The Principles Of Gardening

 

Soil: its nature and needs

Soil is the basic element in plant cultivation, but soilless water growth, with or without gravel or sand, enriched with suitable chemicals (hydroponics) can be quite effective.

Soil consists of particles, primarily calcium, extracted from rock dissolution along with organic matter. In particle pore spaces, all water (containing dissolved salts) and air circulate. The atmosphere contains more carbon dioxide and less oxygen. Minute living organisms are also found in immense quantities of soil , making it viable. Plants must cross this area to access most of their fuel.

The soil must be maintained for fertility (supplying plant nutrients) and physical health. Nutrients must be supplied and published in plant-available ways. Plant growth requires sixteen elements. Three of these, fuel, oxygen, and hydrogen, are supplied by water and air; the other 13 by soil. The elements required in relatively large quantities are called major elements: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur. Small-scale minerals are considered trace elements: iron, boron, manganese, zinc, molybdenum, copper, and chlorine.

Soils can be loosely classified into three primary categories based on horticultural utility, but many areas contain a combination.

Clays

Clays, where particles are very small, are considered soft soils in horticulture because it's hard to turn them over with a spade. They can be very nutritious but tend to lack adequate drainage, keeping their water strongly adhered to the soil particles; thus, they can not be worked when wet, and under pressure they tend to compress tightly, pushing the air out. They seem to get tough during drought and even grow large cracks so they can't function satisfactorily. Clay soils should be lightened by as much hummus as possible. Humus may be any decayed organic matter, such as waste, leaf mold, or compost made from kitchen scraps and grass cutting.

Sands and gravels

Sands and gravel are analogous to clay. Soil particles are huge, and soils are considered light because they are easy to work and turn in almost any temperature. However, their water-holding capacity is very poor, they tend to dry out easily. They are "hungry" soils that need lots of manures, humus, and fertilizers to keep them productive.

Peats and heaths

Peats and heaths are typically very acidic and drained. They result in conditions preventing the full breakdown of old vegetable matter into humus, usually due to insufficient aeration and excess bog water. Most peat is extracted from the rotting roots of sphagnum moss, suitable for garden mulching. A heat soil is usually less fertile, consisting of a large mixture of sand and peat, and tends to be very poor in mineral and water-retaining ability.

The best garden soil is a medium loam composed of a mixture of clay and sand, moderately rich in humus and readily treated, and when dry, not producing large clods. Soil consistency is important as a porous, properly tilled soil provides a medium through which roots can penetrate quickly and easily. Another important factor in soils is acidity or alkalinity.

Soil alkalinity is typically extracted from free calcium or equivalent alkaline salt. Soil reaction may be changed. It can become more alkaline by adding lime to one of the organic salts, of which calcium is better. Acidity can be improved by adding hydrogen as sulfur compounds such as ammonia sulfate or superphosphate.

Feeding: fertilizing and watering

Maximum return can only be achieved from the soil with ample supply of elements necessary for plant growth, combined with sufficient moisture to dissolve and absorb them through plant fur.

Farmyard manure or garden compost treatment will meet many of these requirements. Since manure and compost are scarce in urban areas, mineral fertilizers and organics are also required. Soil is such a complex material that all fertilizers must be used in moderation and balance, based on the soil shortages and the needs of the individual crop.

Different crops require different fertilizers. Manures are usually best dug into the ground in a temperate climate in autumn, but can also be used as mulches in spring to control weeds. Mulch is a surface layer of organic matter that helps grow, maintain moisture, and control weeds. Black polyethylene sheeting is now widely used for all mulching except feeding.

The watering of freshly planted plants during drought cycles is an important gardening chore. Deep, detailed watering — not just sprinkling the soil surface — can result in dramatically improved development. Water is essential in itself, but it also provides plants with minerals in solution, the only plant-usable type. About one inch of water added to the soil surface each week will percolate down about six inches; this is insufficient food for many herbaceous garden plants, and small trees and shrubs need more. Proper watering once a week enables deep root penetration, allowing plants to withstand dry surface conditions.

Drainage

Drainage is another significant water conservation aspect. All plants require water, but the quantity required varies. If plants are pressured to consume more than they need, a drowning process occurs. Symptoms are more commonly observed in overwatered pot plants but are often visible to a seasoned eye in poorly drained garden corners. Roots require both air and water to carry the requisite oxygen to the surface.

Buried earthenware piping is popular in large private gardens and commercial gardens. Drainage can be easily accomplished in smaller gardens by using sumps, i.e. holes drilled to about four feet in affected areas. The sump's bottom half is packed with stones to drain wastewater. Such initiatives can significantly boost a garden's capacity and workability.

 

Protecting plants

Many plants have specific cold resistance, in which they are destroyed. Many tropical or subtropical plants can not tolerate frost and are killed at temperatures below 32 ° F ( 0 ° C). They're called frost-tender. Others, called half-hardy, can tolerate certain frost degrees. Luckily, many of the better garden plants are fully hardy, a trait also promoted by diligent selection, and would be able to survive any low temperatures in temperate regions.

