Gardening Report: Succession Planting

Even though the area is getting deluged with rain, gardeners are pretty happy with this years production of crops. Tonight in our Garden Report, Julie Riley talks about a few plants that you can work with to make them continue to grow.

Pull out the seed packets, it's time to plant! You've already harvested your radishes, your turnips, your beets and you have a few empty spaces in the garden. Or maybe you've got molting vegetables that need to come out. And radishes are a 40 day crop and after awhile they flower and stop making a nice, round root. Lettuce bolts, which extend up a big flower stalk like this here and at that point it's often really bitter. And so you'll want to get it out and replant more lettuce. So these are not just 1 time crops, sometimes you can get 2 crops. 2 or 3 or 4 crops of mustard in a single season. I'm over at the community gardens at University of Alaska Fairbanks and I've got a pot next to me here that is a beautiful example of succession planting. Here we have young radishes that are just ready to pop their second set of leaves. The cilantro is looking young and fresh, beets are gonna be ready to pull in a little while. So you don't have to plant everything at once. We do have some tatsoi here that is grown to flower, this is bolting, premature succeeding or when the lifecycle of the plant is over is want to grow a flower and produce seeds. I'm Julie Riley, with UAF Cooperative Extension Service, I hope to see you at the Tanana Valley State Fair on Wednesday. That's entry day, where gardeners who want to exhibit fruits and flowers. Wednesday, August 7th from 1 to 6pm. I hope to see you there.