Growing blueberry plant

Blueberries are one of the easiest and most rewarding small fruits to grow. If the soil pH can be adjusted so that it is low enough to support the acid soil requirement of blueberries, cultural practices should not be difficult. 

Blueberries need a good drainage. Though they like a descent of water, they do not like to have their feet wet all the time. If the soil is full of clay, add materials such as compost and sand to improve aeration and drainage. 

 A mature bush can give up to 20 Ibs. of fruit, so they are well worth growing even if the condition are less than ideal. In addition to being a fruit plant, blueberries make an attractive landscape plant ether as single plant or planted in a hedge. 

Blueberries fit into small spaces. The plants are attractive with pretty white flowers in spring and leaves that turn a vivid red in autumn. The spring blossoms are very fragrant and the fall foliage is a beautiful red. The berries attract birds who come to feed on them. It is much easier to cultivate blueberry s in areas of the country where they grow naturally. Any commercial production is usually restricted to these areas. 

The fruit of many species of wild blueberry are harvested for local use, but those of three species – Vaccinium corymbosum, Vaccinium ashei and Vaccinium angustifolium, are today sold in a large commercial scale. Many blueberries grow in the wild. There are two major cultivated species of blueberries, the highbush and the rabbiteye. 

Growing blueberry plant

Winter wheat: Remain in vegetative phase during winter

Winter wheat is a major type in the world; it is planted on approximately 43.5 million acres each year in the United States.

Wheat fields are green even before trees begin to bud, because wheat planted in autumn has already developed a strong root system before growth stops in winter.

The plants resume rapid growth in the spring as temperatures rise. The head of the wheat plant, which contains the kernels, develops at the tip of the stem.

The stem grows rapidly, pushing the head up and out of the top leaf sheath. After the head emerges, flowering occurs and the kernels begin to develop.

After the kernels have developed fully and filled, the leaves and stem lose their green color and the kernels quickly dry.

Winter wheat survives cold winters remarkably well. Except under most severe conditions when a snow blanket is lacking, wheat planted in the autumn ‘tiller’ well in the spring, that is produce many stalks and therefore many seeds.
Winter wheat: Remain in vegetative phase during winter

Growing chili

Chill is grown on an annual plant. The fruits are red in color. There are rows of seed inside attached to a sheath-like dissepiments which is rich in hot pungency.

Buying young plants, either from a garden center or by mail order will give a head start. If opt for seed, sow in late winter to early spring at 20 °C in small pots and grow them on at 15 °C until early summer.

The easiest way to sow seeds is onto trays with good, peat-free seed compost. Shop-bought compost for seeds is sterilized and has just the right structure for seeds to grow in-light, well-drained and not too much food.

Chili seedlings are transplanted when they are about 4 - 6 weeks old (10-15 cm tall) depending upon season. Double transplanting i.e one extra transplanting in a second seed bed, gives an earlier and higher yield.

Soil around the root system should be kept looses by keeping down the weeds. Keep the roots moist; a mulch of garden compost will help conserve moisture.
Growing chili

Growing basil (Ocimum basilicum)

Sweet basil is the most popular variety, but dark opal basil is increasing in popularity as it is more decorative and can still be used in cooking.  It smells and tastes wonderful and June is a good time to begin growing basil.

Basil is widely planted in home gardens because it’s fast growing, high yielding and very rewarding. It is a warm-weather plant. Basil growing easily from seed but requires toasty warm soil for germination (24 to 28 ° C) and reliably warm air temperatures throughout its productive life.

Basil may suffer cold injury if temperatures dip below 10 ° C. Give it average soil, plenty of water and as much sun as it can. Soil that is too rich, however, will result in fewer essential oils and a weaker flavor and fragrance.

Plant seeds a week or two after the last spring frost date, covering them lightly with sand or fine-textured soil about 1/8 inch deep. Each basil plant needs 1 sq. ft of growing space. Basil leaves are tender so harden off seedlings adequately.

The leaves can be removed any time, but preferably young. Take off the tops as the flowers open. The whole plant can be dried at the start of winter. The leaves may be removed as required or culinary use and the seed heads taken off for potpourris.

When harvest basil, don’t cut more than half of the plant at once and always cut right above a leaf pair. To prolong the life of the plant through the growing season don’t let the basil flower. As it form flower spike it will grow lanky and once it sets it will begin to die off.

Growing basil (Ocimum basilicum)

Growing peanuts

Peanut plants grow best in sandy or loose soil with warm, sunny weather and moderate rain. Most peanuts need about five months to maturity.

The peanut plant is a low bush. Some kinds grow long low branches called ‘runners’. Peanuts should not be planted on the same land oftener than once in 3 or 4 years. The rotation should include are last two sol-building crops, one of which is a winter cover crop.

In spring, farmers plant peanut seeds. Green plants with yellow flowers grow from the seeds.

The kind and quantity of commercial fertilizer that may be profitably used for peanuts depend largely on the character and fertility of the soil.

Commercial fertilizer is usually applied in the row just before planting or with a planter equipped with a fertilizer distributor.

In fall, farmers use machines to pull up the peanut plants. Peanuts are harvested when the plants turn yellow at the end of the season.

The whole plant is pulled out of the ground with the peanuts still hanging on the pegs. The plants are left to cure in the garden or in a frost-protected enclosure for 2-3 weeks.

The second process involves combining. In this process, the combine lifts the plants, picks the pods from the vine on the hopper on the machine, and blows fragmented plants back into the field.
Growing peanuts

Growing oats

Oats will produce a pretty good crop almost anywhere on any soil.  They yield best, however, in moderately fertile, well drained, moisture –retentive soil.

Oats are second only to rye in their ability to survive in poor soils. Oats can be suitable as a pioneer crop, the first crop sown after breaking in new land. It is best after a root crop and not after another cereal especially rye. Oats is cultivated in larger areas in Russia, Canada, United States of America, Ukraine, Poland, Australia, etc.

It is usually grown for a double harvest of both grain and straw: a farmer can feed their livestock the straw and themselves the grain. Oats have traditionally been used to feed horses and cattle, but the global use of oats as feed has been steadily declining, whereas its food use is on the rise.

Oats require relatively lower amount of thermal heat units to mature. Oat production is pronounced between 35 – 65 ° N latitude. Oat is mostly sown in spring, but autumn planting is in vogue in hilly tracts.

Oats are ready to harvest when the grain changes from green to cream.
Growing oats