What To Do For A Gardener And Gardener In September

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

The main concern of gardeners in September is to harvest without losses

The main concerns of gardeners and gardeners this month are devoted to the harvesting of the crop grown on the personal plot and laying it for long-term storage in processed or fresh form. In addition, in September, perennial plants begin to prepare for wintering and they need help in this so that they can then survive the cold season.

For both plants and site owners, the current growing season has been challenging. The weather throughout May and early June was colder than we are used to observing over the past ten years. The lag with the arrival of heat by mid-June already reached about 2-2.5 weeks, which could not but affect the development and subsequent ripening of the crop of cultivated plants. The days with warm weather, which had established since mid-June, gradually turned into an unusually long July heat with rather, alas, rare rains that could not provide the plants with moisture in abundance. Moisture deficit was especially sensitive on light sandy soils and in areas located in higher places.

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Many gardeners had to spend a lot of time and energy on watering vegetables and berries. Of course, if there was water for irrigation, because many of the gardens in their gardens have dried up.

Due to the July heat, the sum of effective temperatures in our region "pulled up" to the average annual indicator. But the high dryness of the air caused a strong evaporation of water from the foliage in plants, while the root system could not provide for it due to a lack of moisture in the soil. But it is known that very low air humidity and hot weather, even with a sufficient amount of moisture in the soil, strongly affect, for example, the potato yield - it decreases by 30 - 40%, especially if they fall on the period of its flowering and tuber mass accumulation. Most likely, a similar situation was noted for all other crops that form their harvest in the soil.

Fruit and berry crops began to experience a serious moisture deficit in the soil in late July - early August, if the plots were not located in low places, since the small night rains did not always manage to saturate the soil with moisture. In low areas, some water supply was formed due to the slow evaporation of moisture during cold May and as a result of heavy rains in June. By the way, these precipitations in the first half of June caused damage to the sprouting potatoes and their sprouts coming out to the surface, causing suffocation and rotting of tubers in the soil of those gardeners who planted it in the 20th of May, as it should be in our climate.

All these "cataclysms" of the weather could affect the ripening of the crop, since during the entire growing season the weather seemed to rush "from one extreme to another", but by the tenth of September we again approached the warmth, in general, to the average annual indicator.

From the end of the first ten days of September, active harvesting of fruits of most of the autumn varieties of pome crops (apple and pear) and black chokeberry berries begins. I want to remind you that the fruits are removed from the trees carefully, without shaking them off or knocking them off the branches, since, having received mechanical damage, they are not stored, and in places where they are injured, they begin to rot and quickly deteriorate. Picking apples and pears (especially from tall trees) is usually carried out using long ladders or using special so-called "fruit pickers". The fruits are removed from the branches so that no dents are made on their surface with your fingers. First of all, they try to tear them off without damaging the branch itself; while tearing off, the stalk is simultaneously twisted. According to experts, it is preferable to remove fruits with a whole stalk: then apples and pears are stored much more successfully than without a stalk. The most optimal days for picking apples and pears are days with dry weather, they are removed as soon as the dew dries up. It must be borne in mind that the fruits that have fallen to the ground must be immediately used for food or put up for processing.

Apples and pears that you are going to send for long-term storage should be very carefully examined, revealing fruits with mechanical damage. Good fruits should not have lesions of the peel with fruit rot, otherwise they will not be stored, even if the disease is noted only in the form of barely noticeable dots. Fruits sick with this rot are usually buried in the ground to a depth of at least half a meter.

In the presence of small spots of scab, which could appear on the fruits as early as mid-July, the gardener still has the hope of successfully storing his products for some time, but it should not be delayed for too long. It is important to dry the fruits with such a manifestation of scab for 2-3 days indoors before laying them for winter content. But nevertheless, it is advisable to send fruits with an unaffected peel for storage, and only in case of a shortage of harvest, should we neglect a weak defeat of scab of plant products.

Experts strongly advise against sending apples and pears for long-term storage, which have visible damage on the surface, typical for moth and leafworm caterpillars. It is highly likely that such pests may still contain these pests, which will continue to feed during storage and further destroy the pulp. Wormy fruits must be buried deeply or sent for processing.

In warm weather in the first half of September, by the end of the month, removable maturity of many winter (mid-late and late ripening periods) varieties of pome crops can occur. Sometimes gardeners have a desire (especially with a good harvest) to keep apples fresh for longer. For this purpose, some of them take good fruits, not mechanically damaged, outwardly healthy and clean from the surface, and dip them in a 5% aqueous solution of wax, to dissolve which they use hot (up to 60-70 ° C) water.

