followed by cabbage,
early cauliflower, celery and other things. Or, it may be grown between
the cabbages and cauliflower as a companion-crop, since it matures
before either, and leaves the land to those plants when they need all
the space. Seed may be sown successionally until warm weather, and you
may count upon 1000 plants for each ounce of seed. There are three
well-known tribes: head lettuce, cut or curly-leaved, and Cos, and a
fourth variety little known, called narrow-leaved lettuce. There are
about 100 varieties. Field-grown lettuce has few enemies.
ENDIVE.
Endive is a summer and fall crop, thriving at a time when it is not
easy to grow lettuce to perfection.[7] It is, therefore, a good
addition to lettuce, and its culture is largely the same, though endive
takes longer to mature than lettuce does. Endive matures under proper
care about fifty days after the seeds are sown. If seeds are sown in
June the plants will be fit for table use in August or September.
Endive requires about the same sort of soil as lettuce, the same
tillage and the same general treatment. The plants should stand about
a foot apart each way to make cultivation easier. It is sometimes sown
in cold-frames, but just as often in the open field, and successive
sowings will give successive crops, but that which gets its start
during hot weather is not satisfactory. The inside leaves of the crown
are usually blanched by tying them together near the tops for two or
three weeks before the plants are ready for market. The blanched sort
brings a better price. The disadvantages of blanching are that the
plants fade and decay quickly unless used at once, and if rain or damp
weather follows the tying-up, there is great danger of decay while in
the ground. So the plants must be examined occasionally to see that
they are doing well. When endive is used as a pot-herb, as it sometimes
is, it is better to pick the new young plants before they have time to
head or can be blanched. The coarse, outer leaves of the plant are apt
to be bitter and tough, so that only the leaves of the crown are used
for salads.
With all these crops you can see why nearness to market is so
important—even though the land is higher priced.
CHICORY.
Chicory has various uses and is now quite largely grown in gardens. As
a salad plant only the tender, blanched leaves of the crown are used.
The outer, green leaves are often used for “greens,” like dandelion.
Chicory is not a surface feeder like most salad plants, but is grown
as a root crop the same as carrots or parsnips. The soil must be deep,
that the roots may come to perfection by fall; cuttings of leaves may
be made during the season. The roots may be left in the ground over the
winter. Chicory is really a perennial, but under cultivation it is
better to grow a new lot of plants each year. When wanted for winter
use, the strong roots are taken up in the fall, and buried in a sloping
direction in a pit or cellar, with the crown of the plant showing an
inch or so above the sand or earth. The growing-place must be kept
dark, and in a few weeks the small, prized leaves begin to show. When
chicory plants are covered, crowns and all, with about two feet of
manure, they develop heads resembling lettuce heads. The young, tender
roots of chicory are eaten as beets or carrots are, while the dried
root is extensively used in place of coffee. This accounts for the
increased area devoted to chicory in this country of recent years; it
is less injurious to the nerves than coffee.
CRESS.
There is a delicate “bite” and piquant flavor to cress, that makes
it a favorite for salads and for garnishings. Of the three kinds in
general use, the water-cress is probably the best liked, but to bring
it to perfection it is necessary to have a running brook of clean, cool
water. To grow it in a drain is a good way to get typhoid fever. It
is a perennial, and readily propagates itself when once it has got a
start, while the grower can increase its spread by scattering seeds
along the brookside, or by planting bits of stems in the mud. When once
established it will care for itself, and gives the grower no trouble.
Although it does best along the sides of running streams, water-cress
will grow anywhere if it can get moisture enough, even though not
covered with water. Any moist, shady garden spot will do, if it is
frequently watered, and gardeners often use abandoned hot-bed pits,
where the hose can be turned on the plants daily.
Two women made a nice profit by sending fine water-cress, packed in
oiled paper and cardboard boxes, to select customers by mail.
Common garden cress is a cool-weather, short-season annual, whose
seeds may be sown early in the spring in a cool, rich soil, as its
whole value as a salad plant depends upon its quick, vigorous growth.
The plant runs quickly to seed in hot weather, or if left in the
ground until late in the season. It is easily grown in pots or boxes
in the house in winter; or, if wanted for fall use, the seeds may be
sown in late summer and in early fall. Under ordinary conditions, the
leaves are ready for use about six to eight weeks after seed is sown.
