Harvest extension and plant propagation

Extended harvest

Some annual vegetables grow and mature quickly, so there is an opportunity for another vegetable planting in the same season. This allows you to enjoy the harvest for a longer time than usual. There are two ways to plant plants in succession.

The first method is to spread out the intended sowing start dates to cover the entire harvest window. This method uses plant varieties of the same species when the DIS is consistent. However, you also need to know how long the plant will grow edible leaves or fruits. A fruit ripening period of three weeks can be calculated for the example of tomatoes, when the crop is to be harvested between August 15 and October 19.

With this information, it can be determined that to distribute the tomato crop over 9 weeks, you will need to plant tomatoes one after the other every 3 weeks. Given the 3-week sowing intervals and starting with the first sowing on 23 April, subsequent sowing dates can be scheduled on 14 May. and June 4

Another method of planting is to sow varieties of the same plant with different maturity dates. In this case, the plants should be planted on the same day. This method requires a little more experience and practice to achieve consistent yields over a long period of time, given the differences in yield potential and harvest duration. However, if three different varieties of tomatoes are selected with harvest dates of 72, 102 and 132 days, then you could have a steady supply of tomatoes for nine weeks.

In this article, we take a closer look at seeding planning.

Plant propagation

Plants reproduce in one of two ways: sexually or asexually. Sexual reproduction is the result of fertilization when both male (sperm in pollen) and female (eggs in the ovule, pistils inside the ovary) gametes come together. Sexually reproduced seeds create a new plant that has its own unique genetics. Annual vegetables are plants that reproduce sexually and complete their entire life cycle (sprouting, vegetative growth, flowering, and seed production) in one year.

Asexual reproduction uses plant division, cutting off branches, separation of plant tissues, and other methods used to reproduce plants without the exchange of genes during sexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction produces a new generation of plants that are genetically identical to the original source. This method is widespread among perennial fruits, berries, nuts and many varieties of garden plants.

Open-pollinated and hybrid seeds

There are two types of seeds to consider when starting plants: open-pollinated and hybrid seeds. Open-pollinated seeds occur when fertilization occurs within the same flower (self-pollination) or when pollen from one plant fertilizes the flowers of another plant through cross-pollination. Open-pollinated seeds retain vigor and other traits through subsequent generations of the plant and are generally referred to as standard varieties. Greenhouses can play a vital role in the cultivation of open-pollinated varieties by helping to isolate them from the pollen of other varieties. Among the plant varieties that are open pollinated are heirloom seeds. These seeds have been passed down through many generations of the plant.

A hybrid seed develops through controlled cross-pollination, where two genetically different parents are crossed. Hybrids are created from related lines of plant varieties and certain genes are deliberately targeted for specific traits such as plant vigor, uniformity, size, shape, yield, taste, quality, storage capacity and resistance to pests and diseases. The first generation of seeds are called F1 hybrids, and due to the complexity of the breeding process, F1 generation seeds are not protected because the plants they will grow into (F2 generations) can inherit both desirable and undesirable characteristics that were present in the parent genes.