How to Increase Yields: 7 Agro-Techniques That Will Save You Time and Effort

As a child, I spent all my weekends in the vegetable garden, but that didn't discourage me from getting my own beds.

My parents spent all their energy on the vegetable garden: digging, planting, weeding, loosening, watering, collecting bugs and spraying. But we always had our own tomatoes and cucumbers - and now vegetables from the supermarket seem inedible to me.

I also grow vegetables and berries at home, but I am not ready to spend all my free time on the beds. And so I began to use time-tested agro methods - methods in agriculture that increase yields and do not require a lot of manual labor and fertilizers. I will tell you more about them.

Crop rotation

What it's all about. If a plant is sown in the same place several years in a row, the soil is depleted more quickly. For example, the tomato takes the same nutrients, and the soil accumulates pests and pathogens that are characteristic of this crop - each year the crop gets worse and worse. To avoid this, the soil is given a rest: other crops are planted in this place. This is called crop rotation.

Properly organized crop rotation helps:

• reduce the number of weeds, pests and pathogens;
• utilize soil nutrients evenly;
• improve soil structure.

Crops are selected so that the plant does not suffer from the baggage accumulated by the predecessor and prepares the soil for the next crop. For example, the roots of legumes have nitrogen-fixing nodule bacteria, thanks to which nitrogen is accumulated in the soil. Next year, nitrogen-needy crops such as pumpkins and cucumbers will grow well in the bed after the peas.

What to do. A crop rotation cycle lasts three to four years. For example, in the first year on a fertilized bed plant plants that need fertile soil, in the second - less demanding, in the third - unpretentious. Then in the soil bring organic fertilizers - peat or manure humus, and in the fourth year return to this place plants of the first year.

How long it takes. To plan plantings on a plot of about two acres, an hour is enough for me.

Mulching

Mulch is a material that is used to cover the soil. It helps to conserve moisture, maintain a normal temperature for the roots, prevents weeds from germinating and eventually turns into humus - a fertile layer.

Covered plantings with mulch - and do not need to weed, loosen and water unnecessarily. Due to the fact that the mulch rots, it warms the roots and accelerates plant growth.

What to do. Mulch can be anything: dark spunbond, cardboard, tea brew, hay, grass, straw, peat, humus, shredded tree bark and leaves, sawdust, needles, coconut peel. Much of this can be collected for free.

On berry plantations it is convenient to use spunbond - this is such a nonwoven material that does not let light through and does not let weeds break through. And berries do not lie on the ground, so they stay clean and do not rot. Canvas for 4$ is enough for 16 m². More often beds are covered with dark spunbond: it is believed that it better accumulates the sun's rays, so the soil warms up faster.

I don't like the idea of agrotextiles: they are made of polymers and in a few years they will become garbage that will take centuries to decompose. I try to use available organic matter: grass clippings, lupine, straw, leaves from the forest, sawdust. And I also plan to buy an electric garden shredder to process cut tree branches into mulch, it costs from 180$.

Mulch should be dry material already loosened beds, and then already watered. Lay a thick layer - from two to three centimeters. A smaller one will not be of any use and will not stop the growth of weeds, as it will quickly mix with the ground or it will be blown away by the wind. Mowed grass is enough two to three centimeters, but it quickly decomposes, and during the season you will have to put several batches. It is better to spread straw in a layer of ten centimeters, as it quickly subsides.

 

The mulched beds look beautiful

 

I mulched strawberries with chopped nettles, but after a week the dense layer shrank several times and had to pour more

It is better to remove the spunbond from the beds for the winter, so it will be preserved longer.

AGRO TIP #3

Sow sidedresses

Siderates are plants that improve the structure and mineral composition of the soil, prevent the growth of weeds and diseases. They include more than a hundred fast-growing plants, more often annuals, such as mustard, legumes, buckwheat, rye, oats, alfalfa, clover, phacelia, and annual lupine.

Siderates have a powerful root system, which loosens the soil and enriches it with nutrients. And the upper parts of the plants become a green fertilizer: they gradually decompose and turn into humus - a fertile layer of soil.

The soil on my plot is heavy and clay is already peeking through at the back of the spade. In such soil you have to put buckets of over-fermented manure every year to grow something. But the places where mustard or legumes grew in the fall, in the spring it is much easier to dig, and they need less fertilizer.

Properties of siderates, their requirements for the soil, time of sowing and mowing.

What to do. Siderates are planted in early spring two months before planting the main crop and in the fall after harvest. When buds appear, the greens are cut and left for mulch or put into compost. There is no point in waiting until flowering, as the stems will become stiffer and the amount of nitrogen will decrease. After mowing, the land is not digging, otherwise its air structure, which was created by the roots of plants, will be destroyed.

It is not worth planting siderates from the same family as the main crop that will grow after them. For example, you can not sow rape or mustard on the plot where you are going to plant cabbage: they suffer from the same pests and diseases. Siderates are better to alternate: for example, if this year in this place planted mustard, then next year you can plant rye.

The type of siderate is chosen depending on the purpose. For example, to restore the fertility of depleted soil, it is advised to sow legumes: they enrich the soil with nitrogen. Grain siderates have a branched root system, which loosens the soil better than a hoe, so they improve the structure of clay soil. Fragrant mustard repels pests and attracts bees that pollinate cultivated plants.

I plant mustard more often - it is sold in any gardening store and costs $1.5 per kilogram. One kilogram is enough for the season on two or three acres. Rye, if you take at the market, costs 0.2-0.5$ per kg, on a hectare you need two and a half kilograms. As an experiment, I scattered mash and green lentils - the same ones I cook for food, and they also sprouted perfectly.

