This has been a year of disappointing yields. I still have a bit of stuff growing, but I am more than ready to call it quits this year, here in Virginia zone 7.
When I boil it down, it looks like I should grow tomatoes, okra, beans, and winter squash. And not much else. So, tentatively, that’s the plan for next year.
Background: Coming to grips with sunlight
Source: Post G24-019.
With enough soil amendments, fertilizers, and irrigation, I can give my plants pretty much any soil conditions or nutrients they require.
But sunlight? There, I’m stuck with what Nature provides. My back-yard vegetable garden gets, at best, five hours of direct sunlight a day. Maybe six at mid-summer.
In hindsight, that’s enough to grow a wide variety of food plants. But it’s not enough to produce a decent yield from most of them.
I thought I might be able to get by, because almost all the daily energy in sunlight occurs in the hours around noon. And I get those hours in my garden. But that’s before I understood that the way a green leaf converts sunlight to energy is not at all like the way a solar panel does.
To a solar panel, energy is energy, and almost all the solar energy for the day falls between the hours of 10 AM and 2 PM (solar time). But green leaves typically cannot absorb the full intensity of noonday sunlight. Most max out their ability to use sunlight somewhere around one-third to one-half that level. Worse, the hotter it gets, the less sunlight they can use. That “clips the peak” of daily usable solar energy. And as a consequence, for plants, the “shoulder” hours of the day — before 10 AM (solar) and after 2 PM (solar) — matter far more than you would think, based solely on the amount of light energy falling on the garden per unit of time.
The upshot is that more intense sunlight — noon-day sunlight — is not a substitute for total hours of direct sunlight.
Post G24-019: Photosynthetic efficiency, or finally understanding the back-yard garden trellis.
Will I grow these plants next year?
Artichokes: No (Post #1964). I have the wrong climate, wrong soil, and far too little sunlight to grow them as anything other than an ornamental. Nice looking as an ornamental, but no food value.
Garlic: No. (Post G23-057). This is the third time I have gotten very small heads of garlic, off seemingly healthy plants. With the small leaf area, I just don’t have enough direct sunlight to produce enough surplus energy to get big heads of garlic.
Ginger: Maybe. (Post #G24-010). Plants grew well once it warmed up. I think the plants now need to die back before the ginger root will mature into the form you see at the grocery store. I pulled up a little bit while it was still green, and that was OK, but still fibrous enough that it can’t be eaten in pieces.
Green beans: Yes. I now know I must plant varieties that are resistant to common bean mosaic virus. That killed off/stunted most of the heirloom varieties I planted this year. Otherwise, they grow fine. In addition, deer love green beans, and they can mow down an entire planting with one visit.
Herbs: Some. Most herbs are basically weeds, so there’s no harm in growing them. They basically grow themselves.
Mustard: Maybe a different variety. (Many different posts). I bought seed years ago, to use as a cover crop. It grows well, produces nice flowers, and suppresses weeds. But I have never gotten a satisfactory yield of mustard seed from that. This year, planted at mid-year, the seeds simply rotted in the pods. Either I can’t grow mustard (possible, as the North American mustard belt is in Canada), or I need to try a different variety.
Okra: Oh, yes. (Post #G24-024). Jambalaya is by far the most productive okra I’ve ever tried. I have the freezer full of chopped okra to prove it.
Peas: Probably. Why not, I guess, as there is little else you can plant and harvest that early in the year. Last year, Snowbird was prolific (Post G23-017). This year, I hardly got enough for a meal. No idea why. I’m going to go with a fully stringless sugar pod, instead of snow peas.
Potatoes: No. I had perfectly healthy plants, and very little yield. I think I just don’t have enough sunlight to produce a good harvest of big potatotes.
Squash: Yes. (Post G24-026). Winter squash — butternut and tromboncini. Summer squash is just too difficult, owing to the now-endemic squash vine borer.
Sweet potatoes: Yes. They take care of themselves, don’t care what soil they are planted in, and seem to give a reasonable yield in a small amount of space. Why not?
Tomatoes: Yes. I’ve had great luck with some early-season varieties, but mixed results otherwise. Glacier, 4th of July, and Cherokee Purple are all on my list of keepers. Beyond that, I’ll try a new variety or two, I guess.
Conclusion: You can’t fight the sun.
You simply cannot make up for inadequate sunlight. With less than six hours of direct sunlight per day, if I want a reasonable yield, my options are limited to just a few varieties of plants.
I’ve been fighting that since I started this vegetable garden a few years back. Next year I’m going to respect that limit, and plant a much-reduced variety of vegetables.
I might even grow some flowers. Even if I can’t eat them.