There are a number of varieties of the garden cress; the sort with
curled leaves being most in demand. It is not so well known here as
in Europe. The third variety, known as the upland or upright cress,
is perfectly hardy and common to all parts of the United States.
In cultivation it is usually treated as an annual or as a winter
perennial. Seeds may be sown late in the season, when the young plants
will be ready for use early in the spring; or, they may be sown in
the earliest spring and will be ready for use about fifty-two days
after sowing. If grown through the summer they are apt to be bitter
and tough, unless grown in a shady place. The upland cress resembles
water-cress in flavor.
CORN SALAD.
Corn salad is not so well known here as in Europe, where it is
highly prized as a fall and winter salad and as a pot-herb. It is a
cool-season crop, grown as lettuce is. It is hardy and may be sown as
early in spring as the soil can be worked. It comes to maturity in six
or eight weeks, producing a bunch of leaves something like spinach.
It may also be sown in the fall and protected in winter the same as
spinach, so as to have very early plants in the spring, or, if sown
late in the summer, it will give edible leaves in the fall, and in
a mild, open season, will nourish all through the winter. In warm
weather or dry places, it soon runs to seed. It is very easy to raise
corn salad in any cool soil, and an ounce of seed will give from 2000
to 3000 plants, which should stand about six inches apart in the rows.
PARSLEY.
Parsley is the most popular of all the garnishing herbs, and requires
no special care from the gardener, so long as it is planted in a cool,
moist soil. The leaves are used for salads and for flavoring as well
as for garnishing. Parsley seed is slow growing, and unless the garden
soil is in excellent tilth and moist to the very surface, it is better
to start the plants in a seed-bed. Although the plant is biennial, the
foliage is usually gathered the first year and the plant destroyed,
unless seed is wanted. In all these green things, it has been found
better to adopt the annual treatment rather than let them develop into
biennials or perennials, though that may be their natural habit: we can
improve the nature of plants, animals and men.
SALAD CHERVIL.
Although salad chervil closely resembles parsley and may be used the
same way, it is very little known in this country. It requires about
the same culture as parsley, and is easy to grow in cool, moist soil
in spring or fall. It does not thrive well in our hot summers, but
with very little protection from cold-frames or even from brush, it
can be carried safely through the winter, if the weather is not very
severe. The curly-leaved variety is the most popular, whether used
as garnishing or seasoning. The salad chervil grows nearly two feet
high when it reaches full maturity, but the young foliage is the most
prized. It will give leaves for cutting in six or eight weeks after the
seed is sown.
CELERY.
All garden or field crops are divided into two classes, those whose
seeds are sown where the crop is to grow; and those whose seeds must be
planted in special conditions, such as seed-beds, hot-beds or forcing
houses. Celery is always a seed-bed crop, and occasionally a hot-bed
or forcing-house crop, according to the time when the grower wishes
it to mature. It requires a cool, rich, very moist soil, in excellent
tilth, where surface tillage is maintained throughout the whole season.
Although good celery may be grown on uplands by means of extra care
and attention, it usually grows best in rich, moist, bottom lands.
Reclaimed marshes, whose soil has been pulverized and fertilized,
are ideal celery plots, because there the moisture is sufficient even
during the heat of summer. Celery cannot stand exposure to the direct
heat of the sun, and on exposed places many growers find it necessary
to shade the crop.
Celery seeds are very small and slow to sprout and are sown broadcast
or in rows. If in rows the sowing is very shallow. The seedlings are
tender and delicate, so that it is only in a well-prepared seed-bed
that the plants can be satisfactorily raised. The site of the bed
should be selected with great care, so as to protect it from hot or
dry winds, and to make it convenient to water it every evening. Celery
requires a great deal of moisture. The soil must be in such excellent
tilth that it will hold moisture up to the very surface without the
help of a mulch. Some growers do use a mulch in growing celery, but it
makes the delicate seedlings so much more delicate that the loss from
sun-scald upon transplanting is likely to be heavy. If you do use a
covering of any sort, be careful to begin to remove it as soon as the
plants begin to grow, and take it all off before they are up enough to
be transplanted. But if you make your seed-bed carefully, you will not
need a covering for it.