It takes about an hour to loosen a 5 m² bed after the main harvest and sow the mustard. Another half an hour to mow the grown greens.

Pick compatible neighbors

What is the point. Plants can oppress each other or, on the contrary, help neighbors in the bed. This property is called allelopathy.

Some plants compete for light, moisture, space and useful elements. Their roots and leaves can release unfavorable chemicals that inhibit the growth of neighbors. Members of the same family are bad neighbors because they are susceptible to the same diseases and pests. For example, tomatoes grow worse next to dill and potatoes, legumes - with onions, raspberries - with strawberries.

Other plants help neighbors in the bed: they release substances that deter pests or, conversely, attract beneficial insects. For example, rosemary and peppermint repel cabbage borers, whose larvae eat young cabbage leaves. Pumpkins have large leaves that cover their neighbors from the scorching sun and prevent the ground from drying out quickly.

These thoughtful plantings allow you to increase your harvest without fertilizer. Choose good neighbors - less need to treat plants from pests and diseases.

What you need to do. In the spring I plan planting at the dacha, taking into account the compatibility of plants. I focus on tables from gardening books, there are many of them on the Internet. Something I plant later, during the season. For example, I grow velvets not in the flowerbed, but in beds with cabbage and strawberries, because their pungent odor scares away pests.

It takes no more than an hour to plan plantings on two or three hectares.

 

This is how I plan my plantings: I sketch out the plan of the vegetable garden and take into account crop rotation and neighbors. Here are the main crops, something may change in the process. For example, I plan to add marigold, velvet and nasturtium wherever possible

Choose varieties that are resistant to disease

What's the point. Many plants are susceptible to diseases - fungal, viral, and bacterial. Vegetable growing books for each crop detail the signs of disease, treatment and prevention methods.

For example, for tomatoes is dangerous phytophthorosis - a fungal disease that quickly develops in cold and wet weather. To protect plants from it, you need to monitor the temperature and humidity in the greenhouse, open and close it in time and periodically treat plants. And even such troubles do not guarantee one hundred percent protection. In tomatoes resistant to phytophthorosis, the chances are higher. They are less productive, but the risk of losing the entire crop in a couple of weeks is reduced.

• There are hybrids of cucumbers, zucchini and pumpkins that are resistant to fungal diseases. I find them in the store: usually on the seed package they indicate what the hybrid is immune to. Such varieties do not cost much more than others.
• It takes about ten minutes to find disease-resistant varieties at the store.

 

Pollination

What's the point. The yield of most vegetable and fruit crops depends on pollination. The main pollinators are bees. But their numbers are dwindling every year, and they don't fly in the rain. To help plants in such conditions, dacha growers pollinate them by hand or plant flowers nearby that attract bees.

• *You can work in two directions at once: planting honeybee plants and pollinating vegetables by hand.

Next to tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins, whose yields depend heavily on pollination, you can plant aromatic herbs: lemon balm, monarda, mustard, hyssop.

It takes more time to pollinate by hand. With hermaphrodite vegetables, everything is simple - their flowers immediately have male and female parts. These are peppers, tomatoes and eggplants. It is enough to shake these plants gently: pollen will fall from the male parts of the flower to the female. It should be done in dry weather, better at noon or in the morning, when the dew dries.

With dicotyledonous plants is a little more complicated: on them male and female flowers grow separately. The female flowers are easy to distinguish: they have small ovaries. You've probably seen such different flowers on pumpkins, zucchini and non-self-pollinating cucumbers. The essence of hand pollination is to transfer pollen from the stamen of the male flower to the pistil of the female flower. To do this, you use a dry brush, cotton bud or pluck the male flower itself.

How long it takes. In 10 minutes I can go through all the tomatoes in a 20 m² greenhouse.

 

I have lavender growing next to my beds. I planted it for beauty, but I noticed how many bees hover over it - they pollinate other plants as well

 

In the foreground is a female pumpkin flower with a small fruit, and a little farther away is a male pumpkin flower. To pollinate a flower, you need to transfer pollen from the stamen of the male flower to the pistil of the female flower.

Pinching

• This method is used to increase yields or to make fruit ripen faster. Gardeners pinch different parts of the plant.

The top pair of leaflets of the plant is removed so that new shoots come from the lateral axils - then there will be more fruit. The method works for cucumbers and eggplants. Tomatoes are pinched for a different reason: to stop growth and allow the fruit that has already set to mature.

The excess ovaries, which will definitely not have time to mature, are also removed. This is necessary so that they do not pull strength from the plant and the rest of the fruit well developed. Sometimes even buds are cut off, without waiting for the ovaries to appear.

Remove the stepchildren - shoots that grow out of the lateral sinuses between the main stem and the leaf. And then nutrients go not into the green mass, but into the fruit.

In greenhouses with tomatoes, excess leaves are cut off. This is done so that dense plantings do not provoke the growth of fungal diseases.

 

This is what a stepchild looks like - the sprout between the stem and the leaf.

 

Remove the top of the tomato plant - a couple of upper leaves.

What to do. Cut off excess shoots with a sharp instrument - scissors or pruning shears. To avoid accidentally infecting the plants, after each bush I disinfect the scissors with a weak solution of manganese. It is sold in the pharmacy and gardening stores.

How long it takes. From five to twenty minutes, depending on the size of the bed. It takes longer to remove tomato shoots - about an hour.

 

This manganese solution is considered weak: there are only a few crystals of manganese in it

What helps you get a bigger harvest with less effort?