Some gardeners preserve apples. Of course, injured fruits and fruits, even with small specks of rot, for example, apples, are not used for canning, even if their pulp is thoroughly cleaned from the rotten mass.

During heat treatment, all the recommended rules are observed, avoiding an excessive increase in temperature. According to practitioners, the addition of ascorbic acid (5 g / kg of raw material) to canned food not only enhances the taste of the product, but also largely preserves the good appearance and nutritional value of these preparations.

When canning, be sure to pay attention to the ripeness of apples, since not all apple varieties are suitable for this processing. Some of them are better suited for compotes, for example, Brown new, Antonovka ordinary, Melba, Autumn striped, Papirovka, Sinap Orlovsky. Compotes are excellent if they are made from apples with a slight sourness, without integumentary coloring or slightly colored. In any case, the fruit should be ripe, but not overripe.

Other varieties are very suitable for making jam from them. Such jam is praised if it is made from apples of such varieties as Spartan, Brown striped, White anise, Babushkino, Autumn striped, Pepin saffron and Renet Chernenko. The preparation of apple juice is practiced (then it tastes better) from varieties characterized by moderate acidity and a sufficient percentage of sugar - Antonovka ordinary, Melba, Pepin saffron, Lobo, Bessemyanka Michurinskaya and Zhigulevskoe. To improve the taste of compotes, some practitioners mix too acidic apple juices with pear juice, combining them in various proportions.

You can try to cook pickled apples, since vitamins and carbohydrates are well preserved in such products, organic compounds are not destroyed. For this purpose, apples of autumn and winter ripening are preferred, which are distinguished by a sweet and sour taste and a dense white or creamy pulp. Among the varieties of apples suitable for peeing are called pineapple Borovinka, Brown striped, Antonovka white, Sinap Orlovsky, Autumn striped and Pepin saffron.

The most convenient containers for wetting fruits are glass bottles with a wide mouth, oak barrels (with a capacity of 25 liters), enamel bowls and pots. Before laying, the fruits are thoroughly washed and sorted. They are laid in dense rows in containers, the bottom and walls of which are covered with rye straw, previously scalded with hot water. Each row of apples is also shifted with this straw. If small containers are used, instead of straw, you can use blackcurrant leaves, adding to them for taste a few sprigs of mint and tarragon. Then the apples are poured with a special solution made up of 300 g of sugar, 100 g of salt and 100 g of rye flour or malt (based on 10 liters of hot water).

Practitioners advise to sprinkle the topmost layer of "packing" material with a small layer of mustard powder to avoid mold. After laying the apples and pouring the solution, the container is closed on top with a clean wooden circle. In small containers, for example, in glass jars, so that the fruits do not float, they are pressed from above with boiled flexible birch splinters. More often, the cans are rolled up with lacquered lids, but a part (1-1.5 cm) of the intermediate ring is cut out to release the gas released during fermentation. Containers with apples are kept for 1-1.5 weeks at a temperature of 15 … 18 ° C, after which they are placed for subsequent maintenance in a cool place (cellar, refrigerator, etc.). The most acceptable temperature for optimal preservation of pickled apples is considered to be 2 … 4 ° C. After 1.5-2 months, the soaked products are ready for use.

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Most fruit growers believe that the optimal time for planting fruit and berry crops is spring. But sometimes circumstances develop like this - for example, they suddenly acquired a very good seedling, - that they have to do planting in the fall. In addition, we are all already beginning to get used to the fact that October often "spoils" us with good weather in its first 1.5-2 decades. The main thing is to comply with the requirement that the plants planted in autumn take root before the onset of stable frosts. Although, of course, a good gardener still must prepare in advance for the acquisition of seedlings of the planned crops and varieties and arrange a planting hole for them in advance.

When choosing and buying fruit and berry planting material, it is imperative to make sure that all seedlings are healthy and have a normally developed aerial part and root system. They must be free from damage by rodents or disease. If you find sores on the central branch or on the side shoots, it is better to discard such plants, as this may be the result of infectious diseases. If the gardener still wants to try to preserve and then heal such acquired seedlings, then he should do the following. The upper parts of the lateral shoots and the central branch (in the latter case, this should concern only a small area) are cut 2-3 cm below the lesion site. The cut pieces of branches are burned, the cuts are treated with a solution of copper sulfate and covered with garden pitch. Saplings of apple trees with growths on the root system are immediately discarded, since this is usually a manifestation of bacteriosis.

