ISBN # 1-888125-54-3
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paperback with 352 pages of Alaska garden information
and over 200 photographs and diagrams.
Sowing Success in Southcentral Alaska
Part 3 of 3
This is part three of a three part series on gardening in Alaska, and more specifically, Southcentral
Alaska. It covers variety selection and how photoperiods in the far north
affect plant growth and bloom time. For a more comprehensive treatment of the
subjects mentioned, please see Alaska Gardening Guide, Vol. 1.
Perhaps the only thing more important in Alaska than soil
warming is variety selection. No matter how warm your soil, your garden will be
a failure if your lettuce bolts, sending up a seed stalk instead of producing a
head, your squash plants finally set fruit the week before the first frost, and
your root crops never get around to producing. These problems are often the
result of planting poorly adapted varieties.
Unfortunately, many seed-rack varieties at your local supermarket simply won’t do well in Alaska,
even though the packet may read “Seed especially developed for your area."
Chances are they’re the same varieties offered for sale in other northern
states.
Until his retirement, Dr. Curtis H. Dearborn tested varieties for Southcentral. More recently, Dr. Don Carling has
been carrying out potato trials. In Southeast, varieties were tested by local
gardeners directed by Walt McPherson. Recently, Bob Gorman has been conducting
limited trials in raised beds in Sitka.
These are only a few who, over the years, have engaged in variety testing for Alaska.
The Cooperative Extension Service
(CES), cooperating with the US Department of Agriculture, publishes the latest
findings of the University's Agricultural Experiment Station scientists in
three lists covering major state growing areas: Interior, Southcentral, and
Southeast. The Southcentral list, obtainable free from any local Cooperative
Extension Service office, now includes notes on maturity, yield, and growing
tips.
Photoperiods
The
problem with poorly adapted varieties is often not cold soil, but photoperiods.
Photoperiodicity is the striking effect of day length on growth and reproduction
in plants. While many plants aren’t particularly fussy in their requirements for
a daily light-dark cycle (these are called day-neutrals), some very important
ones are definitely long-day plants.
Still others are short-day
plants, and it is these that present serious problems in far northern gardens exposed
to constant daylight for months during the summer. Much of Alaska
never really gets dark from early May to early August. Even at the southern tip
of Southeastern Alaska, summer nights are still very
much shorter than northern states like Washington
and Maine.
Daylight itself is not the
problem; it’s actually the length of the night
that counts. A short-day plant is really a long-night plant. Plants carry out
some very important chemical reactions at night; if they don’t have enough
uninterrupted darkness to complete these,
their whole life cycle may be upset.
The most noticeable effect
is disruption of the flowering process. A street
light outside the window will keep a poinsettia (which requires at least 12
hours of night) from blooming. Commercial growers routinely “force"
short-day (long-night) autumn bloomers by darkening their greenhouses for part
of each summer day.
Most varieties of
squash and cucumbers produce only male flowers during early summer. Only when
nights lengthen in the fall are female flowers also formed, often too late to
produce mature fruit.
A few apparently short-day vegetables are eggplant, butternut squash, and
true spinach. Most members of some other species (like beets and lettuce) are
adversely affected by long days, but satisfactorily adapted varieties have been
developed. Consult the variety lists Alaskan researchers have provided.
A Successful Harvest
There are wonderfully
productive gardens in Southcentral, from north of Wasilla to south of Homer. By
concentrating on soil warming, and by choosing adapted varieties of cool
weather crops, you, too, can harvest success, sowing in Southcentral or on the
Kenai Peninsula.
Ann D Roberts is the author of Alaska Gardening Guide Vol 1, covering cold
weather gardening in Alaska, with specific growing tips for vegetables. The
book, written and published in Alaska in 2000, is already the “definitive and
indispensable reference guide to every Alaskan gardener.” Readers can check out
its table of contents at
http://AlaskaGardeningGuide.com. Ann is presently working on Vol 2,
covering perennials and lawns. This article may be freely reprinted only if done
so in its entirety, including this final paragraph.