Various precautions may be taken to prevent ice, from simple ones suitable for smaller gardens to complex coverings used to preserve important horticultural crops. Removing weeds that cover the soil increases the heat generated during the day. Well-drained, less prone soil. Any frosty wind cover increases insulation capability. The easiest method of protection is to hold moist air around the plant. This may be a mulch (leaves, dirt, ashes) applied over the winter crown of a somewhat tender plant or a leaf-shedding cover (not as attractive for evergreens that use their leaves all year round).

Glass structures like greenhouses or outdoor frames may provide extra plant protection. These systems can be heated and temperature controlled to some degree by a thermostat. Thus, in temperate areas, orchids and other tropical plants may be grown to bloom in the winter, causing them to bloom earlier than their normal season due to the higher temperature.

Greenhouses are classified by gardeners into four rough categories : ( 1) a cold house, where there is no external heating and which is ideal only for plants that are not destroyed by a few degrees of frost (such as alpine or potted bulbous plants). Combining solar heat and wind safety would keep such a house appreciably colder than outside air. (2) Coolhouse where minimum temperature stands at 45 ° F (7 ° C). Many greenhouses of amateurs fall into this range, and many plants can be grown in them. (3) Take a look at it.

The intermediate home, where the minimum temperature is held at 55 or 60 ° F (13 or 16 ° C) and ideal for a wide variety of orchids. (4) The hothouse or stove house where the minimum temperature is above 60 ° F (16 ° C) and where tropical plants such as anthuriums and cattleyas (orchid genus) can be grown.

Training and pruning

Training, plant orientation in space, is accomplished through techniques that guide plant growth form, scale, and direction. Using supports on which plants can be stretched, twisted, or fastened may be achieved. Pruning is undertaken for other purposes: to preserve height, to promote fruiting in orchard trees, or to enhance the appearance of ornamental trees and shrubs. It's one of the major horticultural disciplines.

Where trees and shrubs are left to grow naturally, they sometimes become too large for garden space. They can even grow lanky and weak, and grow soon extinct. Where a branch or shoot is removed, a variety of young shoots from below the removed are always produced, and these are likely to flower freer than older trees. Especially when pruned annually, fruit trees also produce finer quality, greater scale, more disease-free, and better color. The two simple cut-offs are named going back and thinning out.

Heading back consists of cutting back a branch's terminal section to a bud; thinning-out is the complete removal of a branch to a lateral or main trunk. Moving back, typically accompanied by lateral bud break stimulation below the split, produces a bushy, compact plant suitable for a hedgerow which is often used to rejuvenate shrubs that have grown too large or flower poorly. Thinning out, which allows the remaining terminals to grow longer by growing lateral branches, tends to open the plant, creating a longer plant. In general, pruning, done when the plant is young, overlooks the need for dramatic and dangerous remedial pruning of a huge, aged, or misshapen bush or tree.

Special spatial arrangements can increase light use, promote harvesting or disease control, or improve efficiency and efficiency. Training and pruning are an important aspect of fruit growth during the plant's life. In the formative years, special attention is given to obtaining the desired shape and structure. The secret to training is the point from which divisions are created. In the center-leader training system, the trunk forms a central axis with branches laterally up and down and across the stem. In the open-center or vase system, the main stem is terminated and development is pushed into a variety of branches emerging at the top of the tree.

An intermediate structure is called modified-leader. Plants are conditioned in espalier systems to expand flat over wire or trellis. Proper suppliers are particularly desirable as ornamentals. Espaliers in conjunction with dwarfing rootstocks make high-density orchards that are highly profitable per-unit-based, with fruits near to the ground for fast harvesting. The device requires comprehensive pruning annually.

There are physiological reactions to exercise and pruning. Plant orientation can have a pronounced impact on growth and fruiting. Thus, fruit trees planted at an inclined angle are dwarfed and flowered earlier; training branches in a horizontal position have the same effect. This result is caused automatically when a heavy load twists a leg. Pruning's key results are accomplished by modifying root – shoot equilibrium.

Thus, a vegetative growth explosion usually happens after intensive pruning. Severely pruned plants, particularly in the juvenile growth stage, appear to remain vegetative. Similarly, root pruning delays vegetative growth facilitates flowering.

Training plants in artificial ways for ornamental uses is called topiary. In the Roman and Renaissance periods, when imaginative topiary was in high demand, plants were raised in strange and spectacular ways such as beasts, ships, and façades. Perhaps more modestly, informal gardens, hedges, and shrubs are also educated in geometric designs.

Another intense method of training is Japanese bonsai art, making dwarfed potted trees by mixing pruning (both roots and tops) and restricted diet. Live trees over 100 years old and just a few feet high are grown in unique containers that mimic the natural world.

Propagation

New plants are developed by seed or division techniques, cutting, grafting, budding, or layering. For the average gardener, propagation is a relatively basic but fascinating method generally used to provide more varieties of favorite plants as part of exchanges with other gardeners or as wise protection against winter losses. (See horticulture for a full explanation of propagation and breeding processes.)

Cutting transmission is a common practise. Young shoots of the current season are typically rooting most effective. Roses are usually propagated by budding, inserting a bud from the desired rose into the rootstock (that part of the plant tissue from which a root can form) just above ground level. Fruit trees are typically propagated by layering, where a young shoot is trapped in the earth with the end bent upward nearly at right angles; the lower side of the wood just before the twist is wounded to cause rooting. If this happens, the parent divides the plate.