Other gardeners practice temporary (until spring) digging in the seedlings purchased in September (and even more so in October) in the fall. In the spring, a permanent place is already determined for them. When planting, broken branches are cut off from seedlings of fruit and berry crops, and from currants and gooseberries, the tops of the shoots are removed if they are affected by diseases.

Harvesting of vegetable crops in open ground, first of all, begins with root crops, in which the top is above the soil surface. These are beets, turnips, rutabagas and carrots. Days with dry weather are chosen for cleaning. It must be borne in mind that when harvesting in rainy weather, wet plant products will be poorly stored and become more quickly affected by fungal and bacterial infections.

For winter storage of carrots, as a rule, they leave the harvest of this crop, sown in the second half of May. Root crops grown from spring sowing are stored much worse, so it is more advisable to use them for food in the fall, in the first place. Carrots should be harvested before frost, since even light freezing (-1 … -2 ° C) negatively affects long-term storage. After finishing harvesting, after drying, its roots are immediately laid for storage, since in the open air they quickly lose water and become lethargic.

It is most convenient to pick up root crops with a pitchfork, since you can easily injure them with a shovel. You should not pull out roots deeply submerged in the soil with your hands, since leaves with thin petioles easily break off, and part of the plant's harvest may remain in the soil.

In the first half of September, the harvesting of cucumbers, squash, pumpkin and zucchini planted in the open field is completed. Experts advise against delaying harvesting pumpkin crops, as they are very susceptible to cold, dew nights, often ending in frost.

15-20 days before the start of frost, i.e. from the second half of September, winter garlic begins to be planted. It is necessary that he has time to form a high-quality root system that will allow him to successfully winter. But it is also necessary that it does not germinate with green mass.

In September, the harvesting of mid-season cabbage varieties is in full swing, cutting of the later ones is left in the first decades of October. Although the plants themselves at a young age are still able to withstand a slight minus temperature, getting mature heads of cabbage under frost with temperatures below -3 … -4 ° С is undesirable. For storage, dense (filled with mass) heads of cabbage, cut on days with dry weather, should be intended. Harvesting cabbage too early, not corresponding to the early maturity of the variety, leads to its strong wilting, late - leads to cracking of the heads. For long-term storage, heads of cabbage must be healthy, not damaged by pests and free of signs of diseases.

By mid-September, harvesting of late tomato varieties is usually completed.… This is necessary in order to avoid damage to fruits by late blight. If they are removed green, then it is not difficult to bring them to real maturity later. But if you wish, you can make interesting blanks from green fruits. According to the first recipe, jam is prepared: the fruits (small and medium fractions) are thoroughly washed and placed in highly salted water overnight. Then they are heated in ordinary water until it starts to boil and rinsed several times with cold water. For every 0.5 kg of tomato fruit, add syrup (0.5 kg of sugar + zest of 2-3 medium lemons), then boil the jam until transparent over low heat, periodically removing the foam. After that, let the jam cool and put in glass jars. The next recipe is pickling green tomato fruits: they are cut into slices (at least 1,5-2 cm) and placed in a three-liter jar along with chopped celery, parsley and hot pepper (spices are added to taste). Pour in a solution prepared at the rate of 2 tablespoons of sugar, one salt and 0.5 liters of 9% vinegar per 4 liters of water. Pasteurization is carried out according to generally accepted rules.

Spring garlic is harvested after September 10-15, when it finishes growing. At the same time, large bulbs are selected for planting in early spring, they must be placed separately from food garlic.

In early September, they begin to prepare ridges for the winter sowing of a number of vegetable crops. 15-20 days before stable frosts (more often the planting time is in mid-September), it is necessary to plant winter garlic. A bucket of humus and 200-300 g of ash are introduced under this culture for each square meter of the garden, it is carefully dug up and watered abundantly (especially in dry autumn. If a small fraction of garlic is used for planting, then the planting pattern is 10x10 cm, and for a large one - 15x15 cm The depth of planting of garlic is set depending on its timing - from 8 cm at a later date and up to 12 cm at an early date.

Throughout the month, potatoes of various early maturity are harvested as they ripen. After digging, they are kept for 5-6 hours in the open air, for 12-15 days - in a warm room, so that fungal and bacterial infections appear on the tubers, after which they are removed for storage.