Developing Vegetable Plan

By Kent Higgins

If you have not grown vegetables before or have not had much success in past attempts. It will prove helpful to consider some simple basic principles essential to the raising of full-sized, full-flavored, vitamin-rich specimens.

What do vegetables need for full development? Let's see how they grow; then it will be easier to understand their simple requirements. Take first the seed. What is it? A little baby plant, not dead but dormant, awaiting proper conditions of warmth and moisture to begin a new cycle of life. With it is a small supply of food to tide it over the first stages of development, and the whole is wrapped in a protective cover.

Seeds do not retain the element of life indefinitely; they die of disappointment if kept waiting too many years. They may have been kept in over-humid storage, or they may not have been strong seeds to start with. It is advisable to buy seeds with a high percentage of germination, particularly in the case of large-sized seeds such as peas, beans and corn. The small seeds, from cabbage to carrot, you are likely to sow much too thickly; there, high germination is not so important.

Sown in the soil, the seed swells with moisture. The baby plant bursts its swaddling wrapper and grows in two directions: upward and downward. For its minute size it is strong, but if it is too far below the surface it will not be able to emerge. Seeds that are buried too deeply cause many garden disappointments. An old rule is "three times the diameter of the seed," but this is a rough rule-of-thumb; the larger seeds need greater depth. It is best to follow the planting directions given on the packet or in the seed catalogue.

When the plant has developed its first true leaves, it has begun what is the most important manufacturing process on earth: the transformation of inorganic elements, which have no food value, into organic compounds, which have. From water absorbed by the roots and carbon dioxide taken in by the leaves from the air, sugar is formed. This is the largest part of the plant's food.

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