Flowers GrowingYour personal florist | All about flowers, gardening, plants, arrangements, flower shops

One of the first jobs a gardener needs to do is to decide what crops to grow. This is fun, but it’s also serious business. Unfortunately, we can’t grow everything we might like in a small, backyard garden or in a community garden plot. Your first consideration should be what do you and your family like to eat. Other important factors to think about are the value of the crop and its nutrition.

Value & Nutrition of Crop

Vegetable value can be due to either a high price per pound or a high yield of produce. Vegetables highest in value for the space they take up are:
1. Tomatoes, grown up supports to save space
2. Rhubarb
3. Green bunching onions
4. Leaf lettuce
5. Turnips, for greens and roots
6. Summer squash: zucchini, scallop and yellow types
7. Asparagus
8. Edible podded peas
9. Onion bulbs for storage
10. Beans, pole or runner types (green or wax pod)
11. Beets, grown for green tops and roots
12. Beans, bush (green or wax pod)
13. Carrots
14. Cucumbers, grown up supports to save space
15. Peppers, sweet or bell
16. Broccoli
17. Kohlrabi
18. Swiss chard
19. Mustard greens
20. Spinach

At the bottom of the list are potatoes, Brussels sprouts, celery, corn, winter squash and melons. Other veggies are in between. Read the rest of this entry »

You can also read the Care and Handling of cut flowers part II and part I

Mechanical Damage

Avoid bruising and breaking cut flowers which reduces their aesthetic value and, thus, their wholesale/retail value. Pathogens (disease organisms) may gain access through wounded areas and, thus, further decrease their value. Ethylene production and respiration are both natural wound responses. These two reactions greatly accelerate in response to mechanical damage and, thus, shorten postharvest life.

Diseases

Flowers and foliage packed moist after harvest are very susceptible to a number of disease organisms. Condensation of water on the flowers or foliage encourages diseases. Avoid moving flowers directly from cool to warm rooms which results in water droplets forming. Botrytis (gray mold) is the most common disease wherever excessive moisture occurs.
Although botrytis can be controlled by fungicides, proper environmental management is the best method. Reduce excessive humidity and do not allow water to sit on the flowers and foliage. Read the rest of this entry »

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