Grow outdoors - our best tips

Farming is fun, fun and not very difficult! But may need a little help on the trot to get started. Here we have collected our best tips when you are going to grow outdoors. These tips and advice are based on our own experiences and failures. But you have to remember that there are many ways to grow. Feel free to follow our advice, but if you feel like testing in another way, do so. Don't be afraid to test, fail and redo. That's how you'll learn!

Plant site

You can grow outdoors in a number of different places and in different ways. You can grow on a balcony, patio, garden or greenhouse. Or outdoors, in a pallet collar or pot. Which plant location you choose depends on the needs of the crop - some grow need more soil and space to be able to grow to the maximum and some are more unassuming and can be grown in e.g. pot. We have written which plant location the crop thrives best under each variety.

Prepare the growing site preferably a week or so before direct sowing/final planting to spread out the work and especially if you use well manure so that it can soak in a little.

EXISTING CULTIVATION SITE/ LAND

Clear away weeds and loosen the soil with a hoe about 20-30 cm deep.

Fertilizer . even if you have nutrient-rich planting soil, this nutrient is usually not enough during the growing season. Mix up the soil with fertilizer, e.g. pelleted chicken manure or vegetable manure. Dosed according to information on packaging. You can also fertilize with well manure from e.g. horse or cow. The advantage of well manure is that it also adds structure and soil to the soil. However, it is important that it is well so that it is not too strong. Stable manure can sometimes be picked up or bought at the stable. Cow manure can also be bought in bags and dosed according to the instructions on the bag. For well manure from stables, 1-3 liters/m2 is usually a good guideline. Amount depends on how much litter there is in the manure and how well it is drilled. The more litter, the weaker the fertilizer. And if the manure has been left for several years, the nutrients can be leached out. The fresher the well, the more nutrition. Read more rum fertilizer here.
Improve soil. Different types of soil have different ability to retain water. The clay soil is usually more moist than the sandy soil, but on the other hand, it can turn into very hard "cement" during prolonged drought and then does not release water. To improve the soil with e.g. loam or peat in both extreme soils can significantly increase moisture retention. For extra good structure, you can add compost soil, bark mulch or biochar. If you use pelleted manure, make sure to improve the soil more than with well manure, which in itself already adds soil.

NEW GROWING SITE/ PALLET COLLAR
A standard pallet collar is 80x120 cm and holds approx. 200 l. Suitable for most crops is 2 pallet collars on top of each other, i.e. twice as much. 

Recipe for soil for a simple standard pallet collar: 2.5 bags of planting soil, 1 bag of cow manure, 0.5 bags of biochar.

During the year. New soil quickly collapses and the plants use up the nutrients. Therefore, please add organic material to the soil continuously, such as grass clippings, leaves and compost.

Light

Many annual plants develop best in a sunny position. But there is much that can also be grown in shadier locations such as e.g. Lettuce, cabbage and spinach. What then counts as a sunny or shady location?

Sun - Possibility of at least seven hours of full sunshine per day in the summer.

Partial shade - Possibility of three to five hours of full sun per day.

Shade - Less than three hours of full sun per day in the summer.

Water

When?

The best time to water is in the morning or in the forenoon. If you water during the day in full sun or wind, there is a risk that the water will evaporate faster than it reaches the roots. Watering in the evening is not as good especially if you have a problem with slugs , as they like it to be damp and dark. There is also a risk of fungal diseases spreading because the water does not dry up as quickly. 

How much and how?

Water regularly throughout the season unless it rains. Better to water heavily and rarely than to dab a little every day, as the roots seek downwards. Water at the bottom where the plant emerges from the soil and not at the top of the plant - the water should reach the roots.

In the summer during dry periods, the water has a harder time penetrating. If you are unsure whether the water is getting down to the roots, stick a finger down and feel. If you grow in a pot, the soil dries out faster and you need to water more often.

If you cover the soil with, for example, fresh grass clippings or straw around the plants, the moisture is retained longer in the soil and you can water a little less. We usually e.g. cover crops with grass clippings around the tomatoes, which like a lot of water.

If you have the opportunity to collect water in rain barrels, this is an efficient and environmentally friendly way. Feel free to place them next to where you grow so you don't have to carry the water so far.

Investing in an irrigation system connected to a timer helps a lot if you grow a lot or if you are going away and have no one to help you with watering. Those of us who grow a lot would spend every single morning watering without our irrigation system which consists of a system of mini sprinklers and drip hoses connected to timers. The top to supplement manual irrigation with.

Temperature

The water should preferably not be too cold. Temperate water from rain barrels is preferred. If it is dry in the water barrel, you can fill watering cans with cold water and let them stand for a few days. If you water with an irrigation system, lukewarm water is preferred instead of ice cold.

Watering during the holidays

If you have a kind friend or neighbor who can come and water when you are away, it is worth its weight in gold. If we travel away over the weekend, it is enough to water properly before you leave and then when you get home. If, on the other hand, you are away for a whole week during the warmest, sunniest months, it would be great if someone could help with watering 1-2 times per week.

If you grow in pots, it may be worth investing in self-watering pots. Another simple and good tip is to use PET bottles. Water the soil thoroughly, then fill a bottle with water and press it up and down into the pot. Then the earth absorbs what it needs when it needs it.

You can also invest in an irrigation system connected to a timer, as we mentioned above.

Other tips

Fertilizer water

Most annual crops do well to be fertilized during the season. Those who do not need nutrition are e.g. peas and legumes that fix nitrogen from the air all by themselves or rose hips that produce more leaves than flowers if it is too nutritious. Under each variety we have mentioned whether they do not need much nutrition or not.

Buy liquid plant nutrition that you dilute in water or make your own with pelleted chicken manure or nettles. More information and recipes can be found here . For fertilizer water indoors, we recommend purchased liquid plant nutrition, which smells the least and is therefore suitable indoors.

Pollination

Some crops need help with pollination such as e.g. tomato, eggplant and melon. Especially if you grow in a greenhouse or notice that there are not as many pollinators as e.g. bees. Help by dabbing with e.g. the finger, a brush or a tip from the center of flower to flower. You can also gently shake the flowers or snap them with your finger to release the pollen.

Your strong memory connected to pollination is when we harvested zucchini flowers for the first time and were going to cook stuffed zucchini flowers. We picked all the flowers and enjoyed good food. But then there were never any zucchinis. Then we learned that only the male flowers are eaten. The females are left behind so they can produce zucchinis. But first the females must be pollinated. So these days we break off stamens on the male and rub the center of the flower on the female with before eating the males. So we can enjoy both stuffed zucchini flowers and zucchinis. There you gained some sexual knowledge in the gardening world.

Seeds and germination

When it comes to germination, there is often a best before date. Take it as a guideline only and continue to test sow seeds even if the best before has expired. Among my mother's seeds that I inherited from her and which today are at least 7 years old, there are many that still have good germination. Think that such a small seed can contain such a will to live.

Dispose of your garden waste

Garden waste such as leaves, grass clippings, fruit and weeds can be composted and become rich soil that is perfect for soil improvement. You can also cover plant with plant parts, i.e. place your plants around. Weeds are then kept away more easily, the soil does not dry out as quickly and in the long run the soil is improved when the plant parts break down.

Good luck and have so much fun during the trip!

// Hanna and Nicole

More inspiration and knowledge can be found at @newbotanic_official