ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 21, 1996 TAG: 9601230003
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: D-2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Dear John
SOURCE: JOHN ARBOGAST
It won't be too long before it's time to plant the early spring vegetable garden again. With this in mind, let's look at some trial results from Virginia Tech on asparagus cultivars, the perennial vegetable that can be planted in well-drained permanent garden spots in early spring, and on a few tomato varieties that showed outstanding characteristics in commercial trials.
An evaluation trial of a cultivated variety of asparagus was performed at Virginia Tech's Whitethorne-Kentland Research Farm near Blacksburg. Ten-week-old asparagus transplants propagated from seed were planted in the field, fertilized and watered from May 1992 until harvest in May 1994. Spears from each plant were counted and weighed so that the asparagus varieties could be compared.
Varieties that showed the most promise were: Jersey Knight - best combination of spear size and yield; Jersey General - good combination of spear size and yield; Atlas -large spears and the greatest yield; UC157 - large number of small spears; Jersey Giant - very productive, but spear size was small in comparison; and Viola Purple Passion - unique appearance and distinctive, sweet flavor that could enhance its potential as a novelty variety despite the lower yield potential.
Tomato varieties that home gardeners might want to try that proved outstanding last summer in commercial trials at Virginia Tech were: Mountain Spring - high yields in excellent tomato variety; Sunbeam - highest yielding variety in the trial in a variety that produced attractive tomatoes whose size didn't diminish late in the season; and Mountain Supreme - for tomato growing with a minimum amount of sprays, this is the only variety to try. Trial results suggested that this variety should have good looks on the heavier textured soils in this part of the state.
Q: Can you give me a list of plants that deer will not eat? What can I do to prevent deer feeding?
A: While deer might prefer certain plants over others when there is a plentiful supply of food, they will eat less desirable ones, also, when the food supply is low. The factors that affect the amount of deer browsing are: the time of year that food sources are available or scarce; the territory that the deer roam, which means that a neighbor's yard might just not be in their territory while yours is; other food sources that are available for the deer to chose from, such as a vegetable garden that might be more tasty to deer than your ornamentals; and the size of the deer population in your area.
A large deer herd will decrease the readily available food supply, thus causing the deer to be more likely to eat whatever they can find.
If you have plants that you don't want deer to browse, the best recourse is to cover those plants with fencing to keep the deer out.
Send short questions about your lawn, garden, plants or insects to Dear John, c/o The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010-2491. We need your mail, but this column can't reply to all letters. Those of wide appeal will be answered during the weeks that the subject is timely. personal replies cannot be given. Please don't send stamps, stamped envelopes, samples, or pictures.
Gardener's checklist
Jobs for mid- to late-January:
Poinsettias that have become leggy can be either forced into a resting condition and then kept for reblooming or discarded; dust the leaves of indoor plants with a damp, soft cloth to let more winter sunlight in.
John Arbogast is the agricultural and natural resources extension agent for Roanoke.
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