Even when you have taken so much pains to start your celery crop, the
work is by no means done. To secure good, strong, stocky plants, they
should be transplanted once or twice in the seed-bed before the final
transplanting to the garden. It is essential in North Carolina, says
Prof. Massey, to transplant celery once before setting in field or
garden. This entails so much labor, that many growers are now using the
thinning process in place of these various transplantings, and even in
the seed-bed the young plants are thinned to stand two to three inches
apart and the tops are sheared if they grow tall too soon. The plants
may be safely cut back a third or even a half of their growth. In small
garden plots, shears or a sickle may be used, but, in the large fields,
growers generally use a scythe.
There is usually a good deal of loss in celery seed, so it is well to
sow it very thickly, and then you may reasonably expect from 20,000 to
30,000 plants to the acre. An ounce of seed will plant about 200 feet
of row, and if good, should give from 5000 to 10,000 plants, although
where losses are very heavy the yield is frequently only 2000 to the
ounce of seed. One pound of seed should give plants enough to set out
four or five acres.
Celery is grown both as an early-season and as a late crop, depending
upon the location of the plot. On the higher lands, it is either an
early or a succession-crop, following early cabbages, lettuce or other
short-season crops. But on rich, bottom lands, it is a whole-season
crop, as the land there is too wet to be worked early in the spring.
Some growers raise two or three crops of celery in a season from one
plot, the later or main crop being planted between the rows of the
early crop. As celery may be set out as late as the middle or last of
July, even in the Northern States, the main crop does not interfere
with the early crop, which may be set out as soon as the ground is
ready.
For two crops, the soil needs more attention than where only one is
raised, because cultivation and fertilizer must add and preserve the
moisture which is natural to the lower levels. Celery needs potash
and nitrogen, and these foods are supplied by unleached wood ashes
and well-rotted stable manure. Coarse, new manures must not be used,
as they make the soil coarse and also cause weeds. Only old, fine,
well-rotted manure will do for the celery bed.
When tillage is given the growing plant, care must be taken not to
disturb the roots. The soil may be stirred only at the extreme end of
the tiny rootlets, and if fertilizer is applied it must be placed at
the same point. Some growers make tiny trenches between the rows and
cultivate and fertilize there. Celery is one of the crops that call for
thoroughly intelligent care. In many localities where the weather is
hot or dry, sub-irrigation, by means of tile-drains, has supplied the
needed moisture for this thirsty crop.
There is an entirely new celery culture in the sterile sand of Florida
by commercial fertilizer; but that is a subject by itself. The Florida
Experiment Station will give particulars.
The plants should be four or five inches high when transplanted and the
stems stocky and green. They are set from 10 to 12 inches apart in the
rows and the distance between the rows depends mainly upon the method
of blanching. To bring a good price in the market, celery must always
be blanched, although many growers prefer it in its natural condition
for their own use.
Celery is blanched in three ways: Blanching by boarding; by banking
up with earth, or by blanching in storage pits. Boarding is generally
applied only to summer celery, as it does not afford protection enough
for plants left in the field after early October. It is the simplest
and most economical method of blanching, and where used, the rows may
be two or three feet apart to admit of horse cultivation.
For blanching by boarding, planks 12 to 14 feet long, one foot wide
and about an inch thick are preferred. These planks are set on edge
on either side of the row close to the root crown of the plants, and
tipped until they rest against the tops of the plants with their edges
only two or three inches apart. Either wire hooks or cleats nailed
across the tops are used to keep the boards in position. This boarding
or blanching process is begun as soon as the plants are tall enough to
show a few leaves above the board. As the stalks shoot up in search
of light, the leaves fill the spaces between the boards and exclude
light from the stalks. Great care must be exercised in warm weather
that the plants do not rot at the heart because of too great moisture.
Experience will teach you that it is well to get good lumber that may
be used many seasons, rather than cheap boards which will warp or crack
in one season.
