Getting Seeds and Plants to Grow in hot, dry Weather

The only things I worry about with succession crops are getting seeds to germinate in hot, dry weather and keeping transplants watered so they’ll root quickly with no moisture stress.

When it’s hot and dry and the soil doesn’t have much moisture, seeds can start to germinate only to run out of moisture. That kills them.

To avoid this, plant seeds a little bit deeper, an extra 1/4 to 1/2 inch for small seeds, an extra 1/2 to ³ inch for larger seeds. The very top of the soil may be dry, but you’d be amazed at how well seeds use the small amounts of moisture beneath the soil surface. Also, I time my succession crops so that they’re sown just before or just after a rain. With clay soil it’s wise to plant before a rain.

Another trick is to put a very light mulch over the row after planting. I use hay—as weed-free as I can get it—or a dusting of peat moss. The mulch should be light enough for the seedlings to grow through. Once you put mulch over the seedbed you don’t want to take it off—that’s a good way to pull up a lot of plants.

Transplant crops of head lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower figure heavily in my succession plans. Since the weather is so good when I sow them, I grow them outside. I start some in a small section of the garden, but many others get their start in seed flats or pyramid planters which I park in a partially shady spot.

After harvesting, turn what’s left of your crop into the ground

When you have finished harvesting a crop, work it into the ground right away—the greener it is the better it is for your soil. Leaving crop residues to wither away above ground is bad policy. They become a refuge for pests and disease organisms which could trouble you later. Green plants are the most beneficial for earthworms and other soil life, and are the easiest to digest and break down. Tough, old plants are the hardest to work into the soil.

If you have a good tiller, you can put crops back into the soil in just a few minutes. I make several passes over the area to chop up the residues and to mix them deep into the soil. This way they’ll decompose faster.

Morning is the best time for tilling or spading crops. The plants have the most moisture in them early in the day and they cut a lot easier—even vining crops which are a problem for some gardeners to put under.

If you work with hand tools, use a long-handled, round-pointed shovel for spading. Chop up the plant remains a bit, turn them into the soil about 4 to 6 inches deep, and then drive the shovel down to chop them some more. Small pieces of green matter will break down best.

Wide row crops are easier to turn under than those in single rows because the soil is loose and moist in the row. No one ever tramps on it and the leaves provide a shade mulch to hold water in. To spade under a wide row of spinach or peas right after the harvest is hardly any work at all.

My tiller can handle all crop leftovers in the garden, including cornstalks. But if your machine can’t, don’t strain yourself trying to get the residues under. Sometimes you can pull heavy residues like cauliflower, broccoli, or early corn, or mow them down, or somehow chop them up before tackling them with your tiller.

Why soils need extra energy for succession crops

I usually plant my succession crop within 2 or 3 days of tilling under the old crop. Fertilizer at planting time is very important for succession crops in order for bacteria and other organisms in the soil to break down and decompose the old crop. They need nitrogen to do their thing. The more plant material turned into the soil, the more nitrogen they’ll require. Sometimes, if their nitrogen needs are great, the soil organisms can claim or “tie up” much of the nitrogen in the top part of the soil. If you plant seeds at this time, they’ll sprout but may stall for lack of nitrogen. Another reason you need more plant foods in the soil is weather. As your first crop grows, rains carry more and more of your early season fertilizer down into the ground, out of the root zone of plants.

I mix in 1 to 2 pounds of 5-10-10 or 3 to 4 pounds of dehydrated manure for every 50 square feet of succession planting area. This will satisfy the needs of soil organisms breaking down the old plant matter. And it will give the new crop important nourishment. Later, as the material in the soil decomposes further, extra plant food will be released.

If the crop will grow where I tilled in peas or beans, it’s a little different. These two crops are special. They are legumes which add nitrogen to the soil by taking it from the air and fixing it onto little nodules attached to their roots. Because peas and beans collect some nitrogen and add it to the soil, follow-up crops don’t need much extra fertilizer. About half the recommended fertilizer is sufficient in these areas.

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