This summer, Valérie tells us, I had a lot of trouble with red beets, parsnips, potatoes… Probably because of the drought? What can I envision in the future?
Response from Maryse Friot, President of the Société d’Horticuture de Touraine.
The first difficulty is lifting when sowing red beets and parsnips. The high temperatures and intense sunshine blocked germination, stressed the plants, thus stopping their development and growth. The problem is that even by watering, the plants could not develop!
Plants during germination must be in soft, cool and temperate soil.
– A soft floor it is a very airy soil, rich in oxygen (essential for germination), composed of many gaps or pores allowing the radicle to settle and form new roots.
– A cool floor is a soil drained with water which allows the integuments (seed envelopes) to moisten and promote germination.
– A temperate soil because the seeds have critical temperatures which, if they are too high, block germination which can, in the long term, gradually lead to death. And this summer the cocktail was perfect hence your difficulties!
What to do ?
The first thing is to create shade in the vegetable garden.
– Install tall plants nearby that will act as a sunshade on the South and West side.
– Set up pergolas with trellises where pole beans will run and cultivate underneath.
– Let weeds grow near young plants (sun protection, increase in relative humidity, maintenance of cool soil)
– Match creeping plants (courgettes, pumpkins, etc.)
Second difficulty
For the plants that had managed to get out of the ground and grow a little, they did not grow. A plant under stress blocks its development to protect itself. It can very quickly make flowers and seeds (the survival instinct of the species). What to do ?
Water the ground by razing or furrowing. Hoe to aerate the soil very superficially with a toothed tool.