Blanching by banking with earth, often gives a better quality of
celery, but it is much more expensive and cannot be so safely used
in summer, as it tends to rotting at the heart. It usually requires
two or three bankings or “handlings,” as they are called, during the
season. The first is given when the plant has spread so as to make a
head about eighteen inches across. Then it is gathered in the hand
and held, while earth is banked up around it about two-thirds of its
height. In ten days or a fortnight this is done again, and in the very
tall varieties once again. When this method is used the rows are from
three and one-half to four feet apart. Of late years large growers use
a “celery plow” for banking.
When celery is to be blanched in storage it is usually “handled” once
while in the field, so as to start the process of blanching. Afterwards
the plants are placed so close together in pits or sheds that the
blanching goes on until the crop is ready for market.
There is another method of blanching celery which is particularly
successful in small areas. It consists of growing the plants so close
together that the light is excluded and the crop blanches as it grows.
It is then grown as close as six or eight inches apart either way. This
is called the “new celery culture,” and is successful where the hose
can be freely used to supply the necessary moisture.
_Storing._
But the care necessary for growing celery does not end even with the
blanching. It extends to storing, which is also important to the crop.
There are several well-known methods, chief of which are storing in
outside pits or cellars and storing in celery houses. Usually the
outside pit or cellar is a temporary affair and a very satisfactory one
is built like the regular vegetable pit: the way to make that is given
in another chapter.
If celery is to remain crisp and juicy, it must make a very slow growth
all the time it is in the store-house, and should be kept just above
freezing point.
When you prepare your celery for market, be sure to clean it
thoroughly. This may be done by washing, or it may require scrubbing,
but be sure to have it clean. Remove the outside leaves and trim the
roots down to a point, then pack in boxes or trays. And right here
comes in another reason for studying your particular market, because
the number of bunches of celery packed in a box or tray—and even
whether you use a box or a tray—depends upon the market you supply. It
varies with different markets.
In the “new celery culture” where the plants are set so closely
together that they blanch themselves, it takes 150,000 plants to an
acre. This method of growing requires greatly increased quantities of
fertilizers or results will be very unsatisfactory. The dwarf varieties
of celery are most in demand, and the favorites for summer and fall are
White Plume, Golden Self-Blanching and Kalamazoo; while for late winter
and spring, Boston Market and Arlington are standard sorts.
The chief diseases are leaf blight and leaf spot and the fungi that
attack the plants in storage. For leaf blight, dip young plants in weak
solution of copper carbonate, and treat the young growing plants twice
a week. It is well to read up on diseases; and for blight read the
Department of Agriculture Report, 1886, pp. 117-120; Cornell Bulletin
132, pp. 203-205. To avoid leaf-spot, select seed carefully, treat it
with Bordeaux mixture while in seed-bed, and continue its use if you
fear an attack. Read New York Bulletin 51 and Cornell Bulletin 132. For
dealing with the diseases that develop during storage, read Cornell
Bulletin 132, and Bailey’s “Vegetable Gardening,” p. 229. If you wish
to know all that celery specialists have discovered about this crop,
read Greiner, Hollister, Rawson, Vaughan, Stewart, Von Bochove and
Crider. These books may be found in some good public libraries or will
be supplied by our house.
Understanding all this attention and care, you can easily see why there
is big money in a successful celery crop, and why Florida’s flat sand
lands are making their owners rich raising celery—or raising rents and
prices.
CELERIAC.
Celeriac is a form of celery, or at least is a very near relation to
the real celery, and requires about the same soil preparation and the
same conditions and tillage. Celeriac is frequently sown where it is
to stand, but as the seed is as slow to sprout as celery, this is not
really a wise plan. Sown in a seed-bed and transplanted, the crop gives
far better results. In celeriac it is not the stalk but the enlarged,
tuber-like root which is eaten, and the plant requires no blanching. It
may be eaten raw in a salad, or cooked, as you like. Good roots should
be from three to four inches in diameter and they may be kept through
winter by packing in sand or moss as many other vegetables may be kept.
Celeriac is sown in the same quantities as celery seed, the rows being
only far enough apart to allow of cultivation, and the plants from six
to eight inches apart in the rows. Being of a dwarf nature the close
planting does not cause the plant to over-shade itself.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] NOTE.—Fullerton says that the narrow-leaved, deeply serrated plant
called endive in this country, in France is the chicory or succory
known to all Americans as a roadside weed with beautiful blue flowers
like a very open aster.